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Archive: Robotics

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May 24, 2009

Quick n' dirty pan-tilt camera mount

Using little more than some PCBs from Sparkfun, two micro servos, some right angle headers and screws left over from a junked Gameboy, Jose Torres from RampageRobotics built this pan-tilt robot camera rig (with the help of a Dremel and a soldering iron). The CMOS camera module is from Electronics123.com. Clever use of the bent header pins to create a right-angle mount for the tilt-servo PCB.

Build a Pan-Tilt Camera Mount in Less Than an Hour

May 19, 2009

Robot based on the MAKE Controller

This is a really cool robot by Patrick Adesso. It uses a MAKE Controller to communicate with a desktop application written in Flex / ActionScript. Check out the link for more information, pictures, and the source code. [Thanks Liam!]

A personal project to create a mobile robotic platform, started more than a year ago. Desktop software (originally created in .NET C# and then ported to Flex/ActionScript) communicates with the mobile platform, can monitor its surroundings via a mounted webcam, operate it remotely and activate autonomous mode.

More about the Robot based on the MAKE Controller

In the Maker Shed:

More about the Make Controller 2.0 & Interface Board kit

May 18, 2009

Jesuit High School Robotics team at Maker Faire

One of the robotics groups we're going to have at Maker Faire this year is the Jesuit High School Robotics team, from Sacramento, CA. They'll be showing off their underwater ROVs. Here's a teaser vid they did.

Jesuit High School Robotics

May 15, 2009

Arduino robot platform

This looks like a huge robot army of fun!

Four wheel drive robot with dual h-bridges controlling four motors for differential steering. ATmega168 microcontroller running at 16mhz. Arduino shield compatible headers to allow for stackable shields and protoboards. Zigbee socket for wireless bootloading or USB for wired programming. Quadrature encoders on each side for dead reckoning.

Rampage Robotics!

There is much promise in a project like this. It should be loads of fun to see what the next step holds for us.

Projects always look better when they're in the MAKE Flickr pool!

May 12, 2009

Beginning robot walker

ArduinoFun has a how-to on building this simple two-servo Arduino walker that's a great starter robot project for kids. The body and legs were ordered from Ponoko. Shawn of ArduinoFun writes:

My son is 11 and daughter is 5 and they really enjoyed doing this. I was amazed at my daughter already thinking of new ideas to do with the servos. For example she wants to put a princess doll on a servo and use the Arduino to make a music box.

Arduino Simple Walker

May 11, 2009

Hawk full-sized humanoid robot

I'd never even heard of this robot, or the "i90" system it's built on, until tonight. The Hawk is now ready for sale, according to the website, but it doesn't say for how much. I'm guessing it's a bundle, since the fully-equipped i90 base unit (with webcam, wireless network, GPS, etc.) is nearly ten grand.

Hawk Robot

SOBEaR, robot bartender

This proof-of-concept robotic teddy bear bartender dispenses drinks, but only after he tests your BAC (blood-alcohol content).

SOBEaR v02 :: the responsible robot bartender

May 10, 2009

iPhone controlled LEGO robot

BattleBricks posted awesome building instructions on how to get your own iPhone controlled LEGO robot working!

This is a demonstration of iPhone to Lego NXT Robot communication via the Safari browser and Lego's Light Sensor. To build this, you'll need a laptop, two iPhones, and a Lego NXT Robotics Kit. First, build your robot. Second write some Java LeJOS Robot code. Third write some Google Web Toolkit web application code. Fourth, plug in your iPhone into the robot, and use either a browser or another iPhone to drive the Lego Robot!

May 8, 2009

iPhone-controlled full-sized R2D2

Check out this detailed R2D2 reproduction. Using the accelerometer or OSC slider control on the iPhone makes this R2 unit's dome whirl back and forth. There are also buttons that control banks of sounds for different moods. Eventually more controls will make it over to the iPhone. Right now it's taking its first steps forward.

Astromech R2D2 [via ApplePhoneHacks]

Robot bartender

As we've pointed out here before, the holy grail, the killer app, of robot domestication appears to be robots that can serve drinks. PopSci has posted a piece about former Battlebots competitor Jamie Price and his bartender bot:

A veteran of the TV show Battlebots, Jamie Price has built plenty of destructive machines. But late last year, he designed a robot with a more mellow calling: offering cold beer and cocktails. The result -- a masterpiece of plywood, plastic, aluminum and electric motors called Bar2D2 -- serves up everything but the sage advice.

