Wii-controlled Pleo
This article and video describe how to control a Pleo with a Nintendo Wii nunchuck and XBee modules. How to control Pleo wirelessly using Wii nunchuck
Robotics
Theo Jansen-inspired Arduino walker
Check out this amazingly cool laser-cut, Arduino-controlled walker, inspired by artist Theo Jansen’s walking creature called the strandbeest. The patterns for the walking mechanism are available on Thingiverse, and you can get an Arduino to control it, right next door in the Maker Shed! You’ll need two micro-servos, too. Jansen Walker [via adafruit industries]
HOW TO – Turn a Rumblebot into a real robot
Dino Segovis, of DinoFab.com, shows you how easy it is to turn a RumbleBot robot toy (available for $5-20 on eBay) into an Arduino-controlled robot, which opens up all sorts of possibilities. Rumble Robot Arduino Hack
Giant robotic spider invades Japan
Giant robotic spiders have struck again. First it was Liverpool, England, now it’s Yokohama, Japan. It’s painful to watch as terrified humans in white shirts and black slacks, stuck to the underbelly and carapace, struggle to free themselves. La Machine (the “theatrical engineers” who created this mechanical monstrosity) [via Laughing Squid] More: Photos of La […]
The AVRkitCar from Phenostream
Here’s a kit company, called Phenostream, we’ve never heard of before offering an interesting-looking and very inexpensive AVR-based robot kit. As you can see from the photo, the AVRkitCar is very tiny. It sells for CDN$85, which is around US$70. I’ll see if I can’t get an evaluation unit from them and do a full-blown […]
Line-following mousebot
With my Mousey the Junkbot project in MAKE and Solarbotics’ Herbie the Mousebot hogging the limelight, folks might forget or be unaware of the fact that the original LM386-based Herbie circuit was a line-follower, not a photovore (light-seeker). Peterman921’s MouserV2 is a two-time line-following champ. It uses the LM487 audio amp chip and two downward-looking […]
Hacking tiny servos for continuous rotation
MAKE contributor and robotics author Tod Kurt put up this short video and how-to on hacking tiny, cheap servo motors for continuous rotation. Anyone who’s done a lot of miniature robotics building probably knows the hardware hack to turn a regular servo motor into a continuous-rotation gearmotor, by removing the mechanical stop and the servo […]
