Anton Olsen.com

HEXBUG Inchworm

Here’s a short video of the Hexbug Inchworm that we will release this fall.

VexE the Robot

Any similarities between this robot and a famous movie character are not coincidental.

Robot Lawn Mower.

Anyone want to cut my lawn for me today?  I really need to get serious about building a robot lawn mower.  What’s up with the commercial ones costing well over the $1k mark?  I’m thinking of building one starting with a Homelite 12 volt rechargable mower.  I should be able to put casters on the front, add a couple drive motors in back and some sort of bump sensor to turn randomly.  Should work like a Roomba on steroids.

2008 VRWC Wrap Video

Wrap video for the VEX Robotics World Championship last weekend in Los Angeles.

Prepping Robots to Perform Surgery - New York Times

Prepping Robots to Perform Surgery - New York Times

WHAT do you call a surgeon who operates without scalpels, stitching tools or a powerful headlamp to light the patient’s insides? A better doctor, according to a growing number of surgeons who prefer to hand over much of the blood-and-guts portion of their work to medical robots controlled from computer consoles.

First your prostate, then your brain!

Webcast: VEX Robotics Competition

Webcast: VEX Robotics Competition

Watch the VEX Robotics Competition World Championship for middle and high school teams via webcast on May 2 and 3 from 10:00am to 5:00pm PST. Learn more and watch the competition animation on the VEX website.

The 2008 VEX Robotics World Championship starts today at 10am.  If you are near the Cal State Northridge Matadome today or tomorrow, drop by and check it out.  For the rest of us, NASA is web casting the event for us.  Linux users can watch using mplayer with this command (after 10pm PST):

mplayer mms://sargasso-3.arc.nasa.gov/vex2008

Related Links:

• http://www.robotevents.com/event.php?eid=333
• http://www.vexforum.com/showthread.php?t=2632
• http://www.vexrobotics.com/trophy.html

Robowranglers are Bringing Home the Gold!!!!

Robowranglers are Bringing Home the Gold!!!!

Win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks Racksolutions Inc! Thanks L3 Integrated Systems! Thanks Greenville Highschool! Thanks Simbots! Thanks Thunderchickens! Way to go Robowranglers!!!!

The Greenville FIRST Robotics team wins!  I’ll be sure to post some video of the winning match as soon as I can find it.  For now, here’s a sampling of the Regional matches.

More about the win here: GHS Robotics Team World Champions

Will’s MagBot

Will has put together a magnetic bot that can climb walls. Here’s a video of it scaling a beam in our warehouse. Check the other videos by InnovationFirst for his other attempts and successes.

Creepy Shopping Cart Robot

This is one of the creepiest things I’ve seen this morning.

Magnetic Hexbug

I glued some magnets to the legs of a Hexbug to see if I could get it to walk on walls. There is a good deal of compromise in magnetic attraction, traction, gravity, and motor torque, but it does work. Just barely.

Next up will be an attempt to make a Vex Mini that’ll drive up a metal wall.

Will has already built a full size Vex bot that will climb a wall.