
Robot-Dreams.com has some great videos and history of a reborn Armatron – “Every “roboteer” worth their salt remembers “Armatron”, the fantastic robot arm from Tomy, and marketed by Radio Shack in the US during the early 1980′s. Well, it turns out that a group of Japanese roboteers also must have some pretty fond memories of Armatron too, because not only have they built one, they’ve improved it, doubled it, and given it legs!” Link.
More robot projects, news and how tos – Link.










Remember it? Dude, I just broke mine out of the box to let my 6 and 4 year old play with it for the first time!
A pair of D cells, powered it on, and it’s grinding away after 15 years on the shelf. I’d forgotten how loud that thing was!
Other than the fact that it’s a robot arm, how is this anything like Armatron? It doesn’t even move the same–Armatron’s shoulder couldn’t go that far back. Armatron’s gripper was better too. It had that design that keeps the “fingers” parallel.
Also, did anyone else have the “mobile Armatron”? That’s really what got me into robotics in the first place…
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