Robot readable world via jwz.

How do robots see the world? How do they gather meaning from our streets, cities, media and from us? This is an experiment in found machine-vision footage, exploring the aesthetics of the robot eye.

I Heart Robotics: Now available on DVD via Chris.

If you have been wondering where we have been, January has been product development month at I Heart Engineering. We are pleased to announce that ROS (Robot Operating System) is now available for pre-order on DVD. We are currently planning to start shipping on February 7th.

This DVD has a few great features that make it a convenient way to get started with ROS. It can be used as a LiveDVD so you can boot from it and try out things like rviz and Gazebowithout having to format your hard drive. Once you are ready, the DVD installer will take care of the basic configuration to help you get started quickly with Ubuntu 10.04 and ROS Electric Emys.

$10 of every purchase will be set aside to help fund the creation of a ROS Foundation. In the event that things don’t work out and a ROS Foundation can not be established in the next three years the funds will be donated to the EFF.

On our “playlist” – This and Star Trek Next Generation Blue Ray

Why Apple Should Start Making a 3D Printer Right Now – Ross Andersen – Technology – The Atlantic.

The latest technology that seems to be working its way along this trajectory is 3D printing. For those not in the MAKE crowd, 3D Printers are machines that produce three-dimensional objects from digital data by printing in thin layers of physical material, similar to the way an inkjet prints in two dimensions. A 3D printer outputs not words on paper, but a thing. After a couple decades of research, development, and industrial deployment, the technology appears to be on the threshold of developing a mass market. Still, it’s hard to imagine what to do with such a general purpose machine sitting in one’s house.

And that’s what makes Brendan Dawes such an interesting early adopter. For one, he’s kept meticulous records of his productions since he bought his MakerBot Thing-O-Matic from Makerbot Industries, a company that sells stripped down do-it-yourself 3D printers directly to consumers, in December 2010. Over the past year he has posted his “printings” on a tumblr called everythingimakewithmymakerbot. The site reads like a diary or sketchbook; an intimate account of a creative person interacting with a new technology.

Read more!

“Solenoid test” by dargs01, using our solenoids!

Small push-pull solenoid. Solenoids are basically electromagnets: they are made of a big coil of copper wire with an armature (a slug of metal) in the middle. When the coil is energized, the slug is pulled into the center of the coil. This makes the solenoid able to pull (from one end) or push (from the other)

This solenoid in particular is fairly small, with a 30mm long body and a ‘captive’ armature with a return spring. This means that when activated with up to 24VDC, the solenoid moves and then the voltage is removed it springs back to the original position, which is quite handy. Many lower cost solenoids are only push type or only pull type and may not have a captive armature (it’ll fall out!) or don’t have a return spring. This one even has nice mounting tabs, its a great all-purpose solenoid.

To drive a solenoid you will a power transistor and a diode, check this diagram for how to wire it to an Arduino or other microcontroller. You will need a fairly good power supply to drive a solenoid, as a lot of current will rush into the solenoid to charge up the electro-magnet, about 100mA, so don’t try to power it with a 9V battery!

In stock and shipping now.

Double Quadrotor @ equals zero.

I’ve been practicing with Tinycopter a little more, and it’s fairly stable and working now. In fact, I might even make a page for Flying Objects now that it’s working. That still doesn’t prevent me from randomly “re-zeroing” it on the ground, however, nor other unfortunate mishaps.

Oculus netbook robot by Xaxxon via Mike.

OCULUS is a motorized frame and software combo that instantly converts a small laptop into aTelerobotic, Remotely Operated Vehicle

Jim Henson 1963 short explains “Data Communications” via BB.

Jim Henson made this film in 1963 for The Bell System. Specifically, it was made for an elite seminar given for business owners, on the then-brand-new topic — Data Communications. The seminar itself involved a lot of films and multimedia presentations, and took place in Chicago. A lengthy description of the planning of the Bell Data Communications Seminar — sans a mention of the Henson involvement — is on the blog of Inpro co-founder Jack Byrne. It later was renamed the Bell Business Communications Seminar.

The organizers of the seminar, Inpro, actually set the tone for the film in a three-page memo from one of Inpro’s principals, Ted Mills to Henson. Mills outlined the nascent, but growing relationship between man and machine: a relationship not without tension and resentment: “He [the robot] is sure that All Men Basically Want to Play Golf, and not run businesses — if he can do it better.” (Mills also later designed the ride for the Bell System at the 1964 World’s Fair.) Henson’s execution is not only true to Mills’ vision, but he also puts his own unique, irreverent spin on the material.

