“Being John Makervich” and Musical Chess at Maker Faire Seoul
Preview of great projects showing at this weekend’s second annual Maker Faire Seoul.
Robotics
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!
An Afternoon with Cliff Stoll
Cliff Stoll is a prototypical mad scientist. His white hair juts out like it’s been hit with a jolt of static electricity, and his demeanor is just as energetic. I visited thinking I’d be covering his R/C forklift, but was drawn in for an afternoon of conversation and gadgetry.
Lego Code-Cracking Game
Lego uberbuilders the Family Vuurzoon built this cool Lego Mindstorms game, the Chinese Dragon’s Pearl, which has players attempt to solve a code to get a “pearl” — even better, there’s an accompanying dragon robot that reacts when you get his pearl!
Controlling 5 Servos With a Raspberry Pi
Pierre Villeneuve attached five hobby servos to a Lego model, controlled with a motor control board board and a RasPi. This is a nice way of controlling a Lego robot without needing to use Lego’s robotics components! I initially tried to control my servos directly from the Raspberry Pi through its GPIO ports using the […]
BeatBots Continues Socially Conscious Innovation
BeatBots has created the Gobug. Gobug is a mobile robotic toy planned for use in therapy sessions for autistic kids. Control requires communication and collaboration by multiple children. An additional controller used by a therapist allow him or her to step in if necessary.
Ubiquity Robot Team’s “12 Tasks of Hercules”
Got a passion project and want to build a team around it? Start in your makerspace! Dr. David Crawley desperately wanted to hack robots and build a useful platform, not an inexpensive toy that couldn’t do anything or a useful robot that few could afford. He wanted his to be inexpensive and capable. To pull this off he knew he needed passionate contributors with the right technical backgrounds so he joined Hacker Dojo.
Maker Faire a Place for Innovators
A host of hopeful startups will be in evidence today the Bay Area Maker Faire. The fair’s list of sponsors includes a startup category. Maker Faire is a chance for many of these companies to show their products to an appreciative audience. The relationship goes deep; the companies were started by people who identify themselves as makers. Being part of Maker Faire is sort of like a family graduation day party. There is even a dedicated startup area at Maker Faire. Here is a sampling of small innovative startups have timed the release of significant news with Maker Faire.