Here is a clip where Paul Merton is in China visiting Mr Woo who designs robots at his home out of junk and rubbish or whatever recycled junk parts he finds laying around. Mr. Woo’s robots are quite inventive, he even designed a 2 legged robot capable of pulling himself around in a rickshaw cart. However, most of Mr. Woo’s robots appear to be innovative, but fairly unconventional. Mr Woo is a rural Chinese farmer who taught himself to build fun kinetic robots. He has no money, no education, and no decent materials to work from but he ends up making pretty sophisticated and quirky-looking robots that can walk, pour tea, and best of all, pull a rickshaw. They are even quite hilarious, he gets great kudos for imagination. >D His wife hates it, but isn’t that always the case with every inventor?
Go Monty! You can do it!
This robot named Monty is a dynamically balancing robot designed and built by Trevor Blackwell of Anybots Inc. This robot has been trained to throw and catch a ball. It appears to drop the ball often, but the robot Monty does catch the ball when Trevor Blackwell throws it. I think this robot is cool because it not only balances on 2 wheels, it also is able to catch a ball with it’s mechanical robot hand and throw it back without falling over.
Lost in Space has got to be one the most classic robot shows ever made. Here is an Old-School video that I believe was done quite well. The Song is called The Robots by Kraftwerk.
Here is some good humor to give you a morning laugh, a brutal robot fight. This isn’t just any old fight between two people, it’s an epic battle between 2 robots to show who will be victorious. But there can be only one robot champion, and in order to win you must play by the rules of the robots… or not…
Some people were just born into robotics, and then some people were born to drink beer, and now there there is a happy medium,… mmmm… Beer Robots. These beer robots add a whole new dimension to practical robotics. Just think, many devices people make today require a lot of our personal time to use and maintain, but a real robot is able to help you save time and make you life that much easier. Now with beer robots, you can perfectly enjoy that ice cold beer while having a good time as well. No more having to get up out of your chair and missing the greatest moment of the sports game just to grab that one can of beer. I mean geez, what kind of world is this? Well do not worry anymore, because now people have developed the robots we have long been waiting for, introducing the Beer Robots!
The robot waitress server, Now you never have to get up again because this robot is ready to serve you, the beer drinking master. I do admit the waitress may need some redesign to look a bit more feminine, but it’ll do for now.
Now for the critical very last drop at the bottom of the glass, it’ll even shake it for you! How could you ask for anything better. Well, now that you mention it, it could be really neat if the robot set it on a conveyor belt after and sent it away right to your seat. But then again that is what the robot waitress server is for
I especially like how this beer pouring robot pulls off the bottle cap! it uses a nail off the wall of the garage to conveniently pull the cap off. Then it conveniently disposes of the excess bottles.
The Asahi Beer Pouring Robot may be a slightly more affordable robot for your beer drinking needs. Although not nearly as fascinating as the big beer pouring robots, the Asahi Beer Pouring Robot is compact and even works as a refrigerator to cool your beer before pouring you an ice cold beverage. The Asahi Beer Pouring Robot is even a production model designed for consumer use! Or consuming use, but either way I think you will be left completely satisfied.
Ahh, it always makes you feel good inside watching other people getting hurt after doing stupid things. Especially after dressing up in beer can boxes and claiming to be a beer robot. Don’t you agree?
I know all of us love watching TV and those popular football, baseball, basketball, hockey, or even girls volleyball games. But when your really getting into the game, I mean really getting into the game, it’s just such a pain to get out of your seat and get that ice cold beer…mmm. Well now a man by the name of John W. Cornwell has discovered the solution! John W. Cornwell designed a robotic beer launcher that also works as a refrigerator. The robotic beer launcher refrigerates your cans of beer and then launches the beer cans towards where you are sitting. The robotic beer launching fridge can also be remotely controlled and can launch a can with a catapult over a 13 foot distance. The robotic beer launching fridge can even be used for soda and other can sized beverages. It holds 10 beers in its magazine with 14 more in reserve to store a full case. All you have to do is use the remote control to aim the robotic beer launching fridge and then press the fire button! Then the robotic beer launching fridge is activated and uses an elevator to grab a beer and then it sends it to the catapult which launches the beer at you perfectly every time! It is built from easy to purchase parts and could even be built by you! For those of you who like the idea of never having to get up again from you couch and get an ice cold beer, then this is the device and project for you. You could even use the Parallax Propeller chip to program is with. Basic code to program the chip can be found the the Code Vault on this website. Just imagine how much this will impress you friends especially when drunk. You could save the day with your very own robotic beer launching fridge powered by the Parallax Propeller chip! The opportunities to use this at parties are endless, and it will give you an excuse to have another party. You can’t go wrong with this one.
