Robots have traditionally been roughly humanoid in form, which has some obvious advantages, in that the robots are better able to integrate into a human-designed environment. But there are lots of environments that aren’t human designed, and researchers have been experimenting with robotic forms that look more like insects or fish. Now, a team of Swiss researchers…
A multifunction platform built around BBC’s micro:bit educational board. It integrates a cute robot, a starter kit and also a board for experimenting. Some time ago, in a previous article, we have reviewed the micro:bit controller designed by the BBC as an object aimed to develop logic skills and competencies in the field of computer…
Augmented Arthropod by Grzegorz Lochnicki and Nicolas Kubail Kalousdian is an innovative self-balancing robot that is actually piloted by the movements of an insect placed inside a plastic case using two HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors. The structure for the build consists of three platforms separated on threaded rod and a couple of rather standard DC gear…
A new Raspberry Pi stepper motor and DC bonnet has being designed by Adafruit and is now available to purchase from their online store priced at $22.50. The Raspberry Pi bonnet can drive up to 4 DC or 2 stepper motors with full PWM speed control offering a great solution for robotics, DIY milling machines…
Researchers from Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania have created a lifelike robotic lionfish with a circulatory system. That circulatory system enables the fish to circulate synthetic blood throughout its body. The blood is a liquid triiodide cathode, which circulates past zinc cells submerged in an electrolyte. As the zinc oxidizes, it releases electrons,…
A new open-source, artificially intelligent prosthetic leg designed by researchers at the University of Michigan and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is now available to the scientific community. As an open-source project, anyone can contribute to improving the leg’s design and function. Although the designs and code are free, the leg is still a high-end, state-of-the-art prosthetic,…
A pocket camera drone has launched by Indiegogo this month in the form of the AIR PIX, designed and created by the team of developers at AirSelfie based in the United States. AIR PIX aims to be the selfie drone that’s affordable for anyone. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a drone that’ll take…
Created by a research team at Simon Fraser University in Canada, the Flair Chair is an interactive chair born from the idea of a drone being controlled by an emergency call taker using embodied interaction on a tangible chair. Researchers explored the possibilities of allowing drones to assist 911 like emergency call takers by transmitting/…
Little Flash is a 3d printed robot powered by ultracapacitors. To prevent getting stuck, she uses a bump switch, motor overcurrent detection and random path adjustments. Supercapacitors are intriguing power sources because they can store and release charges in an instant. This device uses a pair of continuous rotation-modded servos to move about for roughly…
Developed at NASA Ames Research Center, the Astrobee bots are named Honey, Queen and Bumble. They are free-flying and driven by Ubuntu and offer autonomous or remote-controlled navigation. NASA has deployed them on the ISS for assisting the astronauts rather than chatting them up. The Astrobee uses electric fans to navigate through the zero-gravity ISS…
We equip the robotic arm published in the previous issue of a pneumatic system for gripping and releasing objects, controlled through an Arduino shield created for the purpose. You will have had the opportunity to appreciate the qualities and potential of the robotic arm with manipulation terminal clamp presented in the previous article,…
The Programmable-Air is a hardware toolkit that allows you to inflate and deflate objects, combinig everything you need for simple air power experimentation into one package. It is available to purchase via the Crowd Supply website with kits available from $150. Since the project is open source hardware, you’ll find the EAGLE schematics and PCB…
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