Items Tag › RIT Make Club Idea Stream

I posted to hackaday.com

RC truck source for robotics platform

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/05/rc-truck-source-for-robotics-platform/

[Michael] sent us a link to his RC robotic platform. He started with the same RC toy as the iPhone Robot (CAR) but ended up with a blank slate waiting for more features. What he has is an Arduino with a motor driver, three bump switches for the front and rear, and a XBee module. On the other side of things he used a SparkFun USB to FTDI connector to interface another XBee module with a PC in order to use Processing.

In the clip after the break you can see the motor control needs to have more fine-tuning done so the beast isn’t just out of control when running. But there’s a ton of potential here. It should not be a problem to add at lease rudimentary video feedback from the device. The Arduino is currently only being used marginally, leaving plenty of space to add on-board sensing such as IR, proximity, or light.

It’s a clean start, we expect to see updates!
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- arduino
- sparkfun
- xbee
- rc
- processing
- ftdi
March 5 2010, 3:15pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Google your home with a roomba

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/05/google-your-home-with-a-roomba/

Meet GåågleBot. GåågleBot is a modified roomba that will not only vacuum your home, but collect data while it does it. While it is carrying out its normal duties as a floor cleaner, it will take pictures, collecting and analyzing all the data for later searches. With built in OCR, you can actually search for things using text strings.

Aside from just carrying out its normal job, you can also remote control it via the web. You can even control theirs!

[via Boing Boing]
- Tags:
- google
- robots hacks
- ocr
- roomba
March 5 2010, 9:57am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Biped walks with eight servos

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/01/biped-walks-with-eight-servos/

This tiny biped shows a lot of coordination in its movements. As you can see, eight servo motors account for the locomotion with an ATmega8 as the brains of the operation. Posts for the first and second generation of this little guy feature several videos. We gather that a spreadsheet is being used to tweak the preprogrammed movement sequences. Trial and error, that’s how humans learned to walk, right?

[Thanks Lazas]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- servo
- atmega8
- biped
March 1 2010, 8:37am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

RoboThespian: Chuck E. Cheese entertainment comes home

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/25/robothespian-chuck-e-cheese-entertainment-comes-home/

Remember your eighth birthday party when the animatronic band at Chuck E. Cheese sang happy birthday just for you? Now you can enjoy this any day of the year with RoboThespian. The complete animatronic platform has been modeled in Blender 3D. Animating the robot is as easy as producing an animation from its digital model. Lip syncing is generated automatically, with the handles to the right of the model’s head controlling facial expression.

Using Blender as a choreography tools is brilliant. We’re hoping someone will incorporate this technique in their Halloween shows this year.

[Thanks Rob via BlenderNation]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- animatronics
- blender
- chuck e cheese
February 25 2010, 10:07am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Building the yellow submarine

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/23/building-the-yellow-submarine/

Submarine builds are always fun but frequently produce headaches when it comes to keeping the water out. [Jason Rollette] built this ROV to explore a shipwreck in Lake Michigan. The main structure is PVC and various bilge pumps are used for propulsion. An AVR ATmega32 controls the on board electronics with an Ethernet tether to the surface. He’s even got a visual basic program that displays system information and a video feed. It may not be as stylish as the last submarine we saw but it’s amazingly well thought out and well built.

[Thanks Daphreak]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- PVC
- submarine
- ATmega32
February 23 2010, 8:19am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Robocup bot places wheels perpendicularly

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/21/robocup-bot-places-wheels-perpendicularly/

[Eric] built this robot for the 2009 Robocup Jr. competition. The game ball has IR LEDs inside of it and this little bot uses eight IR detectors for tracking. Four motors mounted perpendicular to each other provide locomotion. Since this would normally have you traveling in circles, he used some omnidirectional wheels walled Transwheels. As you can see, they have small rollers built-in and allow movement in any direction if the motors work together. A couple of L298 controller chips handle the motors. [Eric] wrote a program to calculate the PWM necessary to drive the controllers and to coordinate movement of the wheels.

Don’t miss the demo videos after the break and, if you’re not a fan of wheels, stop by and see the bi-pedal soccer robots.