The robot narrator used in this film had previously starred in a skit for a food fair in Germany (video is silent), in 1961. It also may be the same robot that appeared on the Mike Douglas Show in 1966. Henson created a different — but similar — robot for the SKF Industries pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair.

This film was found in the AT&T Archives. Thanks go to Karen Falk of the Henson Archives for providing help and supporting documentation to prove that it was, indeed, a Henson production..

Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ

Early on a Saturday morning (5:40 AM to be exact) a small group of dedicated volunteers, including me, arrived at a university’s field house. We moved quickly, setting up breakfast, making coffee, triple-checking our preparations, and taking a collective deep breath. We knew that in an hour, over 500 middle school students and their mentors would arrive, and that we’d be running on adrenaline for the next 12 hours. Such is the life of an inner-circle FIRST LEGO League event volunteer.

What a crowd! Above, teams compete while other teams are queued.

FIRST LEGO League is an international robotics competition for 9-14 year olds run by the organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen, of insulin pump and Segway fame. Teams of students build and program LEGO autonomous robots that compete on a standardized 4’ x 8’ table covered with LEGO field models. Since the theme of the competition this year was food safety, a typical mission would be for the robot to retrieve a truck filled with groceries, allowing the students to remove the groceries, load them onto their robot, and deliver them to a kitchen table. Teams have 2.5 minutes to rack up points completing as many tasks as possible, in any order. During the season, the teams also research a topic related to the year’s theme, and create a 5-minute presentation to discuss their results. Teams in the USA bring their robots and presentations to state and regional competitions in an effort to advance, either to the international World Festival held in St. Louis, or one of the FLL Open tournaments.

Teams who win awards also receive these LEGO trophies.

At our state tournament, judging started at around 7:30.  Things were pretty quiet while the teams were in judging, but then at 11:30, everything ramped back up again. The 54 teams paraded into the main competition room, an indoor gym, complete with bleachers. Meanwhile, our group of referees huddled, going over last minute rule clarifications and making sure that any first-time referees were matched with veterans. We all wore the classic referee zebra shirts and carried pencils, clipboards, and scoring sheets. Some of us also wore silly hats to humanize us for the kids; I dislike goofy hats, so donned a top hat. At noon, the main spectator event began, a mass of music, excited shrieking students, and robots. At a given instant four teams would be on the clock, the kids jumping out of their seats as the robot worked, or sitting in crushed defeat when it didn’t. Meanwhile, at the other two tables, the referees scored the field with the teams, filling out checkboxes on a score sheet, getting them verified by the team, sending them to the scorekeepers, getting the current team out, resetting the field, and bringing the new team in. All in about 4 minutes. When my table was active, I had to keep a kindly but vigilant eye on the teams and their robots and enforce the robot game’s rules. These rules included: penalizing teams for touching the robot if it was anywhere but home base; noting field damage caused by errant robots; and correcting field damage caused by overexcited children; among many others.

Two members of a team preparing their robot.

Another team's robot in motion. Here, the green germ dispenser (that the robot is driving towards) has been actuated.

Me filling out a scoresheet with a team.

This whole cycle repeated until each of the teams had been run through 3 times, which took around 4 hours. By this point, I’d been on my feet on concrete for about 10 hours. We broke down all of the tables, packed them away, and sat in the bleachers to watch the final awards ceremony. Then, as teams filed out of the building, we finished cleaning up. Finally, at 6:00, we shuffled out of the building, exhausted but happy that we’d pulled off another tournament.

Kipp Bradford talks about his childhood LEGO projects at closing ceremonies.

Projectile Motion Primer for FIRST Robotics

It is that FIRST Robotics competition time of the year. Basically, in FIRST, high school students work in teams to build robots that compete in specific tasks. Apparently, this year a task involves throwing a basketball into a goal. And this leads to the popular question: how do I tell my robot to throw the ball? Oh? Projectile motion you say? Well, not so fast. Let us check some things first (or FIRST).

Good luck to all the teams this season!

Robotic dragon!.

