Hi and welcome to my blog! This is my first time blogging so let me begin by telling you a bit about myself and why I have set this up.
I’m Chris and I have always been fascinated by how things work. I was the kid that would drag his parents out to the annual funfair to watch new attractions in action just so I could figure out how they worked. I would then come home and recreate them in Lego, using hand-driven mechanisms initially but quickly moving on to automation once the first Mindstorms kits were released. This, along with the many robot-themed films and TV shows of the 90s, is what gave me a love for robotics. Since then I have focused my academic studies on robotics related subjects and as of last year became a doctor, having gained my PhD for creating a self-reconfigurable modular robot (you can find my thesis here). I now work as a Robotics Researcher at the University.
Outside of academia, I do a variety of side projects using the electronics, programming, and design skills I gained from my studies. You can find some of these listed on my Projects page. I am particularly proud of my hexapod walker and my contributions to Infernal Robotics, a mod for the popular space exploration & construction game Kerbal Space Program. The hexapod was the first real robot that I designed myself, and my work on Infernal Robotics has added many new possibilities to the game for players to enjoy.
So, why have I decided to set this blog up? Well, I have been doing these fun side projects and sharing my progress with friends and family, but rarely do I share them with the wider world. Recently I had the opportunity to attend the UK Maker Faire in Newcastle. This was my first time going, and although the event was not to the scale of those I’ve read about in other countries, being there and getting to meet makers like Colin Furze and Dr Lucy Rogers made me realise that the maker community is something I would like to be a part of and for that I need to share my projects with a wider audience!
Now that this blog is live, expect to see weekly (I hope) updates on a variety of hardware and software projects I have in the works, as well as several planned robotics projects down the line too! There may also be more random posts such as kit reviews or thoughts on any future maker events I attend. Here’s a teaser of some of the projects already in the works:
If this blog sounds like something you would be interested in, I encourage you to add it to your favourites and follow me on social media!
Cheers,
-Chris