Wiimote used to control robotic arm
If you got all your information about the Wii from its very own Engadget tag, then you'd probably think that it doesn't play games, such are the number of tasks that inventive users have coaxed the Wiimote into carrying out. That combination of an IR sensor and accelerometer has churned out the likes of beat machines and an array ofcrappy plastic accessories, but now someone has put the Wiimote up to the task that we'd all been willing it: the control of a robotic arm. A student group project in a Mechatronics class at the University of Michigan produced the Wii-bot arm, which apparently "features direct end effector control using the accelerometers, D-Pad, and a 50 LED sensor bar, unlike the other popular Wiimote Robot Arm (the one with the sword) which was controlled using pattern matching". Ya hear that? The Wii-bots are already preparing for war. Peep the embedded video after the break, in all its whirring and buzzing glory.
[Thanks, Dan W]
