Bring old toys back to life with Arduino
Back during the Christmas of 2004-2005, the Robosapien v1 by WowWee [1] was the cool toy to have: It walked, it talked, it did karate, and it cost less than 100 bucks. With 1.5 million units sold, you likely know somebody who has one of this cute robots.
Even if you don't have a Robosapien around, you can pick one up from eBay for as little as $20 [2] (I'm talking about the old v1; the new vX looks nearly the same but costs quite a bit more). Even if you're not interested in getting one of these cool toys, you will be able to apply what you learn here to other motor-driven projects. I chose the Robosapien because they're everywhere, and I had one in a closet. It walks, looks cool, and is relatively easy to hack with spectacular results.
Anatomy of Robosapien
The Robosapien has one motor in each shoulder, one in each elbow (that twists the lower arm and makes the claws open and close), one at the waist, and one in each leg (Figure 1). Note that these are DC motors, not servos.
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