Gearfuse

Art Institute of Chicago’s Ed Bennett has designed the ArtBus, a hardware bus and communications protocol for low speed and low data rate command with control of discrete sensors and actuators. It is useful for small embedded systems in kinetic, robotic, installation art or design projects, like Vince’s Arduino sound project, or Ard-e The Arduino Robot.

Though, it is a distributed interface, meaning that different parts of an ArtBus system can be spread out across a space such as a corridor or art gallery, which isn’t like the Arduino at all. However, its virtue is simplicity and it’s designed so near-novice programmers can extend the system for their own uses and share their work with others. So while it may not be the same as an Arduino, it certainly shares some of its characteristics.

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Kick ass pedal powered Panzers are fighting the good fight. The second annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby inspired a group of guys to construct a human powered Panzer Kampwagen III in 11 days for the purpose of crashing the party. By the time they were finished the tank, they were too tired to crash any party, so they just spent the night in the tank.

If you’re in the Philadelphia area, you can visit the tank where it is now being displayed as public art on the west side of Frankford Ave, just north of Norris St. This monstrous skeleton of gears and steel will be the first place you’ll want to go when the bombs drop.

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