Sparkfun Interviews Beatty Robotics
Robert, Camille and Genevieve Beatty, a family of robotics enthusiasts, gets the celebrity treatment on the Sparkfun Electronics blog about their custom build of a Mars Rover replica.
Robotics
Return of the RoboRoach
We talked about them back in MAKE issue 31, and we also had them on Maker Camp last year as part of our field trip to the NASA Neuroscience Lab, but now they have a Kickstarter project for the first commercially available cyborg.
Students Build Robot Locker Door for Physically Disabled Peer
This is a story of two Michigan high school students putting their robotics expertise to great use. Wyatt Smrcka and Micah Stuhldreher of Pinckney Community High School, who took first place in the 2012 SkillsUSA robotics competition, were tapped with task of building a robotic locker door for fellow student Nick Torrance who suffers from muscular dystrophy.
MAKE at RoboGames
Imagine the carnage that ensues when you pit two 200+ lb. robots against each other, often with weapons that spin at around 3500 rpm. The noise level and adrenaline both run high as they bang away at each other. Intern Coordinator Sam Freeman and I are at RoboGames to witness not only the combat, but all sorts of other robotics events as well. We only got here a little while ago, but have already been fascinated by the great stuff we’ve seen.
Charles Guan: Build Your Everything Really Really Fast
Charles Guan is an MIT alumnus, and has been making projects that have been festive and amazing over the past few years. Charles has been influential in the MIT Makerspace/club MITERS, where students create all manner of great projects. He and MITERS members have been frequent fliers at various Maker Faires, so you may already be familiar with his work.
Charles has served as a Teaching Assistant at MIT in Mechanical Engineering, helping his fellow students to fabricate the contraptions of their dreams. As a TA, he’s heard the same questions over and over, so he created some instructional documentation to make his and his fellow students’ lives easier. This was a set of lectures and handouts he called How to Build Your Robot Really Really Fast (HTBYRRRF). In more recent times, he set out to update this as a more inclusive set of building guides. Drawing from his own online documentation, he was able to codify his ideas into a thorough Instructable: How to Build Your Everything Really Really Fast, or HTBYERRF.
Hexy’s Back in the Maker Shed
After selling out completely over the Holidays, a new shipment of Arcbotics’ Hexy the Hexipod has arrived in the Maker Shed. Hexy comes in kit form with well written documentation and tutorials which make learning complex robotics straightforward and fun!
3 DIY Robots to Unbury You from the Next Snowpocalypse
By now most of the people affected by winter storm Nemo have unburied themselves from the snow. I’m sure many of them won’t want to see snow again for a very long time, let alone shovel it. Which is why now is the perfect time to start building your robotic snowplow just like these three industrious makers.
