Category Archives: robotics

Notacon 9: Pwn the Drones

In this video from the recent Notacon 9 conference, EFF activists Trevor Timm and Parker Higgins present on the widespread and increasing use of drones by government. Aspects of recent drone hacks are highlighted, security flaws noted, as well as the growing popularity of DIY civilian drones. For more information on the use of drones […]

RoboBrrd Brain board v2 gEDA design time-lapse video

Watch Erin design RoboBrrd’s Brain board v2 in gEDA from start to finish. RoboBrrd is an interactive robot designed to motivate students by responding to their achievements through chirps and dances. The original brain of the RoboBrrd was an Arduino MEGA, but the latest version will feature a custom Arduino compatible board. Since redesigning RoboBrrd […]

ROBOTC for Arduino public BETA released

The ROBOTC dev-team has released their first Public BETA of “ROBOTC for Arduino”. “ROBOTC is a powerful C-based programming language with a Windows environment for writing and debugging programs, and the only programming language at this level that offers a comprehensive, real-time debugger.” It has previously been released in a paid version for the the […]

OSHW haptic interface

Diego Spinola writes, “Here’s a project I’ve just “completed” that I think you’ll like, it’s an OSHW haptic interface! It’s called VIMPHIN and it’s pictured in action above. Guess what logic sniffer I used to debug the actuator’s bus?” Our money would be on the open workbench Logic Sniffer! For more videos, info and links […]

Robotic motor control tutorial

Chris from PyroElectro has written a multi-part tutorial on building motor control firmware for a microcontroller, a PIC 18F252. This tutorial is based on his earlier robot chassis, but the principles relating to the use of a motor controller IC (SN754410) to move the motors at specific speeds and directions are of general application. If […]

GOduino II motor driver

Hazim Bitar writes in about the GOduino II motor driver project. In addition to the Atmega328p w/Opti bootloader, he uses a L293D h-bridge and various supporting caps and resistors giving the project a total estimated cost of about $20. Visit the TechBitar blog for project build details, along with schematic and Arduino sketch. Via the […]

Atmel University Program Kicks Off 2012 Robotics Contest

The 2012 Atmel Robotics Contest (ARC) is currently underway. The contest is open to university students 18 years or older in North America, South America and Europe, and the goal is to develop a battery-powered 3D version of the Atmel robot ‘Mel’ (pictured above) using Arduino’s 4WD platform (for example, see Seeedstudio’s version) and Atmel […]

Tiny CNC-bot for under $70

The developers over at Piccolo are working on a CNC-bot designed to draw small pictures, and which could be reprogrammed for other purposes. According to the developers, “We are currently refining the Piccolo prototype into an open-source design that is simple, quick to assemble, and easy to use, and is entirely composed of digitally manufactured […]

Remote controlled balancing robot using mbed MCU

Kristian Lauszus updates us on this remote controllable balancing robot project. In development of this project, Kristian created the PS3 Bluetooth Library both for Arduino and the FEZ Devices. However, not content with the performance of the FEZ, an mbed microcontroller, which is an ARM Cortex-M3 running 96MHz, has been incorporated into the latest design. […]

How to read several infrared sensors using one MCU pin

Oscar has written an article describing a technique he’s used for reading multiple analog sensors with one MCU ADC pin. He was designing a line-following robot and wanted to read several infrared sensors without having to dedicate an analog read pin for each. His solution uses “a Schmitt trigger inverter whose output has resistors connected […]

Arduino-controlled espresso machine

Gleb Polyakov and Igor Zamlinsky of Atlanta, GA have designed this proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controlled espresso machine. Based upon their observations after reverse engineering a number of espresso units, the pair worked on developing a machine which would be reasonably priced, open source, be espresso pod compatible and have a PID controller. Temperature and pressure are […]

Voice controlled robotic arm tutorial

Algorhythmic has posted a multi-part tutorial at aonsquared describing how to build a voice controlled robotic arm. While recovering from a wrist injury he decided to assemble and experiment with a robotic arm controlled by USB using notbrainsurgery’s protocol. After getting accustomed to the interface he decided to take it one step further and add […]

7400 competition entry: Discrete servo driver

Here’s an entry in the Open 7400 Logic competition: Discrete servo driver. This entry is designed to control RC hobby servos. 8bit parallel BCD code input from a dip switch sets a pulse width between 0-25.6ms (180 degrees of motion). However on most servos the first 50 and the last 10 positions are unavailable so you have […]

Parallax introduces Eddie robotics platform

Parallax is introducing a new robotics platform based on the Propeller microcontroller. Known as Eddie, which stands for Expandable Development Discs for Innovation and Experimentation, the platform consists of dual 18 inch round bases positioned one above the other. The upper is designed with mounts for a Kinect and a laptop (used for what Parallax […]