Top 10 BeagleBoard projects

Jason Kridner - August 01, 2013

Since BeagleBoard was born five years ago, the four open-source BeagleBoard.org platforms
(BeagleBoard, BeagleBoard-xM, BeagleBone, and, most recently, BeagleBone Black) have made a
deep impact on the open-source world. They have enabled fun and functional projects, including
superhero costumes, robots, and home automation gadgets.

In celebration of BeagleBoard's fifth birthday, we're taking a look at 10 of the coolest projects that
BeagleBoard platforms have enabled since 2008.

Iron Man Costume

When one kid wanted to be Iron Man for Halloween, his hacker parents put together the coolest
Halloween costume in town. This costume, complete with audio at bootup and repulsor sound
effects, is powered by the BeagleBoard with Angstrom Linux. Watch out Spiderman, you've got
competition.
Dancing SpiderBot
Dancing SpiderBot

The E.L.F. robot dances to the beat of any song it hears. One of the coolest things about this project
is that its creator, John Jensen, had no previous hardware building experience prior to this project.
This quick learner made the SpiderBot while deployed to Iraq. He chose the BeagleBoard to give the
spider plenty of speed and well-defined dance moves.

Ninja Blocks
Ninja Blocks

We've all been there. You're sitting comfortably on the couch, and you want to turn the lights off or
the fan on. Perhaps you're expecting an important package, and you need to get up often to see if it
has arrived. Ninja Blocks have been thrilling couch potatoes since their creators received
Kickstarter funding in March 2012. Based on the original BeagleBone, Ninja Blocks help automate
your home and your life. They can integrate motion, temperature, humidity, window, and door
contact sensors to let you do things like turn on lights and appliances. They can send alerts to your
phone when people or packages are at your front door, and they can notify you when your friends
join Xbox live. With Ninja Blocks, the Internet of Things can easily be brought to any home.

OpenROV underwater robot

OpenROV underwater robot

Perhaps you're less of a couch potato and more of an intrepid explorer. If so, the OpenROV robot
might be the project for you. The project has been taking the seas by storm ever since it received
Kickstarter funding in August 2012. Whether you have educational or scientific goals, or you are
looking for buried treasure, the OpenROV community of DIY ocean explorers will help you build an
open-source OpenROV robot in one week. The robot is controlled by a BeagleBone open-source
computer and a cape (expansion header). The robot can be manipulated remotely via a web browser.

Twittering shark laser intrusion detection system

Twittering shark laser intrusion detection system
With the Discovery Channel's Shark Week starting Sunday, Aug. 4, and Sharknado still haunting us,
it's only appropriate to honor the Twittering shark laser intrusion detection system. It uses a
BeagleBoard-xM running Android to send alerts to the user's cellphone when a shark breaches the
perimeter of a fish tank. (Disclaimer: This project was designed purely for fun and is not guaranteed
to protect your household in the event of a real sharknado.)

3-D printer capes

3-D printer capes
These cape expansion boards aren't finished projects, but they are awesome examples of how people
can take the BeagleBoard platforms and productize their own boards to expand on the knowledge
and innovation in the BeagleBoard.org community. Both the BeBoPr 3-D printer cape (top), created
by Bas Laarhoven, and the Replicape 3-D printer cape (bottom), created by Elias Bakken, are
designed to turn a BeagleBone or BeagleBone Black open-source computer into a 3-D printer quickly
and easily.

CD case wearable computer

CD case wearable computer
What do you get when you combine a CD case, an iPhone, some monocles, and a BeagleBoard? A
wearable computer. Martin Magnusson's device looks like a lot like the Google Glass, though he was
years ahead of his time when he made his computer in July 2010.

High-altitude camera
High-altitude camera
We've heard of monkeys and apes being sent to space, but did you know a Beagle has been launched
into the ether? In 2011, Tim Zaman and his team sent up a space cam based on the BeagleBoard to
take pictures from as high as 36 kilometers above the Earth. In addition to a webcam, the open-
source project included a GPS module for location tracking and a GPRS module for data
transmission.

Veterobot
Veterobot
Created for researchers and makers alike, the Veterobot project integrates a BeagleBoard-xM,
cameras, range finders, a GPS receiver, and a light sensor to produce one awesome robot. The
Verobot enables cloud robotics and adaptive video streaming for remote operation over the Internet.
What makes this robot even cooler is that the components of its body are manufactured by a 3-D
printer.

Live Video Over LED

Live video over LED: OctoWS2811 Library

The OctoWS2811 library LED display by DorkbotPDX streams live video and overlays animated GIF
images when triggered by stomp pads in front of the display. This device is based on the BeagleBone
Black, the newest board from BeagleBoard.org. It can capture 30 frames per second and push them
to the LED display. Paul Stoffren of DorkbotPDX talks about this system in this video, taken at Maker
Faire Bay Area 2013.

Also see:

Have fun with the BeagleBone-Black computer board

BeagleBoard opens embedded development
BeagleBoard adds $89 board with Sitara AM335x