tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74990098500661112322024-02-07T14:36:50.704-08:00ROBOTICS news Robotic cool toys and robot making tutorialsRobotics news and the coolest robotic gadgets reviewed
by a robot fan..NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-2573847407505943642008-04-13T05:03:00.001-07:002008-04-13T05:03:47.346-07:00Revolutionary Utility RobotsHoudini, one of RedZone's field robots, is designed to fold in half so that it can move through tight spaces on its way to the job (which usually involves bulldozing toxic waste). Any mobile robot that does work would fit into this category. Utility robots are often called "field robots" . This area of robotics is coming on strong right now, & within a decade, utility robots will likely be NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-6786834425595844902008-03-30T07:44:00.000-07:002008-03-28T11:14:17.070-07:00Robot dogs or real dogs? You DecideDogs have lived among humans for millennia. In the ruins of northern Israel, the remains of a man estimated to be 12,000 years old were discovered with the left hand resting on the skull of a 4-to 5-month old puppy. All over the world among ancient human ruins, we find the remains of dogs.Among the 4,000 species of mammals & 10,000 species of birds, humans have only been successful in taming NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-19096677247829849442008-03-30T07:30:00.000-07:002008-03-30T01:37:19.621-07:00Unique LEGO USB DRIVES (check em)Well right about now we have seen just about all variants that a USB Drive could come in, but none before scream prolificness such as these Japanese USB flash drives. Want to store some confidential files? This new line is actually compatible with standard Lego bricks, which means build a mock Lego set, add your trusty lego USB Drive too the mix, and consider it concealed forever. Now the only NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-236041542156120502008-03-21T04:18:00.000-07:002008-03-21T05:09:55.592-07:00BUILDING ROBOTS : Mousey robot finishing stepsA mechanical computer mouse has an ingenious way of translating the movement of a mouse's rubber ball into X- & Y-coordinate movement on your screen. Inside the mouse are two encoder wheels .As you move the mouse around on the desk, it rotates these wheels inside (one wheel being perpendicular to the other, with their drive shafts in contact with the ball). The encoder wheels have slits in NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-33278544000635425382008-03-21T04:08:00.000-07:002008-03-21T04:14:39.130-07:00Making a Robot : Building the Body (Mousey bot)For our mousebot, we used an old Kensington Mouse-in-a-Box Scroll model. It's big enough to fit all of our robot components inside of it.Making sure there's enough room in the case is something you're going to have to be certain of before you unholster your Dremel tool & start unhooking your mouse. Unscrew the mouse case & eyeball the placement of all of the robot parts. The main thing NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-84805115139453994632008-03-21T03:30:00.000-07:002008-03-21T03:43:14.885-07:00Making a Robot : The Parts List (Mousey bot)Mousey the Junkbot requires the following parts (2) light sensors (taken from mouse)(1) SP/ST toggle switch (Solarbotics Part #SWT2)(1) junked computer mouse (or new el cheapo one)(2) small DC motors (highly recommended: Solarbotics Part #RM1)(1) double-pole/double-throw (DP/DT) 5V relay (Solarbotics Part #RE1)(1) LM386 audio operational amplifier (Solarbotics Part #LM386)(1) SP/ST touch switch (NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-27307870185306079552008-03-21T03:04:00.000-07:002008-03-21T03:30:27.176-07:00Building robots : 5 Essential SuppliesBefore Building Robots you'll also need to lay in a few supplies... Solder— Solder can be called the "glue" which holds our digital robotic world together. It's a conductive metal alloy (mostly a combination of tin and lead or tin and silver) combined with a compound called flux. Solder melts under quite low temperatures (120–400 deg) and quickly cools to form a NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-33695362903888427062008-03-19T05:45:00.000-07:002008-03-19T07:00:00.398-07:00BUILDING ROBOTS: Professional electronic ToolsSpecialty tools that will make building robots a little bit smootherParts picker-upper— This gizmo is sometimes called a three-claw parts holder, but I've always called it a parts picker-upper ('cause that's what it does). Electronic and robot parts are often small, and inevitably, they fall into crevices and other hard-to-reach places. The parts picker-upper is a pen-sized deviceNSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-74001481316956748072008-03-19T05:30:00.000-07:002008-03-19T05:45:23.720-07:00BUILDING