ShopBot HandibotTM Smart Power Tool

[coryatjohn]

Ok, what gives?

[bleeth]

It's a carving gouge attached to a Biometrically controlled organic bipod.:D

[coryatjohn]

Here are some details:

This compact machine can do precision cutting, drilling, machining, and carving, just like a standard CNC router, but it’s compact and mobile, and it can work with an evolving library of task-oriented apps.

(starting at $3k?)

http://makezineblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/nl_hackpad-com_fikihct9tqo_p-33950_1366835778451_handibot21.jpeg?w=500&h=375

blog.makezine.com (http://blog.makezine.com/2013/04/26/maker-pro-newsletter-10/)

[Bob Eustace]

Very good detective work John! I looked at the Shopbot link and got nowhere! Here is a bit more blurb. Wonder why it as a Makita router onboard? Trouble for Shopbot though is we can all make these on our bots!!!! Wonderfull to see Shopbot out there leading the way - should gets heaps of TV coverage!


"ShopBot founder, CEO, and president Ted Hall told MAKE that he’s unveiling the Handibot at the Hardware Innovation Workshop, on May 15 — and bringing a half-dozen of the new units with him to HIW and Maker Faire — because “it’s more than a product, it’s an innovation platform.”

“We think it’s beyond our ability, or the ability of any individual company, to envision the range of uses, apps, and accessories that will truly enable the potential of such digital power tools,” he said. “That’s why we’re recruiting help in imagining the use of the tool and range of applications, and in creating the software apps that will stimulate enthusiastic adoption of Handibots and smart digital power tools in general.”

To encourage innovative contributions, ShopBot’s software system for running applications on the tools will be open source; so will the hardware.

Given ShopBot’s extensive CNC experience, the Handibot will likely have a lot of impressive features on day one. But Hall is hoping that by launching into a sea of makers, this new tool — possibly the first of an entirely new class of tools — will develop in ways that its inventors never imagined.

ShopBot is currently working on pricing the Handibot, but Hall believes it will start around $3k, and float down over the next few years. A crowdfunding campaign for the first batch of Handibots is targeted for June, with the first deliveries a few months after that.

[bleeth]

It needs wheels, an edge sensor, and a driver. How bout the Roomba-bot?

[gene]

am i correct to assume that you could sit it on a cabinet door and carve right into door ? or whatever you sit it on? isnt that like a carveright machine

[Brady Watson]

am i correct to assume that you could sit it on a cabinet door and carve right into door ? or whatever you sit it on?

Yes.


isnt that like a carveright machine

It plugs in & moves in at least 3 axes. That's where the similarity ends.

-

I think it would be pretty slick for putting in door locksets or doing floor inlays on-site.

What would YOU GUYS use it for?

-B

[genek]

I got to see a version of it last year...
What i thought about about it was this..

It would be a great machine to take out to customers homes or cabins, take down the soild wood doors and cabinet doors then carve a theme or scene into it right on location. This way you could do the work with out having to bring all the doors into the shop.

[srwtlc]

Hmmm, and then you'd have to take those doors back to the shop to refinish them. ;)

What are the cutting area dimensions (looks to be quite small)? A cross hair laser for alignment might be handy.

I could see the locksets and small floor inlays. Maybe countertop holes, solid surface inlay. Hinge mortising and boring. I see hold down and clearance due to footprint size as being an issue in some situations (close to backsplashes, etc.) Most contractors could probably do thing faster with standard power tools though.

[blackhawk]

I don't know about this thing. I personally couldn't see enough uses to justify the cost. I couldn't see many times that it would be an advantage to take this to a job site versus doing it in my shop.

I assume you would have to clamp, screw, or weight this thing down to hold it in place. That would seem to be a problem in a lot of situations.

[steve_g]

At craft shows you always need a "gimmick" to get/keep the crowds attention... A crowd draws a crowd. Perhaps it could do some real actual work as well as being an attention getter.

SG

[Red F]

I've wondered how long it would take for this idea to be made real after the MIT student made the hand guided CNC.

All I've got to say is, hardwood floor inlay.

[chiloquinruss]

If you've followed any of the projects done in Make Magazine I believe that this might be something that evolves into something very special. The robotics to make it mobile exist, to make it follow a line exist, the arduinio programmablity exists, sooooooooo. If someone can take a drawing of a dragon and wrap it around a log, I'm sure what comes out of this project could be something spectacular! :D Russ

[coryatjohn]

Couple it with an optical scanner and it could follow a line drawn with a pencil.

[Brady Watson]

Couple it with an optical scanner and it could follow a line drawn with a pencil.

John,
Not sure if you caught wind of it or not, but years ago (like around 1998) ShopBot had such a device available for purchase. Not sure when they stopped selling them.

-B

[coryatjohn]

John,
Not sure if you caught wind of it or not, but years ago (like around 1998) ShopBot had such a device available for purchase. Not sure when they stopped selling them.

-B

That sounds like a cool and useful tool. Design to cut.

[ron_moorehead]

My uncle is a retired machinist and the early CNC plasma cutters they had used a optical eye to follow full size plans to cut out the parts they were making. The only problems they had with them was during the summer when they left the shop doors open and a fly would land on the print and the optical eye would start to follow the fly instead of the line on the print.

[bleeth]

"a fly would land on the print"

"Help me, Help me"

[twelchPTM]

i'll side with the skeptics on this one... looks like it could evolve into a must have someday but right now seems like a fun toy for "big kids" with an extra 3k to blow