First off, I have a new "Robot Movie" on favorite list, it's "Robot and Frank". It's a very cute movie with a well played humanoid robot, awesome cast and neat story plot.
Next in lab news, Heather and I have entered the MicroMedic 2013 contact sponsored by U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology Center, and Parallax Inc. So far the contest has been kicking my rear end. Turns out attempting to design a medical device is easier dreamed about then accomplished. But (fingers crossed) we have another week to complete our prototype and submit out entry by July 31st, 2013.
http://learn.parallax.com/micromedic
My newest purchase was an EZ-B bluebooth robot controller from http://www.ez-robot.com. I'm very excited about the potential of the EZ-B robot controller and kit. If you have not heard of it, please check it out. In a nutshell traditional robot building requires you to buy a micro-controller like an arduino create a custom program to control devices connected to the arduino - connect to the arduino to a computer via a wireless link - write the code for the arduino to communicate with a pc - write code for the PC to communicate the arduino controlled robot - keep developing the software on the PC to do things like image processing, face detection, color tracking, voice recognition, speech output and so on.
The EZ-Robot concept with the complete kit gives you a pre-programmed controller with bluetooth link, wireless camera with usb PC interface, a sonar sensor and enough servos to make most any beginner to intermediate level robot. It also comes with software for your PC that lets you point and click your way to robot programming. Instead of programming a microntroller with code on how to move a servo you simply tell the EZ-Builder software to set a port on the controller as a servo, set the range of motion you want (if you want to limit it), add control interfaces if you want (like arrow keys for manual control or script entries to automate process; like see a face, say hello).
Best of all there is a very robust support and educational resources in place for the EZ-Robot system. the website offers and online manual, many beginner videos and a very supported online forum with fellow EZ-Robot owners.
Overall I am extremely pleased with the EZ-Robot product and I look forward to sharing more about my EZ-B robot as time goes on. You can ready about my first robot with an EZ-B from the EZ-Robot support forum: http://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/posts.aspx?threadId=4020
Last but not least, I am builder a Coaster Bot for the Jameco Coaster Bot contest, which is due 8/31/13. http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/workshop/challenge/challenge-coasterbot2.html
Oh, and I have started to build my own army of troopers (WHAT!) :-)
Seriously, I'm building a StarWars themed storm trooper robot build around an Ardbot chassis from http://www.budgetrobotics.com/ - details, pictures and videos to follow in the coming months.
As you can see it's a busy time in the J2R Scientific research lab.
