A Modern Musical Take on BEAM Robotics

BEAM robotics, as explained in Michael Krzyzaniak’s video below, is a style of minimalistic, biologically inspired robots, that use the sun for power and operate using analog circuitry. Such robots were quite popular circa 20 years ago, but with the easy availability of microcontrollers, along with tools like 3D modeling and printing, they’ve become less common.

So what would it look like if someone were to combine the general aesthetic of sun-seeking BEAM robotics with modern making tools and components? Krzyzaniak set out to build such a modern-day BEAM robot, which in addition to just finding the sun, drums out a little beat in the process.

For locomotion/beat creation, the ‘bot uses three solenoids to tap and push itself around, each of which had to be modified to keep the plunger from randomly popping out. Power is provided by several solar panels that charge a supercapacitor to 9V. Once this level is attained – roughly every two minutes in full sun – the solenoids then fire repeatedly for 10-ish seconds until the charge drops to 6V, pushing the robot toward the sun while drumming out a beat.

Overall control for the device is via a custom circuit board and an ATtiny402 microcontroller. While this might be considered a bit of a stretch for the original BEAM concept, it certainly fits the goal of a modern BEAM-like contraption. Overall, it looks like a fun build, and one that carries the spirit of simple robotics into the modern era.