16 articles in this category
Back in 2004, a bunch of hobbyists posted a rover build log that barely got any attention. No YouTube, no Instagram, just a plain webpage with photos ...
We assemble robots in a barn. Not a clean lab, not a shiny makerspace. There's hay dust on the floor and a stubborn tractor that sometimes doesn't sta...
So you've been tinkering with robots on weekends. Maybe you built a little line-follower, or a drone that almost flies straight. You posted it in the ...
It started with a fax. Yes, a fax—in 2022. A retired mechanical engineer, let's call him Frank, sent a three-page blueprint to our community forum. He...
Picture this: You're in a community robot build space, maybe a hackerspace or a school workshop. Someone proposes a new bot—something to help out arou...
It was a Tuesday. My ultralyx bot—built to pick up M8 hex nuts—started sorting them by weight instead. Not what I'd taught it. At first I thought the ...
So you built a robot. Maybe it was a giant fire-breathing dragon for a parade, or a solar-powered flower that tweets. And then something unexpected ha...
So you have been staying up until 2 a.m. soldering motor controllers, and your dining table is now a permanent PCB graveyard. Friends call you crazy. ...
Last spring, our ultralyx bot nearly got scrapped. It kept dropping parts on the assembly line—gripper too tight, then too loose, then tight again. We...
You have spent four weekends soldering, debugging, and swearing over a robot that is supposed to carry groceries for three elderly neighbors. The moto...
The initial phase the robot moved, nobody cheered. The gymnasium smelled like burnt solder and pizza, and the bot—a four-wheeled contraption wired wit...
You've got 12 volunteers, a pile of actuators, and a deadline. But nobody in the room has soldered a JST connector without melting the housing. Th...
Last winter, Dave from the forum posted a single line: 'My bot just unclogged a toilet. I didn't build it for that.' That sentence sparked a thread th...
Tuesday night, 10:47 p.m. A text message from the shop floor: "Gripper shattered. No spare. Client arriving Friday." For a family-owned gear...
Six years ago, I was stuck. My robot arm kept overshooting its target, and every textbook I owned told me to tune a PID controller—but none explained ...
You have seen it. The bot that twitches once and dies. The arm that vibrates but never lifts. The code that compiled fine on three machines but bricks...