Cat vs. Robot

From Gizmodo.  Cat vs. Robot.  You'll be surprised.

Killer Lasers

I found this over at BoingBoing.  "Video of gadget that shoots down mosquitoes with lasers."



I know my backyard would look like a laser show on summer nights.

Cool Industrial Robot Videos

Singularity Hub has collected some really cool video of industrial robots at work.  All the videos are about one minute or less.  Check it out.

This is one of them.  The rest are real.

Speedcuber

Watch and enjoy.

Augmented Reality

Have you seen this!!  How cool is that!!

Welcome to the Tinkernology Family

A while ago I posted about my local TRU selling NXT 1.0 for $145.  Well, it ate me up knowing that I could get all those parts for half the price of the NXT 2.0 and for the same price as just the NXT brick at S@H.  So I scraped together some money and I went and bought the last two on the shelf.  Introducing NXT #5 and NXT #6.

RobotC firmware has been downloaded, batteries have been installed, stickers have been applied, and the Try Me programs deleted.  Now it's time to put them to work.

Sorry Xander, I am not quite as creative with my naming conventions as you.  Maybe I will come out of my shell and give them proper names so they won't be embarrassed in public.

And special thanks to my wife for accepting another one of my lame "I am out of Lego, I need more!!" excuses.

And another cool milestone has been reached with this purchase.  By my inventory, I now have approximately 100,000 Lego pieces. 

Working Lego Airbags with Video

Put this one under the category "Why?"  But yet it is still cool.  The airbags are fully functional and inflate before the driver the driver hits his pretty little plastic head.


I am having trouble believing the 2900 psi/200 bar claim.  That's quite a lot of pressure for plastic parts to hold.

Thought Control

Here's a topic that has got me thinking.  A company (or person??) has quietly announced Puzzlebox Brainstorms.  They claim to have available hardware and software that can pick up your brain activity using an EEG headset and use that to control a NXT robot.  I am a little skeptical; the video doesn't show much but a computer monitor with a remote controlled NXT robot.  I believe it can be done, but the website doesn't give much information either.

Awwww, Jeffery, come back.

We messed up when we gave them feelings.

Bop-It Idea

Having young children, I get to watch lots of commercials for toys. Plus, I get to watch them play the Wii. Tonight I got an idea that might be kinda fun to build with a NXT. I got the idea watching my daughter do all the crazy motions with the Wiimote on her Dora the Explorer game.

With all the sensors available, it would be fun to create a Lego NXT version of Bop-it. I have never played the game, but like many of you I have seen the commercials over and over.

Use a rotation sensor or a servo motor with a wheel that requires turning. Use a sound sensor to hear you yell. Use a touch sensor as a button to be pushed. An acceleration to sense twist, you get the idea. Commands could be recorded and turned into “.rso” sounds.

And naturally when I think I have a unique idea, I do a quick search on YouTube and find that someone has already done it. Here is an RCX version.



But I think a NXT version would be better with all the sensors available.

By the way, doing a little research on this toy, I went to Amazon.com and found that some of these toys sell for $300!!!!!!!  What am I missing????

Industrial Automation

I am a big fan of automation as well as robotics. Industrial automation is interesting because it often incorporates many machines and robots. Think of a long automobile production line full of robots that are spot welding cars together. But it is not limited to an assembly line with tons of typical industrial robots.

Here is an interesting video from a company called EWAB Engineering. It is company that uses a special conveyor system to link many different manufacturing processes together. This video is at a Ford plant and it shows how cam shafts go from station to station to station all without human intervention. It is amazing how far these parts go and how many stations each goes into. The parts look like lemmings.

Hexapod Walker

Another really cool video has surfaced on YouTube.com. GusJanss has produced an awesome hexapod walker. This robot can turn, change its pace, and use a light sensor and an ultrasonic sensor to navigate. He achieves some really cool movements out of just three motors. Nice work!

Vortex Cannon

This is totally not NXT, Lego, or even remotely mechanically related. It’s just plain cool.

You know how it’s rather challenging to get Lego to shoot anything. The little cannons couldn’t harm an amoeba. I haven’t messed is the Zamor Sphere shooter, but I am guessing that it doesn’t have much of a punch.

Enter the Vortex Cannon. A vortex cannon is simply a cylinder with a hole in one end that is smaller than the cylinder diameter and a flexible cover over the other. When you thump the flexible “drum” end, a vortex exits the other end.  If the cannon is built properly, that vortex can carry a little bit of a punch that will travel some distance. It can be filled with smoke to create vortex smoke rings, or it can be used without smoke, which will create invisible vortex rings.

Here is the challenge: Build a robot that searches out an enemy robot with a target mounted on top such as a candle or something light, aim at the target and blow the target off. What’s cool is that the vortex cannon can shoot quite a distance as shown in this video. And no, I don’t expect you to build a nine foot diameter cannon and mount it on a robot. Eight foot should suffice.



Here a a video from Make Magazine how to build a large cannon.



I know that my kids would love to be shot by a vortex cannon, so this is yet another project on my To Do list.

Festo is at it again

Back in mid-December, I posted about some work the Festo was doing.  Well, they're at it again.  Now they have a robot that is a cross between a Flexpicker and a Makerbot.  Check it out.

Lego Technic Pneumatic Walker

Here's a cool walker.  The builder, aeh5040 achieves motion by using the cylinders extend and retract motion to move the switch, which is somewhat challenging to do.  But it's done in a manner here where the walker produces an interesting gait.

Lego NXT GrabBot

A few days ago I posted about a Lego Education R/C robot called Rooster.  Over on YouTube.com, watchfuleye1000 has created a pretty similar robot called "Lego NXT GrabBot" and did a pretty good job of it too.  Although I am not exactly sure what all the linkages do, but it works great.