Offense

Defense
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- robocup
- soccer
- omnidirectional
- transwheel
- wheel
February 21 2010, 3:52pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Drink Making Unit

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/17/drink-making-unit/

3 breast pumps, a Meggy jr RGB (slightly modified) and copious amounts of alcohol. This sounds like a typical weekend at HAD headquarters, but it is in fact the parts list for the Drink Making Unit by Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Created for the upcoming Barbot 2010 event, this unit is a cocktail mixer. Load 3 liquids in, program the Meggy and you can push a button to dispense. We are pleased to see how much they modified off the shelf components to make this happen. Yes, there could be major improvements like mixing, more liquid reservoirs, and a better cooling system, but we think this thing is pretty slick.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- alcohol
- bar
- beer hacks
- breast pump
February 17 2010, 10:30am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Hexacopter

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/15/hexacopter/

Quad copters have been pretty popular for the last few years, but this one is new to us. Take the same basic layout, but bump it to 6 rotors. Then you’ll have the hexacopter (google translated). With 6 rotors, built in GPS and stabilization and a camera mounted on the bottom, this thing is pretty well equipped. You can see how agile and stable it is in the video above. We know it isn’t necessarily new, but it is new to us. Of course, you don’t have to stop at 6 rotors. You could always just continue on to 8.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- Toy Hacks
- hex
- copter
- octo
- quad
February 15 2010, 12:35pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Dexterous hexapod clarification

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/11/dexterous-hexapod-clarification/

This tip was submitted by [Mike], with the original information seen in this post. When I passed the story along to our writer [Mike Szczys] I didn’t send along the entire email conversation. This bot is noteworthy because it has taught itself to walk. In the build log you can learn about how it has created its gait and altered it based off of the vision. There are also some great pictures of prototypes there too. While we can all agree that it isn’t as impressive looking initially as the A-Pod, remember that it wasn’t programmed to look impressive.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- hexapod
February 11 2010, 1:20pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Veteran robot features eight legs and BeagleBoard

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/11/veteran-robot-features-eight-legs-and-beagleboard/

This spider-bot was built by [Zhanx] during his deployment in Iraq. He didn’t have prior hardware building experience and started out on this project when he received an Arduino to play with in September. Must be a fast learner! The parts are laser-cut from ABS plastic and connected to 24 servos. He sourced an SSC-32 serial servo control board to take care of the motor connections.

[Zhanx] has since migrated from the Arduino to a BeagleBoard which you can see perched atop the body in the video after the break. This should give him plenty of speed and power to improve the movement routines. There’s some nice work here but adding rubber feet, like on yesterday’s hexapod, wouldn’t hurt.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- arduino
- robot
- abs
- spider
- beagleboard
- iraq
February 11 2010, 11:31am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Dexterous hexapod rocks an Atom processor

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/10/dexterous-hexapod-rocks-an-atom-processor/

[Matt Bunting's] hexapod caught Intel’s eye (and their wallet). This coordinated little bot runs Ubuntu on an Atom Z530 processor, popular in netbooks like the Dell Mini 10, and uses a webcam to coordinate and monitor its motion. Intel picked up two of them from [Matt] to exhibit at trade shows. As you can see, the 18 servos provide some gorgeous motion to the beast. It’s no DJ Roomba but it approaches the zen-like perfection that is the A-Pod.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- hexapod
- atom
- intel
- a-pod
- dj roomba
- z530
February 10 2010, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Lego spider-bot

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/03/lego-spider-bot/

[MkMan's] LEGO spider robot combines pieces from a Mindstorm kit with a few milled plastic parts. The legs are a locomotive concept called a Klann Linkage. They operate in pairs and convert the rotational force from one motor into movement for two legs. Here, a total of four rotating gears moves eight legs, besting the hexapods we saw a couple of weeks ago in both leg count and motor economy.

Each limb is made up of five pieces plus one base for each pair. That makes eleven pieces per pair and a total of 44 for the entire robot. [MkMan] milled these parts out of 3/8″ HDPE stock. He’s made videos of forward motion and turning which we’ve embedded after the break. Even on a polished surface the bot looks fairly efficient at getting around.

