IN THIS CHAPTER

Parts List

Building Instructions

Assembling the Gripperbot’s Electronics

Programming the Gripperbot

The Next Chapter

Figure 7-1. The Gripperbot is a rolling manipulator you can control with your hands’ motions

We’re extremely excited about this next project. The Gripperbot is a rolling robotic arm that you control (see Figure 7-1) with a pair of gloriously nerdy arm-mounted Arduinos equipped with Wii Nunchuks and a wireless card for communicating with the robot! The roller itself packs an Arduino as well, along with a Bricktronics Shield and Bricktronics Motor Controller. It’s a complex build that requires a lot of parts, but the result is so sweet!

The Gripperbot (Figure 7-2) can be reconfigured for a simpler, and more inexpensive, robot. If you remove one motor from the body, or change the control scheme, you can get by with a single bracer, which eliminates an Arduino, an XBee shield, an XBee, a Nunchuk, and a battery pack. If you remove a motor, and make sure not to spin the arm around and pull the cords out, you can get by with only the Bricktronics Motor Controller on the body, which cuts an Arduino, an XBee shield, an XBee, and a battery pack. If you skip the arm, you won’t need the Bricktronics Motor Controller. Just about any single component can be removed, and it will cascade into other things you can remove—but the bot, as it is, is a fun remote-control toy that’s inspired by something John’s wanted since he was a little kid.