Prototyping, Case Studies, Projects - Blog on Robots Everywhere

Case Study: Mask Rejuvenation System During COVID-19

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0700

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the global shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), we collaborated with Open Source Medical Supplies to develop a number of emergency methods and techniques. One of them is a way to prolong the usable life of N95 masks in shortage situations. This system was designed to be simple, cost-effective, and adaptable to available resources, making it accessible to those in critical need.

AI Development and Modeling

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0700

We use artificial intelligence (AI) at Robots Everywhere, and with the uncertainties around the safety and ethics of AI programs, we wanted to share some clarity with everyone.

Case Study: The Strain Gauge Whisperer

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Matteo has become a bit of a legend around the Robots Everywhere shop as “the strain gauge whisperer” for their ability to use Propeller microcontrollers and analog circuits to get very accurate readings out of strain gauges. Once again, a client has come to us, this time BudBot.

Reducing E-Waste with Analog Solar Bikes

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Electric bicycles, or e-bikes, have become one of the fastest growing markets in human transportation. Combining many of the advantages of both a bicycle and a motorcycle, while being power efficient enough to charge with solar panels, no wonder over a million e-bikes were sold in the US in 2023. However, unlike purely mechanical bicycles, e-bikes produce e-waste. We propose a solution.

Prototyping a Spindle Controller from a LaserGRBL Board

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

This article will guide you through a simple yet effective way to modify a laser GRBL board to drive a spindle motor. By utilizing an IRLZ44 MOSFET and an NTE598 diode, you can control a spindle up to approximately 36 volts and 12 amps. This is an easy project to enhance your CNC.

Parallax Propeller Case Studies

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0700

We'd like to showcase the bespoke work we've been doing using the Parallax Propeller. The Prop and Prop2 are unique multicore microcontrollers made by Parallax Inc; their architecture allows for executing parallel tasks in hardware, which makes them perfect for things like autopilots or applications that need to control a number of motors and sensors at once. The Prop is a capable brain for small and medium robot designs, and an excellent spine for more complex designs where a Pi or other SBC has to do the abstract thinking.

The Story of SMOL

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 00:00:00 -0700

The SMOL is Robots Everywhere's latest robotics platform, and it has a rather long story behind it. To introduce the SMOL, it is a tiny mobile camera system that can connect to, or provide, a WiFi network that allows a user to control the robot via a web interface or API. It is designed for extensibility - more servos, more sensors, different chassis - and we hope retail customers will enjoy it as much as our industrial ones.

More L-Cheapo Mk7 Engravings

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0800

We love posting cool L-Cheapo projects sent to us by our customers, and this one comes from Duarte Silva of Portugal. He's done a few engravings like this on his new L-Cheapo Mk7, and I do say they've turned out very well. Check out the video, too!

The New Robots Everywhere Store

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0800

One of the things we decided we wanted to do before the launch of Antbot 2.0 is replace the store. The old web store was built on a dated engine that lacked a lot of convenience features for users, and was specialized for the use case of one user purchasing one product. This worked well for the early days of L-Cheapo, with no options, giving users a 'push button, receive laser' experience. As our range of products evolves, so too must our store.

Presenting a New Rover Suspension to the Mars Society

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 00:00:00 -0700

As part of the Antbot 2.0 development, we've invented a new form of rocker-bogie suspension (patent pending), that uses a cable system to balance the rocker arms. On October 16th, we presented this design at the Mars Society Convention. Now that they have posted our presentation to the general public, we would like to share this mechanism with you!

Antbot 2.0 Update

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 00:00:00 -0700

With the launch of Antbot 2.0 around the corner, we've been looking for opportunities to share some of our development efforts with our readers. With the new motherboards prototyped and passing tests, and the new console software nearly ready for a beta release, we wanted to show you something.

Woodburning with L-Cheapo Lasers

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 00:00:00 -0700

While we continue to move forward on Antbot Mk2 development, we have another customer submission for everyone. This time by Keith Wagar, from Facebook (no references provided), he has sent us some nice photos of a wood burning project he has been doing using the L-Cheapo mk7 laser.

