These motors are simply too cool not to have wheels for, and although you can screw on a wheel to the existing motor output arms, these GM10 wheels are much more convenient. We built a micro-sumo robot ("MicroVore" - yeah, we know it means "micro-eater") for the PDXBot competition last week, and came in third […]
Frogbots! Solar-powered, at that!
Dave Hrynkiw
December 15, 2000
I missed the full segment of this story last weeks on "Discovery Channel's @discovery.ca" program, but fortunately, the've put the segment online at their website. I seems that JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories - NASA essentially) is working on a solar-powered, single-footed robot frog. This seems like a GREAT idea for extra-terrestrial planet-surface locomotion. Check out the videos and see for yourself. Additional information at Space.com Even more technical information is here and here, in these Adobe Acrobat files from one of the researchers, Paulo Fiorini. Here's his homepage. And this is his dedicated Frogbot hompage - lots of interesting info!
Oh, and if you scroll to the bottom of the Discovery Channel / EXN page, you'll find a nice video clip of our favorite Roboticist, Mark Tilden. They shot this a few years ago, and I'm glad to see they resurrected it to be on this page.
MORE POSTS
New Solar Cell!
As Panasonic is no longer manufacturing their line of Sunceram solar cells, we've been on the hunt for suitable replacements. Here's our first find - the SCC3733! It's a polycrystaline cell in an epoxy casing, so it's a bit heavier, but much, much less prone to breaking or burning off of the solder-pads. It's also […]
Robots using GM15s
Sorry for the lack of posts lately. If you didn't already know, Solarbotics has been moving offices, and it's taken a surprising amount of effort to get everbody/thing moved and settled. Beyond that, I've found some time to websurf...just a bit! A GM15 linefollower? Neat!(Update!:)He's just posted a video of it going ~40cm/s (although he's […]
ScoutWalker III - limited stock!
We've managed to dig up enough parts to get six ScoutWalker III's together in time for Christmas. We'll have them ready by the end of the week for shipping, so if you don't mind waiting for your order to go until then, feel free to pre-order now!
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Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.