Building humanoid robots is hard. It may be surprising, but humans have upwards of 21 senses to master, three of which — balance, proprioception (knowing where your body parts are in relation to each other), and kinesthetic sense (knowing how to move those body parts in relation to each other) — are integral for moving […]
Continue Reading
Yes, we know, BattleBots is back. And we love it. But sometimes smashing and burning and cutting and flipping stuff isn’t what you’re into.
Continue Reading
BattleBots is coming back to TV — but fighting robots never really went away
Continue Reading
We’re only a couple months in, and 2015 has already been a good year for robot combat. Battle Bots is back, and RoboGames ran a successful competition this past weekend. Make: was on-site at the San Mateo (California) County Event Center to see contributor Zachary Lytle and many others compete in the ant-weight (one-pound) division. […]
Continue Reading
Kansas City programmer Michael Overstreet wanted his own high-performance humanoid robot to experiment with, but was deterred by the $12,000 pricetag of an off-the-shelf DARwin-OP. Though a significant fraction of the cost is tied up in the top-of-the-line servo actuators the design requires to perform at spec, Michael believed he could build his own “clone” of the fully open-source design, at substantial savings, by 3D printing as many pieces as he could in fused filament, on home equipment.
Continue Reading
I’ve already shared some images of combat and humanoid robots from RoboGames, but there’s a lot more to see than just that. Here’s a slideshow of “the rest”, which there was quite a lot of.
Continue Reading
Humanoid robot competition is one part of RoboGames that seems to be dominated by Japanese roboticists. Lem Fugitt, who runs Robots Dreams, has been involved with the humanoid robot scene in Japan for nine years, and tends to bring a few “professional” Robo-One players with him on his annual trip to RoboGames. We spoke with him about how he got involved in the Robo-One scene and how 3D Printing has started to benefit the builders.
Continue Reading
