Building a walking robot

05/08/2006

So my son really wanted to build a robot last weekend, and I happaned to have a copy of James Conrad’s book and included kit.

This was a neat project; instead of using wheels a la R2D2, it uses electronic muscle wires on six legs to walk like an insect.

I had first heard of muscle-wire back in the early 1990’s, but didn’t really have a chance to play with it at all.

Nice to see you can just buy a kit from Amazon, complete with pre-programmed microprocessor (no EEPROM blaster required :-)

Of course, the small parts made it feel a bit like do-it-yourself nanotechnology, and my son’s small fingers were a definite blessing to have on hand (no pun intended, but thanks for noticing).

Next weekend he wants to build a real rocketship, so I thought maybe we could ring up that fellow who build a cruise missile in his backyard for some hints…