Now more than ever, it’s the era of DIY humanoid robotics. Humanoids have long been the intricate and expensive domain of well-funded research labs, marching onto stages to demonstrate corporate and institutional engineering prowess. While the desire to build man-mimicking replicas is steeped in history, these advanced machines only started taking actual, functional form in the 1970s; the most famous of these, Honda’s ASIMO, launched just 15 years ago.
Fast-forward to 2015. Rising to the complex challenge of combining mechanics, electronics, and software, robotics hobbyists have made enormous progress in their basements and garages, and we’re now seeing impressive community-driven humanoid bots that come at a fraction of the price of their professional cousins.
In Make: Volume 45 we dive into how makers worldwide are contributing to the advancement of one such project, InMoov, that combines 3D-printable parts, common electronic components, and open-source plans into a showstopping creation that responds to vocal commands with speech and movement.
We also show you how to make an autonomously navigating, self-balancing robot; a tensegrity vibrobot that introduces the concepts of cutting-edge robotics research; and a wonderfully simple “jamming” gripper that eliminates many of the shortcomings of mechanical hands.
Also: Combat bots — they’re back! We go deep into their resurgence, and show you how to prototype your own out of cardboard.
Plus complete tutorials for capturing the perfect splash photograph, crocheting a mermaid-style “lap-ghan,” building mix-and-match kids furniture, making a versatile tripod for your flashlight, and much more!
Check out these projects and articles from the issue!
Build a Square Ring Light for Your Photo Studio
Photographers are familiar with the ring light, which produces a pleasing ring-shaped highlight, or “catchlight,” in a subject’s eyes. It’s often used in the fashion industry to create images you see in many magazines. The Square Ring Light is just like that — except it’s a square. I find it makes a unique, almost otherworldly […]
- Posted by Isiah Xiong | July 15th, 2015 5:00 AM
6 DIY Projects to Protect Your Digital Privacy
Cellphone snooping. Network surveillance. Face recognition technology. As the gadgets we search, watch, and read become more able to watch us back, Makers are finding clever ways to guard their digital privacy and maintain anonymity online. Here are a few of our favorites. BROWSE ANONYMOUSLY DIY Raspberry Pi VPN/Tor Router Surf the internet securely with […]
- Posted by Make: Editors | July 1st, 2015 6:00 AM
Skill Builder: The Best Ways to Cut, Drill, and Glue PVC Pipe
PVC pipe works in all kinds of projects. Whether it's building furniture, making art, or plumbing your sink, use these techniques for a successful project.
- Posted by Jordan Bunker | June 29th, 2015 6:30 AM
Finish Your Trinkets with This DIY Faux Enamel
Here’s a fun tutorial that was used in a DIY project found in a past issue of Make: — the “EZ-Make Oven.” It featured an incandescent bulb, as a heat source, built into a paint can for baking plastisol creatures, aka Creepy Crawlers! Here is how you can make something else with the EZ-Make Oven: easy and colorful enameled […]
- Posted by Bob Knetzger | June 25th, 2015 5:00 AM
Howtoons: Build an Extendable Wooden Robot Arm
Build your own extendable robo arm from paint stirring sticks!
- Posted by Howtoons | June 24th, 2015 6:00 AM
InMoov Provides Everything from Prosthetics to Cocktails Around the World
A global community is contributing expertise to the InMoov Project
- Posted by Geeta Dayal | June 23rd, 2015 6:00 AM
You are the Ship in Immersive, Life-Size Asteroids Game
Human Meteors is an immersive re-creation of the classic Atari game known as Asteroids.
- Posted by Matt Terndrup | June 20th, 2015 10:00 AM
From the Magazine: InMoov, the Life-Size Humanoid Robot You Can Print at Home
How InMoov, the open-source, 3D-printed humanoid robot was born.
