News – Page 28 – Marginally Clever Robots

News

Yale’s Open Hand Project

2015-02-25 Dan

If you know me, you know I’ve been obsessed with robot arms for a long time. People ask me “what will you put for a hand?” and I used to say “Who cares? It could be any tool you like.” Well, now I have a better answer.

Yale’s Open Hand Project aims to make an open source robot hand that anyone can download and build. It even comes with adapters for several popular robots already on the market.

I think my favorite part is their Hybrid Deposition Manufacturing (HDM) technique: The finger bones come out of the printer with built in pockets into which you pour a urethane solution. When the urethane hardens to a rubber consistency, the pockets break open and you’re left with a 2-material, super flexible shape. Genius!

Little Big Planet Sackboy faces with the Arduino Starter Kit

2015-02-18 Dan

Today, we’re going to build faces using LEDs and a joystick. Previously, we’ve wired up LEDs and learned how to control individual lights, how to draw pictures, and how to use a joystick. Today, we’re gonna put them all together to make a set of emotions based on the direction we push the joystick. Again, we’ve got the debounce, so the emotion will stay on our screen until we push the stick in a new direction.

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News Tutorials

Decoding Morse Code

2015-02-09 Dan

A video posted by Dan Royer (@imakerobots) on Feb 7, 2015 at 4:03pm PST

Morse code is an ancient tongue spoken by the hooded figures who worship a terrifying obsidian pillar in the sunken city of – oh, wait. Sorry! Wrong blog.

We’ve briefly looked over producing Morse code and making music. What if we’re receiving Morse code now? Today, we’ll be teaching the Arduino to translate Morse code back into English and use a microphone at the same time.

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News Tutorials

Introduction to Speakers

2015-02-05 Dan

What you see in the picture above is a piezoelectric speaker – a tiny, electrically controlled diaphragm. On the back is a small crystal. When there is power flowing through the crystal, the size changes, bending the diaphragm. The change in the diaphragm is what causes sound and music as we know it. Today, let’s go through how we can make music with a piezo and Arduino.

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News

Patrick Litchy’s Multicolor style

2015-02-04 Dan

Patrick is an artist of some renown, and on his way to Transmediale in Berlin he shared on his blog the secret of the unique Makelangelo coloring scheme he invented for his pictures of random internet cats.

Read about it here.

Patrick! Should we build “Litchy style” right into the Makelangelo?