Impress your IT friends or simply show off your DIY skills with these cool gadgets sure to leave them jealous – plus, they’re easy to create! This innovative hack uses an old portable radio to create a speaker system compatible with smartphones. A great DIY project for children of all ages!
1. Talking Potato GLaDOS
Once partially destroyed by Chell during the Portal series, GLaDOS was rebuilt as an innocent potato. Though she claims she no longer enjoys killing, her new personality remains equally sinister, providing passive-aggressive safety reminders and ominous warnings.
Her sarcasm and bitter, cynical remarks have drawn comparisons to HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey and SHODAN from System Shock. While she lacks empathy, she still shows an interest in cake while telling lies to Chell despite carrying a grudge against her in the Peer Review DLC.
2. Zoidberg Robot
Zoidberg is an alien from Decapod 10 who serves as staff doctor (of dubious competence) for the Planet Express crew. He’s always poor and feeds off whatever he can find around the station – be it from dumpsters outside, bridal bouquets, or whatever.
He can also be quite impulsive and unpredictable, often creating havoc through hunger or jumpiness. Additionally, his diet includes anything he can find to consume, such as brown crayons, compact fluorescent bulbs, and tofu! He’s also an accomplished theremin player and hand-to-claw combatant, once even defeating Clamps in such duels. His grandiose delusions provide much of his comedic value.
3. Broken NES Computer
Have you seen pictures of this NES PC floating around the internet before? It is worth taking a closer look to appreciate all the hard work put into its creation. Hidden within its plastic shell lies a 1 GHz VIA C3 processor, 512MB of RAM, and a Morex 90 W PSU.
To open an NES, first remove the red-arrowed screws shown above, and pull up on the upper half of the case until the upper half comes off. Next, detach and disconnect each of the six connectors for controllers and switch assembly before pulling away. If your NES is having difficulty reading Game Paks, try cleaning cartridge pins using pure (91% or higher) isopropyl alcohol with cotton swabs to lubricate them properly.
4. Steam Turbine
Steam turbines convert thermal energy into rotary energy and power 80% of global electricity production. Modern steam turbines use fossil fuels, nuclear power, or concentrated solar power sources as the source for their steam production.
High pressure and temperature conditions cause the steam to expand, increasing velocity and internal kinetic energy. Optimized blade design then captures this energy for rotation of the rotor, while governor and throttle valves allow control over its speed. There are various types of steam turbines designed for specific uses; impulse turbines capture only the kinetic energy of steam jets, while reaction turbines take advantage of both kinetic and thermal expansion to capture it all.
5. Robotic Arm
Robotic arms are motor-driven machines that can be programmed to do specific jobs quickly and consistently. Also known as manipulator arms, robotic arms use joints, articulation points, and wrist joints that simulate human arm movement to perform their tasks.
A wrist connects the forearm to the end of an arm, acting as a robotic hand that can grab objects. This wrist can rotate around one axis for more flexibility and maneuverability; the most common robot types, articulated arms, have five or more joints that provide various degrees of freedom that provide movement possibilities.
6. Robotic Squirrel
Squirrels leap from branch to branch without strong grips, using precise leg movements and body adjustments to ensure safe landings. This technique could serve future military or search-and-rescue robots when traversing rough terrain. UC Berkeley researchers have taught their robot, Salto, to act similarly. A study published March 19 in Science Robotics details how biologists and engineers studied squirrel movement on campus before adapting it for Salto’s control system.
The team equipped branches with sensors and captured high-speed video footage to study how squirrels land after long leaps. When landing, a squirrel tends to do a front-legged, handstand-style landing, which cushions most of its impact.
7. Robotic Bird
Scientists are taking inspiration from bird flight to create smaller, quieter, and longer-lived robots. A team at Stanford’s Bio-Inspired Research and Design Lab developed an automaton resembling a pigeon with real feathers that can move with its artificial wrist and fingers to recreate various aerodynamic shapes in the air.
Justin Thomas, a Ph.D. student in the lab, is working on an ambitious project that mimics the gripping power of bald eagles to capture objects at high speeds. He plans to use these feathery flyers to study how birds achieve lift and propulsion, adjust speed and direction, and respond to wind gusts.
8. Robotic Dog
Robotic dogs have long been featured as dystopian science fiction creatures, yet their technology is quickly becoming mainstream. Companies such as Boston Dynamics are employing robot dogs for tasks including exploration, navigation, patrols, transportation, and searching and rescue operations.
The Bittle robot is designed to introduce basic concepts in programming and robotics to students aged 14 years or older. It comes pre-programmed with some basic tricks for learners to build upon as their experience increases. Smart tracking system that enables users to control it even when out of sight.
9. Robotic Car
Self-driving cars may seem futuristic and out-of-reach at first, but these autonomous models are quickly gaining ground. Relying on sensors to “see” their surroundings and notify when something may be too close, these autonomous cars beep or flash when too close and beep or flash when something may come too close; some even produce an aerial map view graphic displaying exactly where the car is on the road.
