If you’d like to build your own vaguely humanoid robot, but don’t care about it getting around, then look no farther than Aster. 

The 3D-printed bot is controlled by an Arduino Uno, with a servo shield to actuate its 16 servo motors. This enables it to move its arms quite dramatically as seen in the video below, along with its head. The legs also appear to be capable of movement, though not meant to walk, and is supported with a column in the middle of its structure.

Aster’s head display is made out of an old smartphone, and in the demo it shows its eyes as green geometric objects, an animated sketch, and then, somewhat shockingly, as different humans. Print files for the project are available here and the design is actually based on the more expensive Poppy Humanoid.

As robotics advance, the future could certainly involve humans and automated elements working together as a team. The question then becomes, how do you design such an interaction? A team of researchers from Purdue University attempt to provide a solution with their GhostAR system.

The setup records human movements for playback later in augmented reality, while a robotic partner is programmed to work around a “ghost” avatar. This enables a user to plan out how to collaborate with the robot and work out kinks before actually performing a task.

GhostAR’s hardware includes an Oculus Rift headset and IR LED tracking, along with actual robots used in development. Simulation hardware consists of a six-axis Tinkerkit Braccio robot, as well as an Arduino-controlled omni-wheel base that can mount either a robot an arm or a camera as needed.

More information on the project can be found in the team’s research paper.

With GhostX, whatever plan a user makes with the ghost form of the robot while wearing an augmented reality head mount is communicated to the real robot through a cloud connection – allowing both the user and robot to know what the other is doing as they perform a task.
The system also allows the user plan a task directly in time and space and without any programming knowledge.

First, the user acts out the human part of the task to be completed with a robot. The system then captures the human’s behavior and displays it to the user as an avatar ghost, representing the user’s presence in time and space.

Using the human ghost as a time-space reference, the user programs the robot via its own ghost to match up with the human’s role. The user and robot then perform the task as their ghosts did.

Maker ‘pashiran’ purchased a music box which could be programmed with punch cards, but soon found that actually creating tunes this way by hand was exhausting. His solution was to automate the process, designing a fixture to punch the cards for him!

His new auto-programmer acts as a simple CNC machine, using stepper motors to roll cards into place and then move the punch head perpendicular to this motion to produce the correct note. The holes are punched out over and over with a DC motor, before being removed to play a beautiful tune on the mechanical music box. Computing power is provided by an Arduino Mega, while the user interface consists of an LCD display and an encoder. 

You can listen to the paper-punching project perform 250 notes from “Be Our Guest” below, plus find more details on how it was made here.

Convex regular icosahedrons contain 30 edges and 12 vertices. This makes for an interesting math problem, but as demonstrated by this project out of the LVL1 hackerspace in Louisville, Kentucky, its geometry also presents an excellent target for a massive number of LEDs.

Their build, in fact, consists of 708 programmable LEDs arranged facing inward on the edges and doubled over on each vertex support. These supports lead to a central stainless steel ball, reflecting a massive amount of light to the surrounding area. 

Everything is controlled by an Arduino Mega, along with an Uno-style prototyping shield, and power is provided by a massive 5V 60A supply unit.

Although he would probably rather be outdoors, after an injury Matt Ockendon had a lot more time to ride his Tacx Neo indoor trainer and tinker. He decided he wanted his rig to be able to simulate the grade of hills, but as commercially available units with this capability are quite expensive, he instead devised his own solution dubbed “OpenGradeSIM.”

Ockendon’s OpenGradeSIM utilizes a Nano 33 IoT to gather power and speed data from his trainer over BLE, then calculates the grade that would be needed to produce such results.

With this data in hand, the Nano controls a linear actuator using an L298N-based driver board to raise or lower the bike’s front end. The derived bike angle is sensed via the Nano’s built-in IMU, providing an elegant closed-loop system. Additionally, the incline is shown on a 1.3″ I2C OLED display that serves as a mini dashboard while Ockendon cycles.

Anyone who has ever gone to a bowling alley will know the preferred (but ineffective) technique to telepathically control a bowling ball. [Mark Rober] and [James Bruton] decided to change that and hacked a bowling ball that can be steered remotely (and discreetly), simply by leaning your body.

