April 2012

Servo Magazine

---

Features

Dynamixel and ROS: Towards Affordable Manipulators — Part 1

Meet some of the cool technology that is available right now that you can use to build a sophisticated sensor-based robot arm for a reasonable price.

---

Projects

Creating a SpindleBot — Retro Turtle Robot Construction Tutorial

Witness the birth of a whole new class of robots that can be affordably used for education and hobbyists.

Sounding Off

This time, build a music-controlled Arduino Tunebot.

---

Columns

Robytes
by Jeff Eckert
Robytes
Stimulating Robot Tidbits.

GeerHead
by David Geer
GeerHead
Roboticist Achieves Human-Aided Robot Hand-Eye Coordination.

Ask Mr. Roboto
by Dennis Clark
Ask Mr. Roboto
Your Problems Solved Here.

The NXT Big Thing
by Greg Intermaggio
The NXT Big Thing
Chariot of Fire.

Then and Now
by Tom Carroll
Robot-Assisted Prostate Surgery
Cancer! That’s a word we all dread to hear, whether about someone we know or especially concerning ourselves. As a reader of a robotics magazine, I’d like to take you on a trip into an operating room with a robot performing surgery on a person: me.

---

Combat Zone

BUILD REPORT: Nyx, Sportsman, and Dragon*Con 30 lb Bot — Part 2

in The Combat Zone

With a fresh pile of parts and Motorama just over a month away, I got a quick jump on assembling Nyx.

The History of Robot Combat: The Rise of the Insects — Part 1

in The Combat Zone

For most of robot combat’s history, the mantra was “the bigger, the better." However, in the years immediately following the cancelling of BattleBots, the spirit of the sport changed to become even more grassroots and inclusive to new builders. Enter the Insect weight classes.