To appeal to young children, the robot prototype in this new project resembles a cute, stuffed animal-like dragon. Its movement appears very life-like and can be remotely controlled through an Internet interface.

“Certain non-verbal cues like mimicking behavior to improve rapport and social bonding, or changes in gaze direction to guide shared attention, are central,” DeSteno said. “When kids learn from human teachers, these cues enhance the learning. We’re designing our new dragon robots to be able to have these capabilities.”

Researchers will situate the child and the robot at a table in a preschool setting to interact with each other and observe the exchange of social and emotional cues that show approval and engagement, such as nodding and eye gaze, while an operator controls the robot from a computer.

FIRST Robotics Competition kicks off. Cruz writes -

The FIRST Robotics Competition just kicked off, with a new challenge this year, and a new twist: Teams will have the chance to control their robots using Microsoft’s Kinect sensor!

No Excuses: Robots Put You In Two Places At Once @ NPR.

Mike Fennelly isn’t easily surprised by cutting-edge technologies, but when he started as an IT guy at a Silicon Valley startup called Evernote, he was caught off guard by a robot rolling around the office.

“It was slightly disturbing for not really knowing what the robot was for at the beginning, and then going, ‘Oh, OK. That’s Phil,’ ” he says.

CEO Phil Libin is also known as the company’s “robotic overlord.” Libin himself isn’t actually a robot, but when he’s out of town, his robot keeps an eye on things.

Technology that allows people to be present even while far away is becoming more affordable than ever. Companies working on “telepresence robots” are building off the idea that busy schedules and the hassle of travel require such products.

da Vinci Etching the Adafruit Logo @ Patrick McCabe Makes. This was on the weekly ask an engineer show-and-tell!

TUM Rosie and PR2 James add popcorn and sandwiches to their accomplishments | Willow Garage.

As a bonus, PR2 fixes you popcorn while you wait. This is the latest in food-related acheivements from TUM’s Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group, which is part of the PR2 Beta Program. Over the past couple years, they’ve programmed their robots to learn to make food, including pancakes and Bavarian breakfast.  Instead of programming these tasks directly, their research enables robots to learn how to perform these tasks from instructions on the Internet and other resources.

Dennis Hong: My seven species of robot @ TED.com.

At TEDxNASA, Dennis Hong introduces seven award-winnning, all-terrain robots — like the humanoid, soccer-playing DARwIn and the cliff-gripping CLIMBeR — all built by his team at RoMeLa, Virginia Tech. Watch to the end to hear the five creative secrets to his lab’s incredible technical success.

VEXMAS is a VEX(tm) shield for the Arduino prototyping platform. Adam writes -

In order to make VEX robotics more affordable/interesting for the classroom environment, my friend/co-worker and I have created an Arduino shield that creates an interface to all of the VEX components, including RF and also adds an H-Bridge for DC motors. Chuck delaCuesta and myself are both Technology Education teachers and are always working to improving the classroom learning environment through new technology. We have created a Google Code page to make our source and designs publicly available.

Sphere morphing hexabot via HaD…

A hexapod robot that can transform into a sphere shape and back. Still under construction… Featuring 25 servos. 12x 5990, 13x 5645 Hitec servos, Basicmicro ARC-32 board, XBee, 2S 5000mAh LiPo, Turnigy 8amp regulator.

Measuring Angst – Robotic installation via colossal…

Birth and death are only a rewind button away. This is a world where meaning is found in a videotape. That videotape can be both rewound and fast forwarded, endlessly replaying the best events again and again. Will the physical world eventually be subject to the same rules?

This sculpture is made possible via a system of armatures similar to those one might find within the prehistoric animal exhibits in a natural history museum. They will differ in that they will be mechanically driven and allow for varying positions of the broken marble pieces. A system of electronic drives, stepper motors, ballscrews, linear shafts and computer software similar to what one might find in a high-tech assembly plant provides the movement.  

Robotic Open Platform via Erin…

Robotic Open Platform (ROP) aims to make hardware designs of robots available under an Open Hardware license  to the entire robotic community. It provides CAD drawings, electric schemes and the required documentation to build their own robot. In the near future, standard electromechanic interfaces between the various robot components will be presented to enable the possibility to combine hardware components of various groups into one robot. By making the robots modular, users are encouraged to develop their own components that can be shared with the community.