Walking forward

Turning
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- cnc
- mill
- LEGO
- hdpe
- spider
- legs
- mindstorm
February 3 2010, 12:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Icosatetrapedal robot

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/02/icosatetrapedal-robot/

24, Icosatetrapeds have 24 legs. This robot, built by [Monica Anderson] back in 2005 has 24 pneumatic soft legs. The motion is fantastic, like watching some kind of sea creature walk. Though it only goes about 1 meter per minute, we just couldn’t stop watching. The compressors were scavenged from some military equipment designed for nerve gas detection, and the brain is a mac mini. The rest is just valves, solenoids, wood, and tube.

[thanks Tom]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- 24
- icosatetrapod
February 2 2010, 8:53am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Snow blower robot

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/01/snow-blower-robot/

For those of us who are stuck in the middle of a cold and snowy winter, this project will seem like a stroke of genius. [Jimmy Bui] has put together this robotic pushing platform. While it is seen in the video (on the linked page) pushing a snow blower, it seems to be simply bolted on. This means it could push pretty much anything, such as a lawn mower. The platform itself looks like a common layout. He’s using the base of a motorized wheel chair, and some scavenged bits to protect the circuitry. He says that he built it after seeing elderly people having a hard time shoveling their driveways in his neighborhood. They don’t say if he loans it out to them now, but we suspect that he does.

[via Robots Dreams]
- Tags:
- home hacks
- robots hacks
- snow
- mower
- blower
February 1 2010, 9:11am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Robot band gives us so much to make fun of

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/30/robot-band-gives-us-so-much-to-make-fun-of/

[Pat Metheny] has a robot armada backing him up when he performs on stage. They’re going on tour and he’s done an interview explaining his mechanical band. Like the auto-drummer, this setup uses multitudes of solenoids to play the percussion instruments, each getting commands from a computer. It’s pretty wicked to see him use his guitar as a marimba controller; it’s so responsive that he can tremolo and the solenoid follows in kind.

But there’s a lot more going on here. We love to see crazy facial hair from time-to-time, but this guy’s just got crazy hair! This easy listening isn’t exactly hair-band material but more like live-action Animusic. It’s also reminiscent of the automated orchestras at House on the Rock, an attraction you may remember reading about in American Gods. It’s fun to kid, but whether you like the music or not, he’s certainly talented when it comes to this genre.

[Thanks Grey]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- digital audio hacks
- robot
- drums
- solenoid
- easy listening
- percussion
January 30 2010, 3:40pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

5 legged locomotion

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/27/5-legged-locomotion/

When designing legged robots, we generally see an even number of legs. Mainly, we think, it is due to us modelling things after nature. But with robotics, you’re free to do whatever you want. [Iketomu-san] has built this unsettling 5 legged robot out of parts he had lying around. The gait is fairly interesting. He mentions that it could be used for robot fighting, where the odd leg would serve as a prop from behind and the two legs up front could be weapons. What kind of gait or use can you come up with for this thing?
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- hexapod
- gait
- legged
January 27 2010, 2:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

SpiderBot prompts laser envy

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/21/spiderbot-prompts-laser-envy/

[Daniel's] horrifying hexapod makes us wish we were sitting next to a laser cutter. The parts are cut from 4.9mm plywood and include laser-sculpted sections to allow the twenty servos to properly seat in their mounting spaces. We would suggest that you build it in secret so as not to ruin the surprise when your house mates come home to find this romping around their room.

Sadly, we couldn’t find video of this in action but go look at this other hexapod if the still shots aren’t good enough. Adding two legs to the party, you behold the video after the break of the 8-legged spider milled from ABS.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- robot
- hexapod
- laser
- spiderbot
- plywood
January 21 2010, 3:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Robots in space

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/21/robots-in-space/

SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites) are experimental robots made at MIT for the purpose of testing robot locomotion in space. As you can see in the video above, they are capable of maneuvering pretty well. They seem to hold formation fairly tightly. They are using compressed CO2, through 12 different thrusters for positioning. They should be capable of autonomously navigating around each other as well as docking to one another.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- mit
- sphere
- space
January 21 2010, 8:05am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Polymorph in practice

