Sail Robots

There is something very exciting about the idea of launching a sail robot. A sail robot is a sail boat that crosses large expanses of water, e.g. large lakes, oceans, steering all by itself. What shore or bay might the sail robot visit? What creatures will it encounter on its journey? Where will it put down its anchor? Or will it be lost to the "Davy Jones"? We need to find out more. One day, we might build a boat like this and track it across the ocean using satellites.

Learn more here

Festo a robotic seagull

Beanbots video presented by Bre Pettis

Bre Pettis is the founder of MakerBot Industries, the company that is bringing the exciting new field of 3D Printing to the hobbyist market. Here, he is inspiring us to build Beanbots, solar-powered minibots that move and seek out light to re-charge themselves.

Junk Bot Mk1

Take a pile of old computers, CD drives, historic mobile phones, broken digital cameras and other e-junk. Take it all apart. Add in a couple of keen Robobuilders (Jamie and Lauren, ably assisted by cousin Oliver) and what do you get?

Junk Bot Mk1!

The wheeled base and camera support rod was designed by Jamie. Jamie and Lauren then joined PARS at the Hackspace, glue gun in hand. We think its a pretty cool robot.



Pictures from the construction of Junk Bot Mk1:

Mouse Bot is ready for testing

We have built a Mouse Bot and the Mouse Bot is ready for testing.

Jamie and Howard now have to find a large flat open space in which to test the Mouse Bot ....because this robot moves fast, and we do mean fast! A school hall would be ideal, or a large living area, out of which all furniture is removed. Even that might not be big enough. The Mouse Bot responds to and follows light! So we will need a nice bright torch as well.

Scary Robot Invasion

Jamie Young recently built a ROBOMECH kit. Its a wooden robot, that walks, and, you put it together yourself. It's pretty cool because it has red LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) as eyes. We thought about making a short film of the ROBOMECH, turning the light off and using a touch to create some scary shadows. We think it worked really well. What do you think?

Jitterbugs - Vibrating Moving Robots

Jitterbugs are vibrating robots ... that move. Yes, that's right. They vibrate, don't have wheels, but still manage to get around. How so? Well, the vibration in the body (created by a small motor with off-center weight attached to the rotor) is transmitted to flexible legs which move back and forwards in small ways, yet it all adds up to BIG movements. It's a physical principle which we need to learn more about. Take a look at a Jitterbug in action in this video below. Watch carefully, there is nothing touching the table, yet the movement is surprisingly quick.

Hex Bug demo

While out shopping one day, we noticed a pile of strange bug looking robots. They looked cool, so as bought one home, and tried it out. It responds to touch, and sound, by changing its direction. Hex Bugs come in all shapes and sizes. Go get some and have fun.