Category: writing

After working all day on the robots, I finally have something that I wouldn’t mind maybe showing somebody sometime if I felt like. Maybe.

I was trying to make a walking robot, but for some reason it started hopping. Okay. Sure, why not? A hopping robot is just as entertaining, if not more so.

Anyway, by Tuesday, it will all be over, and this cubicle dweller will be able to return to real life. No more robots for a while, please.

The robots have gained a foothold on my desk! I’ve tried to keep them from taking over, but I’m barely holding my ground against them.

After my initial success of sending two robots off to the publisher, I thought it was over. But it looks like I’ll have to repeat that mission and round up a couple more. It won’t be easy. It may take several days of stalking them before I can get a clear fix and bag ’em. But I have my coffee maker and a full can of 100% Colombian as ammo.

Bots, your days are numbered. I’ve got a keyboard with your name on it. Especially if your name is “Qwerty”.

Finally. After a marathon robotics session this weekend, the robots, programs, and instructions are finally done! (insane laughter)

And now back to my regularly scheduled life…

Today I was going to write about how the robot designs are coming, but instead I’ll just post a picture of my desk, which is now completely taken over by little plastic gears and beams and axles and motors and wires and… you get the idea.

Ever wonder how they make those really detailed 3-D illustrated Lego instruction booklets? I discovered for myself last night. There’s a freeware program called MLCAD, in which you choose individual 3-D modelled parts from an enormous catalogue and carefully place them in the correct position and orientation in the workspace. Slowly, painstakingly, you can build a fully 3-D Lego model.

Last night I spent at least four hours “drawing” a small portion of a sub-assembly of a Lego robot that I designed. Oddly, designing and building the robot itself only took an a fraction of that time.

Why am I doing this? I was asked to contribute to a book about building Lego Mindstorms robots, which has a bit of a cult following amongst the geek set. As it turns out, Lego is a lot less fun when you have to design and build robots on a deadline.