Building your own robot doesn’t have to be complicated, as long as you’re not building a complicated robot. Sure, you might have to learn how to solder or something, but building a bot is a great excuse to get comfortable with the skill. Vibrobots are about as simple as it gets: these robots use unbalanced motors (the things that make your cellphone vibrate) to power them along. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has a neat tutorial on how to make your own vibrobot with little more than a motor, a battery, a toothbrush, and some tape. Before you scoff at this little bot, at least take the time to watch the video below (or skip to the end of it, anyway) and see just how well it works… I guarantee you will be impressed:

If you like the idea but would rather fork over $60 for a pre-assembled, slightly fancier vibrobot, you can buy one at Etsy that runs on solar power rather than a battery. Check it out, after the jump. (Read more…)

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.

[ pico ] VIA [ TechEBlog ]

If you find yourself with too much time on your hands and you want to throw together something cool for Halloween at the last minute, then by all means build yourself this Robotic Dalek Pumpkin. Daleks are the robot villains from the classic Doctor Who show.(Just in case you live in a cave.)

Before you rush out to your local pumpkin patch and get the knives out, this isn’t just fancy pumpkin carving. It has motors and is remote controlled. It’s gonna take at least one or two trips to Radio Shack.

Should you choose to accept this mission, you will have the coolest Halloween pumpkin in your neighborhood. At least until it’s fleshy mass rots of course, and the flies gather around.

A short video of the cyber-pumpkin in action after the jump, as well as a step by step guide when you follow the link. I have to say, it moves pretty nice for a bionic pumpkin. The only thing it doesn’t have is the grating robot voice repeating “Exterminate”.

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If you like robots, and have always wanted to build your own robot, there’s no easier way to get started than with BEAM bots. BEAM is an acronym for biology, electronics, aesthetics, and mechanics, and basically refers to a family of robots that use simple analog circuits and simple design to perform simple tasks robustly. Usually they’re small, insect-like things, that can move around and react in a limited fashion to their environment. Thing Of The Month is offering a a 4 month BEAM bot subscription, which includes a different BEAM bot each month. The bots come in a kit from Solarbotics, and you do have to assemble them, but that’s part of the fun. Part of the fun is also learning how to solder, which (I found out) is way easy, and lots of fun.

I do have to mention that while these bots are pretty neat, I’d have to recommend trying out the PhotoPopper 5.0 kit (my personal favorite), also from Solarbotics. It was the first robot I ever built and worked wonderfully; you can read my review of the PhotoPopper 5.0 (with video) here.

The 4 month, 4 bot subscription costs $170, which is about the same as buying the 4 bots separately.

[ BEAM Bot Club ] VIA [ Wired ]

Aside from being part of the Botjunkie team, I am also an artist and part time collectibles/antiques dealer. In other words, I come across alot of cool vintage parts and for the last several years, I make robots with them.

Today, I’m going to show you how to build a simple Camera robot. A robot made from found objects that you may have laying around the house. I’ll give you some basic ideas on what you’ll need to build it, show you step by step how it can be done and at the end, I will show you some other vintage camera robots that I’ve made in the past to give you an idea of what other things can be done. You are only limited by your imagination. So, follow me after the jump for lots of pictures and a walkthrough.

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So you have a spare Playstation 1 sitting around, collecting dust. You’ve already moved on to Playstations 2 and 3. What does one do with an old gaming console? Put it on eBay? Sell it to an old lady at your next garage sale? Turn it into a robot, silly!

That’s exactly what Harold Ilano did. He took out the game consoles innards and built a cool looking insect robot that has light sensors so it can follow light sources. The video is basically an updated version of a game that many of us have played with our cats or dogs.(Shine the flashlight around the floor and watch them chase it.)

Apparently Harold never thought about just buying a cat. But we thank him for putting a technological twist on an old favorite. For a video and links, hit the jump.

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Thanks to the recent Transformers movie, there has been a renewed interest in all “Robots In Disguise”. This has gotta be one of the coolest examples. It is a case mod of the Motorola MOTOROKR E6 cell phone.

The downside is that the modded phone is rendered pretty much useless. But on the bright side, you now have one of the coolest cell phones ever in existence. Plus bragging rights. All of your friends will gather around you and watch as you make it transform.

More cool pics after the jump…

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By Evan Ackerman

Do you know someone who is scared of insects? How about giant robotic insects? If so, don’t get them one of these, because they are guaranteed to totally freak out and destroy it with the nearest large caliber weapon and it’s just too cool to get destroyed. The Gakken Mechamo centipede robot comes in a kit you can build yourself. It’s battery powered, fully controllable with an IR remote, a foot long when assembled, and scuttles around on 32 legs that move in an alarmingly organic manner:

Click here for a very thorough review (with more videos) of the centipede; you can buy your own for $99. Some assembly (but no soldering) required.

[ Gakkan Mechamo Centipede Robot Kit ] VIA [ technabob ]

By Evan Ackerman

Here’s a DIY video showing how to make your very own robot hand. Out of cucumbers and cheese. Need I say more?

[ MAYA: make Edible Robotics ] VIA [ Crave ]

No, this robot doesn’t serve any practical purpose… It just crawls around on six independently controllable legs and shoots fire out of its tail:

What, that’s not good enough for you? Well, it can also jump two feet straight up, thanks to an airbag mounted in its belly. Of course, it’s completely custom made, but if you really want one (or something just as dangerous), you can contact its master, Greathouse Labs.

[ Greathouse Labs ] VIA [ Hacked Gadgets ]