News, videos, reviews and commentary from my world of Virtual Instrumentation.
Anybots just released a new video of the next version of Dexter. Dexter is a biped teleoperated robot created by the Mountain View, CA based company.
Here’s a VI Shots video of the Anybots team during last years Robodevelopment conference:
Addition resources:
NXT-G Online is software that allows you to program a virtual Lego Mindstorms NXT. Are you a school that doesn’t have enough cash for an NXT hardware set. No fear, this virtual software actually lets you program in NXT-G and download to a virtual NXT brain. Then you can execute the code and see it in virtual action.
To help better understand what is going on in the video, here is the sequence of chronologically events:
- A challenge was selected - a video that came up introduced the challenge.
- The simulated NXT-G programming environment was opened
- Wrote some code (4 motor blocks were dragged onto the palette, and each was set at a different power level).
- Downloaded the NXT-G program to the virtual NXT robot, which automatically opened the virtual environment.
- The robot was moved to where we wanted it to start.
- The virtual NXT brick was opened and we ran the program that was just created. The robot moved accordingly.
Note that the release version of NXT-G Online also has the ability select different sensors and motors for the virtual robot after which you can go back and change your code to make use of your modifications.
Galileo is the innovator of a unique breakthrough technology, The Galileo Wheel which combines wheel and track in a single component. The simple mechanism enables switching back and forth between the two modes within seconds. The technology enables the device to use wheels whenever possible, and tracks whenever needed.
They are currently looking for partners to adapt their invention to the consumer robotics market after successfully landing a contract with an Israeli defense contractor.
Resources in this Video:
Additional video:
Resources mentioned:
Braintech demonstrates Volts-IQ to VI Shots.
Braintech’s VOLTS-IQ Visual Intelligence Software Suite provides feature recognition, object localization and robot guidance in the form of Microsoft Robotics Studio (MSRS) services.
VOLTS-IQ uniquely combines Braintech’s proven robot vision expertise with Microsoft’s powerful MSRS service-based architecture. Using VOLTS-IQ, researchers, commercial product developers and hobbyists can “vision-enable” their robotic projects and products with unprecedented ease and speed, leap frogging the traditional barriers involved with vision development and bringing their ideas to life faster than ever.
Resources mentioned in this video:
Check out the new website:
Framingham, Mass., February 1, 2008 — After months of careful research, planning and development, Robotics Trends today announced the re-launch of its flagship website www.roboticstrends.com, an online news, information and analysis portal focused on business and technology trends for people who build, buy, invest in, and seek to understand the robotics industry. The revamped website includes a career center, resources section and issue archive, in addition to six ‘focus areas’ covering the key robotics sectors - Personal Robotics, Service Robotics, Security and Defense, Industrial Robotics, Academia and Research, and Design and Development.
“Robotics is a rapidly expanding high tech industry that impacts many markets, including the first responder market, security and defense, intelligent transportation, field and medical robotics, as well as the consumer sector,” states Ken Moyes, President of EH Publishing, Inc., parent company of Robotics Trends. “We feel that our web presence must therefore reflect the whole of the robotics industry, in addition to bringing breaking news and world class insight and analysis to the site.”“We have incorporated input of members of the robotics industry when designing our new site,” states Dan Kara, President of Robotics Trends. “As a result, the new site is a significant improvement in terms of usability and navigation. More importantly, we have expanded coverage and increased the amount of content on the site. In response to industry calls for workforce development support, we have also included in the redesign the Robotics Trends Career Center, and online location where employers can post job openings in the robotics field and prospective employees can apply for these positions. Visitors will find that www.roboticstrends.com is the most comprehensive robotics website in the industry.”
CoroBot was created to minimize the complexity of robot development. By combining a powerful PC-class platform with a robust, object-oriented software development system, the CoroBot empowers you to rapidly deploy and develop robotics solutions. The CoroBot also assists the hardware developer with additional physical mounting space, ports, sensors and communication devices.
Kenneth Salisbury, a professor of Computer Science and of Surgery leads the Personal Robotics Program at Stanford with CS Assistant Professor Andrew Ng in coordination with the department’s STAIR project. After about 18 months of work, they have developed a first prototype. It is remotely controlled now (eventually it will become more autonomous) but it is an early milestone on the way to releasing a practical, affordable and complete robotics platform.
See also: CNET Article
We the Robots is a new comic strip about a robot nation by cartoonist Chris Harding. I love it!
Quote:
Early focus-group testing among Chris Harding’s retarded friends has revealed a bit of confusion about the simple, three-word title: “WE THE ROBOTS.”
To clarify…
CORRECT: “We The Robots“
INCORRECT: “We Are The Robots” or “We Are Robots”The comic is not named after the lyric by Kraftwerk. (though we are huge fans)
An easy way to remember it:
“WE THE ROBOTS,” as in “WE THE PEOPLE…” from the preamble to the United States Constitution. Why? Because this comic strip is about a nation of robots… and the URL was available.(note: Despite this reference, We The Robots is NOT to be taken as social or political commentary. It is purely fictional. It is about robots– not people. Please do not write us angry letters disagreeing with the point of view of these make-believe characters… who do not even exist!)
Latest Comments