Category: Technology

KR 40 Robot Arm

Arm

I want one to load the dishwasher and to fold my clothes. It needs wheels do it can move around the house… It should also be intergrated into a household computer network and be called ‘Proteus’… Hold on, I’m getting Demon Seed flashbacks.. Scratch that. Don’t need the arm.

The Kuka KR 40 is a four axis robot that integrates carbon fiber into the design. Three out of the four motors on the robot are built into the base thus reducing weight and allowing for more speed and acceleration.

It really stacks up: the new KUKA palletizing robot is capable of stacking europallets up to 1,6 m net height. State-of-the-art materials (carbon fiber composite CRP) make the robot extremely light, without sacrificing high stiffness.
Loads

Payload 40 kg
Supplementary load 20 kg

KR 40 Robot

industrial, arm, robots, robotics

Flocking Bots

Flock

I love it. Off the shelf parts and clever software builds a swarm of flying robots.

For their proof of concept, the researchers are using lightweight $69 Proxflyer Bladerunner toy helicopters equipped with gumstix processors — tiny self-contained computers weighing 8 grams (0.28 ounces), but packing enough power to run the Linux 2.6 kernel and communicate over a built-in Bluetooth module.
The coaxial Bladerunner weighs only 50 grams (1.8 ounces) and is held aloft by two rotors, one atop the other, spinning in opposite directions to achieve a stable, insect-like flight. It’s sold as a remote-control toy, but after adding the gumstix and a downward-facing video camera, the Essex University researchers have already turned one of the choppers into what they describe as the world’s smallest flying web server.

Linux Powers Airborne Bots

swarm, linux, air, computer,

Nanoflyer

Nanoflyer

I thought that I had seen some small R/C flying machines before but this one is smaller than all of them. The flight time is low, but then again where the heck would a bigger battery go?

The 2.7 grams Nanoflyer is by far the smallest and lightest electric powered
contra-rotating coaxial-rotor RC helicopter ever built. It is battery powered and it
uses the Proxflyer concept to give it inherent stability. It is built to test how small
helicopters that may use the passively stable Proxflyer rotor concept.

Key specifications, components and materials used to build the small Nanoflyer:

Rotor: 85 mm (2 contra rotating 4-bladed rotors)
Carbon rod 0.3mm and 0.5 mm from WES-Technik
Aramid 30 g/m2 fabric from CST
Airframe: 80 mm long, 0.08 mm carbon plate, 0.3mm rod
Brass bearings 0.7 mm from Didel
Motors (x2): 4 x 8 mm, 28 ohm from Didel
Battery: 1 x 3.7 V, 20 mAh Kokam cell
Control: 2 channels IR control with 2x ESC
Yaw control by differential speed of rotors
C.G. trimed forward for horizontal flight
2.7 grams (incl. battery and control)
Weight: 2.7 grams (incl. battery and control)
Flight time: Up to 1 minute, (0.5 minute continues)

Nanoflyer

mini, helecopter, R/C, cool

Trebuchet Reloaded

Popsicle trebuchet

Today I received a comment about the Paper Trebuchet I blogged a while ago:

>Hi, John.
>Im about to build a cardboard trebuchet 4 my assignment but the site is currently unavailiable.
>can u please send me the plan if u still have it,thx.
>geniusjeff2002@xxxx.xxx

Well heck, I checked the site I mentioned in my original post and discovered that sure enough the plans are no longer there. The site looks pretty broken to me.
So I sent this to Geniusjeff2002 in hopes that I can still be of some help.

I just sent him an e-mail asking if there is another location to download it from, if I get a message from him I’ll post it here. I can’t find the one I downloaded from his site anymore, its lost on my hard drive. 🙁
In the mean time here is a more complex plan, it looks very cool. Ripcords Tennis Ball Trebuchet
If that is too complex then go with the Popsicle Stick Trebuchet (main page). This would be amazingly strong for its size and still be quite easy to build.
If you have any LEGOs about the house, I bet you could use them in place of the Popsicle sticks.
I hope this helps a bit and best of luck on the assignment.

Both the plans I found are quite good. The Popsicle one looks easy enough you could build them in a class room (if your insane enough to do somthing like that). So if anyone is looking for the paper trebuchet plans and can’t find them either give this one a try.

****UPDATE****
I submitted this to the MAKE blog and it was accecpted. Some less forgetfull reader than I noted that the Wayback Machine had an archive of the original Paper Trebuchet page! Very cool!
Build a paper trebuchet

paper, trebuchet, DIY, seige, popsicle, MAKE, cool, toy