The 35-year-old salesman from Nashville modeled his machine on the iconic Star Wars droid R2D2. He took a plastic dome from a bird feeder to use as a head and built the robot's plywood skeleton to match. To make Bar2D2 mobile, Price stripped out the seat, the control system and a pair of wheels from a used electric wheelchair, added a new 12-volt battery, and wired a receiver to the motor so he could control it using an R/C helicopter-type remote. He also created a system that lets him send drink orders wirelessly from his computer to the robot, which then mixes the spirits to make perfect cocktails.

Bar2D2 proved to be a hit when Price took it to a convention recently, but he isn't finished yet. Next he's adding a breathalyzer and LED-backed projector that displays blood-alcohol content. Give me your keys, Obi-Wan.

Drink-Slinging Droid

May 7, 2009

Android-controlled robotic blimp

YARB is a robotic blimp controlled using an Android phone. Images are sent over Wi-Fi from the blimp to the phone's display as it's maneuvered along using the tilt sensor inside the G1.

Source code for the control interface is hosted at code.google.com/p/srv1console/

The tilt sensors in the Android phone work quite nicely for rotor control - we have proportional steering so the amount of tilt controls the amount of power, and live video is displayed on the Android screen from the blimp's onboard Surveyor SRV-1 Blackfin camera, carried via the same radio channel that sends the control signals.

YARB robotic blimp controlled by Google Android G1 phone

May 5, 2009

Hexapod races at Singapore Robotic Games

OMG, these four and six-legged robot races, line-following competitions, are amazing. And pretty hysterical. Like the Boston Dynamics bots, and some of the other robots we've covered here, these are sort of unsettling in how biological they're movements and behaviors feel.

Via Society of Robots

More:

May 4, 2009

Assisted guitar

Max Flebus, a MAKE subscriber from Milan, sent us a link to this wonderful video of musician Paolo Angeli (who's worked with Fred Frith) playing a guitar that has motors inside the sound hole whacking away on the strings and robot-finger-like strikers, powered by foot pedals, that Paolo controls while playing the guitar with a bow, creating a sort of cobot guitar.

Paolo Angeli (site is in Italian)

May 1, 2009

New site, new work from Stéphane Halleux

There's a growing roster of found-object artists working in what I call mechanical animism, an aesthetic world where the margins between the born and the made have become leaky and distinctions between humans, animals, and machines are fluid and ambiguous. One of the true masters of this genre is Belgian artist Stéphane Halleux. We've fawned all over Stephane's work here before, and with a new website and a bunch of new pieces on display there, we get to ogle all over again. I love the whimsy and humor in his work, the macabre undercurrents, and the incredible craftsmanship of the sculpture themselves. Look at the close-up images on the site and you'll be amazed at the quality of the work and the crazy detail that goes into every piece. With so many people doing this type of 21st century folk art, using similar materials of junk, found objects, antique appliances, and dead media artifacts, Stéphane's work stands out and has a charm about it that's truly unique, and I find, extremely inspiring.

Stephane Halleux

In the Maker Shed:

Device Vol. 1: Fantastic Contraption
Sale Price: $13.95 (normally $19.99)
Stéphane's sculptures are featured in this gorgeous book we sell in the Maker Shed, put together by Amy and Greg Brotherton of Device Gallery. Other artists featured include Mike Libby, Christopher Conte, Nemo Gould, and Greg Brotherton, all of whom have been covered here on Make: Online. I'm even in here; I wrote the Introduction. Device is putting together Volume II now, and I'm honored to be involved in that project as well. Some of the Device artists will be at Maker Faire, including Nemo and the Brothertons.

April 30, 2009

Arduino-powered Braitenberg vehicle

For the next issue of MAKE, our second robot-themed issue, I'm doing a review of one of my favorite robot-related books, Valentino Braitenberg's Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology. It is a seminal work in robotics, especially with behavior-based robotics, BEAM, and other forms of simple, bottom-up robot architectures. Alex at Tinkerlog decided to build a simple robotic platform to experiment with Braitenberg vehicles, but using Ardunio, so that inputs and outputs could be easily swapped around in code rather than analog rewiring. He writes:

Valentino Braitenberg developed a model of simple vehicles with sensors and actuators (motors) and interconnections between them. While the vehicles are extremely simple, the emerging behaviour is not. It is often interpreted as love, aggression, or caution.

