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Someone Made A Flexpicker Industrial Robot Out of Legos

17 points by kkleiner 17y ago

chaosmachine 17y ago
There's something a bit frightening about it. I think it's registering as a giant spider in the primal instinct section of my brain.
- diiq 17y ago
  I'd attribute it to the jerky, springy motion --- it appears not to have the sinusoidal velocity cruve we expect from a friendly mammal.
replicatorblog 17y ago
Beyond the cool factor of the robot itself, the article makes a great point about the need for something more advanced than Lego Mindstorms, but practical for an enthusiastic hobbyist. The author uses an analog to the App store, but Linux is probably a better reference. Are there open source possibilities for robotics? How would you frame it? People could work on sub components? Do you have a RoboFair to show off what has been built? Have a more participatory kind of BattleBots event? In any case it is a cool opportunity to have intelligent roboticists have an outlet for their work that is more additive than the YouTube video that will be passed around tech blogs and ultimately forgotten.
- nazgulnarsil 17y ago
  yes, but they all cost way more than mindstorms.
HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago
Open Source Robotics would rely on having access to lathes, milling machines, electronics equipment, etc. that most interested people don't have. There are cottage industries of hobbyists that will supply the electronics and sensors at very reasonable cost, but the high cost items are always the mechanical bits. The thing with hobby robotics is that it's very easy to build something simple; the problem is once you go beyond a little rugrat robot that scurries around the living room avoiding obstacles and annoying the cat, the next stage requires vastly more resources and a lot of commitment. My personal problem is that I have the resources (lots of tools and misc. electromechanical hardware in my "lab"); I just don't have the time to build something I would think of as "cool." Having a day job where I write code for complex moving mechanisms takes away from the "cool factor" of anything I have time to do at home :-(
CrLf 17y ago
Pretty impressive. I don't know who to praise, if the people that do these amazing things or the people that design lego mindstorm parts in the first place... BTW, although those japanese humanoid robots that run, climb stairs and whatnot are much more complex, I find the FlexPicker robot much more impressive. I wonder why...
- modeless 17y ago
  The muffin-sorting robot sorts muffins faster and better than any human could, whereas walking robots are still pretty terrible at walking even when compared to a below-average human.
sown 17y ago
i wish i was smart

17 points by kkleiner 17y ago

There's something a bit frightening about it. I think it's registering as a giant spider in the primal instinct section of my brain.

diiq 17y ago
I'd attribute it to the jerky, springy motion --- it appears not to have the sinusoidal velocity cruve we expect from a friendly mammal.

replicatorblog 17y ago

Beyond the cool factor of the robot itself, the article makes a great point about the need for something more advanced than Lego Mindstorms, but practical for an enthusiastic hobbyist. The author uses an analog to the App store, but Linux is probably a better reference. Are there open source possibilities for robotics? How would you frame it? People could work on sub components? Do you have a RoboFair to show off what has been built? Have a more participatory kind of BattleBots event? In any case it is a cool opportunity to have intelligent roboticists have an outlet for their work that is more additive than the YouTube video that will be passed around tech blogs and ultimately forgotten.

nazgulnarsil 17y ago
yes, but they all cost way more than mindstorms.

HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago

Open Source Robotics would rely on having access to lathes, milling machines, electronics equipment, etc. that most interested people don't have. There are cottage industries of hobbyists that will supply the electronics and sensors at very reasonable cost, but the high cost items are always the mechanical bits. The thing with hobby robotics is that it's very easy to build something simple; the problem is once you go beyond a little rugrat robot that scurries around the living room avoiding obstacles and annoying the cat, the next stage requires vastly more resources and a lot of commitment. My personal problem is that I have the resources (lots of tools and misc. electromechanical hardware in my "lab"); I just don't have the time to build something I would think of as "cool." Having a day job where I write code for complex moving mechanisms takes away from the "cool factor" of anything I have time to do at home :-(

CrLf 17y ago

Pretty impressive. I don't know who to praise, if the people that do these amazing things or the people that design lego mindstorm parts in the first place... BTW, although those japanese humanoid robots that run, climb stairs and whatnot are much more complex, I find the FlexPicker robot much more impressive. I wonder why...

modeless 17y ago
The muffin-sorting robot sorts muffins faster and better than any human could, whereas walking robots are still pretty terrible at walking even when compared to a below-average human.

sown 17y ago

i wish i was smart