They started with a standard bowling ball, that was cut in half and hollowed out on a lathe. A beam sits on the centre line of the ball, mounted on a bearing in each half to allow the ball to spin around it. Steering done by shifting the centre of mass, by moving a steel pendulum that hangs below the beam side to side with heavy-duty servo. The servo is controlled with an Arduino, and an IMU to detects the balls orientation. Power is provided by and RC Lipo battery. The wireless controller is a sneaky little device that is taped to [Mark]’s back and covered with clothing, and steers the ball by detecting how far he leans with an IMU module. The brain is an Arduino Mini and an NRF24L01 provides the RF link.

While it’s not an easy build, it’s a fairly simple system electronically, with off the shelf electronics modules and perfboard. The genius is in the implementation and its entertainment value. The look on the kids faces when [Mark] “telepathically” controls the ball, after showing off the fact that he has zero natural ability, is absolutely priceless. [Mark Rober], a former NASA engineer, has made a name for himself with viral Youtube videos on cool projects like a glitter booby trap for package thieves and a liquid sand hot tub. [James Bruton], a former toy designer is known for his robotics prowess that he has put on display with OpenDog and functional Star Wars robots.

For us this hack is a perfect example of one that entertains and inspires, a powerful combination for young and old alike. Check out the awesome video after the break.

Like most one-year-olds, CodePanda’s son really likes pushing buttons. Rather than purchasing a so-called busy board that might teach him skills like unlocking doors or plugging in electrical outlets, he decided to build his own custom device controlled by an Arduino Uno.

The resulting toy features a wide variety of lights, buttons and switches, and makes sounds to keep the little guy entertained. In the center, a big green button activates an analog voltmeter, which not only looks cool, but actually indicates the battery level of the unit.

While you probably won’t want to build this exact interactive box, CodePanda’s project is available on GitHub for inspiration and/or modification!

While it’s yet to make its premiere, Matt Denton has already built the D-O droid from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker using a MKR WiFi 1010 for control, along with a MKR IMU Shield and a MKR Motor Carrier. 

The droid scoots around on what appears to be one large wheel, which conceals the Arduino boards as well as other electronics, batteries, and mechanical components. Denton’s wheel design is a bit more complicated mechanically than it first appears, as its split into a center section, with thin drive wheels on the side that enable differential steering.

On top, a cone-shaped head provides sounds and movement, giving the little RC D-O a ton of personality. The droid isn’t quite finished as of the video below, but given how well it works there, the end product should be amazing!

When using a virtual reality (VR) system, you may need to flip a switch, touch a button, etc., which can be represented by a carefully coordinated series of pixels in front of your eyes. As a physical alternative — or augmentation — researchers at the National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu, Taiwan have developed a system of interchangeable physical control panels, called FaceWidgets, that reside on the backside of head-mounted unit itself.

When a wearer places their palm near their face (and headset), this is sensed and an on-screen canvas appears depending on the application. They can then manipulate these widgets both physically and in the virtual world to control the experience. 

Physical interactions are detected with the help of an Arduino Mega and the facial control pad even extends and retracts for optimal usage via a motor shield and stepper motors.

We present FaceWidgets, a device integrated with the backside of a head-mounted display (HMD) that enables tangible interactions using physical controls. To allow for near range-to-eye interactions, our first study suggested displaying the virtual widgets at 20 cm from the eye positions, which is 9 cm from the HMD backside. We propose two novel interactions, widget canvas and palm-facing gesture, that can help users avoid double vision and allow them to access the interface as needed. Our second study showed that displaying a hand reference improved performance of face widgets interactions. We developed two applications of FaceWidgets, a fixed-layout 360 video player and a contextual input for smart home control. Finally, we compared four hand visualizations against the two applications in an exploratory study. Participants considered the transparent hand as the most suitable and responded positively to our system.

We’ve all committed the sin of making a little arduino robot and running it off AA batteries. Little Flash is better than that and runs off three 350 F capacitors.

In fact, that’s the entire mission of the robot. [Mike Rigsby] wants people to know there’s a better way. What’s really cool is that 10 A for 40 seconds lets the robot run for over 25 minutes!

The robot itself is really simple. The case is 3D printed with an eye towards simplicity. The brains are an Arduino nano and the primary input is a bump sensor. The robot runs around randomly, but avoids getting stuck with the classic reverse-and-turn on collision.

It’s cool to see how far these capacitors have come. We remember people wondering about these high priced specialty parts when they first dropped on the hobby scene, but they’re becoming more and more prevalent compared to other solutions such as coin-cells and solder tab lithium batteries for PCB power solutions.

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