14 DAY TRIAL // Many robots are complex wonders of engineering, even if most of the human-like ones still can't walk properly. There are some, however, that are a lot easier to make.
Eddie is one of them, but that doesn't prevent it from being one of the most entertaining things I've seen all week.
A balance robot, it uses two wheels to move about an area. Those wheels are set on both sides, like on a lawnmower as opposed to, say, a bike.
Even so, it's not easy for a mobile device to stand upright without a third spot to divide the weight. The Eddie managed it anyway.
Eddie is the brainchild of Teledyne engineer Ranee. She used a Solidoodle 3D Printer to craft it.
An Intel Edison PC acts as the brain of the robot. You might have heard of it, that PC the size of an SD card that was launched at last year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2014).
A free copy of Google SketchUp was used to design the bot, and a USB web camera to use as the sensor. An inertial measurement unit is connected to the Edison through a 70-pin connector (this she had to order separately). A Linux operating system runs the whole thing.
Other non-3D-printed components include an IMU, a dual h-bridge motor driver, Li-ion battery, and two motors.
