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!
Recently the Maker Shed started to carry OLLO kits. What are OLLO kits? OLLO is a reconfigurable construction set for beginner robot enthusiasts. Think of them as a cross between LEGO and Erector sets. We went ahead and made one of the projects from the Action kit and learned a few things along the way. Here are a few tips when making your OLLO kit.
Interested in sensing things without using sight? So are the researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, who have developed the Scratchbot robot that can navigate by waving around a set of 18 whiskers.
Will Langford, the Tufts student who created printable shop glasses on his MakerBot and rendered Thom Yorke’s head in 3D, has now printed a Sumbot chassis for an Arduino-driven sumo. Nice work, Will! It’s so cute! Will’s page on Thingiverse More: Print your own glasses Radiohead´s Thom Yorke printed in 3D
Another year, another profusion of robot kits, toys, and showy humanoids demo’d by entertainment conglomerates and big car companies. The more things change, the more they stay the same. It wasn’t a huge leap year for the evolution of robokind, but there are definitely plenty of new tools and toys to play with, and plenty […]
Interesting article over on New Scientist about Erin Rapacki’s design for a “low-cost” robot that can be used by the wheelchair-bound to grip, turn, and push or pull on most kinds of doorknobs. Maybe my sense of how much this sort of thing should cost is way off, but $2000 still seems pricey to me, although I guess at the prototype stage it’s pretty impressive. [via Popular Science]
SensorFly, a prototype from the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University shows just how robust the current crop really is. Knock down one of these sensor-packed hovering whirlygigs and it reorients itself to take flight again in a matter of seconds
It’s still way too early for holiday music and decorations, however this was too good to pass up. Robobuilder made this RoboBuilder Xmas Dance Routine to demonstrate the capabilities of their 5720t ‘Huno’ robotics kit.