ROBOTS: essential tools to make life easyYou can build most of the commercial robot kits with nothing more than the tools just discussed. The following tools, however, will make your robot building easier & more enjoyable Digital multimeter (DMM)— A digital multimeter is an indispensable piece of electronic test equipment. As the name implies, it is designed to test ("meter") a number of different electronic components &NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-90455755021272826742008-03-19T05:07:00.000-07:002008-03-19T05:33:08.949-07:00BUILDING ROBOTS: essential toolkit to make your first robotMust-Have Tools When Building a First robotYou shouldn't even think about building the robots without having the following tools in your work area.Making your First Robot Can be a daunting task & these tools will make ur life easier.Small screwdriver set— Most small robots use both flat-head & Phillips-head machine screws in their construction. The screwdrivers you likely have in NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-24289210568633150282008-03-15T07:35:00.000-07:002008-03-28T11:14:27.253-07:00Ubercool Tachikoma Robot Gets UnboxedAkihabaraNews, reports of a Bandia’s metal “Ghost In The Shell” Tachikoma desktop USB robot which is able to read your e-mail, create/process applications and even allows for mini games. Tachikoma robot can be plugged into any USB port and will react in numerous ways (eyes, lights, and speaker) due to included companion software with this cool robot. Its available right now from GeekStuff4U for NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-76810821968630433112008-03-15T07:11:00.000-07:002008-03-15T07:19:15.107-07:00Newest ThinkGeek’s Video Players Incredibly SmallThese cool new video players are roughly the size of a credit card, and offer full video play back on their on their itty bitty screens.Both video players go for $99.99, theres a black (Neon M3) version with heat-sensitive back-lit buttons and a 2.4-inch screen, and a stainless (ICE) model with a relatively larger “2.8-inches” screen. Additional features of these video players NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-11244384141129209572008-03-15T07:05:00.000-07:002008-03-15T07:10:52.828-07:00USB Mixtape (cool retro usb drive )The nostalgia from this USB drive is undeniable. Let’s be real, I think everyone born before 85 had at least one. Even I experimented with the tapes, as a matter of fact the very first Hip-Hop album I purchased was on tape, Too Short’s ‘Gettin It’, but enough of the reminisce and back to the drive. It has a puny capacity of 64 MB, which might fit an entire album and it is packaged neatly in a NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-85381506336356496172008-03-15T01:36:00.000-07:002008-03-15T02:04:08.729-07:00Vstone’s “Black Ox” Robot ( a robot bully!!!)Vstone’s recently unveiled “Black Ox” Robot, he stands a at 1.5 feet and has 20 movable parts, but wait till you see what this mean Robot is made of.In the video after the break watch him ice grill, chunk em’, and stomp his invisible foes out. Stay tuned for official release date and price. Tagline for this RobotAre you an asshole, tyrant, and a bully? Have you been searching for the perfect NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-88068470720252965582008-03-15T01:19:00.000-07:002008-03-15T01:25:55.435-07:00Real Transformer ROBOTS production started!!!Real transformers (Large robots) are now currently under construction. British scientists have just announced that today they will be taking the first steps in this astonishing cool robotics(but completely irrelevent) project. The £4.6million (roughly $9 million USD) experiment will attempt to build swarms of tiny robots, each the size of a sugar cube, that navigate around on their own and NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-65455448867812701872008-03-14T06:12:00.000-07:002008-03-14T06:14:35.993-07:00FRICTION concepts in Automation FrictionCalculating friction is often a black art. There are many situations which are hard to factor in such as surface tension, humidity, etc. But there are several sure ways to find a reasonable value to help you build your robot. The first thing you should look at is what is called the coefficient of friction. This is a dimensionless property which can be looked up for any two materials. NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-76522131490847122692008-03-14T06:10:00.000-07:002008-03-14T06:12:07.454-07:00Safety factors in robotic automationSafety Factor If you are unsure of various perhaps uncalculatable factors, always add what is called a factor of safety. For example, suppose you guess a beer can