Robotics

When I started thinking about CNC machines, I just wanted a computer-controlled machine that would be able to automatically drill all of the holes in the printed circuit boards that I made, for my Curve Tracer kits (see the link, above). But, the “good” commercially-available machines were priced higher than the amount that I could justify spending. So, I started thinking about what it would take to build one, myself. And, I didn’t want to build one that would cost almost as much as a commercial machine: Otherwise it might have been smarter to just BUY one, to begin with! So, I decided to add “low cost” as one of the design goals. I also expected to end up with one or more additional products to sell, as a result of this project, to (help) justify the time that I spent on it. Link.

The ability to climb and descend stairs is one of the unexpected behaviors of this new home-brew off-road autonomous robot platform. The robot has a custom chassis and uses standard suspension and drive components scavanged from old R/C monster trucks. [via] Link.

I checked out the Biodiesel station at Laurelhurst oil in Seattle over the weekend- really neat stuff. Here are some photos of the pump. For more information, what vehicles it’ll run in and more- here’s Laurelhurst’s site with the same info as the flyer they had there. Link. Voulme 3 of MAKE will have a lot of interesting biodiesel info, stay tuned!

Uber-Review writes “If you’re in the market for your very own walking robot, Masaaki Nagumo has you covered. His robot, the single-seat Land Walker robot, standing 3.4 meters high and weighing 1 ton, can walk forward, backward or sideways at 1.5 kph by operating four pedals, and shoots sponge bullets from two air guns installed beside the cockpit. He says he’ll make you one for only the low price of $300,000 U.S. The price will be lowered if enough people place orders. So go ahead and convince a buddy or better yet, get his and hers”. Link.

As Dr. Craig Kizewic worked on the infant, the heart rate began to drop and oxygen levels were declining, but quick work saved the baby. The baby was a new interactive medical simulator known as BabySIM. At 21 pounds and 28 inches in length, BabySIM has the physical characteristics of a three- to six-month old infant, but its fat little belly is stuffed full of computer parts. I wonder if there’s a less expensive design possible (it’s $54k) or an opensource BabySim project opportunity. [via] Link.