Forum Thread: Robotics Forum

I don't think I've seen PVC robotics. Do you have any cool examples?

As of right now, the best use that I've seen wasn't actually on the robot itself, it was a cage that the developer built to keep his drumbot from rolling off of the table.

The developer of this bot is an intern for Make magazine, and he's just now really getting into incorporating PVC into his designs.  He did the bends on this cage, and that opened up doors in his imagination for what else he could do.

He's working to incorporate PVC parts into both his chassis designs and into the appendages.  We'll see what he comes up with.  He'll definitely have something to show by the next Maker Faire, but I have a feeling that I'm going to hear about it before then.

I am currently working with a programmer to develop a robotic plant habitat (I've briefly mentioned this on other pages here) that will control temperature, lighting, watering and nutrition, plus have a camera on servos inside to observe the plants from a distance.  All of this will be accessible and controllable from a smart phone.

Really, I'm wanting to hear from the home-brew robotics community on what their ideas are and see if I can be of any assistance, either with methods or concepts.  I think by using cheaper, more versatile materials, we can keep a decentralized attitude, and that is my number one concern.  I hate to think it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to come up with something new.

Dug up a few examples of robots that use PVC.

1)Biped walking robot from a piece of PVC conduit.

2)Cheap Hexapod - PVC Walking Robot

3)This one has a few robots near the bottom

There's definitely more out there, and I hope to see the numbers rise as open-source robotics hits the mainstream.

Nice, thanks for referencing those.

Adam,i visited the links that you given into your post.Really helpful for taking nice ideas.