In software, the Robot Operating System (ROS) is nowadays acknowledged as a standard software platform and is used by numerous (research) institutions. This open source software is available to everyone and by sharing knowledge with the community there is no need to ‘reinvent the wheel’, hence drastically speeding up development. Similarly, Robotic Open Platform (ROP) functions as a platform to share hardware designs available to all research groups within the community.

Our buddy RobotGrrl has had her RoboBrrd project featured on IEEE Spectrum’s Automaton Blog. Way to go, RobotGrrl!

We’re big fans of RobotGrrl around here, and one of her current projects is these totally cool, totally DIY-able interactive robotic birds called RoboBrrds. If you’ve always wanted to throw yourself bodily into the world of Arduino-powered DIY robotics, this is a great way to go.

If you like what you see, you can build your very own RoboBrrd thanks to this exhaustively awesome Instructable here, and you can also find details over on Make: Projects. It’ll take maybe a week’s worth of on-and-off work, you’ll likely need to order some electronics (and possibly some extra popsicles), and if you don’t know how to solder, well, here’s a great excuse to learn! YEAH!

Once you get your very own RoboBrrd up and running (or even if you don’t), you can share it with the world (or at least with fellow robotics geeks) every Thursday night  at 8pm EST through a Google+ video hangout. AND, you should remember that RobotGrrl is doing all of this out of the goodness of her (robotic?) heart, and there’s a handy little donate button on her website should you wish to help inspire future generations of roboticists.

Fraley’s Robot Repair!

Fraley’s Robot Repair is a public art installation disguised as a fictional business. The artist behind this installation is Toby Atticus Fraley, a multidisciplinary artist based in the Pittsburgh area.

The maker tells us the project uses an Adafruit Wave Shield too!

The artist also sent us this note:

You posted my Robot Repair shop!!! I really appreciate it. It’s awesome seeing something I made on a blog I love and check daily. Also I didn’t mention this earlier but I’m completely self taught in the electronics field through sites such as yours in particular. The great tutorials and product descriptions have really helped in the realization of new works. Please keep it up!

Soft Robot Walking and Crawling via jwz…

Harvard researchers have created a soft robot inspired by animals like starfish and worms

Robotville Festival at the Science Museum welcomes over 20 robots from Europe and the UK, celebrating European robotics culture and advances in robotics design and technology. Robotville is a free event, open for four days from Thursday 1st December – Sunday 4th December. Read interviews with the roboticists on our blog: http://ow.ly/7K8OM

Giant Mars rover set for Saturday launch.

NASA’s biggest and most advanced Mars rover is scheduled for launch Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Curiosity is packed with 10 science experiments to determine whether Mars has ever been suitable for life and to find clues about past life forms that may have been preserved in rocks. NASA says Curiosity won’t answer the age-old questions about life on Mars, but it will provide important information that will guide future missions.

The launch was originally scheduled for Friday, but the mission team will take an extra day to remove and replace a flight termination system battery, NASA said.

Curiosity is expected to spend about two years roaming Mars, hunting things researchers say are essential for life to grow: liquid water, key chemicals used by living organisms and an energy source.

The rover will blast off Saturday atop an Atlas V rocket and is scheduled to land in August 2012 in the Gale Crater. The first opportunity for launch is 10:02 a.m. EST; the window lasts an hour and 43 minutes.

If the launch is postponed, NASA has until December 18 to get the spacecraft off the ground.

My Robot Nation.

Fun and easy online creation.
Your unique robot is
3D printed in full color and
delivered to your door.

These little bots are FAST! All Japan Micromouse 2011 – finals @ Micromouseonline.

Travis writes -

I’m really excited about inflatable robots… they have the potential to be low-cost, lightweight, extremely powerful, and yet “human safe” — ie. perfect for many robotics applications.  With that in mind, I would like to introduce you to two new (breakout) inflatable robots: a 15-foot-long walking robot (a Pneubot named Ant-Roach) and a complete, inflatable robot arm (plus hand).  Both of these robots were developed by Otherlab as part of their “pneubotics” project (in collaboration with Meka Robotics and Manu Prakash at Stanford University), with some funding from DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program.    These robots use textile-based, inflatable actuators that contract upon inflation into specially-designed shapes to effect motion.   Since these robots are built out of lightweight fabric-and-air structural members and powered via pneumatics or hydraulics, they exhibit large strength-to-weight ratios.  For example, Ant-Roach is less than 70 lbs and can probably support up to 1000 lbs; the inflatable robot arm is less than 2 lbs and can lift a few hundred pounds at 50-60 psi.  Be sure to read on for details and lots of videos!