Introducing “Robot Wrestling V2.3.0.1 Deathmatch”, “Round 1, Fight!” In a battle to see which robot can stay standing the longest, this little red robot seems to be taking first place! This cutthroat battle can only be won once all other bots have successfully been knocked down, literally. This little red robot is only in the lightweight division, but he is capable of knocking down a large robot twice his size, and he is very athletic too. He is constantly jumping and dodging and on the offensive ready to attack whenever his master desires. What a loyal robot, how could you ask for anything more? Did you see that bodyslam? That little red robot is pure perfection I tell you.
Now it’s time for you to make one of these robots with the Parallax Propeller microprocessor chip, if you decide to make one I will too, so we can battle! I’m serious about this. It would be awesome to make one of these with the Parallax Propeller chip. Probably wouldn’t be too expensive or difficult either. I looks like they used a RC radio controller to tell the little red robot where to go and what to do next. It look like the robots just have preset routines coded into the microprocessor and when certain button combinations are pressed, the robot will perform different moves. It looks simple, and it would almost be just like the fighting games for the PC or consoles but in real life instead! The Parallax Propeller chip is the way to go.
This is for those geeks who feel this game is impossible. Now there is a guitar hero robot designed just for playing Guitar Hero! It uses color sensing on the screen to detect when to press the buttons, and it uses solenoids like fingers to press the buttons on the actual Guitar Hero guitar. It’s fascinating to watch the robot while it gets a near perfect score every time! I’m sure if they work at it a little more they could perfect it to get a perfect score every time! Or you could try making a better one using the Parallax Propeller chip. There are photodiodes on the Parallax website for color sensing in the components section. A few of those and the solenoids just might do it, but you might even be able to use servos for testing purposes (assuming you can get them to push the buttons down all the way). Have fun, and soon you’ll be able to beat all your friends!
Here’s a project you can try at home! This shows you how to create a high definition speaker for under a buck!
When watching How to Create a High-Def speaker for under a buck, you may think to yourself, “Hmm, I wonder if this works?” Haha, the answer is no. This is not the way to make a high definition speaker for under a buck. In fact, even if you did get a speaker to work for under a buck it wouldn’t be high definition. When marketers claim a speaker has “High-Def” they are mostly just trying to get you to buy their product. It’s an appeal to logic based on semi-false claims.
The way a speaker works is based off the basic principles of an electro magnet. You have to start with some form of a coil that will create an electromagnetic field to push or pull a speaker cone back and forth. All the cone does is push air and create vibrations by pushing and pulling at a certain frequency determined by the pulses generated by the music payer.
So in a nutshell, here is how something like a set of headphones works: The music player sends out pulses that flow into the electromagnetic coil, and the electrical pulses are turned into an electromagnetic field that pushes or pulls on either a big magnet or just something metal that is magnetic. The object pushed or pulled is connected to something big and flat but also lightweight that will push lost of air. The more air that can accurately be pushed at one time, the lower the frequency of bass can be produced.
However the lower the frequency and the larger the amount of air pushed the more power you need to make it work. Headphones usually don’t have much base because they can’t get enough power to produce sound. So if you want more bass and more volume you need an amplifier. The way you get what advertisers call “High-Def” is by creating a full range of sound over the whole sound spectrum, and also doing this by having a balanced volume over all the frequencies. The only way to do this is by having speakers of different sizes. Although there all “full-range speakers”, you still get better sound by having multiple sizes of speakers.
Why the speaker in the video doesn’t work:
1. In the video “How to Create a High-Def speaker for under a buck”, they used a paper plate to push air, but they didn’t have an electromagnetic coil to push the plate and air back and forth.
2. In the video “How to Create a High-Def speaker for under a buck”, they are hooking it straight into an iPod that won’t put out enough power (amps) for a speaker that size.
3. In the video “How to Create a High-Def speaker for under a buck”, they claimed you can get “High-Def” from the one speaker, but they are wrong, you need more than one.
4. In the video “How to Create a High-Def speaker for under a buck”, they used people’s ignorance to get them to make something and get confused and angry. They were all victims of a hoax. Congratulations.
But on the brighter side, they are ways to make a simple speaker out of a cup or a bowl that do work. And you can even make them for under a buck. Here is one design below, just make sure it has an electromagnetic coil for pushing and pulling air.
For those of you who are engineers, or those of you who are engineers as heart, know how difficult it is sometimes to find proper test subjects to do experiments on. And so, as a result we tent to improvise as did these poor folk in this video. But you have to admit they are brilliant, I never would have thought about generating power off my cats via static electricity. I mean come on!, they even found a way to make a musical cat!
Now it is the task of you and I to generate enough electricity off a cat to power your Parallax Propeller chip. It really won’t take much, and just think about all of the exciting things you could do! Such as creating blinkers for you cat when it turns left or right, or a beeper for when it backs up. Here is a preliminary design idea for you to think about. I think this just might work!
