Self-Folding Origami

Robert Wood of Harvard University, Daniela Rus and Erik Demaine at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology take us to a new level of robotic creepiness with self-folding origami.  The device is able to morph itself into new shapes using shape-memory alloys that line the edges of triangular modules.  Each module also sports a strong magnet that holds the final form after a module has executed a desired fold.

Practice Makes Perfecgt

From Flickr user mrbbking:

Two copies of the same circuit. The one on the right was done first, and is a pretty good rat's nest, if I do say so myself. The one on the left was built based on the other one, but with an eye toward clarity. Much easier to see what's going on! I guess that figuring out the layout based on a schematic is a skill that needs practice.

Inventor and 3D Printing Demo

Here's a time-lapse video I made demonstrating the Autodesk Inventor interface and 3D printing.  The model I'm making is a simple robot hand finger tip.  The total time, from conception to physical model, is about an hour.

USB Oscilloscope on the cheap

Build your own tools!
This ATiny45-based dual channel oscilloscope is home-made, cheap and simple.  It doesn't capture at high sample rates, but it's neat nonetheless.

Design, source code and interface code available here.