Dorkbot:13 Minibot: Size Matters!

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Speakers:

Bart Cannon, “Don’t Kill Your Television: Convert it to a Scanning Electron Microscope!”: Bart Cannon has operated an independent electron microscopy laboratory in his basement since 1984, when he purchased a broken-down instrument at Boeing Surplus for $2,500. He works on any inorganic job that can fit in his mail bin: toxic particles, ore mineralogy, antiquities and murder cases. He’ll be giving a simplified overview of scanning electron microscopy, bringing a microscope and a CoCA logo created with an electron beam. (http://www.cannonmicroprobe.com/)

Ted Griebling, “Invention, Robotics and the M&M’Bot”: Ted Griebling is a mechanical engineer and ten year veteran of the Seattle area high-tech product development industry. Ted's passion for invention and robots has lead him to construct numerous award winning robots for fun as well as for work. He is currently a consulting engineer and pursuing multiple business ventures, and will be showing us his M&M’Bot v.3 – an amazing robot only 1” square that moves and sorts M&Ms – in action. I think this is the first time Ted has taken this version out for an airing!

Pablos, “Ultra-Personal Computing”: Notorious Internet man of mystery and San Francisco and Seattle dorkbot regular Pablos has most recently (alongside his ongoing work on crypto, security and privacy-related projects with the Shmoo Group (http://shmoocon.org)) been directing software development at OQO (http://www.oqo.com/company/about/), the makers of a tiny, wireless machine they call an ‘ultra personal computer’ or ‘uPC’. At 4.9”x3.4”x0.9” with a complete thumb keyboard and mouse, it looks rather like the only computer you need anywhere, for anything. v1 launched a few days ago, so this is seriously hot off the press (if one can use such an old-fashioned description for such a newfangled device)…

Doug Bell, “You Can Make A Simple Walking Robot”: Seattle Robotics Society, dorkbot-sea and Weird Science Salon regular Doug Bell will use his own LEGO™ examples to illustrate how, rather than requiring a servo motor for each joint, his beautiful walking robots use mechanical linkages to accomplish the walking motion, and so only require one left and one right motor, rotating continuously for straight motion, while steering is like a tank or caterpillar tractor. Many of his robots are based on examples culled from Techno Games (http://www.technogames.net), the UK’s annual robotic Olympics, but his 48-legged walker is based on a search and rescue robot created by a Japanese University using whegs (wheels + legs) to move smoothly on a flat surface and climb stairs.

Have an announcement? A request? Need collaborators? Materials? Advice? The floor is yours following the last presentation and before the DJ starts. Email dorkbotsea@dorkbot.org and I’ll add you to the roster, or just come and find me during the presentations and let me know you’d like to talk so I can wave to you when it’s your turn…

Josh Herrala: Josh Herrala is the artist and DJ behind Deluxe Curl Records (www.deluxecurl.com), a minimal techno/micro-house label based in Seattle. Coming up in the Detroit area, he began DJing in the early 1990s during the 'Third Wave' of the Techno revolution. By day he is a mild mannered network engineer who works for a local training company. Building OOPic based robots is his primary hobby.