Automomous Lawn Mowing Robot

Useful autonomous robots for the home are here to stay. You can get them to vacuum your floors, clear your gutters, wash your floors, and even cut your lawn. Shown here is a programmable robotic lawnmower that cuts grass up for three hours on a single charge.

The mower's path is constrained by a hidden wire boundary that defines the limits of your yard.

Because the robot uses an electric motor, the cutter spins at higher RPM than gas-powered mowers, yet produces far less noise (and no fumes). The mower detects ambient moisture, so it will return to its docking station if it is raining. As a safety measure, the unit automatically shuts off when lifted in the air.

All of this means you can program the robot to automatically trim your lawn on any day and pretty much any time you like. The robot will return to its docking station when it has completed cutting your lawn or when it needs to recharge itself.

Check out all the details on the Robotic Lawnmower.

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Mind-bending KATAKA Linear Actuator Mechanism

Take a look at this video of a linear actuator. It looks like a magic trick, but it's not.

The mechanism is based on segmented spindle technology. Not only is the whole thing incredibly compact, it's also strong. Here is a photograph of a KATAKA actuator lifting a car. This amazing device opens up entirely new possibilities for engineers and designers. I know I want one.

Learn more about the KATAKA actuator at www.kataka.dk.

[ Thanks Soren! ]

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Paul Boyer Museum Of Animated Carvings

The Paul Boyer Museum Of Animated Carvings is in Belleville, Kansas. The Museum has a web site with many photos and animated GIF images of the automata in action.

You can also see some of his available automata here. Shown at left is a piece entitled The Old Lamp Lighter.

Finally, he offers plans for creating an animated wooden dog automata that uses magnets and a small circuit board. This looks like a great project for people learning about electronics.

Visit the web page for The Paul Boyer Museum Of Animated Carvings.

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Mini Solar-Powered Car is Less Than 1.5" Long

Here is a super-small solar car. It may be a "solar roller" in the BEAM robot lexicon, but I'm not sure if it stores a charge and fires when there enough juice in a capacitor or if the power goes directly from the solar cell to motor. Regardless...this little car measures a mere 1.3 inches long!

More on the Mini Solar-Powered Car:
The world's smallest solar powered car - it zooms along when the sun shines on the solar panel. No batteries - it gets its power just from the sun. No assembly required. Measures a tiny 3.3 x 2.2 x 1.4 cm. When the sun shines on the solar panel, the panel makes electricity that turns the motor and the wheels. A fun demonstration of solar power. Will also work when close to a strong artificial light source.

Check out this Mini Solar-Powered Car over at ThinkGeek.com.

Amazing POV Chair Sculpture by Artist Jim Jenkins

Jim Jenkins can best be described as part sculptor, part engineer, and part choreographer. His kinetic sculptures feature the animation of text and objects to represent a situation or observation.

The piece shown above, entitled The Little Chair, is a perfect example. The chair is mounted on an axle driven by a powerful motor. When the chair spins an electronic device takes advantage of the persistence of vision effect to write out the incongruous message "Sit still". Very clever!

Here is a link to a movie of The Little Chair in action.

Check out this and all of Jim Jenkin's kinetic artwork on his web site.

Miniature Robot that Jumps Like a Cricket

If you missed this little locust-inspired robot on the Make Magazine Blog today, you have got to check this out.

The snail cam is not just for automata anymore!

Here is a link to a Quicktime video of the cricket robot created by the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

VEXplorer Robotics System with Claw and Camera

I've posted about this robotic system in the past. I am posting about it again because Amazon has added a ton of new info about it to their product page including video, and an extensive write up of the robotic toy's capabilities.

With more than 300 parts, the VEXplorer allows users to create and experiment with endless combinations of radio-controlled robotic configurations -- without breaking the bank (about $150 USD).

Check out the Revell Vexplorer Robotics System.

Animatronic Frankenstein Machine Comes to Life

This elaborate animatronic Frankenstein scene depicts the monster coming to life. Frankenstein's monster shakes violently as he is jolted to life, then he bolts forward unexpectedly. It comes complete with integrated sound and an air compressor to power the monster.

Imagine having this in your house on Halloween! Sadly, not all of us have $7000 to spend on a huge, detailed haunted house prop. Perhaps, though this can serve as inspiration for a small scale automaton or encourage you to make your own animatronic holiday displays.

