Morphing Hexapod Has Us Drooling

August 18, 2011 by Mike Nathan 49 Comments

morphex_morphing_hexabot

Hexapod robots seem to be a dime a dozen lately, but we think you will be hard pressed to not be wowed by [Zenta’s] latest creation. He’s built a bunch of hex and octopods before, but hasn’t tried building anything quite like this.

His MorpHex bot might look like your standard hexapod, but once it gets moving, you can see that it’s quite unique. Utilizing over 25 servos driven by a single ARC-32 controller, MorpHex moves in smooth, fluid-like motions, making it almost seem like it’s alive. The inner portion of the body can fan out, extending the overall length of the bot, though it’s more meant to allow the bot to morph into a ball and back, rather than increase its size.

In the teaser video below, you can see MorpHex in action, with its parts flowing together more like a jellyfish than any sort of land animal. While [Zenta] is continuing to work on MorpHex’s sphere-morphing capabilities, we think it would make for an awesome and creepy spiderbot!

[Thanks, weaz]

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R/C Hexababy Is Guaranteed To Give You Nightmares

July 30, 2011 by Mike Nathan 18 Comments

hexapod_baby

For this week’s hack, [Dino] was working on a mechanical cat toy, but the project fell apart towards the end for some reason or another. With time running out, he had to come up with something on pretty short notice, using whatever he happened to have on hand. Luckily he picks up some seriously weird stuff at the local thrift store and had a disembodied doll’s head kicking around for this last minute project.

Taking a cue from Toy Story’s [Sid Phillips], [Dino’s] doll’s head hexapod is as creepy as it is simple. He had a remote controlled hexapod from RadioShack sitting around, and thought it would be fun to combine it with the doll’s head. He replaced the dolls eyes with a handful of LEDs, which are green as the hexapod retreats, but glow a bright red as it advances towards you. The only way it could be any creepier is if [Dino] added a voice box that plaintively called for “mommy” as the doll crawls around!

It’s a relatively goofy project, but it gave us a good chuckle. The most disturbing highlight of the build is when [Dino] removes the doll’s eyes using a wood drill bit around the 6:00 mark.

If you’re looking to kill a few minutes, be sure to check it out – [Dino’s] work is entertaining as always.

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3D Printed Singularity Drive Platform

July 28, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 31 Comments

[Silas] is a student at Olin College and came up with a platform using the singularity drive system in his spare time.

We covered a LEGO build of a singularity drive earlier this month. Instead of wheels, treads or legs, this drive system has a hemisphere spinning along its vertical axis. Interestingly, the robot does not change the speed or direction of its drive motor at all. IEEE is now calling this drive system a “singularity drive,” because math.

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Modded Wall-E Becomes A Real Robot

July 22, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 20 Comments

[DJ Sures] got his hands on a plastic Wall-E toy and decided to build a robot that includes a camera, voice recognition, and object tracking. The result is adorable so we’re putting this video before the break:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJiMUzJHYFk&w=470]

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DIY Robot Remote Control

July 18, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 5 Comments

[Patrick] wanted a remote control to control some of the robots he’s built. He also wanted to get some data back from his robots, so an inexpensive off-the-shelf solution wouldn’t be up to the task. Like all good geeks, [Patrick] decided to build what he needed.

For analog control, [Patrick] decided to use a Wiimote nunchuck. This turned out to be a very good choice – the nunchuck has a 2-axis joystick and 3-axis accelerometer in one small, easy to interface package . The wireless radio is taken care of with an XBee module. For the microcontroller, custom “lcd backpack” was created that provides an I2C port for the nunchuck, inputs for the buttons and the single pot, and 2 serial ports for the FTDI and XBee.

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Skateboard Tagging

July 16, 2011 by Mike Szczys 19 Comments

We abhor vandalism, but we love art. Here’s a skateboard hack that lets skate punks young and old tag their turf while they ride. [D*Face], a multimedia street artist who grew up in London, added a mounting system to the bottom of his skateboard which includes a can of spray paint. We’re a bit surprised that there’s room enough for that, but the system fits nicely. They’re not locked into a constant stream because the system lets the rider (or a bystander) actuate the spray can via remote control.

But the brush is only one part of the painter’s tool chain. To get the most interesting effect, a pool was painted white to serve as canvas and a troupe of skaters was unleashed on it to try out the modified boards. Check out the video after the break to see the colorful and pleasing curves that result. We just hope nobody bailed and smeared the canvas at the same time.

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Use Bluetooth To Open Your Garage And Start Your Car Remotely

July 7, 2011 by Mike Nathan 19 Comments

bluetooth_remote_garage_opener_and_car_starter

Instructables user [tcollinsworth] is a big fan of his Android smart phone. He practically carries it with him everywhere, so he figured it would be cool to integrate as many of his home electronics with the phone as possible. His garage door openers seemed like easy enough targets, and while he was in the garage, he decided to hack his car’s remote starter as well.

He put together a small circuit that allows him to trigger any device via an application called Daisy On/Off, made specifically for the Bluetooth board he selected. One set of pins were wired to the garage door opener’s terminals, and the other to his remote start key fob. Once he had everything connected up, he packaged his components in a project box courtesy of his MakerBot. With that finished, he put together a simple interface in the Daisy application which can start his car or open the garage with a single button press.

It should be mentioned that [tcollinsworth] works for Daisy, so the reasoning behind his choice of components and Android applications is an obvious one. That said, schematics for the Daisy Bluetooth board are available online and the device can be controlled using BlueTerm, so you can feel free to roll your own implementation if you wish.

Our only nagging thought is that the system should probably include a feedback circuit that relays messages to the phone, indicating that the door is indeed open and that the car has been started. Pocket dialing your car to start without opening the garage first would definitely be a bad thing.

Check out the video below to see the system in action.

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