Robot Magazine - The latest hobby, science and consumer robotics, artificial intelligence

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Toy Robot
and
Remote Control Robots Are Fun
Toys
For All Ages.

ROBOT EXCLUSIVE!

MEET THE MULE,
A MULTIPURPOSE U.S. ARMY UGV

Anatomy of a U.S. Army Warrior Bot

This "current production" UGV is well into its development, and can be used for surveillance, payload transport or in military operations. The photo-realistic image was created by author Francis X. Govers, who was formerly Deputy Chief Engineer for UGVs in the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems program. For his riveting account of this vehicle's capabilities, click here.

The Winners of the Grant Imahara VEXPlorer Robot Challenge!

For details on the first and second place winners, who won thousands of dollars in scholarship prizes, and for amazing YouTube videos showing the creative genius of all the winning entrants, click here.

EXCLUSIVE:
What’s Up? Dock!

ROBOT EXTENDED ARTICLE

Take charge of your Scribbler
Robot’s IR Capabilities

By Eric Ostendorff

In this robot hack how-to,
Erick Ostendorff shows how
to modify a Parallax Scribbler
robot so that it will (1) follow a
TV remote’s infra red beam and
(2) find and dock with a custom
built charging station. Click here to
check out Eric’s ingenious Scribbler mods.

2 Videos for the Parallax Scibbler from Eric Ostendorff!

Look to the right in the "Online Only" section to find both videos.

ROBOT EXCLUSIVE!

GRASSROOTS
ROBOTICS

VEX Explosion! Robots swarming Indiana high schools
In the last two years, 560 Indiana teachers received VEX robots & training under a program funded by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, a state agency, and hundreds of additional teachers will be involved in 2008. Dan Ward, Design Technology Program chairman at Ivy Tech Community College, has led this pioneering initiative.

Click here to read our exclusive interview with Dan Ward.

FIRST Robotics Competition
Selects National Instruments
CompactRIO for
Next-Generation
Robot Control
System

More Than 42,000
Students in the FIRST
Robotics Competition Will Develop Advanced Robotics Applications Using the NI Robotics Platform Powered by NI LabVIEW. Click here for more.

ROBOT GOES BIMONTHLY!!
An expanding robotics marketplace plus readership demand has boosted Robot magazine to a 6X yearly frequency!

ROBOT EXCLUSIVE!

Speecys SPC-101C

An elegant, sophisticated
humanoid for developers

22 degrees of freedom include
the ability to tilt the torso backwards
and forwards and rotate its wrists.

For details click here!

ROBOT EXCLUSIVE!

Basics of making
custom robot
brackets and
skeletal parts

—Cutting Sheet Metal
with a Sherline Mill

Matt Bauer is one of the top scratch builders of humanoid robots in
the U.S., sat on the Pleo robot dinosaur Alpha Development team and is owner of Bauer Independents, which offers hobby robotics accessories and related
products. Matt, a renowned humanoid roboticist, has competed at Robogames
in San Francisco and in Japan.
Click here to see Matt's tricks and tips
for making your own robot brackets
using a small Shirline mill.

EXCLUSIVE!
ROBOT-SPOTLIGHT

  CoroBots and Microsoft Robotics Studio at Vassar
   click here!

Check out our
exclusive
interview with
the CoroWare
executives
—click here.

ROBOT EXTENDED ARTICLE

Programming
Solutions for the
LEGO
Mindstorms NXT

Which approach is best for you?

A rich selection of tools is
available for programming
LEGO Mindstorms NXT
robots.

This extended article compares
and contrasts leading program-
ming environments and related
tools—a must read for hobbyists,
students and teachers deciding
how to program the NXT.

click here for details

Growing an Industry: A National Priority

Robot magazine Editor-in-Chief Tom Atwood had the privilege of presenting at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Educators Conference on the current status of the robotics industry in the U.S., and the challenges we face to grow these markets, which include technologies ranging from hobby to industrial robots.

Robotics initiatives in education are the solution for our country--this will help us preserve our leadership in technology. Robots motivate students and hobbyists, and they invoke the allure and wonder of science fiction. For the CMU presentation and a webpage with additional supporting sites, references, interviews and commentaries, click here.

ROBOT PREVIEW

Outdoor
Robotics
Power Plant

A hybrid power
supply using a
4-stroke engine
and an alternator

by Ken Gracey,
Parallax Inc.
kgracey@parallax.com

Click here for more information.

ROBOT EXCLUSIVE

VECNA's
Battlefield
Extraction-
Assist (BEAR)
Robot

A life-size humanoid robot that searches for and rescues
people

(an extended version of the article from the Summer 2007 issue)

ROBOT PHOTO ESSAY

Building The Lynxmotion BRAT

Exploring Humanoid Robotics Has Never Been Easier

This pictorial shows the assembly of Lynxmotion’s new BRAT, an entry level bipedal robot that is a milestone. With a starting price of less than $300, BRAT offers an affordable yet sophisticated entry into the humanoid robotics field. Use Lynxmotion’s powerful sequencing software and you will be able to program the coordinated movement of up to 32 servos (the BRAT biped uses only six servos). Continued