Get A Kitchen Robot To Load The Dishwasher

December 23, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

First there were robots to vacuum your floors, then robots to wash your floors, and now there is a robot to help out with the dishes.  This is interesting since what this robot does is to load the dishwasher, and what is a dishwasher other than a robot.  A robot to operate another robot.  See the article at the links below. 


Oneindia

Get A Kitchen Robot To Load The Dishwasher
Oneindia, India – 16 hours ago
You no longer need to perform the less desirable chores in the kitchen because now a robot is going to give you a helping robotic hand. …
Now Let Robots Wash Your Dishes Techtree.com
all 9 news articles

Get A Kitchen Robot To Load The Dishwasher – Oneindia
Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:39:13 GMT

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FIRST DAY- FRC New Control System vs FRC Old Control System

December 23, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

For the next few weeks I'm going to be doing a comparison of two robotic control systems used for robotic competitions in US FIRST(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). The first control system I would like to introduce you to is the old FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) control system.

You could find this control system through the link below:

The Old Robotic System

The next one I would like to show you is the new FRC control system which is called the C Rio(Compact Rio). This is going to be the future of the US FIRST Robotics.

Here is the layout for the C Rio:

The New Robotic System

Next week I will start to compare the two system and at the end I will let you decide which you prefer.

Editors: Jakenan, Mike Henry

Filed Under: FIRST ·

The Hexbug Change

December 16, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

Hexbug So I found this little project on Hack a Day , which is very interesting. Applied Inspirations put together a nice hack on the robot hexbug.

"The Hexbug is a very cleverly designed, tiny toy robot bug. Once removed from its package and switched on, it marches forward until its antennae bump an obstacle. It then does a reverse-right turn, and continues forward again until the next obstacle."

Well, they decided to take the bug apart and see how it worked. Then they added a different board and microcontroller to do more with it such as adding, ’’Motor Off , Piezo-buzzer, Blinkable ‘Eye’, Low battery detection, Light level detection."  Perhaps later other sensors can be added.The webpage is set up very nicely and gives good instructions of the hexbug and how to change it up.

You can turn your $10.00 "insect" hexbug into a $35.00 "smart robot" hexbug!

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FIRST Report: Drivetrain Concept Explored on Chief Delphi

October 28, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

 09ad03269423663eb16f21b7cf231168_l

In the latest feed from Chief Delphi, this post caught my eye. Thought this would be a good entry for the weekly RobotNext FIRST Report.  At RobotNext, we are using Tuesdays as our weekly update for FIRST robotics.  Watch here for information that might be useful to your FIRST Robotics Challenge team. 

So, in this entry, there is a design for a very interesting drivetrain concept.  To quote from the post: 

"Lately several members of the team have been discussing the possibility of doing a wooden drive platform with a live axle system. This is one rendition of the concept that I came up with."

Click on small photo above for a link to the original post on Chief Delphi if you want to see the original and larger version of the design.

This drivetrain is built around the idea of being simple.  Using only basic tools and commonly available materials to construct it, the platform is lightweight and uncomplicated.

"For this particular version I was trying to cut manufacturing down to a minimum. Ideally it could be built with a drill press and a bandsaw (or even a hand drill and a hacksaw), but there are some details that still need to be worked out."

Check out the original post below on the Chief Delphi site:

pic: Drivetrain Concept
s_forbes
Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:21:17 GMT

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The Build-It Guy: Mini Robot – Sculpture

October 28, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

Ok, so it's not really a robot, but this little "pretend robot" would be fun to try to build nonetheless. The website I Make Projects.com has a neat project on how to make a mini robot sculpture. Like this quote from the person who put up this project, see what monstrosities you can make.  Follow the link by clicking on the small photo for more information.

 Spider

"One day I took some of the parts and soldered them into what I wished was a functional spider robot – but even though it didn't work, it was pretty in its own way. It was also fun and inexpensive and fast to make."

All you need to make the one shown which is a spider bot is some capacitors and resistors and a small chip. Well, if anything you could practice some soldering and have a little spider bot to keep you company, or a cool Halloween decoration.

Filed Under: Build It ·

HEALTH and WELLNESS: Robots to help elderly stay independent

October 25, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

As the baby boomers age, there will be a large segment of the population that will be living into their seventies, eighties, or even nineties.  This means sometimes that a person will need some type of extended care in the home.  Here come robots to the rescue.  Robots can help the elderly keep up with medicines, schedules, and even be a companion.

“This is the future of aging,” said Fillia Makedon, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. “Technology will let people grow old at home.”  Follow the link below to the article.

