Author: James Hobson

1404 Articles

Madeline Gannon The Robot Tamer!

December 20, 2015 by 40 Comments

Let’s be honest. Who doesn’t want an industrial six-axis robot arm in their garage to do their bidding? Introducing [Madeline Gannon], the Robot Tamer!

The only tricky part is… if you received an industrial six-axis robot arm, would you be able to control it to do your bidding (easily)? Having taken robotics courses myself in college, and worked with ABB robots like this one, I can tell you, it’s not exactly plug-and-play. Yeah, there’s the teach pendant and you can pretty quickly teach the robot to do a repetitive task well, but unless you’re setting up your own mini manufacturing line — what’s the point? You’re going to want to inject some CNC code or something and have it carve you a sculpture! Or pour you a mixed drink I guess…

Maybe [Madeline] has the answer. Working as an artist in residence at Pier 9, she’s created wearable markers and a motion capture system that allows a giant ABB robot to see, and respond to your movements in a shared space.

Continue reading “Madeline Gannon The Robot Tamer!” →

Yet Another Pi Zero USB Hub

December 19, 2015 by 36 Comments

It’s quite fascinating to see the world of hackers rise up and start messing around with new hardware as soon as it’s released. As everyone knows, the Raspberry Pi Zero only has two micro USB ports… a bit lacking for any computer — even one the size of a credit card. While there will probably be an official USB hub coming out someday, we’ve already seen a few home-made versions — though we think this might be the nicest layout so far!

[Richard Hawthorn] threw this PCB design together to give the Pi Zero four USB 2.0 ports. It can be attached by either a USB connector, or by soldering 4 pins between the two boards. It can either be powered off of the Pi Zero, or with an external power connector jack. In a future design he hopes to add pogo pins so it can just be attached and detached whenever you need it.

It’s a bit more involved than simply strapping a mini USB hub to the back of your Pi, but if you’re interested in a more sleek solution, [Richard’s] got all the details on his GitHub.

3D Printing And Book Binding

December 19, 2015 by 7 Comments

How exactly do you use 3D printing to assist in the extremely tedious and difficult art of leather book binding? It’s pretty simple actually — by 3D printing the title you want to emboss!

[Luc Volders] is a hobbyist book binder. He’s also recently gotten into 3D printing, by building his own Prusa I2, and even now, he’s working on building a Delta printer. Typically to do a relief or embossed title on a leather-bound book requires a lot of time — and it’s pretty easy to mess up.

He’s done book covers with relief before, by painstakingly carving each letter out with a knife, then gluing leather onto the cover, pressing it into the indent left by carving. It’s not easy. Continue reading “3D Printing And Book Binding” →

MIT Robots Fight With Lightsabers

December 18, 2015 by 9 Comments

Students of the MIT Robotics Lab decided to have some fun this holiday season with the big release of Star Wars. They built a lightsaber wielding delta-bot, and some very interesting hip-mounted lightsaber robot arms, akin to General Grievous.

First up in the video though is their Jedi Training robot, which is a variation of the delta-bot robot we’re all familiar with thanks to 3D printers. With a lightsaber mounted on top, it’s not too fast, but has a large range of motion to allow you to practice your lightsaber form. They call it the Triple Scissor Extender — and as you can imagine, it was built for something completely different. You can check out the designer’s personal blog here, though he doesn’t have any info on this particular project — yet.

Second is a robot they designed for a project called Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRL), which is literally designed to give you extra robotic arms — it was the next logical step to give them lightsabers…

Continue reading “MIT Robots Fight With Lightsabers” →

Self-Driving Acura, Built In A Garage

December 17, 2015 by 36 Comments

[George Hotz], better known by his hacker moniker [GeoHot], was the first person to successfully hack the iPhone — now he’s trying his hand at building his very own self-driving vehicle.

The 26-year-old already has an impressive rap sheet, being the first to hack the PS3 when it came out, and to be sued because of it.

According to Bloomberg reporter [Ashlee Vance], [George] built this self driving vehicle in around a month — which, if true, is pretty damn incredible. It’s a 2016 Acura ILX with a lidar array on its roof, as well as a few cameras. The glove box has been ripped out to house the electronics, including a mini-PC, GPS sensors, and network switches. A large 21.5″ LCD screen sits in the dash, not unlike the standard Tesla affair.

Oh, and it runs Linux. Continue reading “Self-Driving Acura, Built In A Garage” →

Toilet Automatically Flushes For Your Bathroom Trained Kitty

December 16, 2015 by 20 Comments

So you’ve successfully taught your cats to use your toilet, just like little furry humans. Congratulations! But you can’t quite teach the cat to pull the flush lever? You might want to automate it for them instead! (Editor’s note, 2019.  Link seems to be dead. Try the Wayback Machine.)

[Joycelin & Dan] are in the final stages of teaching their cats to use the toilet. Unfortunately they had a snowboarding trip coming up, and were worried about the cats losing progress when they couldn’t flush the toilet for them. Rather than have a bit of a setback in their toilet training, they improvised — and automated the toilet.

There are commercial solutions available, but they cost several hundred dollars. You could strap a geared motor to the side of your toilet with a stick screwed to it like this guy did, but who wants to pay for the water bill of flushing your toilet every few minutes??

Continue reading “Toilet Automatically Flushes For Your Bathroom Trained Kitty” →