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!

Launch a robot…

Launch a robot…

Termbot.Full.Deploy TerminatorBot is a crawling robot with two arms that can also manipulate objects. It’s perfect for crawling around the wreckage of a disaster site but the limbs collapse into a cylindrical body that can be tossed or launched into specific locations, making the machine attractive for space applications or military use. Link.

The Scribbler bot

The Scribbler bot

Botimg11 The scribbler bot is essentially a drawing machine that converts digital information into a physical drawing. The bot is made up of a software component and a hardware component. The software component analyzes a picture taken by a web camera (or just about any other image source), creates a unique line drawing from that analysis, and exports a point list that corresponds to the points that make up the lines. Link.

Building Inexpensive CNC Machines

Building Inexpensive CNC Machines

Cc1J16 When I started thinking about CNC machines, I just wanted a computer-controlled machine that would be able to automatically drill all of the holes in the printed circuit boards that I made, for my Curve Tracer kits (see the link, above). But, the “good” commercially-available machines were priced higher than the amount that I could justify spending. So, I started thinking about what it would take to build one, myself. And, I didn’t want to build one that would cost almost as much as a commercial machine: Otherwise it might have been smarter to just BUY one, to begin with! So, I decided to add “low cost” as one of the design goals. I also expected to end up with one or more additional products to sell, as a result of this project, to (help) justify the time that I spent on it. Link.