Steam Walker, explained

Here is a video showing how my Steam Walker work:

Motorla Steampunk

This is a spot that I did for Motorola a few years ago, but was never used. I found a version of it and thought that I'd share :)

Wired Garage Interview

Wired visited my garage!

Check out the article here: http://www.wired.com/design/2013/02/steampunk-hamster-wheel-robots/

Since they focused quite a bit on the Hamster Walker, I made this little template and parts list, for anyone looking to reproduce it:

And now something that I found funny. This type of hamster is ironically named "Robo" Dwarf Hamster. Quite suitable for a hamster mech-suit pilot.... named Princess.

Exploratorium Webcast: Toys

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Open Make show this weekend at the Exploratorium! And if you missed it, here is the webcast, where I talked about my steam and electric robots hobby, and Skylanders toys for work. My son wanted to be up there with me. Somebody needed a nap! So instead of being a distraction, I just brought him to the stage. He was totally happy just being up there with me, I guess he didn't get my stage fright genes! Anyway, enjoy the webcast, I was the second speaker, about 16 minutes in, but I strongly recommend watching the whole thing from start to end. Update, the Exploratorium had just uploaded video of my section only, shown below. However, I'd still recommend to check out the entire webcast!

Not only was it an honor to be part of Open Make and the Exploratorium, but it was great to meet the amazing toy makers.

Also, some of my steam powered and electric robots, are on display in the tinkering studio for the next couple of weeks: Steam powered R2, Steam Walker, Steam Centipede, Steam Turtle, couple of the Swashbots, and the Putterbot:

Exploratorium & One of Swords

Sorry for the late post.... first, I was interviewed by One of Swords (about 24 mins in). And I'll be at the Exploratorium this Saturday: http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/open-make-toys/

The Exploratorium will be displaying many of my steam creations, as well as the electric critters. I will also be bringing some prototype skylander toys, and some really early hand sculpts, molds, casts etc. I will try to bring all of the Skylanders, including yet to be released if people wanted to see what they will look like :) I'll probably be there most of the day, the interview is between 1pm-2pm.

Titanoboa, 50ft Electromechanical Snake

My friend Leigh Christie is at it again. A few years ago, he and his team built the Mondo Spider, based off of the Mechanical Spider linkage design. It was about the coolest thing ever, amazing feat of both engineering and art. So what does one do after building a personal, rideable, giant spider mech? A giant robotic snake of course! This 50 foot monster, appropriately named Titanoboa, is a thing of beauty. Check out the video of the Titanoboa and Mondo Spider in action:





For more information about Titanboa, check out: http://titanoboa.ca/
And more about the Mondo Spider: http://www.mondospider.com/ and Joe Klann's Mechanical Spider mechanism: http://mechanicalspider.com/

Me and the boy on the Mondo Spider at the 2010 Maker Faire:

EDIT

"To be clear, Leigh Christie is one of the founders of the eatART lab and the Mondo Spider. Charlie Brinson is the principal artist behind Titanoboa,  and his team credits can be seen here."

Nothing Bad Magazine Interview

I was interviewed a while back by Arianna Reiche, and recently made it into the London based magazine, Nothing Bad. 


You can read it here, where I  rambled on about my design process, my inspirations, why I make these things, and where I find the time. My article starts on page 26.

Here are links to a couple of influences that I mentioned: 

Joe Klann of MechanicalSpider

Theo Jansen of Strandbeest

Phasma - Cable Driven Critter

Check this thing out, it's way too cool. I've dreamed cable driven robots like this, but would never have pulled off this perfect execution of concept to machine. The speed and motion is just amazing....I want one!




[ Phasma ] VIA [ BotJunkie ]