Pico: It’s Small, Fast, Smart, And Suicidal
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 31 of October , 2007 at 3:54 am
If you thought Sandia’s Mini-Robots were tiny, the pico (which they inspired) is even tinier at half the volume. It’s also much more impressive, with a top speed of 0.5 foot per second and a 15 minute runtime, and it’s 100% home built by Zac Wheeler from commercial available (until recently, anyway) parts.
Pico’s pico-ness doesn’t leave room for a very big brain, which becomes immediately obvious as the pico throws itself off of a table as soon as it’s turned on. This happens twice more in the video below, and for some reason I find it hilarious. It’s nice to see a robot with such a single minded sense of purpose. It looks like the pico is in fact able to detect (via an infrared sensor) when it runs in to something, and will change direction when it does so. It’s also supposedly able to follow a line. Not bad for a little guy the size of a dime:
Originally, pico was meant to be buildable from a kit, and also was meant to be the precursor to a whole new pico division of competitive sumo robots. Unfortunately, some critical parts have been discontinued, and the kits are “not likely to be available anytime soon.” I for one hope that whatever interest is generated by blog exposure might just convince Zac to give it another shot, ’cause I’d buy one in a picosecond.
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Digg
No comments yet.