HEALTH & WELLNESS: Robots to help elderly stay independent
Grand Forks Herald, ND – 1 hour ago
Like smart pets that never require feeding, robots will scoot from room to room to wake the homeowners in the morning, remind them to eat and send for help …

HEALTH & WELLNESS: Robots to help elderly stay independent – Grand Forks Herald
Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:04:19 GMT

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Miniature jumping robot mimics grasshopper

October 25, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

Insects have the solution to a very serious limitation of small robots.  When a small robot has to navigate difficult terrain such as a rock-strewn surface of another planet, it faces a problem.  This difficulty is that to a small robot even a small pebble is a giant boulder.

Researchers have described the problem in the following way: 

"Small robots have big problems when it comes to efficient locomotion in natural and rough terrains. This effect is usually referred to as the 'Size Grain Hypothesis' [1], which is described as an 'increase in environmental rugosity with decreasing body size'. That is the smaller the robot, the bigger the obstacles. To circumvent the inefficiencies of crawling, walking, or running for miniature robots, researchers at EPFL are exploring jumping as a more efficient approach (others have also developed jumping robots.)"

Some insects have utilized this mode of transportation for a long time.  Certainly, this is a very efficient way for insects to get over blockages in their path.  Jumping allows a more direct line of travel in most cases.  Small robots can utilize this same way of getting around in a rough terrain.   In this paper researchers present their research on an original 5cm, 7g jumping robot. It can leap over obstacles "more than 27 times its own size and outperforms existing jumping robots by one order of magnitude with respect to jump height per weight and jump height per size."

The big question is–how does this little bot work? The short description as given by the researchers in the recently published paper  is the following.

"It employs elastic elements in a four bar linkage leg system to allow for very powerful jumps and adjustment of the jumping force, take-off angle and force profile during the acceleration phase."

So now you have to see this little machine in action.  Follow the link to see this little bot in action.  I have found the download to be a little slow so have patience–it is worth the wait.

jumpMoviePreview

Miniature jumping robot
Awesom-o (noreply@blogger.com)
Wed, 22 Oct 2008 07:27:00 GMT

References:

M. Kaspari and M. D. Weiser, “The size-grain hypothesis and interspecific
scaling in ants,” Functional Ecology, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 530–538,

Kovac, M. , Fuchs, M. , Guignard, A. , Zufferey, J.-C. and Floreano, D. (2008) A miniature 7g jumping robot . Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2008), pp. 373 – 378.

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Robotic Ants Building Homes on Mars? – ICT Results

October 22, 2008 by · Leave a Comment


ICT Results

Robots based on life forms such as insects are the model for most swarm-type robot systems.  This is just one more example of that idea.  Small machines that work together for some larger purpose bring efficiency to space robotic explorers. 

This efficiency comes from the fact that such systems as these can actually adapt themselves to multiple functions.  At least this is how I see this developing.  These robot systems can be used for many applications, but may have found their "home" in exploring other planets.

For more on this, read the article listed below.

Robotic ants building homes on Mars?
ICT Results, Belgium – 54 minutes ago
“Robot swarms are particularly useful in situations where you need high redundancy. If one robot malfunctions or is damaged it does not cause the mission to …

Robotic ants building homes on Mars? – ICT Results
Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:02:16 GMT

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FIRST Report: Labview 8.5.1 Now available for download

October 21, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

Hey, for all of you involved with FIRST robotics, this entry came across from Chief Delphi last week. In keeping with our efforts to have Tuesdays be our day for FIRST, we thought this might be helpful.

For anyone interested in the software for this version of LabVIEW, you can follow the link to the full post on Chief Delphi.

“I’m not sure if it’s been widely or clearly announced, but…
You can now download and install the LabVIEW 8.5.1 environment with an extended trial license good until Jan 15 2010 if you want to follow along with the beta testers here at the following link.
http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc….aspx?id=10934“

Labview 8.5.1 Now available for download
B.Johnston
Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:21:12 GMT

 

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The Build-It Guy: Controlling A Robot With A Wii Fit Board

October 20, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

Well, this past week, as I was looking through hackaday  I found a very interesting project. Juan Gonzalez has built a control using the wii fit board for a robot that he calls Skybot. A youtube video can be seen here at Wii fit board controlling Skybot .

"[Gonzalez]managed to control a robot of his own design with the balance board, making it turn when he leans to the sides and moving forward and back when he leans in those directions."

The best thing about this project is that the Skybot can be controlled from a Mac, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, or Windows operating systems. The site for this project is in Spanish, so you may have to use Babel Fish  or Google Translate  to read it, but the site can be found at www.learobotics.com . It gives you the instructions you need to build a Skybot and maybe you can change it up and control it from your IPhone.

Filed Under: Build It, Web/Tech ·
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