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/19/polymorph-in-practice/

[Leesam] tipped us off to this cool tutorial for shaping Polymorph. For those who haven’t, it is pretty cool stuff. It is a plastic that comes in little pellets. You can melt it down at relatively low temperatures and mold it to the shape you need. We’ve seen it used on several projects, most notably CrabFu’s swashbot3. Generally, we see it hand shaped, so it is fairly organic and imperfect. It can be used for more precise shapes though. This tutorial walks us through the easiest way to produce sheets of the stuff to be cut and bent into brackets as well as some helpful tips on getting the best results.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- repair hacks
- polymorph
January 19 2010, 8:15am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

The Pololu 3 servo hexapod

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/18/the-polulu-3-servo-hexapod/

Here’s a great tutorial on how to make a tiny hexapod walker. While this was written specifically for a kit that is sold by pololu, we like the simple layout. You could implement your own electronics if you prefer something else. If you want to follow along with their components, you’ll end up with a fairly small and decently agile hexapod. Sure the legs aren’t articulated at every joint, but the effect is workable. This is probably the first 3 servo walking hexapod we’ve encountered and we’ve seen a pretty decent amount of hexapods.

[Via HackedGadgets]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- hexapod
- polulu
January 18 2010, 1:15pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Robot waits for no man when recharging

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/18/robot-waits-for-no-man-when-recharging/

Yikes, that power connector certainly wasn’t designed by Apple. Ugly as it may be, it’s the charging cable for a robot and acts as a sensor that allows the robot to properly align and plug into a power receptacle.

We’re going to go off on a tangent for just a second. We often think of the Rat Things from Snowcrash when considering robot power. They were nuclear powered (or something) and instead of recharging required constant cooling. Those day’s aren’t exactly around the corner but we think they’ve been realized in the lawn mowing robots that have a little nests to recharge in. Base stations work but they require the machine to return to the same place, or to have multiple charging stations.

The point is, this specialized cable makes base stations for robots obsolete. Now a robot can plug into any outlet it can get near, a great thing for robots roving large facilities. After the break you can see a video of this process. The robot arm zeros in by scanning horizontally and vertically and measuring the magnetic field put out by the AC in the wires of the outlet. Take a look, it’s a pretty neat piece of engineering.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- robot
- ac
- current
- inductance
- recharge
- plug
- rat thing
- snowcrash
January 18 2010, 10:05am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Animatronics reference

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/15/animatronics-reference/

Anyone who is familiar with animatronics or even most robotics knows that almost every build is a hack if you don’t plan on reproducing it. This gallery is to show off the work of [John Nolan]. However, instead of just posting the final product, he has posted several galleries that show, in detail, the internal structures. Curious how to rig a jaw or an eyebrow? Wanna see the internals of an animatronic baby? How about building giant monster hands that are rugged and have full digit control? It’s all in the gallery.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- Robotics
- animatronics
- special effects
January 15 2010, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LEGO robot lays dominoes not eggs

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/11/lego-robot-lays-dominoes-not-eggs/

[Mattias] brings the awesome once more with his LEGO robot that sets up dominoes. You’ll remember his work from the wooden keyboard case and the mechanical binary adder. This time around he’s still exercising those woodworking skills by making his own domino tiles, but it’s the robot that makes this interesting. In the must-see video after the break the device lays perfectly straight, perfectly spaced dominoes just begging to be upset by a spoiled toddler. The robot is nothing more than handful of LEGO parts powered by a tape deck motor. The parts may be meager, but there’s an abundance of ingenuity tied up in the design.

[Thanks Sion via The Awesomer]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- Toy Hacks
- robot
- LEGO
- domino
- tape deck
January 11 2010, 12:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

TOBI the tool bot

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/04/tobi-the-tool-bot/

[TheGrue] has put together this great writeup on how he built TOBI, the tool carrying robot. Inspired by a story he read about a robot that could follow people around, using heat sensors, he decided he wanted to do something similar. His robot would carry his tools, in this case, the tools of an IT professional. Not only would it carry his tools, but surely it would give him credit as a techno-guru to have a scratch built robot following him around.

