Bluetooth Tomy Omnibot Hack

February 19, 2011 by Mike Nathan 10 Comments

tomy_omnibot_hack

[DJ Sures] sent us his most recent hack, and it’s one that is sure to please those who enjoy a good dose of 80’s nostalgia. He located a Tomy Omnibot on eBay and snatched it up immediately. While he was waiting for it to arrive, he planned out what he would add to it once it showed up at his door. Once the robot was delivered, he cleaned it up, painted it, then got down to business.

The original robot had no ability to move its arms or head, so he immediately added servos to enable those actions. A wireless camera was inserted between the Omnibot’s eyes, and a wireless mic was mounted in his chest. He has also added some features found in his previous projects, such as voice recognition, visual recognition, voice synthesis, and the ability to remotely control the bot. He plans on adding an ultrasonic ping sensor and IR floor sensors in the near future. This is a great build so far, and it sounds like he has plenty more in store.

Be sure to stick around for a video of the robot in action, and if you are interested in some of [DJ Sures’] previous work, check these out as well.

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Voice-controlled Rolling Robot

February 16, 2011 by Mike Nathan 13 Comments

rolling_voice_controlled_robot

[societyofrobots] recently posted an Instructable on how to build a voice controlled robot in just a few hours time. This robot isn’t particularly cheap, weighing in at about $230, but it is a fun project if you have the means. The bot is driven around by a pair of servos, taking their directions from an Axon II MCU. A VRbot voice recognition module is used to listen for commands, enabling the user to record up to 32 custom triggers for directing the robot.

All of the source code for the robot is included, as well as instructions on how to get started programing the microcontroller. The code provides some basic functionality, but there’s likely plenty more that can be done with the powerful on-board ATmega460. While this robot would make for a great beginner/intermediate project as-is, it should be noted that [societyofrobots] manufactures and sells the Axon II, so this Instructable is half guide/half self-promotion. Have any of you had experience with the Axon II? Let us know what you think.

Keep reading to see a video of the build process as well as the robot doing its thing.

Thanks, [Bill Porter].

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The Wandering Arduinobot

February 16, 2011 by Mike Szczys 23 Comments

You almost have to love this Arduino based robot just because of the wheels and third leg support. Look closely, do you recognize them? Yep, they’re Capsela parts! That’s a blast from the past and we wonder why we don’t see the strange building toys of yore used in more hacks?

But we digress, this little ~~bugger~~ guy uses continuous rotation servos for locomotion. Perched atop the body is a third servo which scans an IR range finder back and forth to look out for obstacles in its path. The body itself is a Black and Decker rechargeable battery pack called Pocket Power which includes a USB port for a regulated 5V supply. One thing’s for sure, this little guy is fantastic at avoiding pizza and beer… you’ll just have to see for yourself after the break.

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Nimbus, The Wall-following Robot

February 15, 2011 by Mike Nathan 4 Comments

nimbus_wall_following_robot

[Johannes] sent in the latest iteration of an ongoing project – Nimbus, the wall-follwing robot. Originally operating on a cardboard frame, the robot has undergone several revisions as you can see by reading through his blog. Nimbus started out as a simple, Arduino-powered robot, but the project has progressed nicely over time. The last revision simply avoided walls, using a Sharp IR proximity sensor to detect, then avoid obstacles. The most recent model sports a nice polycarbonate frame as well as two additional IR proximity sensors, allowing Nimbus to navigate quite well, following walls and avoiding obstacles with ease. It does get caught up from time to time on carpets and wires, but overall Nimbus is a great little robot. [Johannes] even added a small RGB status LED for the bottom of the bot, communicating its navigation status to the operator at all times. This is done by flashing various colors when objects have been discovered or have moved out of sight – it’s a really novel addition.

Keep reading for a video of Nimbus navigating his way around, and don’t forget to check out the Nimbus photo stream.

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Inexpensive Robot Platform Combines Mass-produced Parts

February 15, 2011 by Mike Szczys 11 Comments

Meet Bilibot, a modular robot that aims to lower the cost of entry for robotic tinkerers. It combines the Kinect, the iRobot Create, and an Ubuntu box running ROS using some laser cut mounting brackets. These are relatively inexpensive components but the most exciting thing is that there’s already a slew of example out there that use this hardware. For instance, we looked in on ROS body tracking in January that can be directly plucked and used with this hardware. You’ll recognize the base as the iRobot create which was used in video chat robot from last week. The brains of the operation come in a choice of three Linux boxes – two headless and one laptop – which have ROS pre-installed. Watch the open-source autonomy as it tools around the office in the video after the break.

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NES Game Pad Guided Robotic Arm

February 13, 2011 by Mike Nathan 11 Comments

nes_robotic_arm

Instructables user [Bruno] sent in his most recent creation, a robotic arm controlled using an old NES game pad. He scavenged the majority of his parts from a pair of old HP printers, including motors pulleys, belts and more. In fact, most of the metal and plastic components that he used come from the old printer chassis as well. He has included copies of the templates he used when manufacturing both the plastic and metal components, which should come in handy should anyone try to replicate his work.

[Bruno] also included all of the source code for the robotic arm and mentions that the project required two PICs due to pinout requirements. He ultimately decided to use two cheaper models over a single more expensive unit that would have supplied all of the pins he needed. His cost conscious build is impressive and undoubtedly demonstrates just how many old components can be reused in new projects if you really put some thought into it. Great job with this build, keep up the good work!

Be sure to keep reading to see some video of the arm in action.

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The CIA’s Amazing Bots

February 10, 2011 by Caleb Kraft 56 Comments

When you have a virtually unlimited budget, you can pull off some amazing things. This has become most evident recently as the CIA has been showing off some of its old tech. That dragonfly you see above is near life-size and actually flies. They hired a watch maker to build a tiny internal combustion engine to run it. That alone is pretty amazing, but this thing was actually flying in the 70’s. Upon further inspection of the wings, we actually have no idea how this sucker is supposed to fly. Despite our skeptical viewpoint, you can see a tiny clip of it flying after the break. You can also catch a video of “charlie” the robot catfish.