In a tribute to Joseph Weisenbaum, Andrianne Wortzel has wired up a Robosapien to a chatbot and a webcam. The Robosapien sits in the studio and provides psychoanalysis over the Web. The project is Eliza Redux and is named after Weisenbaum’s famed Eliza. Curious idea, though more as an art piece th
Here is a link that recently came to our attention: Crab Fu Steam Toys! If you have ever wondered what would happen if a Gakken Mechamo Centipede or Mechamo Crab was crossed with a steam engine, Crab Fu shows the way. There are videos of these creations in action. As an aside, the downside of the…
Robert from Nurmijarvi Finland has created a robotic allosaurus. There are pictures of the construction on his website, along with an English description of the project. The robot is 8ft (2.5m) long, 5ft (1.6m) tall, and weights 55lb (25kg). It uses 13 motors to move and is wirelessly controlled vi…
Continuing from the link in the last post about making your own LEGO bricks, it looks like Derek is at it again. This time he's creating his own LEGO Mindstorms RCX like brick, but this one is powered by a GumStix computer. He's machining the housing out of Delrin and details the process on his bl…
Do not miss the new, up-to-date and detailed How to Build a Robot - Grand Tutorial Series This article lists some ideas for starting a simple robot. A good read for beginners. If you like this article, check out this. How to Build A Simple Robot, The Beetle Robot. This is the first of a series o…
Here's instructions on how to make a simple and cheap small robot base. Ever since my initial start in robotics I've been fascinated with small robots. Small 'bot seem to have this amazing charm about them. Maybe it's the 'wow!' factor, or maybe it's 'just because.' This tutorial will step you …
This article details how to build a FLED solar engine for your next BEAM project. 1. Take the 3904 transistor and using a pair of long nose pliers carefully bend the collector leg (that's the one on the far right) so that it is perpendicular to the …
How to build a BEAM symet. The symet for some reason always tends to be a three fold rotation symmetrical robot, but I like to push the envelop a little. The Quaret, hence its name, is a four fold rotation symmetrical robot. It's very small, very active, and a lot of fun to watch. So enoug…
As I mentioned in last month's article, I'd decided to turn my robot into a fire-fighting robot. Because of scheduling conflicts, I couldn't attend the international contest in CT, but I was able to compete in our club's local contest. Unfortunately, because of short time constraints I didn't do so…
As the dead line came closer and closer to when my 'bot needed to be finished I became more and more frustrated, frantic, and sleep deprived. I worked for hours in 1st 3 weeks of February! Many all-day-ers and late nights. One night I even said "I'm staying up till it works!" ... I fina…
Ok, last time we talked about my brand new (supposedly) maze solving robot. I have to admit that it is hard to keep on track with just making it a maze solver. There is so much more that I want to add! Oh well, so little time. Unfortunately I didn't get to much done in the way of coding. I was, ho…