Crank-arm Style Hexapod

February 28, 2011 by Kevin Dady 1 Comment

The latest robot out of Nolebotic is Al.I.S.E, or Aluminum, Infrared Scanning Entity. Don’t let the name fool you, its a pretty simple take on the classic hexapod walking platform using a crank arm and leavers made into the legs.

The body of the robot is made out of aluminum which is pretty easy to work with at home, lightweight, and sturdy. Bolted to the body are a pair of beefy gear head motors, a 9.6 volt rechargeable battery pack, along with a basic stamp 2 and its own 9 volt supply, and a Solarbotics 1198 CMD driver board.

Obstacles are handled right now with rudimentary infrared detectors and emitters, but it seems to work pretty good avoiding some library books in the demo. Combine that with clean mechanics and a pretty good stride and this thing can get up and move pretty quick.

Analog Robotic Concepts

February 26, 2011 by Mike Szczys 20 Comments

Everyone’s getting on board with the 555 timer projects. But [Tom] didn’t just come up with one project, he shared a slew of ideas related to analog robotics. They’re center around servo motor control. You can see in the video after the break he has a pleasing way of sharing a lot of details while also making an easy to view demonstration video. He’ll put up a schematic for about one second and then move on, saving those that don’t care about the details by not droning on.

The first schematic that flashes by is the main circuit for controlling the servo motor. The rest of the concepts build from this circuit, using light, sound, flex, and other sensors as inputs. For instance, the setup above is using a light sensor. When the ball blocks the light the servo moves that vertical rod hitting it out of the way. When it swings back the process repeats. It’s striking how lifelike the reactions are, reminding us of insect movements. But this is really just the tip of the iceberg as he’s got a lot of future video ideas that we can’t wait to see.

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DIY Animatronic Penguin Shakes And Grooves

February 25, 2011 by Mike Nathan 9 Comments

animatronic_penguin

Instructables user [djsfantasi] wanted to build an animated holiday display using puppets as a means of raising money for a local arts program. After doing a bit of reading and research however, he decided that building animatronic characters for the display was not that far fetched an idea.

His first inclination was to build a penguin, allowing him to focus mostly on torso motion rather than having to articulate arms and legs as well. His goal was to enable his penguin to “dance” by shimmying and shaking as well as flapping his wings. Using plywood, four servos, along with some miscellaneous connecting rods and cables, he went to work.

The penguin is operated using a SSC-32 servo controller that features an ATmega168 MCU at its core. This allows him to control all of the servos independently, and also in concert, allowing for combined movements. The penguin’s mouth also functions, using a circuit that synchronizes its movements to an audio file.

While the robot is currently tethered to his computer via a serial cable, [djsfantasi] mentions that he is currently working on an iPhone app that will be able to control the robot wirelessly. All he needs to do now is build an animatronic Tom Servo then toss a Crow skin over this one, and he’ll be all set!

Keep reading to get a look at the penguin moving and grooving in the video below.

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Der Wafflemeister 3000

February 24, 2011 by Mike Nathan 19 Comments

der_wafflemeister3000

When people think about robots, a few different things come to mind. We like robots because they take care of tedious work. Robots are great for accomplishing tasks in hazardous environments too. When the [Chalmers Robotics Society] thinks about robots however, they think, “Breakfast!”

The CRS constructed a sweet automatic waffle cooking machine known as the Wafflemeister3000. It can produce up to 5 waffles at a time, cooking them to a nice golden brown in a little over 3 minutes. Think about that for a second – that’s about 90 waffles an hour!

This project isn’t exactly new, with the second iteration having been completed in 2007. However, since the third version features a 400% increase in production volume, we thought it was worth a mention.

Be sure to check out the video below of the Wafflemeister3000 doing its thing.

[via Neatorama]

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Vanishing Point Robot Guidance

February 24, 2011 by Mike Szczys 15 Comments

Students at the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences in Pakistan have been working on a robot to assist the visually impaired. It looks pretty simple, just a mobile base that carries a laptop and a webcam. The bot doesn’t have a map of its environment, but instead uses vanishing point guidance. As you can see in the image above, each captured frame is analyzed for indicators of perspective, which can be extrapolated all the way to the vanishing point where the green lines above intersect. Here it’s using stripes on the floor, as well as the corners where the walls meet the ceiling to establish these lines. From the video after the break you can see that this method works, and perhaps with a little bit of averaging they could get the bot to drive straight with less zig-zagging.

Similar work on vanishing point navigation is being done at the University of Minnesota. [Pratap R. Tokekar’s] robot can also be seen after the break, zipping along the corridor and even making turns when it runs out of hallway.

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Magnetic SMD Pick And Place

February 24, 2011 by Mike Nathan 13 Comments

magnetic_pick_and_place

[svofski] sent us this pick and place robot (Google translation) that he found , and it’s quite unique. The majority of the components that make up this pick and place have been recycled from old computer equipment. The X-axis motion is accomplished using old printer parts, while an old CD-ROM drive was gutted to provide motion along the Y-axis. Floppy drive components were ultimately chosen to give the pick and place Z-axis motility.

What makes this pick and place unique however is the way in which components are moved. Most pick and place devices we have seen rely on suction in order to lift and carry components, but this one uses a magnet instead. The machine is used to build small circuit boards for a robotics platform offered on the builder’s web site, which primarily utilizes SMD parts. Once they realized that the majority of their small components were ferromagnetic, they built a hand-wound electromagnet to lift them. While the design limits the usage of the device to strictly ferromagnetic parts, they have a very specific need, which this fills perfectly.

Another unique aspect of this pick and place is the grooved table that sits under the workpiece. It is used to route up to four reels of SMD components, with the placement head providing all of the reel motion instead of relying on separate motors.

If you have a few minutes, be sure to check out the video of the pick and place at work.

DARPA’s Hummingbird Spybot

February 22, 2011 by Mike Szczys 21 Comments

Nope, this isn’t some extravagant fishing lure, it’s the US Government’s newest way to spy on its ~~people~~ enemies. The hummingbird bot has no problems flying like an actual hummingbird while recording video. It was developed by a company called Aerovironment as part of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract. Of course details are scarce, but you can see the device flying around while broadcasting its video feed after the break. Sure, it’s making much more noise than you would expect from an actual hummingbird, but this is just the version that they’re shown off publicly, right?

It has certainly come a long way since the company was awarded the contract few years back. We assume that the hummingbird is the realization of research efforts pumped into their ornithopter project. Those proofs of concept from 2009 on what was called Project Mercury showed off a winged flyer in a controlled environment. To see this year’s model flying out in the open is pretty neat.

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