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!
Clinton Blackmore wrote in to share Enchanting, a visual programming tool that uses Scratch (as well as LeJOS firmware on the NXT brick) to create a more intuitive and powerful interface than Lego’s Mindstorms software can manage. The software is free and open source, and is being developed for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
Got a robot on the web? Consider adding it to Livebots.cc, which aggregates UStream feeds from multiple robots that allow visitors to control them through the web. The “hand” robot in the image above was built by the site operator, Navic, who documented instructions on how to build the hand-bot. [via Guilherme Martins]
I love this fantastic dragon built from next-generation Mindstorms EV3 parts, created by the Lego Mindstorms Education EV3 team, including product designer Lee Magpili. You can see more of his work at Lego Education as well as his Flickr set. The dragon, Valentine, was built from 6 EV3 microcontroller bricks, 18 motors, and took 30 […]
Odest Chadwicke Jenkins is my friend and neighbor. If I really wanted to split hairs, Chad is more a scientist than a maker. I will overlook that small technicality because the work that Chad does is profoundly awesome and has mega impact in the world of robotics, which affects every maker working with robots. Chad and I share many interests including video games and robots and I find it interesting that he runs the lab previously occupied by Leslie Kaelbling, one of my former mentors, who is now at MIT. Chad played rugby in college, so you don’t want to mess with him! Chad is so cool, he was recently named as one of the “Brilliant 10” by Popular Science.
Seventeen-year-old Easton LaChappelle has created a 3D printed robotic prosthetic arm controlled by brainwaves that he hopes will bring an affordable, functional artificial limb to the masses. Oh, and Heineken wants 5,000 arms for serving beer.
MakerBot Industries co-founder Adam “Phooky” Mayer has vowed to build a robot a month in 2013: As midnight approached this New Year’s Eve– as champagne bubbled from uncorked necks and we all prepared for the coming year in various postures of revelry or bleak resignation– I grappled silently with the pivotal question of our time: […]
The Pinoccio project is an Internet of Things toolkit that recently passed their fundraising goal on Indiegogo (with 8 days left). They’ve posted an interesting project: a Web Rover robot that you can control from thousands of miles away over the web. Plans and code are available on their website, and there’s a video of […]
