A year ago, I attended the launch of the Brighton Robotics group, run by Emily Troop, and yesterday I went along to its first birthday party. The group has been pretty active over the past year, with projects to create a host of swam-bots, as well as organising regular talks and hack nights.

The party, organised by Nicola B consisted of around 20 robot enthusiasts turning up at the Skiff coworking space, and constructing drawbots with the aid of excellent kits and instructions created by Steve Pinter.

For the unfamiliar, a drawbot consists of a battery-pack and DC motor glued onto the top of a disposable cup, which also has felt-tipped pens sticking out of the bottom. The addition of an asymmetric counterweight (in this case in the form of a propeller with a blob of hot-melt glue on one of the blades) makes the device jiggle around and draw circles and other shapes as it goes.

Once we'd built these, we took them downstairs where they were allowed to buzz around, roaming freely on sheets of lining paper, while drawing overlapping pattens and occassionally locking propellers and dramatically bursting apart again. This mayhem was also accompanied by a great Dalek Cake, and, of course, beer.

All in all, it was great fun, and I wish the group all the best for the next year!

Also see: the event page on this Brighton Robotics site, videos from Chris, my photos on Flickr.