News, videos, reviews and commentary from my world of Virtual Instrumentation.
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
Steve Hassenplug was there from the beginning when Lego decided to revamp the old RCX platform. He was part of the Mindstorms User Panel (MUP) which was extensively covered in a Feb 2006 Wired magazine article. He was later invited to participate in the Mindstorm Developer Program (MDP) where he built a holonomic drive robot called Omni. This latest version which he shows off in the video uses a compass sensor to keep on track to it’s destination.
Mark Balla is a very active member of the LabVIEW community and contributes his valuable time to the LAVA forums. He developed an Icon editor replacement for LabVIEW, is currently a member of the Code Repository review team and is an organizer for the LAVA Coding Challenges. I spent a few minutes at NIWeek this year to talk to him about LAVA and why LabVIEW community involvement is important to him.
Discovery Channel is casting for a new reality show called Super Rubes.
Super Rubes is a weekly one-hour show that follows a band of talented creators as they design, build, and set off a massive Chain Reaction Machine in front of a cheering crowd. The point of a Chain Reaction Machine is to do something very simple, like turn on a light bulb, using as many steps as possible. This is an opportunity for engineers to let their creative hair down and have some fun building a giant Chain Reaction Machine. Our team will take on impossible challenges (i.e. “Can you crack an egg with a human hair?”) in a race against the clock.
We are looking for fun, interesting, charismatic and outgoing individuals of all ethnicities and types 25-39 years old to comprise a diverse team of people who are involved in engineering/building: This means architects, engineers, scientists, pyro-technicians, art directors/designers, even professors or hobbyists who are simply passionate about these topics. We don’t need an expert in every area, just someone who loves to design and build.
I think Bre Pettis from Make Magazine should definitely apply. However, I think Discovery Channel should look no further than it’s own team on Myth Busters. So, are any of you going to apply?
From: LimitlessBoredom
I modified the game of life program to output the screen XY to an analog card so it can be viewed on an ocilloscope.
Martin Rowe from Test & Measurement World has just posted a new song on his blog called Electrical Heroes.
From: Warning: Life Under Construction
Ahh, pressure. Enough heat and pressure makes a dirty, soft lump of coal into a shiny, hard diamond. I don’t know about shiny but I do believe that I became more valuable when the pressure for a replacement test system hit my ‘to-do’ list on Tuesday. Just so there is no misunderstanding, the big boys that I work for are reasonable. They wanted everything running in just a few days and without spending any money. Lucky me. And I’m not saying that because it’s National Sarcasm Month. I really mean, “Lucky Me!” If the powers-that-be had not had a moment of weakness a few months ago and spent $4500 on a programming system called LabVIEW, I would not have been able to save their bacon from the fire this week. So instead of taking me about two to three weeks to write a new program, I was able to create it in 16 hours! The hardware end still took almost 40 hours to build. Of course, in order to not spend any of their retirement money on much needed equipment, I had to rob parts from another major project project. But that will be a crisis for another day. For now, it’s all good. In three and a half days, I had production running again by this morning, with much quicker test time too. Once upper management learned that money was flowing into back into their yearly bonus, life was good.
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