Roam Robotics is doing some awesome stuff in San Francisco, California, and here we get an exclusive, inside look! Their first commercial product is a robotic ski exoskeleton which you can try out this upcoming season. Read on to learn more about how it works and see inside Roam’s office. Or, you can watch the video below for the tour plus seeing these things in action: How did Development for these Ski Exoskeletons Begin? If you were thinking it’s kind of a strange leap to decide to create exoskeletons for snowsports as a company’s first endeavor, you’d be right. It turns out the original application for this exoskeleton had nothing…

Get that stretch out of your system with this week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist. It’s fashioned up, ready to make you pull your shoulder blades back and knock out another week of meaningful work while you bob your head to the beat. Whether you’re in the shop milling aluminum, sketching the latest product prototypes or modeling up a 3D storm, consider these tracks as a tool for your process. This week on SolidSmack Radio we’re getting things rolling with “Right Here” from Tricky before rolling into a tasty Trip Hop-inspired set from Portishead, PJ Harvey, Zero 7, and others before wrapping up with “Colomb” from Nicolas Jaar. Ready? Let’s Rock! Have…

Though VR technology has come a long way since its inception in the late 19th century *ahem* 20th century, the methods of interacting with a virtual world have remained largely the same. Through the use of buttons and controllers, using a VR headset still feels very cumbersome despite its ability to add real actions into a virtual space. But what if you didn’t need a controller? What if you could control everything seamlessly through the use of your own two hands? This is exactly what Oculus has been working on. Early next 2020, the Oculus Quest VR headset will allow for true hand-based inputs straight from your hands into the…

As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Every Monday, we link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you to get your week started on the right foot. Be sure to check in each week for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight from the source of your favorite homegrown ‘Smack. What We’re Reading This Week: McDonald’s CEO Wants Big Macs to Keep Up With Big Tech…

If you ever wanted to create threaded fasteners for screws, nuts, bolts and the like on the fly using good old Fusion 360, Autodesk has a simple method to easily implement them using the Thread command: Under the ‘Create’ menu, choose the ‘Thread’ command and select a cylindrical shape you want the thread to be applied on to. You can then set the specifications of the thread, such as the size, type, class, and direction the thread is rotating towards. If you aren’t sure what specs to give your thread, Fusion 360 automatically finds the standard closest to your particular selection. You can also refer to McMaster-Carr or another part…

I sat down with Derek Roberts, the man behind the MillRight CNC company. Derek is an entrepreneur, tinkerer, designer, visionary and guy with a cool southern accent. He goes over everything, from how he got started, to MillRight’s first product, starting a business, running a business, manufacturing challenges and, oh yes, their new desktop CNC product, the Mega V Router and Plasma system. Dan Slaski:What does MillRight make and what are you all about? Derek Roberts: MillRight is a developer and manufacturer of CNC machines. Our mission is to deliver the best value in CNC. DS: How did you get started down this path? DR: I’ve always been into tinkering with…