Android Powered Robot Android is like a woman, it has mean multitasking skills and one of my favorite things I love to see Android do is, control robots. It's only fitting for a OS called Android to be used to control robots and anything that has to do with robotics or Artificial Intelligence. Today we are going to look at a robot made from cardboard, this little thing was created Tim Health and Ryan Hickman who ate both web engineers.


At the center of the cardboard skeleton is the HTC G1, the first Android powered smartphone to be released 2yrs ago. By setting up the G1 to the cardboard skeleton along with a few wires here and there, Tim and Ryan were able to control the robot via their laptop, all this is possible because they took advantage of the G1s compass which they use for guidance, pretty god damn smart if you ask me. Now you maybe thinking all this cost them a fortune, it actually didn't, apart from the phone itself, the grand total for everything else is a measly $30, thats it.



Here are the components that made up the $30 price tag:

$16 Bare bones Arduino
$3 Micro servo
$0.25 Hex inverter (handled 3.3v to 5v conversion)
$4 HTC USB breakout board
$3 Mini breadboard
$4 miscellaneous cardboard, strap ties, wires, rear wheel

From little ideas like these, such is the way great things happen in the tech/mobile industry, what these guys have done might not be useful right now but it is definitely helping to pave the way for something great down the line, that I cannot wait to see. While your mind is looking to the future, check out the video of our cardboard master strutting its stuff.




[Wired]