Robot Magazine - the latest hobby, science and consumer robotics, artificial intelligence

ROBOT EXCLUSIVE!

Basics of making
custom robot
brackets and
skeletal parts

—Cutting Sheet Metal
with a Sherline Mill

Matt Bauer is one of the top scratch builders of humanoid robots in
the U.S., sat on the Pleo robot dinosaur Alpha Development team and is owner of Bauer Independents, which offers hobby robotics accessories and related
products. Matt, a renowned humanoid roboticist, has competed at Robogames
in San Francisco and in Japan.
Click here to see Matt's tricks and tips
for making your own robot brackets
using a small Shirline mill.

EXCLUSIVE!
ROBOT-SPOTLIGHT

  CoroBots and Microsoft Robotics Studio at Vassar
   click here!

Check out our
exclusive
interview with
the CoroWare
executives
—click here.

Mythbuster Grant Imahara
shows how four students learned
to "wrench" on their VEXplorers.
Click here for the full article

ROBOT EXCLUSIVE

Revell's
VEXplorer
Up close

The VEXplorer hobby and educational robot kit is a
great entry level robotics platform that comes with
a gripper, remote video
cam and student
edition SolidWorks
design software.

ROBOT EXTENDED ARTICLE

Programming
Solutions for the
LEGO
Mindstorms NXT

Which approach is best for you?

A rich selection of tools is
available for programming
LEGO Mindstorms NXT
robots.

This extended article compares
and contrasts leading program-
ming environments and related
tools—a must read for hobbyists,
students and teachers deciding
how to program the NXT.

click here for details

Growing an Industry: A National Priority

Robot magazine Editor-in-Chief Tom Atwood had the privilege of presenting at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Educators Conference on the current status of the robotics industry in the U.S., and the challenges we face to grow these markets, which include technologies ranging from hobby to industrial robots.

Robotics initiatives in education are the solution for our country--this will help us preserve our leadership in technology. Robots motivate students and hobbyists, and they invoke the allure and wonder of science fiction. For the CMU presentation and a webpage with additional supporting sites, references, interviews and commentaries, click here.

ROBOT NEWS

A Talk With Bill Thomasmeyer

Bill Thomasmeyer, President of the National Center for Defense Robotics (NCDR) and executive vice president of The Technology Collaborative, techcollaborative.org, was interviewed by Robot editor-in-chief Tom Atwood on the importance of robotics to our national future. In his August 2007 remarks, Mr. Thomasmeyer addresses the importance of robotics in education as well as the Bipartisan Robotics Caucus—click here.

ROBOT NEWS

Bipartisan Robotics caucus to help focus national attention on robotics

Robot believes this new bipartisan caucus is a key initiative that will benefit industry, students, educators, hobbyists and our country across the board. For more, please see the robotics caucus press release and a letter you can use to involve your Congressional Representatives in this worthy cause.

ROBOT PREVIEW

Outdoor
Robotics
Power Plant

A hybrid power
supply using a
4-stroke engine
and an alternator

by Ken Gracey,
Parallax Inc.
kgracey@parallax.com

Click here for more information.

ROBOT EXCLUSIVE

VECNA's
Battlefield
Extraction-
Assist (BEAR)
Robot

A life-size humanoid robot that searches for and rescues
people

(an extended version of the article from the Summer 2007 issue)

ROBOT EXCLUSIVE

Under $400
Fully Functional Humanoid From Takara/Tomy

Takara/Tomy will be offering the "i-Sobot," a fully functional humanoid robot for approximately $300
(USD) in Fall 2007.

ROBOT EXCLUSIVE

Click here to
read this
article

Ugobe Pleo Likely To Be A Milestone In Robotics

Pleo is UGOBE’s first "designer life form",
based on the Camarasaurus
dinosaur and made up of
an amazing array of
sensors, motors (14!),
and distributed
computing with an
ARM-7 processor
commanding
it all.

Teaching With Robots

A Guide To Finding Curriculum and Resources

Robotics Summer Camps

ROBOT PHOTO ESSAY

Building The Lynxmotion BRAT

Exploring Humanoid Robotics Has Never Been Easier

This pictorial shows the assembly of Lynxmotion’s new BRAT, an entry level bipedal robot that is a milestone. With a starting price of less than $300, BRAT offers an affordable yet sophisticated entry into the humanoid robotics field. Use Lynxmotion’s powerful sequencing software and you will be able to program the coordinated movement of up to 32 servos (the BRAT biped uses only six servos). Continued