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!
Derek writes “The gumbrix came about because so many of my robot projects required the kind of rapid prototyping that Lego really excels at, yet required more in the way of control electronics than Lego was capable of. With a maximum of 3 motors and 3 sensors, the Mindstorms kit was not really capable of the more complicated control strategies that I was interested in.” [via] Link.
Robotsrule writes “I have made a new video to show some of the capabilities of the new, upcoming version 3 of Robosapien Dance Machine, the free open source program that lets Windows PC users create complex scripts to control their robots, and control their robots using just their voice. This 1 minute 3 MB video demonstrates the support that version 3 of Robosapien Dance Machine will have, for all of WowWee’s robots; including the Robosapien V1, Robosapien V2, Robopet, and Roboraptor robots.” [via] Link.
Amazing video of an RCX robot using vision command (or a derrivative) to play pong on a real screen. Jmarco writes: “I have designed a Mindstorm Robot who plays Pong game. It have a Webcam, and it’s controled through Infrared with the laptop computer. There is not trick. It truely plays itself!” [via] Link.
Mike Smyth makes these incredible compressed air engines. On his site, he has photos and information on the V-twin and radial air engines he designed and constructed. The videos give you a good idea of how they work. His homepage also has his walking robots project to check out. Thanks B45man! Link.
Peter writes “Here’s a Haile, a robotic drummer that responds intelligently to your playing with an expressive performance on a Native American Pow-wow drum. They’re set to create a Jewish-Arab drum circle composition featuring the robot commissioned for performance in Jerusalem.” Here’s how they did it. Link.
Here’s a great how to for simple bot “The following article will show you how to build a simple robot, called “The Beetle Robot”. It’s great for beginners and easy to do. Most of the components can be bought for much cheaper at Digi-Key, Jameco, or similar. At Solarbotics you can find the dual AA battery holder and the Mabuchi motor. You can find these components at any good electronic store.” Thanks William! Link.
This article describes a servo motor controller that is able to control up to 16 hobby servo motors and its based on the AT90S4414 microcontroller (a member of Atmel’s AVR Family). This servo controller is ideal in cases of building small robotic arms (3 to 5 axes) or small walker mobile robots (quadrapods or hexapods). The servo controller receives position commands through a serial connection which can be provided by using one I/O pin of another microcontroller, or a PCs serial port! Link.