The easiest one is a light seeking vehicle. That's like "hello world" in robotics. The sensors are affecting directly the motors. The right sensor affects the left motor and the left sensor affects the right motor. That means, if light shines on the right sensor, the left wheel turns. And if the light shines brighter on the right sensor, the left motor will turn faster than the left one and so the vehicle will turn towards the light source.

These kind of simple robots can be build with analog techniques alone, they don't need a microcontroller. Think of two sensors feeding into two amplifiers that control the motors. The big advantage a controller brings in, is the possibility to rewire the connections between inputs and outputs in software. Even more complex functions for the interconnections can be reprogrammed easily.

Arduino-powered Braitenberg vehicle

April 28, 2009

Adding head-mounted LEDs to Rovio

Here's a piece on the WowWee RoboCommunity forums about adding LEDs lamps onto the head-stalk of your Rovio. One of the criticisms of the Rovio is the rather poor camera mounted in the head. The lack of lighting on the head-stalk doesn't help. If you try and look up at something with your robo-head, and there's inadequate lighting where you're looking, you're pretty much screwed. Adding these two bright-white LEDs can help (or at least I'd assume so).

WowWee Rovio Hack: Head-Mounted LED Lights

Autonomous PIC-based blimp

Here's a robo-blimp that some students at Colorado State University designed. They score points just for coming up with the name infraLED Zeppelin. The article includes PDF build instructions and a complete parts list.

Gadget Freak Case 139: The Autonomous Blimp [Thanks, Phillip!]

April 27, 2009

Robot gardening

Adafruit industries took a little field trip recently to W/------ project space in Chinatown, NYC to check out Peter Sand's robot-tended garden.

The giant robot creates a garden, plants seeds, waters them and lovingly tends to it - the operator can control the robotics with a game controller and for the Arduino fans, it has an Adafruit protoshield and Arduinos that help the gardening.

Peter Sand's FAST PLANTING

April 24, 2009

Maker Revolution this weekend in Cambridge

Jimmie has this followup on his announcement for Maker Revolution in Boston this Saturday and Sunday:

The event can pretty much be summed up as a two day extravaganza of makers, hackers, and artists getting together to share cool things they've made, and how to make them. There will be installation art pieces, workshops, and talks. You'll be able to both see an Arduino in use for an art piece, purchase one, and even learn how to use it. There will be workshops as well, so you can learn to circuit bend, or build your own TV-B-Gone with the inventor, Mitch Altman. The Makerbot will also make an appearance, and Bre Pettis will be on hand demonstrating rapid prototyping and how it can change your life.
A number of Boston area makers and artists will also be presenting,
showing off some of the their works. This is a good way to find out
about things going on in the area, and how you can become involved.
From building music and sound installations, to designing your own
video games, and even trying a shot of your own DNA. There is sure to
be at least one art piece or talk that you will find interesting. It
is also very conveniently located just a few minute's walk from the
Kendall T stop.

Watch here for updates! If you are going, add your photos to the MAKE Flickr pool.

Posted by Chris Connors | Apr 24, 2009 12:00 PM
Announcements, Arduino, Arts, Computers, Crafts, Culture jamming, DIY Projects, Education, Electronics, Events, Gadgets, How it's made, Kids, Makers, Music, Open source hardware, Robotics, Science, Something I want to learn to do... | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

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 Home | Next >

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Make:

Quick n' dirty pan-tilt camera mount

Robot based on the MAKE Controller

Jesuit High School Robotics team at Maker Faire

Arduino robot platform

Beginning robot walker

Hawk full-sized humanoid robot

SOBEaR, robot bartender

iPhone controlled LEGO robot

iPhone-controlled full-sized R2D2

Robot bartender

Android-controlled robotic blimp

Hexapod races at Singapore Robotic Games

Assisted guitar

New site, new work from Stéphane Halleux

Arduino-powered Braitenberg vehicle

Adding head-mounted LEDs to Rovio

Autonomous PIC-based blimp

Robot gardening

Maker Revolution this weekend in Cambridge

Wii-controlled Pleo

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