All about our latest workshop and robots in nature!
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| | Participants with their new robots at the Robot Butterfly workshop at the Tett Centre! Photo credit: Juan Velasco (@juanvelasco.94) |
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| | Robot Butterfly Workshop at the Tett Centre |
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| | Participants learning to solder |
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Hands-on soldering happening! |
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| | Participants
learned how to solder and assemble the 3D printed pieces. They built
their robots step by step into animated creatures that were fluttering,
chirping, blinking! |
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Assembling the robot by fastening the wings to the motors |
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Here’s what some of the participants had to say about the experience: |
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| | Assembling the 3D printed pieces of the robot |
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“This
was my very 1st experience with robotics. I also never even thought of
robotics as being an artistic endeavour. Society often separates arts
and science, but they do truly belong together.”
“It was intergenerational, engaging & emotionally involving!” |
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| | Here are some interesting news snippets from around the world at the intersection of nature and robotics / tech! |
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| | Puffin inspired robot taking flight directly from swimming in water (Source: MIT News, YouTube) |
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Birds are weaving fibre optic cables into their nests (Source: Reuters, YouTube) |
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| | ERNEST rover mechanism moves through sand in a unique ‘crawling’ way (Source: NASA JPL, YouTube) |
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| | Robot Butterfly in the foreground of Ponte Azzone Visconti in Lecco, Italy - May 2026 |
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While on the adventure during Hackaday Europe, one of the sights to see was Ponte Azzone Visconti spanning the Adda River in Lecco, Italy. This bridge is 688 years old! Centuries ago, would people have imagined nature-inspired robotic creatures visiting this spot? |
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| | The synchronicity between the bat wing arcs and the arches of the bridge |
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Have you ever seen a cloud cast a shadow over a mountain before? |
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| | Both nature-inspired robot creatures on the banks of the Adda River |
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Imagine
all the footprints that have been tread across this bridge in the past,
and the ones that will follow in the future. Being surrounded by the
stunning natural landscape, it simply begs the mind to wonder about, and
to be concerned with, what is in store for our planet in the next six
centuries. |
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| | Boostlet Logic Level Shifter Bug Fix |
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| | Test run of the Boostlet Neopixel fix |
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Sometimes
when outdoors, Robot Butterfly’s Neopixels would glitch. The change of
conditions pointed at a bigger flaw, being that the current logic level
shifting is not adequate at the data rate for the Neopixels. |
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| | Scientific Equipment Device for Agriculture |
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| | In
this box is a newly built electronics scientific equipment device.
Building this was a race against time, as it will be used for an
agricultural application this season! Eager to hear the results from the
field.
Check
out how tall the box is! Thanks to our local mail service store for
packing it to withstand being jettisoned off the grand canyon and still
function without a scratch. |
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Happy maker shipping a cool project & build! |
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| | Monarch Butterfly Sighting |
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| | Monarch butterfly perched, so beautiful – unfortunately it has some damage to its wing. Lemoine Point in Kingston, ON - July 2026 |
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The
Monarch butterflies have returned! This one leaped onto my hand and
stayed for a chat. Such a wonderful opportunity to admire the details up
close! The small damage on the wing at the top caused it to be off
balance. After resting for a bit it was able to catch a gust of wind and
travel into the forest. |
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| | Possible tiny robot brain in the works? |
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This
is a CH552 8-bit microcontroller dev board. It has exciting potential
for mini robots given how inexpensive it is. Initial testing with it
proved that it can move a servo motor! Fun to play with a breadboard
again! …Then it became stuck while trying to configure a timer
interrupt. Sigh. Further testing will continue! |
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| | Super exciting to welcome 8 new Robot Butterflies as a part of the flock!
Hope wherever you are, you have experienced some wonderful moments of nature in summer already, with more still to come!
The tymbal buzz sound from cicadas is always a favourite, sounding similar to a mini DC motor gearbox. 😉
Until next time, -Erin RobotZwrrl |
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| | Hiya Robot! You are receiving this because *unrolls a long papyrus scroll and checks notes*:
This newsletter dispatches approximately once per month (unless one of our robots does something particularly epic) and includes highlights from our community events at Robot In The Park, updates on our tech development at Robot Missions, and art by RobotZwrrl. |
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