weighs between 1 to 2 pounds. A factor of safety would say, 'design the system to handle 2.5 pounds, just in case.' So what should your factor be? Guess. I would recommend 1.2, but its really up to you. What does this number mean? NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-38159187785688987872008-03-14T06:08:00.000-07:002008-03-14T06:10:02.133-07:00ROBOTIC pulley automation conceptsPulleysCalculating pulley forces is very simple. A pulley is a simple moment arm. The force being applied on the rope multiplied by the pulley radius is the torque being applied. But now notice that there are two forces countering each other. This is like two opposite moments, so you would subtract them. Remember, don't be confused by the device itself. Even if the pulley were square, the NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-84292689553146251482008-03-14T06:04:00.000-07:002008-03-14T06:07:36.864-07:00ROBOT Automation-Moment Arms conceptROBOTIC concepts on Moment Arms Moment arms will probably be the most useful for you. The basic equation is moment equals force times the distance of the beam the force is being applied perpendicularly at. Moment = Force * distance Here is the first example. What you see is an object of some length. It is fixed rigidly at one end. And the other has some force being applied to it. This force NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-69843417602496214312008-03-14T05:42:00.000-07:002008-03-14T06:15:45.869-07:00Introduction to ROBOTIC concepts,StaticsIntroduction to ROBOTIC Mechanical Engineering Theory, StaticsWant to optimize your Robot parameters mathematically? Want to verify that an expensive motor you are about to purchase has enough torque? This is a math tutorial for robot chassis construction. This tutorial is useful if you would like to mathematically either prove your robot will work, or optimize it so that it would work better. NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-47457835242519505392008-03-14T05:03:00.000-07:002008-03-14T05:15:08.351-07:00Build GRID Solving Robot tutorialGRID solving Robot is useful for various robotics competitions. Here we have built a basic Grid solving robot using the iBOT by using 5 line sensors as shown in the image. The basic principle used for grid following is detecting the intersection and taking a turn accordingly. Here we have programmed the Robot for moving in a diagonal way from one end of the grid to another. As shown in the figureNSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-72656702898392936092008-03-14T04:39:00.000-07:002008-03-14T04:50:25.073-07:00Stepper motors Tutorial (figures) 2To increase the precision we can employ a sequence as shown which is known as half stepping. In this before we de-energize the first coil we energize the second coil. So the rotor finds itself being pulled by two forces and it settles in between the two positionsA B A` B`1 0 0 01 0 0 10 0 0 10 0 1 10 0 1 00 1 1 00 1 0 01 1 0 0For bipolar motors we need to reverse the direction of the current NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-76881555515031302012008-03-14T04:28:00.000-07:002008-03-14T04:39:19.945-07:00Stepper motors tutorial (figures) 1The most common problem we face when we use normal DC motors is that we don’t have precise control over how much it rotates. To rotate DC motors through a particular number of degrees what we can do is either calibrate it for a delay based operation i.e. if I switch it on for n seconds it moves 360 degrees; or what we can do is attach n encoder to the shaft which gives us a feedback on how much NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-90934800557081098282008-03-14T03:52:00.000-07:002008-03-14T04:04:22.740-07:00Through the eye of the storm…The Atlantic Hurricane Season began early in 2007, & by mid-December it was still going. The season officially begins June 1 & ends Nov. 30. That means that for the most part, storms have formed & fizzled between those dates, or they used to.NASA satellites were watching & providing data from the beginning when Andrea kicked off the season on May 9 NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499009850066111232.post-92088715790326443072008-03-14T03:45:00.000-07:002008-03-14T03:52:45.742-07:00Underwater ROBOTIC fishesRobotic Scientific researchers from around the world made a robotic fish swim, a synthetic flower bloom, & a giant metallic blimp fly using artificial muscles at the annual Electroactive Polymer Actuators & Devices Conference. Yoseph Bar-Cohen, with JPL's Advanced robotics Technologies Group, chaired the conference, held this week in San Diego.Artificial muscles -- or electroactive NSensationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07274151717669475303noreply@blogger.com0