His build process is documented quite well. He approached this in a fashion where he set several iterations. Each step would add a feature and carry the old features forward. It looks as if he’s currently working on step 3, which means that the chassis has already been built, the drive train is working, it can be remote controlled, and now has some level of autonomy thanks to a propeller controller. Up next are some range finders and an assortment of other sensors so that TOBI won’t drive off any steps, or into any walls.

[via hackedgadgets]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- robot
- platform
- classic hacks
January 4 2010, 10:30am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Lightdrawing Robot

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/28/lightdrawing-robot/

Long exposure “light drawing” photography has become pretty popular lately. We see images pop up all the time that look pretty cool. [Nils] wasn’t feeling particularly artistic himself, so he made a robot to do the hard work for him. he can program patterns in, and it will replay them by changing the color of the light on top while it drives around. Though it may lack a little of the fluidity of the hand made images, it can probably make up for it with complexity. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this style of photography mixed with robotics, though this one seems fairly more flexible. Tune in after the break to see a video of it in action.

[via gizmodo]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- Photography
- digital cameras hacks
- long exposure
- drawing
December 28 2009, 12:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Giving an old arm new life

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/18/giving-an-old-arm-new-life/

[Jarek] found a non-functional robotic arm sitting around and wanted to get it working again. By adding a few custom boards to an Arduino he managed to do just that.

The arm is driven by six stepper motors, each having four control wires. To handle all of these [Jarek] used TIP120 transistors to protect the controller. This still leaves the problem of 24 control wires to connect. By using a couple of 74HC4514 demultiplex chips he cut that number down to just 8 Arduino control pins. He completed the project by interfacing an original Playstation controller as the input device.

Source code for the project is available for download but we didn’t see a schematic for his setup. This shouldn’t be a problem as the low parts count should mean the datasheets for the transistors and demultiplexers are all you really need.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- controller
- arm
- sony
- playstation
- arduino hacks
- stepper motor
- 74hc4514
- demultiplex
- tip120
December 18 2009, 2:52pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LEGO book scanner

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/17/lego-book-scanner/

Here’s a good one from a few years back. [Muranushi] built a scanner to automatically scan an entire book. LEGO is used as the primary building material. A book is placed on a LEGO balance (inset photo) with a counterweight that eases the work of raising and lower the book. The book is lowered, a LEGO carriage moves across the book to turn the page, the book is raised to the glass of an upside-down scanner and scanned into a laptop.

It seems LEGO and imaging devices are a great match. Most of the parts used here are from LEGO Technical set 8485, a set that comes with motors and a motor controller seen above, on the floor behind the computer. We’ve embedded some video after the break of a book in the midst of the scanning process.

[Thanks Vesanies]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- book
- LEGO
- scanner
December 17 2009, 1:37pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Remote control pellet gun – with scope

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/10/remote-control-pellet-gun-with-scope/

Project Thunderbird is an automated predator and pest control system. It consists of a pellet gun mounted in a motorized base. The icing on the cake is a 60x zoom camera that has cross-hairs superimposed on the picture. This reminds us of the Internet hunting for the handicap we heard about years ago.

In the video after the break you can see how the motorized base works, watch the trigger-pull motor, and observe a demonstration of some target practice. The creator, [Gadgetapodimus], mentions the possible sale of plans and kits as soon as he completes the system. Perhaps it would be better if this was not easy for people to build.
- Tags:
- misc hacks
- robots hacks
- camera
- internet
- turret
- scope
- pellet gun
December 10 2009, 5:32pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Robot hands you your ass at beer pong

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/09/robot-hands-you-your-ass-at-beer-pong/

Guess who built this contraption? You’re right, college students. But as much as we like to make fun, the subject of Beer Pong is our addition, not theirs. The device uses an air stream that can be directed along two axis to control and sort ping-pong balls.

Unlike the lethal ping-pong ball launcher, the goal here is elegant control of the ball. They’ve achieved a great success. Watch the video after the break to see balls sorted into beakers by color, transferred to vessels over a large distance, and navigated through an elevated obstacle course. To give us a hint of what you can do with this, we see the machine controlling an apple, an onion, and a water bottle at the end of the video.

