The creator doesn’t have a name for it past “Little Walking Robot”, but I could think of a few words to describe it: Awesome, sexy, and umm, Awesome.
No but really, thing thing is a marvel of aesthetic design and function. Has a Steampunk meets “Dragoon from Starcraft” look to it. The inventor of this beauty has a well written blog detailing his progress and some of the problems he ran into along the way, as well as a Flickr photo set. This bot is all custom built from a mix of hand-built parts, as well as some waterjet steel frame components from our friends at Big Blue Saw.
Check the video below for the bot in action, big thanks to Big Blue Saw for the scoop.
I remember being blown away at how strong my first hobby servos were when I built my Hexapod 2 from Lynxmotion about 12 years ago. In comparison, they were literally just a fraction of the strength of modern digital servos, and the gap widens even further when put up against a robotic actuator such as the RX-64 Smart Actuator.
I was working on my mech Hagetaka the other night and made the mistake of grabbing at the robot to stabilize it while it was moving, and managed to graze my finger in one of the joints. It drew blood and immediately reminded me that working with these types of servos was an entirely different ballgame than your standard hobby servo. With that in mind, we put together a little demonstration video of just how powerful these servos can be! Enjoy!
While most participating in the robotic educational and combat competitions know the Banebots name rather well, we wanted to make sure that other roboticists out there knew how awesome their line of wheels are.
Finding the right wheels for a robot is often a difficult ordeal. Matching wheel size to hubs and motor shafts can take a lot of searching, custom machining, trial and error. Banebots has solved the problem with their modular hub and wheel system. With hubs fitting motor shafts from 2mm up to 1/2 inch and wheel diameters from 1-3/8” to 4-7/8 people can mix and match to get the perfect fit for their needs. The Banebots line also offers 3 levels of rubber hardness for each wheel.
Looking for sprockets? We had a surplus of various steel sprockets and lock collars from McMaster Carr and decided to put them into Grab Bags at a deep discount to clear them out. Perfect for your next big bot! These are not ‘random’ grab bags in that we are guaranteeing that you will receive a specific quantity of each type of sprocket, check out the product page for details. Now aside from the guaranteed sprockets and parts, we’re also throwing in an additional 9-10 random parts as a bonus! These Grab Bags would retail for about $150, and we’re selling them for a third of that. Get ‘em while they last!
Editor’s note: Sorry folks, all sold out! Stay tuned for our next Grab Bag and/or limited time special!
We’re offering a limited time only Grab Bag of random parts, which is sure to make the geek and packrat in all of us cry out in glee.
We estimate the retail value on the parts included in this Grab Bag at over $100!
We’ve been cleaning house around here, moving out older products bringing in new… and during this spring cleaning we realized we were ending up with a large supply of very cool little gizmos and random parts. Rather than try and sell it piece by piece, we figured it would be fun to divide it all up evenly (based on value) into 30 Random Grab Bags!
Now these Grab Bags are a dream come true for tinkerers and experimenters alike. Since these parts were just going to gather dust, we figured we would mark them down to an insanely low price to get rid of them ASAP. We’re going to keep the contents a mystery as that’s half the fun of a Random Grab Gag… but I will say that all of them have at least $20 worth of aluminum parts alone.
The last time we did something like this these Grab Bags flew off the shelves, so get them while they last. You don’t find deals like this very often! We only have 30 Grab Bags available and that is it.
We’ve recently started seeing the flurry of activity that marks when teams building for the upcoming national robotics competitions start shopping. Since we stock a very large selection of robot parts, finding what you need can be a bit daunting at first. To assist builders, we’ve launched our FIRST Starter Page to help get people pointed in the right direction. Within it we’ve listed the most popular items we see flying off the shelves every competition season, laid out in an easy to navigate manner. If you or someone you know is looking for parts for their competition entry, point ‘em this way!
But we’re preparing for when she shows up to blow us away, because this might very well be the start of Skynet.
