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Arts & Entertainment

Family Fun: Make a Simple Robot

You can even make one that draws all by itself

Those of you who experienced the earthquake last month may have watched objects shake, shimmy and eventually fall as everything shook.  

This idea of vibration causing movement is the principal behind very simple robots you can make with your kids from household items. The key ingredient is a vibrating motor. These are found in cell phones, pagers and toothbrushes among other things.  

We found the simplest and cheapest source for a motor came from the dollar store with a vibrating toothbrush. Complete with a battery and on/off switch, the removal of the brush head quickly gave us a good source of vibration for the robot's movement.  

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We created our robots with plastic cups, taping the motor to the top. Turn it on and the cup will slide around a flat surface. We added legs with magic markers, creating the possibility for a drawing robot. You could also use chop sticks, small paint brushes or popsicle sticks for the legs.Three legs worked well because it was less likely to become off-balance. 

My kids were delighted with the simplicity of the assembly and the fun results of their moving creations. We tried them out first with the marker tops on and watched as they moved across the table. With the tops removed, we set the drawing robots to dance on a large paper and watched as the markers traced the movement across the page.

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The robot with legs that were slightly varied in length seemed more likely to move in circles and spirals while the other moved across the page in a more linear pattern. We could experiment further with trying pens or pencils for the legs.

Another test would be to see how the robots respond to obstacles in their paths.

Finally, we had fun decorating our robots, adding robotic features like faces and arms to give them additional personality. To see the drawing robots in action, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLzs_GtJpvI

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