We brainstormed a bunch of ideas at NYC Resistor the other night and here they are in no particular order. None of these robots has been built yet to our knowledge. Neither do we claim ownership of any of these ideas. If you like one of these bots, or think you could make an awesome one then feel free to run with it. Of course the beachbot ecosystem is capable of supporting an infinite variety of bots, so please add your ideas here too.
Solar Hotdog Roaster
A stationary bot with a parabolic reflector trough that concentrates the suns rays onto a roughly hotdog shaped cylinder in the center. It should track the sun and rotate the hotdog for optimum cooking. Veggie dogs are allowed.
Sunblock Turret
Just say no to sunburn. Turn this bot on and it will seek out people in need of sunblock, tanning oil, or aloe vera and then squirt them with it. A turret based bot that could either be mobile or stationary. It would probably be easiest with air pressure, solenoid valves, and a couple servos to aim.
Sunblock Printer
Why settle for a dull, even tan? A pair of steppers and a solenoid-controlled sunblock nozzle can apply sunblock to permit you to tan in any pattern you desire! Why choose to be pale or bronzed when you can go halftoned this summer?
Messages in the Sand
This bot just drives around and writes messages in the sand. I'm leaning towards a bot that uses a bunch of solenoids to press 'fingers' into the sand and writes messages dot-matrix style in the sand. Another approach could be to have the bot itself be the pen and write vector messages. Could be a tricky one to build.
Coolerbot
Everyone loves cold drinks at the beach, but often it can be impossible to navigate the beach back to your cooler from your current adventure. Instead, have the cooler follow you and bring the beverages along. The cooler would double as chassis and cooler and you could even integrate a solar panel into the top for on-the-go charging.
Digbot
Not every bot needs to be useful. Digbot just digs and digs and digs. Will it get itself stuck? Will it even be able to dig? Will he accidently throw sand on someone and be embarrassed? Who knows!
Crabbot
This little guy is just like a crab, but not very tasty. Maybe he likes to crawl around and pinch butts. Or maybe its a she and she's busy making crabby crafts. This one is all about the personality.
Kite Flying Bot
Kite flying is fun, and fun should be automated. This bot could help in any number of ways: throwing the kite in the air, running around like an idiot, or maybe even just holding the string for hours and hours and hours for your enjoyment. After all, watching kites is the fun part, right?
Treasure Crab
For the greedy little roboticist out there. This bot relentlessly searches for treasure and when it finds it, it scoops it up into its sifter. It then goes into ecstatic convulsions of joy as it anticipates what will appear as it sifts through its latest load of literal paydirt.
Frisbot
Here's a challenging one. Can you make a frisbee throwing robot? How about one that catches frisbees? Could you make two bots that can play frisbee with themselves? Start the countdown until our frisbee-playing-robots take over.
Surferbot
Another difficult challenge. Can you make a bot that can hang 10 (or is that 1010?) Surfing requires an excellent sense of balance which is probably possible if you are a god of robotics. Just try not to piss off the real surfers.
Sandcastle Bot
This bot takes 3D printing to a whole new level. Take one part sand, one part water, and add a 3D printer. Hopefully what comes out is a work of art. If your 3D printer is made out of sand, it could even be self-replicating!
Beach Vendor Bot
Throw some motors on a vending machine and watch it get stuck in the sand. Jolly laughs for the whole crew. :)
Book Reading Bot
Many people enjoy a nice relaxing read down at the beach. Unfortunately that archaic form of entertainment needs to be modernized. How about a bot that scans your primitive paper book page by page, runs it through an OCR program, then through a text-to-speach script, and finally reads it out over a loudspeaker. Then everyone can know just how glittery Edward really is.
Watergun Bot
What beach experience isn't complete without a watergun fight? All will cower before you as your plop your 10HP waterpump based bot into the ocean and start pumping hundreds of gallons into the air. Just be careful not to use all the water.
Hair Braiding Bot
Braiding hair can be a tender, yet tedious moment of bonding between friends. Let a bot do it and then your bonding can take place at the ER when they fix you after the robot 'malfunctions'. Just kidding… this bot will give you awesome braids. Works on chest hair too!
Moat Digging Bots
No sandcastle is complete without a moat, and no beach is complete without being criscrossed by miles of moats. With this bot you can keep invaders out of your castle and claim your sovereign beach territory all at once.
Beach Condition Bot
This is a rare beachbot specimen… a useful beachbot! Attached to this bot is a variety of sensors that record and report on all the appropriate beach conditions. Temperature, wind speed, pressure, humidity, babe levels, and more. It could twitter them or hit up something like pachube. A useful beachbot?! Awesome!
Sunglasses Bot
Measures UV levels and dons the appropriate yet stylish glasses to protect its fragile circuitry.
Seagull Feeding Bot
Seagulls are the bastards of the sea. They're loud, poopy, and grumpy. They also love to eat. Well, let them eat and keep them distracted from bugging the crap out of you. This bot is stationary and timer based and will drop a nugget of food at random intervals. Watch as it gets swarmed by crazy birds. Will one be brave enough to fly away with it?
Fishing Bot
Fishing is probably the most boring thing ever invented. Fortunately, robots thrive at doing boring things for hours at a time. With a few bits of clever sensors you can have an automated fishing rod that will wait for a bit, set the hook, and reel it in for you. It can even have a mis-calibrated scale to automate the lying portion of fishing. Whoa, a 255 pounder!
Autonomous Beachball
A small RC car inside a beach ball makes for hours of frustrating, Rover-themed fun! Accidentally let you beach ball roll towards passerby… and then swerve away at the last moment! "Hey, my beach ball!"
Suicidebots contest
Design robots whose sole purpose is to bury themselves
Design robots whose purpose is to rescue the idiot robots that are burying themselves
Which side wins?