Robots Everywhere Founder on Italian TV

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -0700

Our founder, Matteo Borri, was recently interviewed on Italian television station Kre@TV regarding both their contributions to space exploration, as well as the charitable efforts Robots Everywhere made towards helping COVID19 relief in the Verbania region of Italy. We'd just like to share the video of this interview with our Italian-speaking audience, so they might enjoy it.

Riley's Land Raider - Painted and Driving!

Mon, 31 May 2021 00:00:00 -0700

2021 brought a lot of setbacks to the FPV driving Land Raider. Paint shortages, a long winter, and the struggles of the pandemic turned a few weeks of painting time into six months of waiting. Finally, however, it is here, and it is impressive.

A Controllerless Solar Bike

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 00:00:00 -0700

The Last Solar Ebike was stolen back in February, and we decided to make a few improvements on the next version. With a flash of inspiration towards simplicity, a purely analog solar bicycle was born. It uses no ICs or microcontrollers of any kind, only 5 MOSFETs, a transistor, and passive components. We've included a schematic at the end, for everyone interested.

AudioSerial Over the Air!

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0800

Robots Everywhere has once again partnered with Tarlow Design to help food deliveries reach their clients securely and safely, in the wake of COVID-19. We hope with the use of our technology, we can overcome some common problems small restaurants have with big delivery services. More interestingly, we've found a way to expand our AudioSerial technology to operate over the air - not just over the wire!

Bridging CellSol Networks with IRC!

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0800

CellSol has just pushed a cool new feature to its development branch on GitHub: the ability to bridge networks over the wider Internet, using Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

CellSol Kits are Available!

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0800

CellSol kits are now available on the Robots Everywhere Product Store! For those who are looking to expand their CellSol networks, kits to build Arduino Repeater Pylons with and without Bluetooth are available. We also offer a pre-flashed version of the LoRa32 used to set up an ESP32 WiFi Pylon.

Building a Resilient Network for Humanity

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0800

We've been quiet lately, but as always, busy. Robots Everywhere is proud to announce its partnership with CellSol, a not-for-profit open-source project dedicated to building a diaster-resilient wireless network free for all of humanity to use.

The Machine Spirit Awakens!

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0700

While we're not quite ready to reveal the projects we've been spending a lot of the fall of 2020 on, Riley has been doing something with an in-development robot architecture in his spare time. This is a Land Raider model from Warhammer 40000, by Games Workshop, fitted up with lights, sounds, a camera, and working FPV drive!

While it's not finished yet, it runs and drives, so here's a video and an in-depth look on how he built it.

More Saltwater Etching with L-Cheapo!

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0700

As we said in our previous post, we've got more information on saltwater etching from Bruce Bradley, who's put together a nice instructional video, which we've uploaded to our Youtube channel. Bruce has been using automotive primer as a masking paint for his etching; over here in our lab, we've been using Duplicolor as our go-to brand, but most others designed for sandability and weather resistance are fine. Enjoy the video, and let us know if you have done anything cool with our products yourself!

L-Cheapo Mk7 Improvements!

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 -0700

The L-Cheapo Mk7 is back in stock! We've also made some small changes to the way we build the L-Cheapo Mk7, and would like to share them with you. It's still the same laser; but the next run should get a wee bit better.

Saltwater Etching Metal with L-Cheapo

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0700

We have for you today another submission from Bruce Bradley, the gentleman responsible for the six-year L-Cheapo, demonstrating saltwater etching with his laser. Saltwater etching of conductive metals is a relatively simple electrochemical process. A good Instructable explains the details of the process. The purpose of the laser in etching is to cut the mask material or paint, instead of using a scalpel as in the above demonstration. This allows for complex shapes to be very precisely cut, and with the right mask material, a clean edge mated to the metal.

Another Solar EBike!

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0700

This is another ebike, this time built from an ordinary bicycle using a rim mounted friction drive. Designed for a now-defunct client, these surplus parts ended up in our storage closet waiting to be put to use. Waste not, want not.

