We all know that geeks often design something overly complicated to perform a simple task – yet such creations inevitably end up looking so cool that we just can’t help but admire them.
Case in point: Le Zhang and Michael Lathrop of Cornell University who designed a whiteboard erasing Lego robot and received class credit for it.
The robot is powered by an Atmel brain and features accelerometers, micro switches and magnets. The accelerometers are used for directional control, while the micro switches in the design are capable of sensing the edge of the dry erase board. The robot stays attached to the vertical dry erase board using the magnets and the Lego bricks are hot-glued together.
It appears that this little robot is powered by eight AA batteries and uses a couple small wheels to push itself up and down the dry erase board. The robot doesn’t seem overly complicated, but the algorithms controlling the show are probably the most difficult part.
