robots

so i have this book, absolute beginner's guide to building robots(Que Publishing 2004. i bought it when i took Pappenheimer's Machine Sculpture class 3 semesters or so ago, and thought i'd use it. well, it turned out to be a little bit more complicated and time-consuming,plus we were focusing on projects dealing with feedback and surveillance rather than straight robotics. anyways, needless to say i didn't use it. but it's pretty cool because it teaches you step by step these projects. one is a coat hanger walker, another actually involves using a computer mouse, and still others. and it's got a decent guide to robot resources. but you know you could always use these projects as stepping stones for puppetry.

they also list some robot research centers like:


Biorobotics lab at Case Western University - they study the mechanics of nature to see what can be engineered into robo-critters i.e. cockroach, ants, crickets, and other creepy crawler types.

Biorobotics Lab


Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute - Lots of labs working on various robotic research and projects.

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute



Humanoid Robotics Group- It's MIT. need i say more?

Humanoid Robotics Group



JPL Robotics - Developments in space robotics research.

JPL Robotics



Jouhou System Kougaku Lab- the JSK Lab @ the University of Tokyo (mostly in Japanese though)

Jouhou System Kougaku Lab



Robotics Research in Japan- A list of all universities and research centers in Japan devoted to robotics.

Robotics Research in Japan



Poly- PEDAL lab -- the lab @ Berkeley, also studying robotics based on the nature of insects. The poly- refers to "many-footed" animals, while the PEDAL = Performance, Energetics, and Dynamics of Animal Locomotion.

Poly-PEDAL lab



happy research.