Gearfuse

What better way for a father and son to spend the Thanksgiving weekend together than to build a robot out of a tin can and an Arduino. As far as robots go, this little autonomous aluminum can seeks out light and moves in the direction of it. The creator cleverly refers to this as a “flashlight leash.”

With an Arduino, a light sensor and a lower power DC motor, making your own light-seeking robot shouldn’t be too difficult of a task. With your kid helping you, who knows what you could accomplish?

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The world’s first ever wave farm went live at the end of September in Agucadoura, off the coast of northern Portugal. Three wave energy converters resembling Soviet submarines generate electricity with hydraulic rams driven by waves. The farm was designed by Pelamis Wave Power, which hopes to increase the farms productivity by adding an additional 25 wave energy converters that could potentially power 15,000 homes.

Waves powering homes? Remarkable, but how does it work?
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A guitar boat sounds great on paper. It’s a chick magnet. It plays tunes. It can get you down the Yangtze river. Well, maybe not the owner of this boat, Australian singer Josh Pyke. He’d find it difficult once the locals catch up to him with their boats shaped like boats and capsize his ass, sending him down stream quicker than a hyena hopped up on poppers. It wouldn’t be a problem if Josh Pyke invested in a hyper-sub.

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Check out Guilherme Martin’s first attempt at making a robot. He uses an Arduino and motor shield with one servo for steering and a standard DC motor for movement. It’s dubbed “baratinha” meaning “little cockroach” in Portuguese. Using two micro-switches as if they were antennae, baratinha is able to detect obstacles in its way.  It’s just like a real cockroach except it won’t eat your food or leave a foul odor in its wake.  I wonder if it’d survive an atomic blast?

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If you’ve been looking for a graceful motor bike to cruise around the city streets with, the nUCLEUS is definitely not the bike for you. Designed by Branko Lukic, the nUCLEUS is the antagonist of aerodynamic design, built on the foundations of “square against air.”

Despite the nUCLEUS’ physics defying design, it’s described as being more nimble then it looks. You saddle up on the Anti-Bike like you would mount a horse, except a whip won’t make this monster go any faster. (more…)