9 Fun DIY Projects to Get Your Feet Wet in Robotics
Robots are interesting, but building them can feel like rocket science if you’ve never tried. But once you try it, you’ll quickly realize that robotics is pretty simple. With a few simple projects, you can quickly grasp the basic concepts and use them to your advantage by building an even more helpful robot in the future. Don’t believe it? Here are nine fun DIY projects to get started in robotics.
1. Simple Hopping Robot
Got a unique robotic creation you created months or weeks ago but haven’t brought it out yet because it’s not mobile? Build the simple robotic whegs (wheeled legs) as shown in thisMake: guide. The robot will definitely remind you of the aliens in early sci-fi series and shows, but that’s precisely the point—to build a robot so unique, people wonder whether you are a beginner.
Surprisingly, the whegs are not challenging to make. You can consider using whegs if you’re planning tobuild your own autonomous robot.
2. Clack Bot
Prefer a fun, incredibly minimalist take on robotics? ThisInstructables guidehas one—Clack the bot. Unlike most robotic projects that emphasize perfection, Clack is perfectly imperfect. Clack has two motors with different speeds and spoons of different lengths for wheels. As a result, the bot moves at different speeds and veers around instead of just going in one direction.
It’s a fun bot to build, especially if your kid wants to be part of the project. Here are some moreeasy, budget-friendly robotics project ideas for kids.
3. Simple Walker Robot
Want to give your simple robots some mobility but didn’t like the PVC-based whegs above? We found yet another simple walker robot to give movement to your creations. And if you thought the previous one was easy to build, then this one is even simpler because most of its build is zip-tied.
The legs are based on rubber spatulas, while the body has a multipurpose PC board, a ruler, and modified turnbuckles as the main frame. The heart of this project is the Arduino Uno Rev, while a standard servo motor powers it. Check out theInstructables guidefor the rest of the components list.
4. Skitter Bot
Do you have a bunch of scrub brushes you don’t want to throw away because of sustainability? Turn them into this simple skitter bot, then gift it to a curious child or an adult who is into robotics and watch them put it to work excitedly. It features an H-bridge motor driver, whose setup process is well-elaborated in theInstructables project, and a motor connected to a lever switch, meaning it can be toggled to make the bot move in opposite directions.
5. Scrub Bot
Daily household chores like washing dishes, scrubbing your floors, and cleaning tables might seem easy, but do them consistently for days and you can easily find yourself wishing you had a robot for a job. Well, guess what? You don’t have to wish anymore.
Build the simple scrub bot illustrated in thisInstructables guideand watch your chore to-do list reduce significantly. It can polish your floor and does it even better than you because it disperses small soap particulates evenly on the surface it’s cleaning, then scrubs up. All you need to do is soap it up and let it get to work. The best part is that it’s non-patented, allowing room for tweaks you might consider incorporating to make your tasks more efficient.
6. Hopscotch Bot
Remember the playground game hopscotch? The one where we’d draw a grid on the ground, throw a small stone to one of the squares, and hop on to every subsequent empty square? If the stone or your marker landed on the line, you’d lose your turn and be forced to wait and watch as the rest of the players have fun hopping around.
Those used to be good old times, and by building this hopscotch bot, you’ll be reminded of these memorable childhood times every day. Sure, it cannot play as your hopscotch partner, but it sort of moves the way we’d do while playing the game—check out how it’s built in theInstructables project.
7. Barreller Bot
Want a fun, simple bot you’re able to use to entertain a toddler? Looking for a robotic project that’ll keep your kitten occupied so they don’t try to nibble at your fingers (kittens have a severe case of finger obsession) while you try to get something done?
Whether your predicament fits the first or second problem, this Barreller bot is the answer. It’s essentially a can or jar with an off-centered motor designed to propel it forward endlessly in any direction. That means if you place it on the floor, it’ll keep rolling until you stop it. This robot can even roll up inclines!
Now, if you have a bored toddler or kitten problem, this one will keep them busy. But that doesn’t have to be its only use. If you’ve got other ideas on using it, theInstructables tutoriallists everything you need to build it at home.
8. Buck Bot
Bored out of your pants? Build the buck bot and kill some time. It’s essentially a plastic container paired up with a continuous rotation servo drive, a metal drawer pull with a pair of arms, and extension springs for feet. The result is a simple robot that stomps its way around, alerting everyone in your vicinity you’ve got a DIY robot making its way. It’s fun and an ideal project if you are trying to introduce the kids to robotic concepts.
TheInstructables guidehas the instructions and list of supplies needed to complete it. Check out these otheramazing DIY engineering projects for kidsthat you can introduce them to.
9. Scoop Bot
So, you built a scrub bot that does its job pretty well, except it cannot pick up dirt around the house! Well, stress no more because we’ve got an equally easy-to-build bot that can do the scooping for you. It propels around the house and systemically picks up whatever it finds on its path.
The result? You no longer have to struggle to get those last lines of dirt that seem to keep remaining whenever you strive to scoop dirt manually with a dustpan because it’ll do that for you. TheInstructables projectdetails its build process.
Build a Bot Today
At a surface glance, building a robot can feel like rocket science. But as shown with the nine simple bots above, you could make robots from nearly anything as long as you have a motor and a few moving parts. Have a blast making or tweaking any of the above projects to your liking.
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