Making a robot can be an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s the perfect combination of creativity, engineering and problem solving. However, if you’re just getting started in robotics, it can also be overwhelming. To make things easier for those who are just starting out, we’ve put together some tips and tricks to help makers bring robots to life! From the basics of assembling your robot to software implementation, these pointers will give you everything you need to get started on your robotic adventure!
A business called “Robot Village” has opened in Manhattan — basically a robot store where you can buy, rent and even learn to build robots. The store also throws robot theme parties for you, and sells all manner of robot-related gear. The Robot Village is even planning a BATTLEBOT CLASS. [via]. Link.
William writes “Radio Shack has made the Vex Robotics Programming kit “in stock” for online and phone orders. Word on the street is that most ‘shacks don’t have them in-store”. I think Radio Shacks aren’t going to carry these in store as they continue to move towards a consumer electronics only inventory. Link.
MAKE pal Jason Striegel from blogcadre.com writes “Here’s a telerobotic Mac Mini based on the Pioneer 3at platform. I guess they intend to expand this into a fully autonomous unit that uses lidar and the iSight camera for guidance and obstacle avoidance. Right now they control it over a wireless connection and use ichat to provide a remote video feed”. Link.
Kurt is a machine with four injection needles and Chinese ink. Attached to the upper arm it tattoos an enduring symbol on the user’s skin. Kurt is an extreme example of the human-machine interface. The intervention is aimed at rising the awareness of the close connection between the individual and the machine, in a bond as long-lasting as the drawing itself. Link.
Marc writes “This is an technology/art collective that makes interesting, MAKE-worthy projects. The link goes to a CO2-monitoring/flower planting robot. They apparently have a lot to do with NASA robotics”… Link.
Cute project – Recently many kind of robot contests have being opened and some interesting reports of the challenge are found on the web. The Line Following is a kind of the robot contests to vie running speed on the line. I build a tiny line following robot which can run on the desk, moving the key board aside will do. It is for only a personal toy reduced its size less than one fifth compared to typical line following robots, not in formura. Link.
MAKE Flickr pool member wirehead writes “I’m bringing up the gen2 circuit board. This should be the sort of thing that a qualified electrical engineer would whip out in a matter of minutes. But, I’m a programmer who likes to mess around with technology, so things sometimes take a little longer than they ought to. Or I connect power to ground and ground to power. I do that sometimes, too. But now, I can program this board to do stuff, once I get the LEDs all soldered up. Soon, you will start seeing this board in my light art”… Link.
