You Design It(?)

[AndrewM]

I've been building hobby level robots off and on since I was in my early teens, and like everyone here, I am very passionate about it.  One of the problems I have now is that I haven't been able to come up with something new to build for the past year or so, or rather a reason to build it.  I mean, lets face it, how many ways are there to build a kitty killing robot, right?  So I have been inventing for a while, which has been fulfilling, but not like building a good working robot.  And with inventing, I can't share my ideas beyond a closed circle, and I really like sharing ideas.

I came up with an idea to jump start the robotic creative juices, and I am hoping you folk here at SoR might find it interesting.  I started a personal blog about a month or so ago and have a bunch of theory ideas, how-tos and such to post on the subject of robotics (there are other oddball things in my blog as well aside from robotics), but thought I might combine a bunch of those future robotics posts into one sort of tutorial that, once complete, I can submit back over here to the repository that is SoR. 

So here's my idea, using voting mechanisms and commenting, give everyone else the ability to design the robot that I will build in incremental steps.  A round of design ideas is presented and I get to share my knowledge by covering theory and practice on a given step, then build the portion of the robot for that step (if required) providing a writeup of the build, followed by another round of design until the robot is built.  At which point I compile and edit all those blog entries into one big happy tutorial on whatever the heck everyone voted on and submit it back over here.

Sound interesting at all to anyone?

[airman00]

very interesting


what kind of money will you be spending on this robot?

[AndrewM]

Well I have lots and lots of parts already, and I have the tools to make many parts myself.  I figure the design that people come up with at each step of the way will determine the overall cost, but I like finding new ways to do old things which tends to keep costs down.

Basically, your guess is as good as mine.

[airman00]

when will voting begin?

[AndrewM]

I'll put together a post on my blog over the weekend for my regular blog readers (all 4 of them  ) and the first vote will go up on Monday morning.  I will post back here when the poll is listed with a link directly to it.

I figure the first thing that people will need to determine will be the method of locomotion, everything else sort of hinges on that for design.  The basic options I can think of are these:  Stationary, Walking/Crawling, Rolling(wheels), Swimming, Slithering, Flying.  If there is something I am missing please let me know before Monday.

[frank26080115]

attempt a millipede with sinusoidal leg movement.

[airman00]

I would go for flying robot , but it would have to hover

[AndrewM]

I opened up voting until Friday night for the first part, Locomotion.  You can vote at:  http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/22-You-Design-It-Locomotion.html

[Admin]

One of the problems I have now is that I haven't been able to come up with something new to build for the past year or so, or rather a reason to build it.

Odd . . . I come up with billions of ideas and have a hard time trying to focus (contain myself) on just one or two . . .

[cooldog]

One of the problems I have now is that I haven't been able to come up with something new to build for the past year or so, or rather a reason to build it.

Odd . . . I come up with billions of ideas and have a hard time trying to focus (contain myself) on just one or two . . .

ya i get like 20 million ideas a day everything from a mapping to office helper robots. i'll stay up till 4 in the morning thinking about it

[AndrewM]

The voting for selection of flight is up on my blog (link below in my signature).

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Odd . . . I come up with billions of ideas and have a hard time trying to focus (contain myself) on just one or two . . .

Well, I really do wind up with a million different ideas, but the motivation to build each is not there beyond the "wow that would be cool" factor.  Generally once I have the cool factor figured out or working for a new robot idea, it sits on the side of the workbench, with the robot itself never completed, because there are the other 999999 other ideas there that want to be built.  I have said it to myself a thousand times, if I finish a new robot it will motivate me to finish more robots (the "wow I created that" factor), but I haven't completed one in quite some time.

I *think* putting everything out there for this "You Design It" idea will force me to complete the robot, plus it has already sparked different creative ideas flowing.  Heck, I don't think I would have attempted a flying robot if it were not for this, so now I have a good challenge on my hands.