Animatronics and Cosplay

Instructables author Honus has posted this excellent tutorial on how he built an Animatronic Horus Guard Mask from Stargate.  The detail on his build is amazing - a fantastic blend of art and technology.  The heart of the build is an Arduino-based motion control rig, controlling 5 servos that move the bird head and the fans on the side.  The video below shows the mask in action.

Also check out Honus' other build: Predator

If you're interested in something a little... creepier, check out these animatronic babies:

A Maker Wedding

This post is a little late in coming, but this past March I married a wonderful and patient woman, Beth.  For our wedding we wanted to keep costs low and still make it very personalized, so we did all of the planning and made several custom pieces for our special day.  We planned color schemes, table settings, and the hall layout using InkScape - an open source SVG editor, and Beth made beautiful blue and black ribbon table squares for the centerpieces. I designed 3D printed candle holders, and custom ties for my groomsmen presents.

More details and fancy bits after the break.

GO GOL: Game of Life using Go Lang

Iggy Kracji's semester project for my Parallel Programming class (CSC471) was to implement Conway's Game of Life using the Go programming language and the Google App Engine.
The purpose of the class was to design, implement and analyze programs that run on parallel architectures, so his output is not pretty, but functional.

You can check out Iggy's code and analysis, and test it yourself at the App Site.

JunkPOV

For his Embedded Programming (RBT211) project this semester Ryan Carmain built a POV display using junk from around our hardware lab - principally the motor assembly of a Draganflyer (yes, those are propellers):

Video and source code after the break.

Graffiti Analysis Sculptures

Graffiti Analysis: 3D from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

Graffiti Analysis: Sculptures is a series of new physical sculptures that I am making from motion tracked graffiti data. New software (GA 3D) imports .gml files (Graffiti Markup Language) captured using Graffiti Analysis, creates 3D geometry based on the data and then exports a 3D representation of the tag as a .stl file (a common file format compatible with most 3D software packages including Blender, Maya and 3DS Max). Time is extruded in the Z dimension and pen speed is represented by the thickness of the model at any given point. I then have this data 3D printed to create a physical sculpture that serves as a data visualization of the tag. For the Street and Studio exhibition at the Kunsthalle Wein, I collaborated with an anonymous local Viennese graffiti writer and had the GA sculpture printed in ABS plastic. Graffiti motion data of his tag was captured in the streets (for the first time) at various points around Vienna.

More information (including software, source code, and many more pictures) can be found at Evan's website.

Human Tetris

Cornell Students Adam Papamarcos and Kerran Flanagan have built an awesome set of small games using micro-controller based video processing. The details of the build (excellently documented - my students should take note) are provided at the Cornell Project Website, and more videos detailing how the system works are available at Engadget.

The Facade Printer

Automated Paintball Turret = Large Scale Printer. 

This is a project I've wanted to build for years - my own concept was to construct a system powerful enough to paint a graphic on the side of a dorm at my Alma Mater from across campus.

Spinning RGB LED Ball

Unlike it’s predecessor this one has three axes. It was very challenging to build, with a total of 9 slip-contacts, not including the motors. I made it from scrap I had laying around and it took about a week to build. I use standard DC-motors controlled with pulse width modulation, the LEDs are controlled with a modified bike light with adjustable frequency.

More pictures via HackedGadgets

Natural Motion for CG Characters

New algorithms from NaturalMotion allow digital characters to dynamically and realistically respond to changes in their environment.  What is most interesting about this work is that the methods that they use are not hard-coded - rather than completely and painstakingly modeling the motion of walking characters by hand, they use a mixture of physics modeling and evolutionary algorithms to allow the system to 'learn' how to react to the environment.  This enables the characters first to learn about walking, then dynamically adapt to perturbations like pushes and hits from objects and other characters.  This results in very robust and realistic motion.

Man's Best Mechanical Friends

A gallery of robo-pooches via BoingBoing

A new look for the UAT Robotics Blog!

A New banner, thanks to the excellent graphic design skills of Phillip Taylor.

Bots Behaving Badly

Have you ever wanted to meet a Mythbuster in real life? Have you ever wanted to see behind the scenes of a ComBots event, and see how some of the world’s most badass robots are built? Now’s your chance to do both of those things at once! Enter the RoboGames 2010 Bots Behaving Badly Contest! Take a video, take a picture, or make a photoshop of a robot behaving badly, and submit it to YouTube, or Flickr. Get everyone you can to check it out, because the submission with the most views wins!!

How To Enter:

- Take a video or a picture, or make a photoshop of a robot behaving badly
- Upload it to YouTube or Flickr, with the tag “BadBots2010″ (IF YOU DON’T, YOU WONT BE ENTERED)
- Every submission MUST link prominently to RoboGames.net, and somehow be related to Bots Behaving Badly (this is at the judges’ discretion)
- Share your entry- send it to friends, post it on digg etc etc etc
- The entry with the most views wins!

Prizes:
1st Place: 2 tickets to RoboGames 2010, 2 passes to the RoboGames Builder’s Party on Friday, April 23, a RoboGames Goodie Bag, and access to the pit at RoboGames (where contestants build their robots) with a meet-and-greet with Mythbusters’ Grant Imahara

2nd Place: 2 tickets to RoboGames 2010, 2 passes to the RoboGames Builder’s Party on Friday, April 23, 2 RoboGames T-Shirts, and 2 packs of RoboGames Trading Cards

3rd Place: 2 tickets to RoboGames 2010, a RoboGames T-Shirt and a pack of RoboGames Trading Cards

Judges Award: 1 ticket to RoboGames and a RoboGames T-Shirt

Deadline: 4/22/2010 at 11:59pm

Can’t make it to RoboGames? No problem! Alternatives to tickets will be also available to winners!

All rules subject to change without notice

The Fine Print:
· Participants agree to abide by all rules and decisions set by RoboGames.
· RoboGames reserves the right to reject an entry for any reason.
· Should a winner be unable to attend RoboGames 2010, RoboGames will determine an appropriate substitute of approximately equal value.
· RoboGames reserves the right to modify or cancel the contest at any time, at its sole discretion.
· By submitting your entry and entering this contest, you grant RoboGames royalty-free rights to publish, reproduce, or otherwise distribute your work commercially or by any other means.
· Governing Law: All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of the official rules, or the rights of entrants, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with, the substance laws of the State of California and any applicable laws and regulations of the United States.
· You must be over the age of 18.

Massive Music Machine

Pat Metheny's Orchestrion.





If you've got $33, he's playing with the Orchestrion this Friday at the Mesa Arts Center.  See Tour Dates for details.

Spider Robots in Pictures

Wired has a great/creepy archive of arachnid automatons.

Spare Bots!

Flickr user Lenny&Meriel makes tiny robot scenes from scrap electronics components!

Robots in Pictures

The Boston Globe has a great series of robot pictures.  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

A hundred tiny feet...

This might be an awesome project for next semester's Mechatronics students.



The legs are based on Theo Jansen's designs.  You can get a good idea of how they work through this Actionscript Physics Engine simulation. My favorite "Strandbeest" is the Animaris Rhinoceros:

Kiva Robotics' Nutcracker

The Art of Visual Communication

A must for any engineer.

Howtoons: Visual Communication Guide

Via: BoingBoing