Robot Garden is a community workshop providing community, equipment and training so that people can learn and engage in and collaborate on technology projects. Our workshop is located at the Livermore Airport (700 Terminal Circle, Livermore, CA 94551) and is available for entrepreneurs, hobbyists, and families.

Safety and Conduct

Robot Garden is a community workshop run by volunteers for the benefit of its members and the greater community. At Robot Garden, participants can learn new skills and access amazingly powerful but also potentially dangerous tools. For everyone’s safety and to ensure resources remain available for everyone all members and participants in Robot Garden activities must abide by this safety and conduct guide.​

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​Conduct

​Our number one rule is simply this: be excellent to each other.

More specifically:

• You are responsible for your own safety and not endangering others through action or inaction.
• We are a creative environment with lots of activity and people of diverse backgrounds, be respectful and considerate.
• Respect the property and privacy of others.
• Only use equipment that you have been trained on and if something seems wrong or you don’t know how to do something, ask.
• Clean up after yourself. Robot Garden is a community resource, leave it a little better than you found it.

Safety

There is constant activity and many potentially dangerous tools in use at Robot Garden. Some of them you will use yourself, others will be operated in your presence. You are responsible for your own safety and for ensuring that those you bring with you act safely as well.

• Do not attempt to operate the equipment you are unfamiliar with
• Do not enter any area you are unsure of the safety requirements for
• Always wear appropriate personal protective equipment, e.g. closed-toed shoes, safety glasses etc.

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While Robot Garden strives to be a user-friendly environment, Robot Garden programs are intended for adults due to the powerful tools available and other hazards at the airport.

 

​Programs

In addition to opportunities for ambient learning, we offer more formal classes from proper equipment usage to engineering skills to Special Interest Group (SIG) meetups.

Safety and Basic Use (SBU) classes

⇓ Special Interest Groups – SIG’s

Special Interest Groups )SIG’s) are a way to meet people with common interests, get advice, show off projects and learn together. Many of our classes are focused on topics related to our SIG’s. Some of our current and past SIG’s include.

• Navigational Robotics & RoboGames (@Marco)
• First Robotics Competition (FRC) Teams 6059 & 9125 (@Tom)
• Programming Robots Study Group (PRSG) (@fdou)
• Part 107 Drone Pilot SIG (@berryjam)
• Meta Oculus VR SIG (@berryjam)
• Aviation Startup Accelerator (@berryjam)
• 3D-Printers (@berryjam)
• Laser Cutter (@berryjam)
• CNC Milling (wood, metal & plastic) (@Arlin & @ Simon)
• CAD/CAM Modeling Software (Fusion360, FreeCAD, etc) (berryjam)

​Checkout our meetup page to see when Special Interest Group meetings are scheduled.

⇓ Projects

Some Special Interest Groups have developed into group projects.

• Fix-It-Clinics (@tom)
• Robot Garden github page for open source projects

​⇓ Skills Classes

From time to time, we invite instructors to give more formal classes on particular topics such as Arduino, Robotics, or 3D Computer-Aided Design. Please check our meetup page to see what is currently scheduled or sign up for our mailing list to be notified when new classes are available.

 

​Space

We have workshop space at Livermore’s Airport.

​⇓ Shared Space Guidelines

• Robot Garden members can access the facility all day  (24/7), the 3D Printers are in our Robot Garden office at Fiver Rivers Aviation (available 6am-6pm).
• Meeting space can be booked at Fiver Rivers Lobby Desk.
• RG members need to pass SBUs to access equipment
• Equipment that can be booked via email to [email protected]
• Lock up and lights out when you’re last to leave
• Clean up, be user-friendly and just plain friendly 🙂

⇓ Prototype Makerspaces

• A 50W Full Spectrum CO2 laser cutter
• An LulzBot Taz 5 printer for creating durable parts with moderate resolution
• An LulzBot Mini printer for creating durable parts with moderate resolution
• Computers with CAD/CAM and other fabrication software
• A Buildbotics/Dyna Myte Steel Mill
• A Smithy 3in1 Lathe/Mill/Drill Press
• CNC PRO 4848 4′ X 4′ CNC Router

​⇓ Avionics/Elecrtonics Makerspace

• Soldering irons
• Multi-meters
• Oscilloscopes
• AC/DC Variable Power supplies
• Microcontrollers

​⇓ Robots

• Parrot AR. Drones for robotics classes and quad-rotor workshops
• Various others

⇓ Startup Shop

• A Buildbotics/Dyna Myte Steel Mill
• A Smithy 3in1 Lathe/Mill/Drill Press
• CNC PRO 4848 4′ X 4′ CNC Router

For the safety of everyone involved, using most of the equipment in the workshop requires you to complete a safety and basic usage (SBU) class first.