This video shows a “Useless Machine” controlled by a Baby Orangutan. It counts how many times the button is pressed, and then the arm comes out and presses the button the same number of times. The author has also posted source code for the project.

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Baby Orangutan B-328 Robot Controller

Customer Ana Paula Almeida wrote this Portuguese-language paper about the 3pi Robot (1MB doc) as part of a Master’s program in Computational Modeling and Industrial Technology. The paper describes the 3pi in general and specifically how to write optimized maze-solving code.

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Pololu 3pi Robot

This art installation by Matthew Richard uses 10 OctoBrite DEFILIPPI modules, 80 RGB LEDs, 40 servos, 7 servo controllers, and an Arduino.

Featured link: http://cargocollective.com/mrichard/Estrella-Intersects-the-Plane

This news report from the Philippines shows a custom TV lift using a Pololu Jrk 12v12 made by “gadget kid” Francisco Estrada III.

This mbed.org cookbook page will help you get started using your m3pi robot with an mbed development board as your high-level robot controller.

Featured link: http://mbed.org/cookbook/m3pi

Alex Louden has released an open-source template for custom 3pi expansion boards for use with the Eagle PCB design software. The picture shows an example expansion with an mbed microcontroller, Xbee, and accelerometers.

Featured link: http://alexlouden.com/2010/3pi-pcb-skeleton/

Forum user erik46 wrote up a document (523k pdf) showing how to read FrSky telemetry data and display it with a Baby Orangutan. The whole setup is small and light enough to clip on to an RC transmitter. For more information, see his forum post.

In this project, a WiFi module is connected to a 3pi robot, allowing it to be controlled by an iPhone. Here is a video of the robot in action:

Featured link: http://forum.pololu.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2816

This simple obstacle-avoiding robot by forum user TomatoWire is based on the Maestro and uses continuous-rotation servos and distance sensors. The robot is programmed using the Maestro’s internal scripting language, without the need for an additional microcontroller.

Featured link: http://forum.pololu.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2756

AIRbot is a robot that can be controlled by a cellphone and can send images back to the cellphone. It uses a yellow RP5 tracked chassis, a transparent clear RP5 expansion plate, and a qik 2s9v1 dual serial motor controller along with the AIRcable S.D.K. and the AIRcable OptiEyes. The source code (both AIRcable and Nokia) and circuit diagrams are freely available.

Featured link: http://wiki.opensensors.org/airbot