What do you do when you want your plants to grow but you lack a green thumb? Give them wheels and the ability to seek out sunny and shady spots on their own. This was media artist Kathleen McDermott has done.

The aptly named Sunbot and Shadebot are robots that help houseplants tour the outside world. Sunbot uses photocell (light) sensors to look for sunny places to rest, while Shadebot employs the same sensors to locate shadowy spots.

Both platforms are made out of a recycled fan case and wood, along with an Arduino, DC motors, rechargeable batteries and solar panels.

See them in action below!

As its name would suggest, the LittleArm is a mini 3D-printed robot that began as a weekend project. Its creator Gabe Bentz wanted a small arm that was easy to work with, and one that wouldn’t require him to dig deep into his wallet. So, as any Maker would do, he decided to design his own low-cost device.

After showing the LittleArm off, it wasn’t before long that he was approached by some STEM teachers in the area who wondered if the kit was something they could use in their classrooms. Ideally, every student should have one to tinker with, but unfortunately today’s systems tend to be too expensive and quickly loose parts and pieces. This is a problem that LittleArm is looking to solve.

The arm is powered by an Arduino Uno and four identical metal-geared micro servos, while all other mechanical components are 3D-printed. There’s also a modular gripper that’s actuated by a servo along with rigid end-effectors for various tasks. What’s more, a basic GUI enables you to control the arm, its gripper, the speed, as well as use its record function to train the robot to perform a specific task and then watch it play out the sequence.

The entirely open-source gadget comes as a DIY kit that can be purchased or built from scratch. Want one of your own? Check out Bent’z Kickstarter page here, and see the LittleArm in action below (including some of its dance moves).

Graham and Sam worked together to create a robotic gripper controlled with a glove and strong enough to hold household items.

Read more on MAKE

The post Our Journey in Building a Glove-Controlled Robotic Gripper appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

AR-Duo is a steampunk telepresence robot that shows off the skills and ingenuity of a school's metal shop.

Read more on MAKE

The post This Telepresence Robot from the 1800s Helps Promote Metal Shop appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

Sam Baumgarten and his friend have developed a pretty rad robotic gripper with the help of Arduino and 3D printing. The gripper itself consists of three large hobby servos joined to the fingers with a linkage. The underactuated fingers have a force sensor under each contact point, while the control glove is equipped with tiny vibrating motors at the fingertips. This, of course, provides haptic feedback to ensure that the user doesn’t crush anything–the greater the pressure, the stronger the motors vibrate.

The gripper is mounted to a handle with abrasive tape–the same kind found on staircases and skateboards. The tape is also used on each finger for optimal gripping. A box at the base of the pole houses all of the electronics, which include an Arduino Pro Mini for controlling the addressable LEDs on top, another Arduino for handling the communication and fingers, and a battery for power.

Aside from the vibration motors, the glove features flexible resistors on the back of the fingers, an LED strip for visualization, a breakout board for measuring the resistance from the flex sensors, a battery, an Arduino Uno for processing, and an XBee module for transmitting the signals to the Arduino in the gripper.

If you think this sounds awesome, wait until you see it in action. Baumgartnen has shared a demo of the project, along with a detailed breakdown of his build. Kudos to Hackaday for finding this incredible piece of work!

While this recent project may look like something straight out of Simone Giertz’s notebook, it’s actually the brainchild of James Cochrane. The engineer, who admittedly loves building all sorts of crazy machines, has developed an apparatus he calls the IoT Robot People/Pet Affectionator.

As its name would suggest, the Affectionator is an Arduino Nano-driven device that automatically gives his dog T-Bone a pat on the head along with a spoon-fed treat at the touch of an arcade button. That’s not all, though. It even allows the pup to reciprocate by pressing his own button and sending over a token of his appreciation on a fork–which in Cochrane’s case is a gummy worm.

Aside from the Arduino, the Affectionator is equipped with two H-Bridge motor drivers, two geared Pittman motors, and two geared hobby motors.

These days people are more connected with each other, however we are experiencing fewer physical interactions. This device will allow you to provide affection either locally or remotely to your pet without any physical contact. If your pet decides you are also worthy of their affection they can also reciprocate with a pat on the head and a tasty treat.

One day while giving my dog T-Bone a scratch behind the ears I came up with this silly idea. A robot which gives you a pet on the head and feeds you a treat. With the IoT, you can also build two of these and network them across the Internet.

Intrigued? Watch the hilarious idea in action below!

