Your first robot: a tiny machine that scoots across the table on a vibrating toothbrush head. No soldering, no code — just a motor, a battery and about five minutes.
Tap each item as you gather it. Everything here costs very little and is easy to find.
Six quick steps from a pile of parts to a robot on the move.
Snip the head off a toothbrush so you're left with just the bristly block, about 3–4 cm long. Angle the cut slightly if you can — angled bristles help the bot pick a direction.
Tip: shorter is faster. A smaller, lighter head vibrates across the table more eagerly.
Press a small square of double-sided foam tape onto the flat top of the brush head. This is the platform you'll stack the motor and battery onto — the foam also soaks up a little vibration so nothing rattles loose.
Press the vibration motor onto the foam tape, sitting flat across the top. The little off-centre weight on its shaft is what makes the whole thing shake when it spins — that shake is your bot's engine.
Tip: let the two thin motor wires poke up and to the side so you can reach them in the next step.
Stack the coin-cell battery on top, flat side (the + side) facing up. A second strip of foam tape under it keeps it steady. You now have a neat little tower: bristles, motor, battery.
Hold one motor wire on the top (+) of the battery and the other on the bottom (−). The motor whirs to life. With a coin cell there's no polarity to worry about — if it doesn't spin, just swap the two wires.
Tip: a dab of tape over each wire holds the connection so your bot can run hands-free.
Put your Bristlebot down on a smooth, hard surface and let go. It'll buzz, wobble, then scurry off in its own direction. Congratulations — you just built and powered your first robot.
To switch it off, simply peel one wire off the battery.
The motor has a tiny weight bolted off-centre to its shaft. As the shaft spins, that lopsided weight throws the motor — and everything taped to it — into a fast, tight shimmy, thousands of times a minute.
Each shimmy lifts the bristles a hair off the table and nudges them forward. Because the bristles are springy and slightly angled, they flick back down pointing the same way — so instead of buzzing in place, the whole bot ratchets across the surface. It's the same trick that makes your phone "walk" across a desk when it vibrates.
Coin-cell batteries are dangerous if swallowed — keep them well away from small children and pets, before and after the build. Disconnect a wire when you're done so the battery doesn't drain or warm up, and recycle flat batteries rather than binning them. The motor is harmless, but its spinning weight can catch loose hair, so tie it back.
The Bristlebot is step one. If you'd like to go further — motors you can control, sensors, a robot that responds — we run hands-on courses for all ages.