Information About

Roller-bot




Roller-Bot is a non-intelligent Light activated Robot built upon a small Paint Roller .
The rollerbot is a design that exemplifies the concept of minimal-engineering and
is a copyrighted design developed in 1999 , by Paul L. Discher , Director
of Engineering Science Laboratories, Department of Electrical Engineering,
Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri .

The Roller-bot project employed 10 mechanical and electrical components to create
a powered non-intelligent robot vehicle activated by a Flashlight or other
a non-visible light source. Beside requiring no tools for final assembly this
project only used 10 discrete components.

The project employed a Rubber Band Drive Belt that transferred rotation to
the body of a paint roller cover. Controlling and powering the motor was
a photo-cell and a single transistor acting as a light activated
switch which applied DC electrical power from an on-board 9v battery.

Roller-Bot I was the first generation of the project followed by slight
design improvements with Roller-Bot II 5 months later. Both projects were
administrated in "make-and-take" publicity projects in which the "kits"
were given away free to student participants on the campus of Washington University.


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