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.
VI Shots talked with Maria Bualat from the NASA Ames Research Intelligent Robotics Group. Gigapan.org is a website where people can upload super high resolution panoramic photos. These photos were taken by a prototype motorized automated pan and tilt camera mount that figures out the exact positions of all the multiple snapshots required to make an awesome high resolution panorama. Gigapan (gigapixel panorama) was developed by Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group, with support from Google. The price for this technology seems within reach of the consumer market at $279.
At the end of the video, Maria talks a little about here background and the K10 robotics platform which NASA used in the Canadian Arctic recently. The robots, K10 Black and K10 Red, carried 3-D laser scanners and ground-penetrating radar. The two NASA robots surveyed a rocky, isolated polar desert within a crater in the Arctic Circle. The study helped scientists learn how robots could evaluate potential outposts on the moon or Mars.
In this VI Shots video taken at Robodevelopment 2007, we talk with Ariel Cohen the founder and chairman of Galileo Mobility Instruments. Their company has developed a unique wheel that can transform into a rugged track quickly and easily.
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.
In this VI Shots video taken at Robodevelopment 2007, we talk with Paul Roberts, a developer with Microsoft Robotics Studio. Yes, it’s similar to LabVIEW and it can be used as a general purpose language.
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.
National Instruments continuously works closely with Lego to expand virtual instrumentation into the classroom by developing LabVIEW integration with their Mindstorms NXT platform. In this latest VI Shots video we see a demo of an NI product acquired from Hyperception, the Speedy-33. We see how the Speedy-33 combined with a HiTechnic interface can integrate LabVIEW signal processing algorithms to move an NXT based on audio frequencies.
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.”
National Instruments had a very small booth at Macworld Expo this year. They were there nonetheless and I asked them a few questions about the current state of LabVIEW on the Mac. I also wanted to find out how, and if, a current Windows user like myself could use a Mac exclusively and still manage to satisfy Windows based LabVIEW project clients. According to Mike Neil, LabVIEW product manager, you can have your cake, er… Mac and eat it too. With the use of virtual machines (vmware fusion, parallels) or bootcamp (which boots the whole machine into Windows), you can now run your windows development environment on a Mac and satisfy any Windows project requirements. Which leaves me asking myself, why am I still on a PC?
Are you working with LabVIEW on the Mac? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.
I came a cross this inventor at Macworld Expo 2008. His name is Matthew Michaels and has come up with this awesome iPhone\iPod touch accessory for hands-free movie watching called iLidz. The idea is simple but the results are huge. Just the idea of not having to hold the player in your hands is great on its own, but add a 4x magnification and the results are hard to believe.
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