The Da Vinci system is one of the most popular surgical robots around, which allows surgeons to perform operations through only a few small incisions. The device works by translating a doctor’s hand movements into smaller, precise movements of tiny instruments inside the patient’s body. As ubiquitous as they may be in hospitals, chances are it’s never been operated quite like this before.

That’s because Julien Schuermans has managed to connect the robotic surgical tool’s hardware up to a LeapMotion controller, making its small forceps gesture-controlled. You can see how it all works in the video below.

As The Verge explains, four Arduino Uno-controlled servos are fitted to the pulleys and cables that handle the rotation, angle and gripping mechanism. Gesture input is captured by the Leap Motion’s infrared cameras, which is then converted into instructions for these servos, enabling the user to command the endoscopic device with just a wave of the hand.

A team from ETH Zurich has created an incredible submersible robot called Scubo as a way to scan entire coral reefs. Equipped with six onboard webcams, the omnidirectional device is capable of exploring the deep sea from every angle. What’s more, users can take a virtual dive by throwing on a pair of VR glasses to make it feel as if they’re swimming with marine life.

Scubo consists of an Arduino Due for hard real-time tasks, an Intel NUC for high-performance calculation, an IMU, and a pressure sensor — all housed inside a carbon cuboid. Eight thrusters are symmetrically mounted to the outside, one at each corner, while a tube goes through the box to ensure proper water flow and to keep the electronics cool. The system is neutrally buoyed and weight in the form of screws can be added to the thruster arms to adjust buoyancy and the center of gravity.

One of its creators Johann Diep tell us, “We chose to work with Arduino because it offers the required interface (I2C, SPI, etc.), it is easy to program (none of us ever worked with Arduino at the beginning), and there is a large community on the web that is very supportive with our questions.”

A tether connects Scubo to a computer outside the water and the power source, which allows the camera pictures to be viewed live and the batteries to be recharged with a steady current. According to the team, this highly extends the operation time, though the batteries would last approximately 120 minutes under standard conditions without recharging.

Scubo is based on ROS, and with the rosserial_arduino package, they are able to send or receive commands on a laptop from the Arduino. This enables them to steer the bot with a SpaceMouse joystick while monitoring all the sensor messages (pressure, leakage, temperature, voltage, etc.) at the same time.

It should be noted that Scubo isn’t only restricted to coral research either. In fact, the underwater machine was built with modularity and entertainment in mind as well. Users can easily attach their own sensors, lights and HD cameras via one of five universal ports.

We are confident that Scubo has great potential for the future. Since every necessary sensor is already implemented, Scubo can be programmed to scan a coral reef or any other place fully autonomous. Telepresence could be used in many aquariums or in the sea for entertainment. Because of the module ports different kinds of sensors and devices can be connected and used, for example to generate a geographical map of the sea floor or to inspect boats.

Whether corals in the Caribbean, the shore of Lake Zurich or even a virtual dive in an aquarium — Scubo not only convinces with its captivating technology but also with its modern design. Innovation starts when science meets entertainment.

Intrigued? You can read more about the project on its website, and check out its trailer video below.

Do you dream of developing a hot, new hardware gadget and bringing it to market? Maybe your goal is to make the world better with your product, or perhaps you just want to get filthy rich selling your product. Developing a project prototype using an Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or other […]

Read more on MAKE

The post Turn Your Electronics Project into a Sellable Product appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

An entry in this year’s Hackaday Prize, Dtto is a snake-like robot designed to be modular and self-reconfigurable.

Inspired by Bruce Lee’s famous water quote, Dtto can transform into various shapes by changing the position and connection of its 3D-printed modules. As Hackaday points out, each section of Dtto is a double-hinged joint. When two come together, magnets help them align. A servo-controlled latch solidly docks the sections, which then work in unison. Impressively, it can connect and separate segments autonomously – without any human intervention. Creator Alberto believes the versatility of the bot will enable it to perform rescue missions, explore unknown environments, and operate in space.

The open-source robot consists of an Arduino Nano, a Bluetooth HC-06 module, an NRF2401+ radio transceiver, two SG92R Tower Pro servos for main movement, three Tower Pro SG90 micro servos for coupling, and a WS2812 RGB LED. For its latest iteration, the Maker has made a few design improvements to allot for 25% more internal space, a data bus connecting the two blocks and Tower Pro MG92B motors. Future modules will even include a built-in camera, an ultrasonic sensor, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and a magnetometer, to name just a few. Until then, you can follow along on its project page and check out a few of its videos below.