Pololu Blog (Page 90)

Welcome to the Pololu Blog, where we provide updates about what we and our customers are doing and thinking about. This blog used to be Pololu president Jan Malášek’s Engage Your Brain blog; you can view just those posts here.

Popular tags: community projects new products raspberry pi arduino more…

Obstacle Avoider

Posted by Paul on 14 June 2010

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

Posted by Ben on 21 May 2010

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

Automatic Infrared Light Source Tracking HD Camcorder

Posted by Ben on 26 February 2010

In this project, an HD camcorder sits on a pan/tilt mount controlled by a Micro Maestro 6-Channel USB Servo Controller. A Wiimote is used to track an IR light source. Here is a video taken from the mounted camcorder:

Featured link: http://helifreak.com/showthread.php?p=1868143#post1868143

Using the Pololu Pushbutton Power Switch

Posted by Paul on 22 February 2010

This instructable shows how to power an Arduino through the Pololu Pushbutton Power Switch and use the self-shutoff feature.

Featured link: http://www.instructables.com/id/Using-the-Pololu-Pushbutton-Power-Switch/

Maestro Support for RoboRealm

Posted by Paul on 17 February 2010

This module for RoboRealm provides an interface to the Pololu Maestro USB servo controllers, linking advanced video processing to RC servo motion control.

Featured link: http://www.roborealm.com/help/Pololu_Maestro.php

R2D2 dome position control

Posted by Paul on 16 February 2010

This replica of the famous Star Wars droid R2D2, built by Glenn Pipe, uses a Jrk USB motor controller for position control. The video below shows how Glenn uses the Jrk Configuration Utility to control and analyze his system, and his blog post has more information.

Featured link: http://astromech.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/adding-position-control-to-r2s-dome/

Paparazzi Autopilot for Linux

Posted by Paul on 16 February 2010

Patrick Hickey and Bradley Lord use a Pololu Micro Maestro for servo output and a Pololu 4 servo multiplexer to support manual control override in their model aircraft autopilot project.

Featured link: http://moreproductive.org/autopilot/

Active Magnetic Bearing: Tripod Floater v2.0

Posted by Ben on 1 February 2010

In this video, Meindert Norg from Norg Consulting demonstrates his active magnetic bearing, Tripod Floater. The closed-loop system uses three Pololu 18v15 high-power motor drivers as PWM amplifiers to power the magnetic coils that keep the module floating beneath the metal plate.

February, 2010 update: the Tripod Floater is now wireless:

Featured link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-f_H68Rl4g

The Haunted Organist by Mark Goodson

Posted by Paul on 22 December 2009

Customer Mark Goodson constructed this spooky animatronic skeleton using the Jrk USB Motor Controller. See the final result below:

Featured link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiimQNGnNBY

Beacon Locating Robot - Powered by Arduino and IR Transceiver

Posted by Paul on 21 December 2009

This beacon-chasing robot by Christopher Hazlett was built with our IR Beacon, an RP5 Tracked Chassis, and an Arduino.

23 Oct 2018 edit: You can find a video of it driving here and a GitHub page here.

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