Visit The Fright Catalog online for this and other animatronic Halloween props.

Automata May Judge Us Once Autonomous

Box of Men is a piece by artist Ken Feingold using animated ventriloquist dolls. The automaton is funny, creepy, and thought-provoking all at once.

From the Ace Gallery Web Site:
Box of Men is a work for display on a large flat-panel screen. The piece
is not pre-recorded. The dialogue is synthesized speech generated in real
time by a computer program that assigns a "character" to each of the
puppets. Their conversation goes on infinitely, as long as the program is
running. The narrative circles around an "unknown" crime. Those accused are anonymous. Those who judge are puppets, controlled by unseen forces, and assuming an uncanny life of their own.

Here is a link to the page featuring Box of Men, complete with transcript of their conversation.

Bioloid Humanoid (or non-humanoid) Robotics Kit

Bioloid features 18 servo motors, an amazing range of movement, and versatile modular construction. The Bioloid Humanoid Robotics Kit is truly a KIT. This means you will can assemble the Bioloid's modules together to form any one of dozens of different robotic creatures (see image below). This really sets it apart from other humanoid robot kits and lesser toys.

The sensor array is impressive: an IrDA receiver, three proximity sensors that can measure distance and luminosity, and a microphone for sound detection and a piezo-electric speaker that can be used to play musical or beeps. This is a robot aware of its surroundings -- another big plus.

Using the included motion editor software and visual programming environment, you can make the Bioloid interact with its surroundings and perform complex movements. Motions are built up frame-by-frame like a story board in an animation sequence. This allows quite complicated movements to be programmed. Once a motion has been defined it can then be downloaded into the Bioloid's memory and called from the Behaviour Control Program. The Bioloid comes with several example programs to make it walk, avoid obstacles and interact with sound.

This is an impressive platform for roboitics allowing for many configurations, many ways to sense the environment, and a well-developed system for programming actions.

Take a look at the extensive documentation (including the manual and screen shots of the programming interface) on the Bioloid Humanoid Robotics Kit.

Robot Lizard Kit - Electronics Meets Mechanics

Here is neat little lizard robot kit designed to teach the basics of robotics, electronics, and mechanics. Never mind all that learning stuff...it just looks cool.

The design combines a single motor, crank system, and a gear box to create a reptile-like walking motion. Sounds you make start and stop the robot's motion and cause its Light Emitting Diode (LED) eyes flash. The clear body allows you to see what's going on inside the little beast.

All components and parts are included to assemble a working lizard robot. Good, clean fun for about $20.

Order your own Lizard Robot Kit.

Highly Configurable Remote Control Robot Kit

Here is a cool looking robotics kit, which includes four motors, 24 gears, steel braces, an extendable arm, a grasping claw, six rubber tires, and a digital camera -- 300 parts in total.

This kit allows you to build a huge variety of robot configurations to suit your interests or application. (It looks like the ones the bomb squads use, doesn't it?)

This version also has a belt-driven tank tread kit and an additional motor and joint that allow the extendable arm to rotate.

The robot is controlled by a six-channel radio transmitter with a 150 foot range. The 6 channel radio gives you a lot of control over any robot you design with this system.

The included digital camera can be mounted to the robot, allowing you to wirelessly transmit color video directly to a television.

This looks like a great value as a platform for remote controlled robot projects.

Check out all the details of this Remote-Controlled Robot Kit.

More Video of Boston Dynamics Big Dog Robot

I posted earlier this week about an impressive biomimetic insect robot. I've also posted in the past about Big Dog. Here is more video of this impressive four-legged robot.

The video is a bit long, but I encourage you to watch at least as far as when the robot slips on ice. You will immediately recognize its efforts to stay upright as pure biological motion.

I expect soldiers will have robotic mules based on this design running next to them in a few years time.

I must credit BoingBoing Gadgets for bring this to my attention.

Biomimetic Insect Robot with Uncanny Movements

Biomimicry ("bios" - meaning life and "mimesis" - meaning to imitate) may be relatively new to robotics, but has a long tradition in automata. Still, I cannot recall seeing an automaton succeed in imitating biological motion to this degree.

