Video: Chris the Carpenter shows off Walter the Robot's servo-powered head

We love us a good robot, the more clearly home-built the better, and it's hard to get more DIY than a bot-to-be called Walter from Chris the Carpenter at Let's Make Robots. Right now Walter exists in halves: a torso comprised of a custom chassis powered by some DeWalt drill motors, and a head with a small LCD display turned on three axis by a collection of servos. As of now everything is controlled by a remote, but the ultimate plan is for Walter to be able to locate a person, face them, and display a list of functions. We're not sure what Walter's purpose in life is to be in the future, but based on the second video below we're reasonably sure it won't be serving as a shuttle for reluctant wives.

[Via Hacked Gadgets]

[Faar @ Jan 13th 2009 10:18AM]

I'm Walter, try me!

[Saitir @ Jan 13th 2009 10:39AM]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers that!

[Brainslugged @ Jan 13th 2009 3:52PM]

Shouldn't it be called Walter the Wobot?

[tomaskn @ Jan 13th 2009 10:20AM]

funny vid :d

wife+robot= ultimate overlord

[Danbo @ Jan 13th 2009 10:21AM]

Re the second video, one word: haircut.

[konshuss @ Jan 13th 2009 10:21AM]

Let me know when it starts critiquing bad movies.

[Sterney @ Jan 13th 2009 10:25AM]

Meh... it's not as cute as wall-e

[Captn Obvious @ Jan 13th 2009 10:58AM]

A remote controlled toy car... wasn't this created 20 years ago?

[Verythrax @ Jan 13th 2009 11:03AM]

List of functions:

1. Kill Humans
2. Take over the world
3. Goto 1

[neodorian @ Jan 13th 2009 11:05AM]

Robot roll call!

[twisted_bob @ Jan 13th 2009 11:08AM]

Maybe Joe the Plumber can show us how the robotic bowels will work?

[Carlosgo22 @ Jan 13th 2009 12:07PM]

Two things:

1) The wife is cute, but she definitely needs to get rid of the dreads.
2) Making the wife fall on her but and then on her face is PRICELESS!

[Errorkid @ Jan 13th 2009 1:27PM]

Keep the dreads, girl

[Like_A_Glove @ Jan 13th 2009 12:21PM]

That is RAD!........no, not his robot, his wife. yeah, his wife is RAD!

P.S.
I've been told nobody's saying "rad" anymore, well, I think I just did.

[absurdio @ Jan 13th 2009 8:02PM]

Yeah, dude.

This guy's life is basically perfect. Seriously. Pretty wife with a sense of humor, room full of robots and tinkering, and an adorable-ass kid. I don't even LIKE kids, and I think that kid's adorable. Damn!

Also, nobody says "dude," anymore, either.

[DHBat @ Jan 13th 2009 12:31PM]

I think it looks more like the head of Mek-Quake than Walter the Wobot.

BIG JOBS!

[Errorkid @ Jan 13th 2009 1:26PM]

Did he call his kid "jar-jar" in the first vid ?

[glenskey @ Jan 13th 2009 6:34PM]

well, one thing is for certain. someone will be sleeping on the couch tonight.

[Chris the Carpenter! @ Jan 13th 2009 6:41PM]

Hey Folks, it's me!!
I didn't even know I was featured here! Too cool. I am glad you liked the video, but really don't judge Walter on just that. The Kari video was simply when I got my motor driver finished and I finalized the code to get the RC to talk to Walter's brain. At this stage it was RC but the servo pulses from the RC unit were still being read by the CPU and then sent to the motor driver. At any rate, he has come right along -I am working on the head right now. I have a little jerky problem with the RC but when the Picaxe chip is running everything it is smooth as silk. I think eventually, he's going to kick ass. --I still have to finish welding the trailer for the kids, Walter's got a trailer hitch now.

Bunch more info here: http://letsmakerobots.com/node/4228

[Chris the Carpenter! @ Jan 13th 2009 6:42PM]

Oh, and its "Char-Char" ..."Charlie"

[AdLab @ Jan 14th 2009 9:37AM]

These are great honest videos of what its like to share a home with a tech geek (my girlfriend shares her home with one - me)

Thanks for posting unedited Chris :-)