Bot Bench I'd Rather Be Building Robots

A new release of the Driver Suite has been uploaded to Source Forge. Changes: A driver for the new HiTechnic Magnetic Sensor has been added, together with an example program for normal use and for with the Sensor MUX. Added a driver to send and receive messages to and from an RCX using the IR Link.  You can also control ...

The “Minifig Vomit Mobile” is what my friend Marc-Andre called the omniwheel I took the video of.  I felt that in order for that name to be more accurate, I had to add a minifig to the robot, so here he is, on the left.  Unfortunately, this one has no internal organs, being a skeleton and all, so there is, ...

Literally. The omniwheel is capable of going in any direction you want, it can also rotate on the spot.  So I thought, why not combine the two and make it rotate and move?  After picking Brian Davis’ sizable brain about using a gyro as a means to calculate a heading, I tweaked my old program and came up with this. ...

The Rotacaster wheels are not only great for making holonomic robotic platforms but also for the more mundane robotics models such as the one pictured above.  This is a simple construction meant to illustrate the idea. The advantage of using a wheel like this over a standard caster wheel is that this can take a lot more weight without losing ...

HiTechnic have released a new sensor, the Magnetic Sensor.  It can detect magnetic fields when oriented in the correct direction.  Depending on how the field passes through the sensor, the value it returns increases or decreases. You could use this to detect small magnets you have put in your obstacle course or maze to mark specific positions, like cross roads, ...

The GPS sensor is working like a charm.  Once it acquired the satellites outside on the balcony, it was able to keep the lock even when I moved the whole thing inside.  This picture was taken from inside my Lego Lair, about a meter from the window.  Not bad, eh?  I verified the position (blurred out) with my Android phone ...

Sunday morning and all is quiet in the Soldaat house.  This is the current state of my Lego Lair, as my wife likes to call it. It’s a bit of a mess and I’m starting to have trouble finding things on my desk.  When I am done writing this post, I’ll do some tidying up. Some cool things I’m working ...

Something that’s been brewing in the labs of Dexter Industries is sitting on my desk as I type this.  It’s an NXT compatible GPS sensor.  As you can see, it’s very compact.  It’s still a prototype and chances are the final version will probably use more surface mounted components to make it smaller, still. The info on the chips and ...

I made a quick video to show off the Rotacaster wheels.  As you can see traction is really great.  I will do further testing on various surfaces. The wheels’ small size give you great control when directly driving them from the motor; there is no need for additional gearing down.  This allows you to make a very compact construction. Additional ...

This morning the mailman had another package for me!  It was a padded envelope with nothing less than the 4 Technic axle compatible holonomic wheel prototypes from Rotacaster.  I haven’t had a chance to build anything with them but my first impressions are: Very compact, they’re about 3.5 units wide and about 6 units in diameter; Quiet!  They’re all plastic, ...