Robots Hacks

2459 Articles

A123 LiIon Battery Pseudo Extra

September 5, 2007 by 18 Comments


Every so often I have to slap myself in the head. I’m surprised that we haven’t covered these things by now. DeWalt’s been selling a LiIon 36 volt battery pack that’s full of the latest A123 cells. These are the same ones that were used in the Killacycle. (I think they’ve got a new batch of cells now).

A while back, [Jeff] sent in a circuit for using multiple packs, leaving the internal BMS in place. [The link is fixed now]

[Robert] sent in a scooter that’s been designed to run these same cells. The custom fabrication and machine work looks fantastic.

IR Helicopter Tracking

August 15, 2007 by 5 Comments


[Lyle] sent in some of his work with mini-copters. This rig was built to test control methods with his mini-copter UAV. I’m hoping that some attention here will get him to document a bit of his home testing for us. (He’s working on some bigger systems professionally, so I’m not sure if he will.) The test rig uses an IR camera to measure pitch, yaw and three dimensional positioning 120 times a second.

Gotthard: Intelligent Furniture

August 10, 2007 by 8 Comments


[Gloria] sent in Gottard. (English translation). This little box is designed to act as a stool – that happens to follow people around, record their conversations and play them back to other visitors as a form of interaction. A set of rotating casters provide seating support, while a pair of gutted cordless drills move things around. An Aurdino handles the robotic functions., and an iBook handles recording and playback. Ultrasonic sensors guide the movement, and a set of LEDs roughly show how full the recording drive is.

CNC Solder Paste/pick N Place

June 4, 2007 by 15 Comments


Just when I thought I’d seen most of the CNC mods out there, [Steve Ciciora] (who happens to be one of the driving forces behind the killacycle) sent in his diy solder paste dispenser *and* his diy pick and place machine. Both are extensions of his CNC taig mill. Hopefully [steve] will put up some more details of his mill mods.

Line Following Wheel Chair

May 16, 2007 by 12 Comments


[Niklas Roy] sent in probably one of the largest line following robots ever built. The Gallerydrive project is used to move visitors around an art gallery. It can follow either a black or white line. It also has a touchscreen display for displaying information about the art which is read from RFID tags. Niklas has a full diary of the build on his site with everything you need to build your own.

Defcon Bot Challenge Prototype

May 1, 2007 by 19 Comments


[Colin] sent in his prototype for the Defcon bot contest. The performance of the bot in the video is impressive. Hit it after the break. His build looks clean and simple – he even managed to score some sponsorship in the form of pololu servo controllers. Targeting the moving white sensor reminds me of the old MacGuyver episode with the lethal heat seeking robots.

If you’re working on any attack bots, feel free to let us know via the tips line.

Update: I woke up to realize that I forgot to embed the video. It should work now.

Continue reading “Defcon Bot Challenge Prototype” →

SickSack: ATMega Servo Snake Robot

April 20, 2007 by 14 Comments

[Lars] sent in this sweet snake robot that he and [Aske] built for the DTU Robocup. I’ve seen snake bots before, but I like the concept and the clean electronic design. They used a single AtMega32 controller to generate PWM signals for each of the eight servos, and used a very interesting DC-DC buck converter that’s capable of delivering 16 amps.

For the curious, the bot won the best design and effects award at the competition.