Whoa! Keanu supports FIRST
Keanu Reeves doing a public service announcement for FIRST robotics. Wait a minute, should Neo be a spokesperson for robots/AI? [via Robots Dreams] FIRST
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!
Open source swarm robot project
I love these swarm robots and the relative simplicity of the design, the means on motility (BEAM-style direct-drive pager motors), and the charging scheme (the bots in the lower image, to the right, are at the charging rail). The wiki that’s been set up doesn’t have too much info yet. There’s even going to be […]
Encoder wheel generator
Need to build a custom rotary encoder wheel for that precision motion device you are making? Well, Nick Ames has you covered with his encoder wheel generator script.
Most useless machine
Inspired by Claude Shannon’s Ultimate Machine, Instructables user SaskView designed this excellent most useless machine.
MAKE visits MicroRAX HQ
In November, I had the opportunity to travel to Seattle for a Magic: The Gathering tournament. While I was there, I visited the headquarters of TwinTech, a small company run by identical twin brothers, Steve and Chris Burrows, who manufacture a small rack-building set called MicroRAX. At the time, a similar set, called MakerBeam, was […]
Awesome flying drawbridge
This thing is called the “Slauerhoffbrug,” and it lives in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. The road section is lifted on a single massive counterbalanced arm up to 90 degrees in the air. There’s a good photo gallery, including aerial views, over on frozenly.com. [via Neatorama]
Hidden ping pong gun is best office prank ever
Some enterprising pranksters at Willow Garage hid a ckBot robot in the ceiling of their office, then used it to shoot ping pong balls at an unsuspecting co-worker.
