Welcome to Norris Labs. My name is Steve Norris. This is my personal web site. Here you will find a collection of robot projects that I have built over the past few years. You are free to use the schematics, diagrams and source code to build your own version for non-commercial use.
Look for PatrolBot Mark II in the next exciting issue of Robot Magazine.
A few years back I build an outdoor robot called CoolerBot (Robot March/April 2010). It was a telepresence robot designed to operate outdoors while I controlled it from the comfort of my living room. For the chassis I used a Colman Cooler and mounted heavy duty motors and electronics inside. It worked well but after a few years of operation (and an appearance on a television show) it was starting to show its age. So this time I set out to create an outdoor robot that would use all metal construction and include a suspension system. Being relegated to the great outdoors I also wanted to give it some harmless (but fun) defensive capabilities as well. In honor of it predecessor I’m naming this robot PatrolBot Mark II. And with its suspension and defensive systems I now have a robot that can smooth out the bumps and kick butt all at the same time.
Follow Norris Labs on Twitter. I'm logging status updates and new information about my robots and other projects on Twitter. Be sure to follow my account @norrislabs.
Hi-Res Photos Available - Looking for hi-res pictures of my robots? You can download them from my Flickr account. Once there simply click on the photo you want and then click "All Sizes" and "Original" to download the full size image.
Look Ma! No PC! Powering the Parallax Eddie and Kinect with a BeagleBone
I'm currently working on a version of the Parallax Eddie that uses a BeagleBone running Ubuntu Linux instead of a laptop PC. After much work I have been able to get the BeagleBone to reliability obtain both depth and RGB images from the Microsoft Kinect. I’ve used the open source Open Kinect drivers as well as my own custom ‘C’ and Java code to build a fully autonomous Eddie robot without the bulk of a Windows PC.
Stay tuned! The No-PC Eddie will appear in an upcoming issue of Robot Magazine.
Robots with a Mission
