Macomb Set to Showcase Robots and Beagle Boards at Maker Faire Detroit

When Maker Faire Detroit opens at The Henry Ford this weekend, three of the more than 300 wares, inventions and solutions on display will have ties to Macomb Township.

Phillip McRoberts will introduce his roving 5-foot tall Robbie the Robot, Joe Ficht will display a paint-splattered, Jackson-Pollock-inspired 1953 Plymouth and Jason Kridner will demonstrate the various uses of the Beagle Board.

Created by the publishers of MAKE Magazine and makezine.com, Maker Faire draws families, school teachers, students, science geeks, hobby and tech clubs and anyone who has ever chosen to do-it-yourself in a MacGyver-esque fashion.

The Faire, which runs from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 30-31 at The Henry Ford Museum, will have demonstrations and hands-on workshops on both days as well as arts and crafts, music and children’s activities.

Tickets are $28 for ages 13-61, $19 for youth ages 5-12 and $26 for seniors age 62 and over. Children 4 and under are free. Prices for a two-day pass are $48, $33 for youth and $45 for seniors. Members of The Henry Ford receive free admission to Henry Ford Museum and can purchase Maker Faire tickets at a discounted price.

The Beagle Board

In the simplest terms, the Beagle Board is “the guts of a cell phone,” said co-creator Jason Kridner.  

“It’s essentially a whole computer in there,” Kridner said. “When you buy a phone you can’t change the software on it, it’s all controlled by the manufacturer. We’ve taken the guts of a high performance cell phone and put computer-type connections to it, so you can run desktop operating systems on it.”

Kridner said hobbyists are now embedding the Beagle Board in robots, musical instruments, home entertainment systems and security webcams.

Although the Beagle Board is low power–able to run off a battery–it has high definition capability, using a Texas Instruments’ low-power ARM Cortex-A8-based processor.

For more information, visit the Beagle Board website.

Robbie the Robot

First-time Michigan maker Phillip McRoberts will bring his Robbie the Robot to the Faire. A roving 5-foot-tall webcam robot, Robbie streams video and audio.

By logging online to the robot, one can see "through the eyes" of Robbie as he travels the Faire and interacts with visitors through a two-way radio and speech synthesizer. 

Jackson Pollocktik Volume 1

Brought to the Faire by Joe Ficht, Jackson Pollocktik Volume 1 is a paint-splattered 1953 Plymouth by pop culture educator and artist Matt Donahue.

Abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock inspired Donahue’s design of the art car.

Other Points of Interest

• The Green Girl Scouts from Birmingham who turn trash into treasure like neckties into sunglasses, old magazines into gift bows and old belts into bracelets.
• Detroit artists Kristine Diven and Micho Detronik of District VII and their Mannequin Forest, an artificial forest of mannequins, circuitry and interaction.
• i3Detroit’s John Sugg and his Atari 2600 turned synthesizer keyboard. 
• The LifeSize Mousetrap
• Make-and-take Marshmallow Shooters