Skip to main content

Build Your Own Solar-Powered Robot

By
 A while back I made dozens of robots which were in large part inspired byBEAM Robotics. For those unfamiliar, BEAM is basically a special method of robot building with an emphasis on biology, electronics, aesthetics, and mechanics (hence the acronym BEAM). One thing that sets BEAM apart from other approaches to robotics is its insistence on using radiant energy (predominantly solar power) and its tendency towards reuse and minimalism. While I heavily borrowed from the BEAM ethos and aesthetics, the robots that I built were not quite the same (they were all battery powered for starters).

Since BEAM robotics was such a large source of inspiration, I always wanted to try my hand at building a solar robot. However, rather than simply building another BEAM robot, I decided to incorporate solar into my own style of robot building. Instead of having it be powered entirely off the sun, I decided to incorporate rechargeable batteries. This means that at any given time the motors can be running off either the batteries or solar panel, depending on which can provide the most power. The solar panel is also recharging the batteries when the sun hits it. This allows the bot to run off of the sun, but not be entirely reliant upon it to move.

I think my approach merges the two styles nicely, and is a fun and simple experiment in robot building.

Materials You need

(x1) Solar panel (Radioshack #277-052)
(x2) Standard servos (Radioshack #273-766)
(x3) 1N5817 schottky diodes - NTE578 equivalent (Radioshack #55052253)
(x1) 9V battery snap (Radioshack #270-324)
(x8) AA rechargeable batteries (Radioshack #23-760)
(x1) 8 x AA Battery holder (Radioshack #270-387)
(x12) Wire-tie mounts (Radioshack #278-441)
(x1) Ruler (12" - 18")
(x2) Wall mount adhesive hooks
(x1) Misc. zip ties
(x1) Shrink tube

 Source :- Solar-Powered-Robot
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 URLs to Find Out What Google Knows About You

By
Google is much more than just a search giant. It is also home to many of your favorite products: Gmail, YouTube, and Chrome, just to name a few. Apart from that, it also offers many products to help you  keep track of your data . Most of these are  hidden deep  inside the My Account dashboard, which many users don’t really know of. These hidden tools  may reveal interesting details  about your usage of Google’s many services. We’ve compiled a list of important Google URLs of some  hidden tools  that carry information of what you did with Google, mostly from the searches that you have made on their many products, the voice searches and typed out Google searches that you have made. Are you ready to  find out what how Google knows about you ? 1.  Google Dashboard Google Dashboard offers  transparency and control over the personal data stored with your Google Account. You can  view  and  manage the data gener...
Post a Comment
Read more

Edible water balloons that could get rid of the need for plastic bottles

By
In case you didn’t know, bottled water is destroying the planet. We know that we need to be drinking plenty of water. It’s important. But the plastic bottles they’re sold in are terrible for the environment. One solution is using reusable bottles that you can fill from any nearby taps instead of buying a new bottle each time. Another solution is much more exciting. A group of engineers from Skipping Rocks Lab have developed a wonderful thing called The Ooho!. It’s a globe filled water that you can pop in your mouth whole. The outer shell is made of algae, so it’s edible and biodegradable. Meaning there’s no need for packaging or plastic – the globes of water are self-contained and ready to consume. Exciting, right? Plus they’re wobbly and they look cool, which is always a bonus. The team have now created a crowdfunding page to make their creation available to the public, with goals of selling The Ooho! at festival and marathons within the next 12 m...
Post a Comment
Read more

New "Super-Earth" discovered only 22 light years away

By
An international team of scientists led by Professors Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Paul Butler from the Carnegie Institution for Science in the U.S. has discovered a potentially habitable Super-Earth that's "just" 22 light years away. The new Super-Earth has a mass that is 4.5 times larger than that of our planet and it revolves around its parent star in 28 days - a star that is significantly smaller than ours. This remarkable new discovery suggests that habitable planets could exist in a wider variety of environments than previously believed. Of the 750-odd  exoplanets  (extrasolar planets) discovered so far only very few can be considered " Super-Earths ." This newly discovered example called GJ667Cc is rocky like Earth and is rich in heavy chemical elements such as iron, carbon and silicon. Positioned at a distance from Earth of 22 light years, corresponding to a bit over 129 trillion miles (209 trillion km), the planet can be considered to be on Earth...
Post a Comment
Read more