[Thanks Dan for sending the tip: The Foresight Institute]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- ping pong
- compressed air
- classic hacks
- beer pong
December 9 2009, 9:44am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Saturday afternoon robot cooking

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/05/saturday-afternoon-robot-cooking/

What happens when you combine an IR tracking PS3 Eyetoy, and a high-resolution projector? If you answered multi-touch display, you’re on the right track. Add a Wii Nunchuck controlled robot, a pinch of Community Core Vision tracking software combined with Processing, and the piece de resistance, a modified Memo TUIO particle system and you get the mesmerizing video above.

Check out this combination of crazy robotics and more with SparkFun’s free robot hobby builders meet-up on Saturday.

[Thanks Anon]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- robot
- wii
- multi touch
- input
December 5 2009, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Phone controlled solar charged tank

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/03/phone-controlled-solar-charged-tank/

This looks like a fun little project. [Chris] has built a tank that he is controlling using his iPhone. Constructed mainly of off the shelf parts, like an Arduino and an Xbee wireless unit, the tank is controlled via processing. You can see that it is fairly responsive as he changes the speed of the motors. You don’t need an iPhone for this, really to do exactly what he’s doing any multi-touch input would work. You can download the code for it from his site.

We’re a bit curious about the solar charging. How much power does this use? Doesn’t that panel look a bit small? How long does it take to charge?

[via HacknMod]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- rc
- multitouch
- tank
- colorado
- arduino hacks
- iphone hacks
December 3 2009, 10:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Robo-one dance competition

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/30/robo-one-dance-competition/

This year at the creepy robot dace-a-thon, also known as the Robo-one dance competition, we get to see the creepy brought to new levels. We thought the Lou Vega decapitated head bot was creepy, but somehow these people managed to make a biped out creep a hexapod. Watch above as this uncanny valley resident tries to shimmy into your heart. We really are impressed by these bots though. The world of robot dancing has come a long way, those little servo bags are doing a better job than us on the dance floor.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- robot
- dance
- biped
November 30 2009, 9:34am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Door opening help

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/27/door-opening-help/

For those who are seeking prosthetic limbs, or just require a little bit of robotic gripper help, the choices are very few and very costly. A newcomer to the area is hoping to change the costly part with their door opening arm. Costing only $2,000 to build, it is quite cheap compared to the other offerings. This arm can grip, twist, and swing its arm at the same time using a single motor thanks to a slip clutch.

[via Poular Science]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- accessibility
- Medical hacks
- prosthetic
November 27 2009, 10:23am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Autonomous Turret wielding biped bot

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/27/autonomous-turret-wielding-biped-bot/

Pay close attention. At roughly 36 seconds we see Asimov’s laws going out the window. We’re pretty sure we saw this little autonomous battle bot take a shot at a human. We can’t tell for sure, but it looked like it enjoyed it too.

This bot is being built by [xdream] to compete in the Mech Warfare section of the Robo Games 2010. His target acquisition system and firing are completely autonomous. We think his motion is controlled by an operator though.

This little fellow may seem harmless enough, until you realize that those servos and guns could be replaced and this “little guy” becomes that “big fella”. That’s not anything the maker suggested, we’re just pointing out that a killer robot is only cute when it’s small.

[via BotJunkie]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- gun
- turret
- robogames
November 27 2009, 8:14am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Automatic pneumatic drum kit

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/23/automatic-pneumatic-drum-kit/

Move over Steve and PEART… there’s yet another robotic drummer in town. [Fauzii] tipped us off to his own MIDI-controlled creation – WizardFingers. According to him, WizardFingers is already capable of 64th note rolls at over 250 beats per minute. That’s on every drum simultaneously. Each drum is hit with a lever attached to a linear pneumatic actuator. A laptop running MAX/MSP generates MIDI sequences, which are sent to Doepfer MTC64 board. All of these actuators are hooked up to the board, which sets them off in sequence.