This six-legged robot is uncanny in its motions. I find it both beautiful and spooky (as when I am startled by the first-sight of an insect).

This project, by creator Kare Halvorsen, is called "Phoenix". He has achieved an amazingly lifelike motion using hobby servos and an off-the-shelf servo controller. Here is a video clip of the Phoenix in action:


Let's all hope Kare continues to use his technical prowess for good and not evil.

Visit the Trossen forum to learn more about the Phoenix robot. This gem comes to us by way of the MAKE blog.

Fuel Cell Car and Experiment Kit

This is one of the coolest mechanical toy kits I have ever seen.

During any sunny period, photovoltaic cells perform electrolysis on water, dividing it into its constituent elements -- oxygen and hydrogen. At some later time, you can feed these gases into the fuel cell to get electricity to do work (like power the motor on this little car). The byproduct of all this wizardry is just a bit of water!

Now you can have a fuel cell of your own with which to experiment. This is a big deal. Fuel cells are one of the most promising forms of environmentally-friendly energy on the horizon. Learn more about fuel cells from this article on Fuel Cell Basics.

Go for it, check out The Fuel Cell Car and Experiment Kit

Fantastic Quadraped Robot Dog

You've got to check out this video of a dog-inspired robot. The video shows the robot covering all kinds of terrain. Most impressively, there are two spots in the clip where a person gives the robot a hard shove. I fully expected the thing to crash into the ground. But no! The robot instantly compensates and never falls.

Automomous Solar Robots

Of all robots, BEAM robots are the most clearly associated with automata -- in my mind, at least -- because they are fully autonomous. They don't even require batteries. Robots like the Cybug Solarfly will seek out bright areas to recharge, and avoid obstacles on its own. There is no program controlling it; its behavior is either a function of its physical structure or hard-wired electrical responses.

You can see a few of the autonomous solar robots I made a few years ago, before I discovered contemporary automata.

The Cybug Solarfly and other BEAM robots are available at Edmund Scientifics

Another Autonomous Dinosaur: Roboraptor

Mark Tilden the former NASA scientist behind Robosapien, also created Roboraptor, this programmable robotic dinosaur.

Roboraptor is one astonishing, programmable RC dinosaur. He is fully controllable and programmable by radio control but also fully autonomous in free-roam mode.

Roboraptor has multi-sensors to allow this 32" bipedal beast to see, hear and feel the environment around him. He has multiple touch sensors in his head and tail, while sonic sensors detect sound and direction. He even has three distinct moods: hunter, cautious and playful. Go near his face when he's hunting and he'll behave aggressively; touch him when he's playful and he'll nuzzle your hand.

Now I want both a Roboreptile and a Roboraptor to see which one would win in a fight!

There's good video of the robot here: Roboraptor

LEGO ™ Mindstorms NXT Robot Kit

Dear LEGO: feel free to send me your newest robot-building kit, with 32-bit command center, large LCD, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth interfaces. I will be happy to review it (and keep it!). Sincerely, Dug North

• Intuitive GUI and drag-and-drop icons are PC- and Mac-friendly
• Touch and light sensors, sound sensor, and ultrasonic sensor
• Three motors for smooth, reliable operation
• 6-wire digital cables for precise connections
• 5 main themes(8 different models - Vehicle: Roverbot, Animal, Scorpio; Machine: Robotic Arm; Human: Humanoid; Gadgets: Clock, Music, Game and Movers
• Models are built with the LEGO Technic System
• 571 pieces
• Quickstart Guide - build a robot within 30 minutes
• Model-specific building instructions, tips and tricks, testing methods and programming options
• Easy-to-use software
• Test panel

Learn more about LEGO ™ Mindstorms NXT Robot Kit

Autonomous Roboreptile

Who doesn't want their own 2 1/4 foot fully autonomous reptile with two aggressive biomechanical gaits, stereo sound sensors, color-shifting skin, whipping tail, snapping jaws, rear sensors, infrared vision sensors, touch sensors and hood to fit over its face to subdue it during aggressive moods?

Rumor has it that everyone in the audience of Ellen Degeneres Show will receive one free tomorrow, Thursday November 16th. That's going to be chaos!

Check out the Flash video of The Discovery Remote Control Chromashift Roboreptile