recently i have been working on a robot for a school project. The pictures you see here are the culmination of several months of work. All the pieces are made out of acrylic and cut using a laser cutter. The robot was designed to be sold as a kit and can be assembled simply by bolting it together. It uses 2 continuous rotation servos for propulsion and could be controlled using whatever micro controller you like, here I'm using an Arduino mega.
The robot is designed to be expandable, I am in the process of designing extra parts that can be connected to the robot to get it to perform different functions, light following and line sensing for example. There is also space for the user to
experiment with their ideas. I was required as a part of my course to consider production costs and strategies however
extra design work would be needed to start production.
For those of you who haven't come across Arduino, it is a great open source microcontroller that can be used in all kinds of electronic applications. I have made several robots using Arduino, i chose Arduino because it is so easy to use. There is a wealth of software libraries that make programing simple. I knew nothing about programing before starting with Arduino but i found learning very easy using a number of great online guides and tutorials.
The possibilities using Arduino are endless, check out Jeff's Arduino blog. If your looking to get into programing or electronics its definitely worth a look.
Well here it is, the first post. Blank pages make me angry so i'll get straight to it.
in this blog i'm going to :
- Post the best online projects i find on my interweb travels.
- Post updates of my own projects.
- Any other useful or interesting bits and pieces to do with Making, Hacking, robotics and electronics that catch my eye.
A bit about me:
I'm interested in electronics, robotics and making in general. I started making robots a few years ago, since then my projects have become more advanced (and more expensive eeeek!). I'm currently studying engineering at A level and hope to start a course in Electronics at university soon.
Anyway i spend alot of time sufing the web looking for ideas and inspiration and thinking "I want one of those!!". At the moment i'm building a robot for my A level course, i'll be posting updates here along with all the other stuff.
Heres my robot:
and here are a few of my favorite websites to get you inspired:
http://letsmakerobots.com/
http://makezine.com/
http://www.instructables.com/