PAPR Suit from Inflatable Costume

Thu, 07 May 2020 00:00:00 -0700

Similar to the positive pressure suit we made before, using painter’s suits, we made another one using an inflatable costume. This will work with any similar inflatable suit, like the silly dinosaur, but being space cases we went for the astronaut.

L-Cheapo - Built to Last Since 2014

Wed, 06 May 2020 00:00:00 -0700

We had an interesting support ticket come in recently; an original L-Cheapo Mk1 needed a PWM adapter to be moved to a new machine. After running for six years, we thought this venerable laser deserved a salute. We don't play around when we guarantee our product for life. (We sent out a custom-designed PWM adapter, of course).

Introducing the L-Cheapo Laser Cutter Mk7

Mon, 04 May 2020 00:00:00 -0700

The L-Cheapo Laser Cutter Module has a new iteration! The Mark 7 is the newest iteration of the L-Cheapo laser cutter, with an even greater peak output than the 10W Mk6.

Making a Monitor Bezel with L-Cheapo

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0700

The L-Cheapo laser cutter is a great tool for artistic projects. Davide Antonello, a graphic designer and artist from Italy, sent us these photos of a monitor he rebuilt using laser cut plywood.

Bringing Faceshields to Verbania

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0700

Our faceshield design is really making a difference. With shortages reaching extreme levels in northern Italy, especially smaller places like K's hometown of Verbania, we had to help. We reached out to every small fabrication shop we could. Eventually, we found one that would help. For the first week of April 2020, we were reaching out to shipping companies and fabrication shops in order to find anyone who would get our faceshields to Verbania.

3D Printing Faceshields

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0700

Both face shields, and the PET plastic sheets which they are made from are in short supply right now. This project will let you build a face shield from any thin translucent plastic, even a bread bag, by spreading the plastic tightly with a 3D printed part.

Positive Pressure Suit for COVID19

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0700

With the shortage of medical PPE throughout the world due to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic, we have improvised an effective positive-pressure PPE suit. Our prorotypes have already been sent out to American hospitals. Here are the plans!

Donating Face Shields in Marin

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0700

With the COVID19 pandemic causing shortages of PPE nationwide, Robots Everywhere has stepped in to help provide resources to our local hospitals. Our 3D Printers have been running day and night to produce frames for these face shields, intended to use semi-rigid plastic such as transparency covers from Staples or Office Depot. See below for the plans.

The Robots Everywhere Blog Returns

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0700

Nope, not an April Fools' joke. We will be using this space to share content related to robotics, lasers, instrumentation, space exploration, and all of the other topics we've spent our lives delivering to our customers.

Automated Delivery Drone from Recycled Materials

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 00:00:00 -0700

With the COVID19 pandemic, restaurants and businesses have needed alternative delivery methods to reach their customers. Robots Anywhere provides an inexpensive solution to upgrade any chassis to cellular drive-by-wire, even in low bandwidth environments.

Building Robotic Fish in Norway!

Sun, 01 Dec 2019 00:00:00 -0800

In Q4 2019, we spent a lot of time collaborating with a Norwegian firm called Aquaai on a very interesting project: biomimicry. They were developing robot fish, and conveniently, we develop robot nervous systems. This was a very fun team-up and we’re looking forward to working with them again! In the summer of 2019, Aquaai contracted us to start developing a control board for a robotic fish. We were really excited about this project, as many of Matteo’s most interesting robotics designs have been inspired by nature.

A Simple One Inch Punch Project

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 00:00:00 -0700

Just a quick build today to demonstrate how the One Inch Punch can be used to make a swiveling tool mount. This One Inch Punch is one of the prototypes, excuse the solder - we didn’t have any production ones left in stock! This tool mount could be used as the basis for an arm, engraver, sensor or camera mount, controlled externally or by another One Inch Punch on the same bus.

