When I became interested in BEAM robotics and started taking apart pagers to cannibalize their motors, I was fascinated by the offset-weight on the motor shaft. That’s what makes your pager or other comm device vibrate, a one-sided weight spinning around and causing the vibrations you feel. While these weights are usually removed in miniature bot building, I started thinking about how you could use this off-kilter rumbling as a form of motility. Later, I discovered there’s a whole branch on the BEAM family tree for these “Vibrobots.”
Zach Debord, who created the Twin Engine Solarroller has built some cool Vibrobots. I’m going to talk to him about another Street Tech piece that shows off some of these and describes how he built ’em.
Which brings us to this amazing, analog vibrobot drawing robot project, built with little more than a paper cup, three felt pens, a battery pack and a DC toy motor with an “eccentric weight.” The video of the builder’s son taking it for a spin is adorable.
[Via Make]
