Tinker with your PDA and create a robot or buy kit and turn your PDA into robot. Here are some neat robots featured in The Industry Standard this month.
PPRK
Grigoriy Reshko, a 17-year-old freshman at Carnegie Mellon University, created the Palm Pilot Robot Kit prototype. It will be sold off-the-shelf for Palm or Visor owners.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pprk/index.html
Solar Charger For Pocket PC
Soaking up the sun before his freshman year at the University of California at San Diego, electrical engineering major Hart Woolery decided to work on more than his tan. In less than a day, Woolery constructed an efficient set of small solar panels that plug into any Windows-powered Pocket PC.
http://www.plastecs.com/
PileyBot
Auckland, New Zealand, software engineer Simon Jansen first used an Apple IIe to control a robot for a science fair project. Now, he has turned a Palm V into a mini-tank. Like General Patton, the Palm rides on top and issues commands.
http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/asciimation/palm/
PalmRobo
Yusuke Sugawara, a security guard and robot researcher in Tokyo, claimed title to the world’s first Palm-powered robot in 1998. His next step: Connect the Palm and the robot wirelessly.
http://www.kt.rim.or.jp/~suu/PalmRobo/PiloRobo_e.shtml
RoboPilot
“You have to do a bit of cable hacking, but it does plug right into the robot,” says Everett “Skip” Carter, RoboPilot’s creator. With Carter’s software, the Palm becomes the controller that sends commands to the bot’s serial motor. His son designed the software interface.
http://www.taygeta.com/robots/robopilot.html
Have you made any robots? Did you use a Palm? Either way, post your photos and URLs using the feedback link below.
