I am NXT 3-Point Bend Tester. Please Insert Girder.

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Learning with visuals can be very helpful.  Learning with models made from NXT Mindstorms is just plain awesome, as [Rdsprm] demonstrates with this LEGO NXT 3-point bend tester that he built to introduce freshmen to flexural deflection and material properties. Specifically, it calculates Young’s...
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Trainable Robotic Arm

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When [Robert] realized Adafruit is now selling analog feedback servos, he decided he just had to make a programmable robot arm that could be trained like the commercially available Baxter robot.The neat thing with the analog feedback servos is it takes all the complexity out of training a robot. All you have...
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DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials Wrap Up

The DARPA robotics challenge trials 2013 are have finished up. The big winner is Team Schaft, seen above preparing to drive in the vehicle trial. This isn’t the end of the line for DARPA’s robotics challenge – there is still one more major event ahead. The DARPA robotics finals will be held at the end...
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Robot Battle for the Big Leagues: Valkyrie and the DARPA Challenge

Even though NASA’s Johnson Space Center’s impressive build for the upcoming DARPA Robotics Challenge is one of many entries, it has to be one of the coolest. The gang at IEEE Spectrum got a sneak peak of the robot dubbed “Valkyrie”, which at 1.9m and 125kg boasts 44 degrees of freedom while managing to look...
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Disk-O-Mat: A Photobooth For Records

A photo booth is a simple concept – drop in a coin and get a few pictures in a couple of minutes. That’s only a visual record, though. What if you wanted to record audio? Thus the disk-o-mat was born.The disk-o-mat is one of [flo]‘s projects. In place of the miniaturized dark room found in a photo booth, [flo]...
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Will Dance For Bitcoin

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It seems that Bitcoin is all over the news nowadays, but the Bitcoin Bot is probably the first robot that will dance for Bitcoins. [Ryan] at HeatSync Labs in Mesa, AZ, is a fan of the cryptocurrency, and decided to build something to accept it. He discovered that Coinbase, a popular hosted Bitcoin wallet...
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Incredible Automatic Zen Table

Most people think of Zen as a state of relaxation, and this invention can certainly provide that.  Essentially, the Zen Table uses a robot to “rake” the sand and create spectacular patterns.  Watching the Zen table in action is not only mesmerizing to watch, but also a superb engineering design....
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The Most Challenging Ping Pong Table Ever

Everyone has probably played a few games of Ping Pong in their day, but how many people have played on a table like this beast?  It moves while you play!  With a push of an arcade-type button, the table tilts left or right, changing the trajectory of the ball and making it harder to return the volley....
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Large Pond + Zipline + Wakeboard = Awesome!

Here’s a dream come true for all you wakeboarding fans: ride all day without a boat, fumes, or gasoline. These two guys used a zipline attached to towers set at each side of a large private pond to make it happen. Check it out:The towers are 140 yards apart which allows for a 120-yard wakeboarding run. The...
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Incredible Robotic Zen Garden using CNC & Magnets

People LOVE custom coffee tables: We’ve seen PCs built into them, a giant NES, compasses, circuit boards, you name it.  This project, however, is arguably the most impressive of the bunch.  Essentially, it creates a pattern in the sand using modern electronics to emulate an actual Zen rock garden....
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iPad App Blends Virtual Warfare & Real-World Characters

This project is a basic proof of concept of creating a “physical” video game using real-world characters.  For this project, a tank and robot duke it out with the help of an Arduino, iPad, and wifi.  Essentially, when the tank’s targeting system is adjusted using the iPad app, the physical tank...
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How to: Build your own DIY “Animal” (Theo Jansen Strandbeest)

Theo Jansen demonstrated his famous “animal” inventions a few years ago at TED (video below). Essentially, these “animals” (dubbed Strandbeests) are driven entirely by the wind and use no electronics.The way they move is absolutely fascinating, so one DIYer created his own miniature Strandbeest and shared...
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Compliant Robot Gripper Won’t Scramble Your Eggs

[Chiprobot] has created an amazing compliant gripper.  Designing robot hands (or end effectors) can be a perilous task. It is easy to give robots big, good, strong hands. Strong grippers have to be controlled by sensors. However, sensors can’t always be relied upon to ensure those hands don’t crush anything...
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