Read more.

Yaskawa Electric’s next-generation robot operated using Kinect.

Robotic bear pillow Jukusui-Kun aims to stop snoring and tackle Sleep Apnea Syndrome.

Titanoboa meets the Mondo Spider via jwz.

Titanoboa electro mechanical snake and Mondo Spider walking machine. Titanoboa is a reincarnation of the ancient 50ft long serpent rendered extinct by past climate change. It was built at eatART in East Vancouver.

Yay! RobotGrrl has written up an awesome instructable detailing the process of making your very own RoboBrrd robot! She writes:

RoboBrrd is an robot / animatronic character whose purpose morphs to mirror that of the virtual world. It is designed to be used as a tangible real world interface to virtual world learning applications. As a standalone robot, RoboBrrd is an entertaining platform that can be used to learn about robotics, Arduino, circuits, and programming.

This Instructable will guide you through creating a RoboBrrd- all the way from the circuits to programming to the felt decorations. We will also include reasoning behind our design choices to further enlighten the Instructable.

This is a great robot project for kids and parents to build together — it’s low-cost and doesn’t require any special tools. Having seen it in person, I can also attest to how charming it is.

You can also check out this mini-interview I did with RobotGrrl at the Open Hardware Summit, in which she talks about Learning Pet, a smaller version of RoboBrrd:

Awesome work, RobotGrrl!

Partial parts list:

Standard Servos, Micro Servos, Arduino Uno, Proto Screwshield, Photocells, Hookup Wire

Cat Mask Synchronized With Facial Muscle Movements Via Non-contact Interface…

A non-contact interface that can measure facial muscle movement has been developed by a research group at Toyko University. To demonstrate this technology they developed a prototype cat mask and synchronized the eye and mouth movements with that of the wearer.

This is where it’s all heading…

Dustyn Roberts, Making things move…

Dustyn Roberts is a traditionally trained engineer with non-traditional ideas of how practical engineering can be taught. She started her career at Honeybee Robotics as an engineer on the Sample Manipulation System project for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, scheduled for launch in 2011. In 2006 she founded Dustyn Robots after consulting for two artists during their residency at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center in NYC. She continued consulting projects for students and artists while working full time at Honeybee, and eventually moved to consulting full time on projects ranging from gait analysis to designing guided parachute systems. In 2007, she developed a course for NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program called Mechanisms and Things That Move that led to the book you are now holding in your hands. She also participated in the pilot of Battle of the Geeks where her team designed and launched a rocket across a canyon in Africa, and has attracted media attention by Time Out New York, IEEE Spectrum, and local organizations.

Dustyn holds a BS in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University with minors in Robotics and Business and an MS in Biomechanics & Movement Science from the University of Delaware. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her wife, Lorena, and cat, Simba.

That’s right Dustyn will be here at the Adafruit factory for SHOW-AND-TELL and ASK AN ENGINEER. Saturday, November 12th, 2011 – starting at 9:30pm!

Making Things Move reveals practical mechanical design principles to readers who may have no background in engineering and shows how to apply those principles through a wide range of sample projects, from art installations to toys to labor-saving devices.

This book is for anyone who has ever wanted to make something that moves but didn’t know where to start. Maybe you’re a sculptor who wants your artwork to spin around on a pedestal, or a musician who wants to make custom musical instruments that come alive. Whatever the case may be, this book will show you how to turn your ideas into reality.

Makers no longer need to have a machine shop in their garage or an arsenal of spare parts lying around. You can make 3D models using free software, then actually get them printed in 3D at any number of online shops. Heck, you can even make your own 3D printer! Or cut just about any 2D shape you want out of a variety of materials at Ponoko. Combine these with off the shelf parts and simple hand tools and the possibilities are endless.

A unique guide to practical mechanical design principles and their applicationsIn Making Things Move, you’ll learn how to build moving mechanisms through non-technical explanations, examples, and do-it-yourself projects–from art installations to toys to labor-saving devices. The projects include a drawing machine, a mini wind turbine, a mousetrap powered car, and more, but the applications of the examples are limited only by your imagination. A breadth of topics is covered ranging from how to attach couplers and shafts to a motor, to converting between rotary and linear motion.

