Archives: February 2025

The People and Robots Lab at UW-Madison (formerly the HCI Lab) got two of these for free from Mayfield Robotics. We never did anything with them except let them roam the floor. They would make their…

Generally, I love my Third Reality Smart Switches. I currently have three single-pole light switches configured (garage, kitchen, and hallway) and a three-way light switch for the stairs, all without…

My goal someday is to have a nearly fully automated smart house with robot butlers serving me drinks on voice command. Unfortunately I am not there yet. I do, however, have a start to my home…

A quick break from the semi-rigorous robotics discussion… Hex Bugs (officially HEXBUG) were cool. Not just the tiny ones that were only bristles and a vibromotor, but the slightly larger toys…

After I worked with the LEGO Mindstorms kit (see my post here), I moved on to BOE-Bot, an educational robotics kit that teaches basic electric circuits and robot control. I picked up my kit at the Boy…

A disclaimer before I begin. My thoughts on robotics kits are limited and dated. Limited in the sense that I started without kits, building simple robots, and then after kits quickly moved on to…

When I first started robotics, I was quite intimidated by the concept of programming. My understanding was informed by the Hollywood stereotype with a sulking nerd character striking keys quicker than…

This blurry photo has been sitting on a hard drive for a decade. It was August 2014 at Oshkosh AirVenture when I went to the Honda booth. Out walks ASIMO. Teen Curt's mind was blown. A walking robot…

This time the blog thing will work out (probably not, but I am here for the ride at this point). As the title states, I am restarting this blog for the fourth time. I first started blogging under the…