It is no secret that you can try all kinds of fun projects with the right LEGO kits. anoukwipprecht has published a guide that shows you how to build mechatronic wings using a LEGO Mindstorms EV3. These wings can be programmed and animated.
Many of us have access to quadcopters these days. Not everyone follows the rules and uses them properly. We have already covered the police using drones to capture drones. The Dutch National Po0lice has decided to train eagles to do the job.
Here is a 4WD Tactical Robot with a tablet controller and WiFi that you can drive around and monitor from anywhere. It has a dome camera with 360 degrees of pan and 90 degrees of tilt. Its front bumper keeps the robot from flipping when driven into a wall.
We have covered plenty of robotic grippers here in the past. Not all of them can handle delicate objects. EPFL Scientists have developed a new robotic gripper that can grasp fragile or heavy objects. It is made of rubber and stretchable electrodes. This soft robotic gripper can bend and pick up eggs, paper, and other similar objects.
Teaching robots new skills is not always straight forward. In the future, robots will be able to learn by observing people. Take this UMD robot for instance. The Robot Visual Learner learns how to make a beverage by observing people. The robot is not just copying the action but understands its goal.
The robot relies on artificial reasoning, robot planning algorithms, and computer vision technology to do the job.
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Remember Dash? It is a cute educational robot that gets your kids familiar with programming. Launcher for Dash lets you do more with the robot. It is an accessory that turns your Dash Robot into a projectile launching machine. You will be able to control iOS and Android apps for Dash to load, launch, and reload. The kit comes with 3 projectiles and 6 stacking targets. Not too expensive either.
Robots are going to do many things for us in the future, including producing works of art. Otto is a cool robot that can draw vector shapes based on input from a computer. As you can see, the robot makes it look easy but there are many challenges involved with this project. Let’s not forget that chalk is not perfect and there is friction on the wall.
Building robots can be a great educational experience. We have already covered plenty of cool DIY robots here in the past. This Desktop RoboTurret from Robot Geek is also fun to build. It automatically tracks down and fires upon enemies. You are going to need a Pixy camera module, a RobotGeek pan/tilt base, a foam dart gun, and a Geekduino to get started.
Meet AirCar: a flying car and quadcopter that moves on the ground and in the air. It has a 4-axis structure and 6 axis gyro. The vehicle is capable of performing flips in the air. You get a 2.4GHz controller for it.
There are plenty of sophisticated robot kits available on the market. Many of them are programmable, which means you can teach your robots new tricks. As this video shows, you can teach robots to walk on a tightrope.