- Posted by Geeta Dayal | June 19th, 2015 6:30 AM
Exquisite Steampunk Animals Made from Scrap Metal
Siberian artist Igor Verniy creates explicitly detailed steampunk sculptures of animals, from birds to bugs to puffer fish. Verniy has been crafting since he was a young boy, starting with small wooden toys and returning as an adult to work with metal, which he uses to create textures that bring to mind realistic attributes of […]
- Posted by Krista Peryer | June 18th, 2015 7:30 AM
Sculptural Clocks Are Perfect Fusion of Analog and Digital
Bernie Rohde became obsolete as a TV repairman almost 30 years ago, having only gone to school for analog appliance repair. To catch up to a growing tech world, he decided to teach himself how to build digital circuits. He liked to play around with components, so he built exploded views of what was going […]
- Posted by Agnes Niewiadomski | June 16th, 2015 6:30 AM
An Insider’s Guide to Shenzhen Manufacturing
Gareth Branwyn talks to maker pros about Shenzhen, China, "the Digi-Key catalog meets Blade Runner."
- Posted by Gareth Branwyn | June 15th, 2015 7:00 AM
How to Find the Center of A Circle With Only A Ruler or Square
If you need to drill a hole in the center of a circular material, obviously you’ll have to find the center first. You could buy a fancy center-finding tool, alternatively, you can use simple measuring tools and these easy methods to mark the point. Here is how to find the center of a circle using […]
- Posted by Jordan Bunker | June 15th, 2015 6:30 AM
Make a Lego Block Puzzle in 3 Simple Steps
Combine building blocks and your favorite pictures to make fun custom puzzles.
- Posted by Jason Poel Smith | June 14th, 2015 10:00 AM
3Doodler Creator Shares His Experience from Makerspace to Market
We connect with 3Doodler co-founder Max Bogue to hear about his experiences.
- Posted by DC Denison | June 14th, 2015 8:00 AM
Build Your Own Spinning Hurricane Balls
Louis Poinsot was the first to demonstrate that any number of individual forces pushing or pulling on a rigid thing can be simplified into just a single linear force and a twisting force called a couple. Build this fun set of DIY "hurricane balls" to demonstrate the physical processes at work.
- Posted by William Gurstelle | June 13th, 2015 10:00 AM
Crochet a Wearable Afghan Mermaid Tail
Create your very own mermaid tail with this cozy couch blanket.
- Posted by Shelley Bunyard | June 13th, 2015 8:00 AM
Skill Builder: The Anatomy of a File
The file is a basic tool, but it would be a mistake to call it simple. Files come in a variety of shapes, cuts, and coarseness depending on the job they’re designed to do. Whether you’re sharpening tools or cleaning up rough edges, choosing the right file starts with knowing the basics.
- Posted by Jordan Bunker | June 12th, 2015 8:00 AM
How to Build a Self-Balancing Autonomous Arduino Bot
Ready to level-up your robot skills? ArduRoller is a self-balancing, inverted pendulum robot that’s also capable of autonomous navigation indoors or out. I created it as an entry for the annual SparkFun Autonomous Vehicle Competition: The goal was to create a nontraditional vehicle capable of quickly navigating an obstacle course including multiple turns, bumpy terrain, […]
- Posted by Jason Short | June 3rd, 2015 10:00 AM
Build a Simple Robot with a Tensegrity Structure
Build this surprisingly resilient structure, then make it move. From our new book, Making Simple Robots.
- Posted by Kathy Ceceri | June 2nd, 2015 11:30 AM
Skill Builder: Understanding Different Soldering Iron Tips
There are hundreds of different soldering iron tip shapes and sizes used in everything from jewelry making to plumbing to even stained glass. We’ll focus on the 3 most common for electronics work: chisel, conical, and bevel tips.
- Posted by Jordan Bunker | June 1st, 2015 10:43 AM
Universal Robot Gripper
This gripper takes advantage of "jamming" semi-fluid coffee grounds.