Each chapter features photographs, drawings, and screenshots of the components and systems involved. Emphasis is placed on using off-the-shelf components whenever possible, and most projects also use readily available metals, plastics, wood, and cardboard, as well as accessible fabrication techniques such as laser cutting. Small projects in each chapter are designed to engage you in applying the material in the chapter at hand. Later in the book, more involved projects incorporate material from several chapters.

• Focuses on practical applications and results, not abstract engineering theories
• Contains more than a dozen topic-focused projects and three large-scale projects incorporating lessons from the whole book
• Features shopping lists and guides to off-the-shelf components for the projects
• Incorporates discussions of new fabrication techniques such as laser cutting and 3D printing, and how you can gain access
• Includes online component for continuing education with the book’s companion website and blog (makingthingsmove.com)

Olly – the web connected smell robot via waxy – look close, there’s an Arduino in there. Read more about the project here.

http://www.jp.nsk.com/company/presslounge/news/2011/press11102702.html

Honda unveiled an all-new ASIMO humanoid robot newly equipped with autonomous behavior control technology. The all-new ASIMO can now continue moving without being controlled by an operator. With significantly improved intelligence and the physical ability to adapt to situations, ASIMO took another step closer to practical use in an office or a public space where many people come and go.

The combination of strengthened legs, an expanded range of leg movement and a newly developed control technology that enables ASIMO to change landing positions in the middle of a motion has enabled ASIMO to walk, run, run backward, hop on one leg or on two legs continuously.

Cool!

I hear they’re working on an Arduino-powered version next — they’re going to call it ASIMO Banzi (not really)

Building a Kinect Based Robot for under $500… via HaD. Eric writes -

In honor pf the one year anniversary of the Microsoft Kinect (http://buildsmartrobots.ning.com/profiles/blogs/one-year-anniversar…) I decided to write an article on how to build a Kinect based robot.  This is actually the second iteration of Kinectbot (I am not a very creative robot namer), the first attempt was taller but not very stable.  

He also has this great write up!

One Year Anniversary For the Kinect, Over 10 Million Units Shipped, A Game Changer in the World of Entertainment @ buildsmartrobots.

The Microsoft Kinect was released in the US on November 4, 2010.  It was hacked on November 10, 2010.  

Arduino playground – RoboSapienIR.

Many of the WowWee robots are ideal for hacking. The RoboSapien Version 1.0 is very complex inside and simple at the same time. Doing a simple motor and switch count though yeilds 9 Motors and 8 Switches. Assuming you want both forward and reverse on each motor you would need on the order or 26 digital/analog IO pins.

So a “Wedge” implementation seemed the best choice. The concept of the software “Wedge” has been around for a while. Basically it is a program that does nothing most of the time but then can be activated on a special sequence. Wedges have other names like hooks (as in Kernel Hooks), Terminate and Stay Resident, or call back. This approach allows me to still use the RoboSapien as normal but also take complete control…

And here’s a couple video of other hacks…

These bots are super cheap now and fun to hack.

Honda Unveils All-new ASIMO

Honda Unveils All-new ASIMO with Significant Advancements
“Honda Robotics” established as new collective name to represent Honda robotics research and all product applications

NEW PRODUCT – OWI Robotic Arm Edge – Robot arm [OWI-535]. Riding the wings of the award winning Robotic Arm Trainer, OWI has made robotic arm technology more affordable without compromising quality. With Robotic Arm Edge, command the gripper to open and close, wrist motion of 120 degrees, an extensive elbow range of 300 degrees, base rotation of 270 degrees, base motion of 180 degrees, vertical reach of 15 inches, horizontal reach of 12.6 inches, and lifting capacity of 100g. This is a pretty complicated arm to build, but we’re happy with the quality and the arm. Many hackers and makers have used it with our Adafruit Motorshield. CHOKING HAZARD — Small parts. Not for children. We only suggest this product for adults and/or kids with adult supervision.

Some of the added features include a search light design on the gripper and a safety gear audible indicator is included on all five gear boxes to prevent any potential injury or gear breakage during operation. How does this equate to fun? Total command and visual manipulation using the 5s: five switch wired controller, five motors, and five joints. Night time play is possible and extended life on the gearbox to prolong your control and predictions of the robot’s behavior. 4xD Batteries Required (not included).

