I made some progress on the Emiglio build tonight. I've had the mounting plates that fit in the collars at the top of his torso and the bottom of his head ready since the weekend. The Lazy Susan bearing I ordered off ebay arrived yesterday and I was planning on heading to the hardware store today for some nuts and bolts to fit them all together.

I had a moment of inspiration when I was collection up the parts to take to the hardware store (so I would get the right sizes). I didn't need nuts and bolts I just needed a way to get a screw driver to the second mounting plate. A drill took care of that. I used some wood screws I had laying around to fit the bearing to the mounting plates and reinstalled the whole system into Emiglio.

The motion's smooth and quiet. I posted a quick video on Vimeo which you can see here. I hope to motorise it in the next fortnight, but I'm still considering my options. I think I'll take a trip to Bunnings on the weekend and soak up some inspiration.

At Make, Hack, Void we have started working on refitting an Emiglio/Scooter robot with new control systems. He was bought as a gift for one of our members from a market stall and is missing his controller. The hope to be able to extend his functionality beyond the standard factory controls while still maintaining as much of his appearance as possible.

Recently we spent an afternoon taking it apart to see what we can fit inside... Read more »