[Fauzii] ultimately hopes to develop AI software that will allow WizardFingers to compose its own tunes on not only a drum kit, but bar chimes and an organ as well. His site documents the whole concept quite well (just watch out for wild cats).
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- digital audio hacks
- robot
- midi
- pneumatic
- drum
- automatic
- max
November 23 2009, 7:59am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Outerspace: reactive robotics

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/18/outerspace-reactive-robotics/

While Outerspace may not have an extremely useful function, being an art installation, we really enjoyed reading through the build information. Basically, Outerspace is supposed to appear to be curious, exploring it’s surroundings and reacting to your contact. We do enjoy a little bit of personality in robots, so this seems like it could be fun. The head has 5 photo sensors and each piece of the “arm” has capacitive sensors. This allows Outerspace to sense what is going on. The motion itself is controlled by 4 servos in the base pulling cables that run through the body.

The programming seems like it could use a little work to achieve the effect of being “curious”, but we see potential here. You can see a video of it in action here.

[via today and tomorrow]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- robot
- personification
- crabfu
November 18 2009, 2:59pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

BEAM robot tumbles aimlessly

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/17/beam-robot-tumbles-aimlessly/

[Harm's] tumbling robot from a few years back is an excellent study in simple motion. Foregoing wheels or legs, he uses four flippers to roll the robot around the room. Two motors are used, each in charge of two flippers. Identical but separate circuits drive the motors with a 74HC240 gate IC monitoring the continuously rotation. When a flipper becomes stuck, the circuit reverses the rotation of the motor so the simple bot can tumble its way out of a jam.

The circuitry is less advanced than some of the BEAM builds we’ve seen before. That doesn’t diminish the cleverness of his design and we think BEAM robotics are great way to get your head out of the computer code and go hardware only. After the break you can take in some video of the tumbling motion. We’ve also included a video of another bot from his website that uses concentric rings for another type of unique locomotion.

[Harm's] ‘W’ bot uses concentric rings for locomotion.

[Thanks Thomas]
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- robot
- beam
- 74HD240
- tumble
November 17 2009, 2:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

R/C airplane motors from computer trash

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/17/rc-airplane-motors-from-computer-trash/

Here’s something that the R/C airplane crowd might think of as old news. These directions show us how to rework floppy drive and CD Rom motors to be high power airplane motors. There are several listed, with details on each, but those unfamiliar might want to start with the most basic CD Rom version. It covers winding your own copper and installing the magnets in the “bell”, putting it all together and mounting it. This is a great writeup for those who haven’t seen this done before. If you want something even simpler though, you might enjoy the homopolar motor post. If you’re more advanced, they have tips for you too on machining and balancing the motors as well as winding density.
- Tags:
- robots hacks
- Toy Hacks
- airplane
- radio controlled
- rc
- motors
November 17 2009, 10:17am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Omni-car

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/17/omni-car/

We stumbled onto one of [Nik Melton]’s projects, an Omni-car. It is omnidirectional, meaning it can go any direction at any time without having to turn. The body was designed by him, then printed with a 3D printer. The control scheme is what interests us though. He has found a simple way to wire it to get the job done. Sure you can see that it suffers from some pretty bad “drift” when trying to go in a straight line, but overall, we think he pulled it off well.

You might want to take a few moments to look around his project page. This guy has done a bunch of fun stuff like delta robots, strange hybrid wheel/leg robots, tesla coils, and arm mounted flamethrowers. Judging by the videos, he’s pretty young too. We think his guy has a bright future ahead of him.
- Tags:
- home entertainment hacks
- robots hacks
- radio controlled
- omnidirectional
November 17 2009, 9:15am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

USB to serial adapter

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/16/usb-to-serial-adapter/

[Spikenzie] is at it again. This time he’s posted a nice USB to serial converter. He points out that you can buy a USB to serial adapter pretty cheaply, but sometimes you want this functionality built into your project enough to justify the greater cost. In those cases where you want to integrate it, this is an elegant solution. This design was made to be fairly compact and still usable on a breadboard. As usual, you can download the files from his website. If his work looks familiar, it’s because we’ve covered his work several times before.

[via Flickr]
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- robots hacks
- usb
- serial
- classic hacks
November 16 2009, 4:17pm | More »

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