May 2015

Servo Magazine

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Features

How I Came to Design Extraterrestrial Robot Submarines

Part 1: Probing Saturn’s Moon, Titan. Follow along with this NASA project that makes you think twice about what oceans really are.

Rodney Junior: Continuing Education

Learning is random and hap-hazard at first. Ultimately, you gain memories of what to do based on prior experience, then use this info in similar situations. This is basically how we learn ... and how robots can learn too.

Build Your Own 3D Printer with Actobotics

After a failed experience with a low cost kit, inspiration struck to design and build a custom 3D printer with some rock-solid construction material and some simple hand tools.

The Robotics Inventors Club

This unique club takes kids (ages 8-12) and turns them into robot-inventing moguls.

Servos the Right Way

Learn how to get the most out of servos in your robotics applications.

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Columns

Robytes
by Jenn Eckert, Jeff Eckert
Stimulating Robot Tidbits (05.2015)
Drag-Racing Octobot • Robotic Valet Saves Time, Space • And Your Little Dog, Too • You Say Tomato, I say “WTF?”

GeerHead
by David Geer
RoboSimian: Disaster Recovery Robot or Vaudeville Contortionist?
With four arm/legs that walk, grasp, and bend every which way, with seven joints per limb, the RoboSimian — like its close cousin, Surrogate — takes a decidedly unconventional approach to considering its next move and taking action.

Ask Mr. Roboto
by Dennis Clark
Your Problems Solved Here (05.2015)
Dealing with “blooming” on a 4D Systems’ uCAM-II serial camera.

Then and Now
by Tom Carroll
Robot Grippers, Claws, Hands, and Arms
Get a leg up on adding “appendages” to your next robot, and what is currently being used.

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Combat Zone

The Influence of Combat Robot Kits

in The Combat Zone

If you go to any robot combat event, you are bound to see at least one robot that comes from a kit.

Small Bot Masters — Dale Heatherington

in The Combat Zone

The pits at a DragonCon Robot Battles are full up with builder’s cruft and last-minute assembly frenzy.

A Brave New World

in The Combat Zone

This particular article chronicles my first leap into an all-custom competitive Beetleweight robot: El Destructo.

Opinion: Why Combat Robots?

in The Combat Zone

For a third of my life, I've been a competitor and champion in the world of combat robotics.

PRODUCT REVIEW: FingerTech Robotics’ Viper Kit with Lifter Add-on

in The Combat Zone

FingerTech Robotics has offered a "Viper" robot kit for quite a few years, but for a long time it was not really a great starter combat bot if you wanted something that would be competitive. It worked well enough, but without some extensive modifications it was difficult to turn it into a competitive combat robot.

EVENT REPORT: Motorama 2015 — Ice, Snow, and Beetles ... Lots of Beetles

in The Combat Zone

Winter was doing its best again to make life tougher on the East coast, but fortunately it did not have the same effect at Motorama (organized by NERC; [url=http://www.nerc.us]http://www.nerc.us[/url]) as it had last year when only two-thirds of the competitors made it.