Archive for Desember 2011

Robot calendar available at Barnes and Noble


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Dog lovers may have dog calendars, same goes with cat and car fanatics, but what if your a robot junkie. The answer is simply, a robot calendar. At Barnes and Noble you can purchase a calendar called, "ROBOT." It has a different robot for each month and each robot has its own cardboard cut out/foldable. The price for this nifty little thing is $14.99 and you can see it in my video above!

Review of the vex starter bundle


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This year my big Christmas gift was a vex robotics starter bundle. This kit is great for any kids that like to build robots, but I do recommend it for older kids. The robot is radio controlled and the kit includes erector set metal, servos, battery packs, and everything needed for radio control. Nuts and bolts are also included too; along with tools. The first bot I built was a 4 wheeled UGV (unmanned ground vehicle). Everything's sounds great with this robot, however it requires 14 aa batteries to run, and it also costs 300 USD. Overall it's a great robot for kids that enjoy robotics and an intermediate level.

Christmas break


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During my break I have not been posting. However,tomorrow I will continue the robo roundup posts. Thanks and happy holidays.

Bust sculpture created by a robot


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Ive seen robots walk, run, and even draw. However, this robot can create three dimensional sculptures of people. The process starts out when a human scans an object and the robot then scans its sculpture material. After that, the photo of the object (preferably human) is then uploaded to the robot, this enables it to start sculpting. It uses strong motors, a saw, and and nice arm design for precise movement to create the sculpture. In the video below you can see this robot sculpting a women's upper body. Thanks for reading and please follow us on feed burner!



Info source: video listed

Hexbug larva battery problem


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I know that I have already written a post on this topic, but i have something important to say. It seems that most of the consumers off amazon.com that have bought this think that the batteries are dead when you first get the hexbug larva. I proudly disagree. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the batteries are inverted! First of all, Innovation First shipped out all the larvas like this so no one in the stores could turn on the hexbugs and waste the battery life. I just want to let consumers realize that the hexbug larva's batteries are not messed up in any way. Thanks and I hope you enjoyed today's post!

PR1 cleans a room


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It may seem that robots doing our chores is a concept for the future, but after viewing this video you may just change your mind. In the video, PR1 is cleaning a room using its dexterous hands and agile movements. Not only is this amazing for the field of robotics, but the robot is PR1 and not its advanced brother, PR2. The downside to all this is that these robots cost over 200,000 USD. Maybe in a few decades we may have a giant leap in robotics, and these prices will descend quickly, meaning that these robots will be available to just about anybody. Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment below!



Info source: video listed

New Hexbug Chromes


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During the holidays, Innovation First tends to release new hexbug products. Well thats the case with the all new hexbug chromes. These are basically just normal hex bugs (so don't get all hyped about a new one), but with a layer of chrome on the robot. For example, the spider has a chrome top. These hexbugs come in a tri-pack available at hexbug.com, and the price for them is 39.99 USD. The pack includes a chrome spider, inchworm, and an ant. Thanks for reading and you can click here to purchase them from hexbug.com!

Meet the next generation NAO from Aldebaran


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NAO has been one of the coolest humanoid robots for the past years, but theres a new one taking its place. Aldebaran robotics has released its newest NAO robot, and it has some new tricks up its sleeve.
NAO can recognize faces, voice, be commanded from a humans voice, walk faster, and and has a new feature called fall manager (it puts its arms outs when it falls to prevent damage). This new robot is also equipped with four microphones, two cameras, 8 pressure sensors, and two speakers. All these new features are awesome, but they do add up to a price tag of around 16,000 USD. Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment below!




Source: video listed

New UAV Drone Revealed By Google Maps


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As we all know, Google Maps lets you look at the whole world from your computer. It shows you images, traffic, weather, and all sorts of things. Today, I found something more interesting that all of those features, and its a UAV drone in Yucca Lake, Nevada. From my experience in robotics, I can tell thats a drone, because its wings are near the back, the over sized nose in the front, and the angled tail fins on the back. The video above was made by me and it shows the photo I found on Google Maps. Thanks for reading and do you think Google Maps is compromising our nations security.

iRobot Roomba appears in an app


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I have been waiting for a fun robot app, and now it's finally here! Roomba revenge is what iRobot calls it and it's 99 cents at the apple app store. The object of the game is to control Roomba and suck up all the killer dust bunnies. Even if you don't have any money to buy the app then there is a lite version for free. Thanks for reading and reviews of this game would be appreciated in the comment section.



Info source: video listed

Official robotics google group


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If we go on google groups, we know there is going to be a video game, computer, and etc... groups. Today that has changed my fellow robot enthusiasts, because I have created an official robotics google group. It's free to join, and it's great for any robot junkie the on the web. Thanks and here's the link to join, Join today!

Arduino Torso Robot


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A few months ago I started to work on an Arduino torso robot. This robot uses three HS-55 feather servos for the arm and one to move the waist. The top servo is a little messed up so I have to get a higher torque one. I will probably add sensors too. The video above is the only video remaining of it (i deconstructed it and I'm building one with stronger servos). Hope you like it, and you can view it on LMR too! Heres the link, http://letsmakerobots.com/node/30151

Beam vibrobot made from scraps


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Yesterday I was looking at my beam Symet and some other beam robots on LMR and I decided to make another one. I got settled in to my workbench and I took a look at my inventory. I then noticed that all I had was one capacitor, a flashing led, a few hundred resistors, four transistors, a motor, and only one solar cell. So I began to build with what I had, because I was really anxious to build a tiny analog robot. A few solder joints later and my bot was alive and running. However, my only motor was a small pager motor, but luckily it was strong enough to make my robot twitch and move around. I also made a video on it so you guys could see my robot in action. Thanks and I hope you enjoyed today's post!