The Party Popper “Security” Robot

This “security” robot is based around the Lego Mindstorms NXT platform. As shown in the video after the break, this robot is capable of firing a “popper” at any intruder the owner of the robot sees fit.  It takes a decent amount of force to fire a popper, so this is pretty impressive with a Lego components by itself. If you’ve been looking for components to build your next robot, Lego might be worth a look.

This bot also features, according to the 14 year old Australian that built this, an HD webcam person ID system that sends him an email when it sees someone.  It uses bluetooth for control. Lego designs have come a long way since the grey castles some of you may have built in the 80s and 90s. Be sure to check out the video after the break.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h31h7341vY&w=470&h=349%5D

13 thoughts on “The Party Popper “Security” Robot

  1. What do you mean castle in the 80s and 90s? I had legos in the 70s long before the castle kits. Back when we had to use our imaginations to build things from little colored bricks!

    Sheesh,,,get off my lawn you kids!

  2. On a totally different note, I have over 1000 dollars worth of mindstorms and technic addon kits. Only first generation mindstorms, however. Have yet to buy any NXT gear. I did a competition against some kids with NXT a year ago, however, and my little 8-bit first gen mindstorms bricks with proper programming using NQC beat the NXT with the lego programming language. Or at least, my programs beat theirs, and my designs. But I have age and angst over their youth and,,,enthusiam.

    Enjoy,
    Ray

  3. That could be done. Just build pre-loads with the poppers in little holders and the string caught between a couple of bricks, or tied to a brick, or something, so you could just drop it down into the firing mech and away you go. Did similar some years back with legos and rubber bands. Made a chain of lego technic pieces with rubber bands held on them. The chain would feed through the gun unit which would pick the rubber bands off, stretch them, and fire…advance chain…repeat..

    [:

  4. Thanks guys for all the great comments. I will put up a much higher quality HD video of the robot when I get time (pesky school) detailing all of it’s person identification features and hopefully a better weapon. At the moment I’m just having fun scaring the crap out of people as they come down my hallway. In the meantime visit my Canberra hacking website at capitalhacking.webs.com

  5. This use of poppers is a “Less Than Lethal” Pyro effector on a ‘bot. Liability may vary depending on local laws, but the sheer COMEDY value is worth the Hack’s effort!

    @Ray: I recall you having those mindstorms all around the campground.. IIRC you had an X10 cam on one.

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