Adding Bluetooth to One Inch Punch

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 00:00:00 -0700

We took the pan/tilt mount from Wednesday and added Bluetooth support. People were asking if the One Inch Punch could be made wireless, and the answer is “in about twenty minutes”. Plans after the break. This is a small demonstration showing that the One Inch Punch bus can be accessed wirelessly, such as this HC-05 Bluetooth Module. This allows more widespread or mobile automation solutions, such as drones, to rely on the One Inch Punch for internal control, and a remote control for an external interface.

One Inch Punch - Tiny but Powerful

Sat, 24 Aug 2019 00:00:00 -0700

Introducing our newest maker product. One Inch Punch is a powerful and inexpensive controller, with only one square inch of footprint! Control motors, servos, or daisy chain them for even more devices.

Chlorophyll Detector on Mars Rover 2020!

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 00:00:00 -0700

The chlorophyll detector we developed with NASA Ames Research is going to be launched to Mars in 2020! The final design of the detector was sent for space rating in May 2019, and while Robots Everywhere is sad to not be producing the space rated model that will be going up on the rover (NASA is doing that in-house) we are very happy to have our names on the design, and our instrument finally traveling to the red planet.

Ice Cream with Robots

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 00:00:00 -0700

This ice cream dispenser was built in collaboration with Tarlow Design Not only was it a delicious project, but it lead to the creation of the One Inch Punch Controller! The One Inch Punch is a common serial bus controller with only one square inch of footprint, with built in motor, servo, and secondary serial I/O. Even alone, the One Inch Punch is powerful enough to control individual tools, such as a drill press, winch, or hopper.

Working to Get Rid of Landmines

Sat, 28 Oct 2017 00:00:00 -0700

We are now a technical cosponsor with Minesweepers Towards a Landmine-Free World by contributing NAVCOM AI technology to the competitors in Malaysia. We are proud to help make the world a safer place. Land mines are a serious problem, and we are excited to be able to contribute to their removal. Take a look at www.landminefree.org for more information about our participation and what their organization is doing to remove land mines.

Cutting Steak with a 3D Printed Knife

Wed, 25 Nov 2015 00:00:00 -0800

The organometallic filament we are developing is capable of holding a nice sharp edge, as demonstrated here with a piece of steak. This test suggests possible medical and industrial applications as well as 3D printed cutlery, all from a filament we generate here on-site that is compatible with a standard extruder. Move over titanium spork!

L-Cheapo Mk2 Output Test

Wed, 25 Nov 2015 00:00:00 -0800

This was the first power output test of the L-Cheapo Mark 2.

This solid state laser cutter, and others, are available for under $300.

Pykrete from Martian Regolith

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 -0700

With every milligram of weight mattering so much, there's no way it makes sense to bring building materials with us beyond the absolute bare minimum.
Bricks of a substance much like this could soon form the first semi-permanent off-Earth settlement humanity has ever created!

Battlebots 2015!

Thu, 25 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0700

We participated in Battlebots 2015 by providing the firmware and some of the electronics for Inertia Labs' Bronco heavyweight battlebot. Check out the show on ABC starting today! Bronco's first fight will broadcast June 28th.

Google Cardboard on Android 2

Sun, 15 Feb 2015 00:00:00 -0800

We backported Google Cardboard to Android 2 in order to use old surplus phones to teach yoga.

Flying Cameras on Mars

Fri, 23 Jan 2015 00:00:00 -0800

Since quadcopters don't work on mars, we developed a ballistic camera drone that can be fired into the air and return safely, to conduct near-site surveys.

A $300 Solar E-Bike

Fri, 18 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0700

This is the e-bike I put together for my friend Dee, the job took about an afternoon. Robots Everywhere is always happy to share our talents with our friends and neighbours to make the world around us a better place, and stick it to pollution.

Laser Audio Transmission with L-Cheapo

Wed, 07 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The L-Cheapo laser cutter can do more than cut, engrave, or burn. It can also be used for direct-beam audio transmission! Make sure your goggles are secured for this one!

We're in Kerbal Space Program!

Wed, 07 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The next step after space was obviously the awesome indie game Kerbal Space Program.

We built another solar rover and sent it to the developers, as thanks for adding rovers into the game.