- Posted by Jason Poel Smith | May 26th, 2015 5:00 AM
High-Speed Splash Photography Rig with Arduino
Photos of items dropping into water (or other liquids) always have the potential to fascinate — the dramatic splashdown, the explosion of flying droplets frozen in time. They’re also increasingly seen in commercial images — look in your local supermarket and there’s a high probability you’ll find an image of a strawberry, chili pepper, or […]
- Posted by Thomas Burg and Johannes Gottwald | May 8th, 2015 11:00 AM
Skill Builder: Quick Tips for Using Vacuum Gauges
When you’re working with projects involving vacuum pumps, a vacuum gauge will show you the pressure in the chamber being evacuated. There are many different approaches to measuring the pressure in a vacuum, but we’ll focus on one of the most common, called the Bourdon pressure gauge. At the heart of the Bourdon gauge is a […]
- Posted by Jordan Bunker | May 1st, 2015 11:41 AM
Skill Builder: 4 Wire Strippers You Should be Using
The value of a good pair of wire strippers is often overlooked until they’ve disappeared from your toolbox. Here are the 4 basic types of wire strippers that you’ll encounter. GAUGED WIRE STRIPPERS Gauged wire strippers are the simplest and most common type of wire stripper used. Each pair is only made for certain gauges […]
- Posted by Jordan Bunker | May 1st, 2015 11:18 AM
Combat Concepting with Cardboard
My robotics team refers to our design method as “C.A.D.,” nerd code for Cardboard-Aided Design
- Posted by Zachary Lytle | May 1st, 2015 10:35 AM
Really, Really Random Number Generator
No matter what kind of game you’re playing — whether itʼs Angry Birds, Grand Theft Auto, or an intense session of chess — you want the computer to behave unpredictably. If it always responds the same way in the same situation, that’s no fun at all. This is why almost every computer game uses a […]
- Posted by Charles Platt and Aaron Logue | May 1st, 2015 10:01 AM
Review: LulzBot Mini 3D Printer
LulzBot is known for their exceptional engineering, upgradability, and commitment to open source — but not for portability, nor for having a space-saving footprint. Now, the team has released the LulzBot Mini to help those who don’t have the desk space required for their larger Taz, but are looking for many of the same features. The […]
- Posted by Matt Stultz | May 1st, 2015 8:59 AM
Mechanical Mind
Jones creates custom-made dioramas full of bits and pieces that reference important milestones in his clients’ lives
- Posted by James Floyd Kelly | May 1st, 2015 8:47 AM
To Build a Better Robot, Build a Better Team
In the month of April, robotics teams participate in competitions such as FIRST in St. Louis and Vex in Anaheim. I met Kate Azar last summer and heard her talk enthusiastically about FIRST robotics. While her experience was positive, she realized that young women struggle to gain respect as competitors and team members. I asked […]
- Posted by Dale Dougherty and Kate Azar | May 1st, 2015 8:31 AM
1+2+3 Clothes Folding Board
Folding clothes is a boring and laborious chore. So speed up the process by making a folding board out of cardboard and duct tape.
- Posted by Jason Poel Smith | May 1st, 2015 8:09 AM
Round 2 – Fight!
BattleBots is coming back to TV — but fighting robots never really went away
- Posted by Nathan Hurst | May 1st, 2015 5:00 AM
Kids’ DIY “FUNiture” Kit
A “few” years back, as a final-semester project at the NC State University School of Industrial Design, I made a kit of plywood parts from which could be assembled several useful pieces of children’s furniture. I called it “FUNiture.” Thanks to help from my good friend, prolific author and skilled craftsman Phil Bowie, this resurrected […]
- Posted by Larry Cotton and Phil Bowie | April 30th, 2015 2:28 PM
Put a Tiny Power Switch on Your 9V Battery Clip
Looking around my styrofoam plate hovercraft for a place to mount a switch, I hit upon the battery clip itself. I thought of a bunch of projects — from breadboarding to BEAM robotics to Arduino — where a 9V battery clip with a built-in power switch could come in handy. But nobody seems to sell one. So I made my own — Das Neunvoltzensvitcher!
- Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | April 29th, 2015 11:12 AM
Build a Raspberry Pi Powered Home Arcade
The Raspberry Pi can be the beating heart of a classic video arcade machine. And who doesn't want one of those? Pair it with an Arduino Esplora controller and play all your favorite arcade games from the 8-bit era.
- Posted by Tyler Winegarner | April 3rd, 2015 1:00 PM