Robot pr0n warning. (Click for a larger picture)
Well, at least nobody can accuse us of under-engineering. Yup, that’s a pyramid of RX-64s. This is a teaser photo of a new project brewing in the Trossen Robotics Lab for the upcoming Mech Warfare competition. A fully custom aluminum frame and bracket system is being machined courtesy of Big Blue Saw, our sponsor on the project. Did we mention we’re giving it weapons? /snicker
Our friends over at Big Blue Saw are having another sale, which is pretty much a dream come true for Roboticists building their own bots. They are generously offering discount quantity pricing on as little as single part orders, which means major savings for anyone looking to get custom work done for their projects. If you’ve ever looked into machine shop pricing you’ll know what a fantastic deal this is, you won’t find pricing like this anywhere so be sure to check them out! Founder Simon Arthur explains the details:
Big Blue Saw’s latest sale starts Tuesday, December 16, 2008 and ends Tuesday, January 6, 2009.
With this sale any aluminum 6061 parts of 0.1 inch or 0.063 inch thickness are automatically automatically eligible for a quantity discount — even on orders of as little as one part!
This is an excellent opportunity to try our services — you can order just one small part, and save on the setup charges.
This offer is valid for orders placed through our online ordering system only.
About the materials
Aluminum 6061
One of the perennial favorite materials at Big Blue Saw, the 6061 alloy of aluminum features excellent strength and light weight. It is weldable and has good corrosion resistance. This alloy is a true “aircraft aluminum”. Among many other applications, it was chosen by NASA to construct the crew cabin of the Space Shuttle.
It’s no secret that Parallax makes some awesome robot parts, but recently they’ve stepped up their game with the addition of custom CNC’d components. Specifically, the Motor Mount & Wheel Kit and their Caster Kit which provide the mechanical basics for an excellent robotics platform.
Parallax’s recent newsletter, The Parallaxian, has a cool little project overview showing just how easy it is to create a wheeled robot base using some of their spiffy new components and good old plywood. Used in this project is the Motor Mount & Wheel Kit, the Caster Kit, and a pair of HB-25 Motor Controllers. What we found neat was how simple this robot was to design. Rather than go through the trouble of designing the base in CAD and having it milled, the components were just laid out onto plywood, traced their outline, and holes for mounting them were cut and drilled using a jigsaw and drill. Ingenious! Be sure to check out the Parallaxian Newsletter for details.
A challenge many roboticists and experimenters face is finding a way to get custom metal parts built for their projects. Not everyone can afford to invest thousands of dollars into tools, which is where Big Blue Saw can help. They specialize in custom laser cutting and waterjet machining, and allow builders to place small orders to avoid the high minimum order amounts that most local shops charge.
Big Blue Saw founder and fellow roboticist, Simon Arthur, has been kind enough to give our community the ‘heads up’ when Big Blue Saw is offering specials. We wanted to let all the ‘bot builders out there know about their current sale!
Announcing: Big Blue Saw’s pre-Thanksgiving Sale
From November 20 to November 25, 2008 Big Blue Saw will be having a pre-Thanksgiving sale. Customers will receive quantity discounts on parts made from select materials.
* Aluminum 5052 alloy, 0.08″ thickness
* Aluminum 6061 alloy, 0.125 inch (⅛”) thickness
* Cold roll 1018 carbon steel, 0.125 inch (⅛”) thickness
Any order of less than 10 parts will automatically be eligible for a quantity discount.
Many of you are visiting our website for the first time due to the buzz around the web about this sale. This is an excellent opportunity to try our services — you can order just one small part, and save on the setup charges.
About the materials
Aluminum 6061
One of the perennial favorite materials at Big Blue Saw, the 6061 alloy of aluminum features excellent strength and light weight. It is weldable and has good corrosion resistance. This alloy is a true “aircraft aluminum” and is often used in airplanes and spacecraft.
Aluminum 5052
We have recently added 5052 alloy aluminum as a new standard material here at Big Blue Saw in order to meet the needs of our customers who needed an aluminum alloy that is much easier to bend and form than 6061. It also has good weldability and excellent corrosion resistance.
Cold roll 1018 carbon steel
This carbon steel helps in situations where you need greater strength than aluminum can provide. It has good weldability and will wear better than aluminum.