• Command the Robotic Arm Edge with for multiple movements and functions
• Robotic arm gripper opens and closes
• Movement includes radial wrist motion of 120°, an extensive elbow range of motion of 300°, base rotation of 270°, base motion of 180°
• No Soldering Required

Hall of Fame Inventor George Devol Endorses the Robotic Arm Edge.

We do not stock the USB interface at this time or the CD with curriculum, both of these are available on the manufacturers website.

How to use the robot arm with an Adafruit Motorshield by Chris Anderson.

In stock and shipping now!

JHB GTUG / House4Hack winning entry for the JHB Google+ Hackathon Nov 2011 – controlling a camera and laser from a Google+ hangout. Some description at http://www.house4hack.co.za/?p=475

Interactive Robotic Painting Machine by benjamin grosser.

Our everyday interactions are increasingly mediated by technology, be they mobile phones, chat systems, or social networking sites. These systems are designed to anticipate and support our needs and desires while facilitating those interactions. As these systems grow in complexity, or intelligence, how does that intelligence change what passes through them? Further, how does that intelligence evolve to make its own work for its own needs?

PETMAN and BIGDOG – “Stayin’ Alive”. Technically this is the 3rd rule…

Interview with the CEO of iRobot, Collin Angle – one of the best insights to what the Kinect means for robotics…

There are three tech trends that are impacting the industry positively and certainly Moore’s Law is one of them. What Moore’s Law means to the robot industry is that things like machine vision become more affordable for robots. So robots will have a better ability to understand their environments and take on more complex tasks and higher-value missions.

The second is the video gaming industry. The Xbox game sensor made by PrimeSense is an incredibly disruptive sensor because now for a very low cost–under $100–your robot can have a gestural interface. The multibillion-dollar game industry is investing in gestural interfaces at a scale of investment inaccessible to the robot industry at this point.

The last and certainly the biggest trend is the mobile computing revolution where the mobile industry is now solving problems that the robot industry thought it had to solve. So voice and video over IP, machine vision, object recognition, human-independent voice recognition, very sophisticated man-machine interfaces.

HRP-4C Miim’s Human-like Walking via robots.net

AIST has succeeded in making HRP-4C Miim walk like a human being. Her knees are stretched by up/down motion of the waist, the single-toe supporting realizes longer strides, and she mimics the swing motion of human legs.

Technical detail is presented in “Human-Like Walking with Toe Supporting for Humanoids,” by Kanako Miura, Mitsuharu Morisawa, Fumio Kanehiro, Shuuji Kajita, Kenji Kaneko, and Kazuhito Yokoi, Proc. 2011 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

BACK IN STOCK – Stepper motor – 200 steps/rev, 12V 350mA! A stepper motor to satisfy all your robotics needs! This 4-wire bipolar stepper has 1.8° per step for smooth motion and a nice holding torque. The motor was specified to have a max current of 350mA so that it could be driven easily with an Adafruit motor shield for Arduino (or other motor driver) and a wall adapter or lead-acid battery.

Some nice details include a ready-to-go cable and a machined drive shaft (so you can easily attach stuff). We drove it with an Adafruit motor shield for Arduino and it hummed along nicely at 250 RPM.

• 200 steps per revolution, 1.8 degrees
• Bipolar stepper, requires an H-bridge!
• 4-wire, 12 inch leads
• 42mm/1.65″ square body
• 31mm/1.22″ square mounting holes, 3mm metric screws (M3)
• 5mm diameter drive shaft, 24mm long, with a machined flat
• 12V rated voltage (you can drive it at a lower voltage, but the torque will drop) at 350mA max current
• 28 oz*in, 20 N*cm, 2 Kg*cm holding torque per phase
• 35 ohms per winding

Datasheet

The Stepper motor – 200 steps/rev, 12V 350mA is in stock and shipping now!

UAV Forge via Beyond the Beyond…

The UAVForge Challenge combines a web-based collaboration site with a live competitive fly-off event to enable citizen scientists, creative minds and innovators everywhere to produce advanced small unmanned air vehicle (UAV) systems. UAVForge is a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Atlantic (SSC Atlantic) initiative to leverage the exchange of ideas among an international community united through common interests inspired by creative thought.