A place for roboticists to share, learn, and innovate.
Common Interface for Multiple Robotic Platforms
This project was done as a senior project at the United States Military Academy in order to deliver a web-based platform to control multiple robot chassis through a common interface. An intro to our project and a demonstration of some of its functionality can be found here…
Welcome!
This is not really an idea, but a welcome! The takemetoyourrobot site is officially released today, all thanks to David Holstius of the CREATE lab. We hope you enjoy the site. Please sign up, and consider posting an idea or two as well as a project, if you have something you'd love to share.
Robot to Exercise Your Dog
The Robots Feed Your Dog idea is similar in nature to an idea we want for our dog. Instead of just giving her food, it would make her exercise during the day so that she won't be so hyper when we come home.
How To Get Started in Robotics
A lot of people have asked us how they can get started in robotics. This how to guide offers some suggestions and links to various resources for beginners.
Gadgetry 101
Gadgetry 101 is a course that I co-teach through the Carnegie Mellon student college*. In the course, students learn the necessary steps to create an electro-mechanical gadget.
Gigapan Robot class in Soweto South Africa
Clean Water Not Cameras
There is a refrain that schools in conditions of true poverty need clean water, and that technology such as Gigapan is, simply put, the wrong application of resources. Now I can say with confidence that this is utter nonsense. The school, Lavela High School, is in a poor part of the township, Soweto. But that does not mean that there is any difference between the attitudes, desires and enthusiasm of the learners as compared to our “priveleged” students in a private school in the U.S. Lavela is down an unmarked road and consists of fifteen dust-colored buildings. The facilities are modest but well-kept, and wait until you approach the large, steel, blue-painted door. Behind that door is a computer lab, nine months old, that contains 30 Intel workstations and a large server. Imagine the feeling when you fly for 24 hours then drive into Soweto, which both feels like a foreign land because of all the prior stereotypes you hold in your head and also has shopping malls that are newer and prettier than what Pittsburgh possesses. Now you turn down a road, drive through a section on dirt paths next to the actual torn-up road, take two more turns, then walk in on that computer laboratory. Gigapan signs have been printed and posted on the walls. An arrow to the left, with the word Gigapan printed above. Where the direction is right, the sign is posted upside-down.
Microcontroller PIC 16F876A
PREAMBLE
This is a short review of the PIC 16F876a made by Microchip. I certainly don't know everything about this microcontroller and all its capabilities but I have used it to build many of my behavioural (i.e. robotic and mechatronic) sculptures so I'll try to pass on some of what I have learned here and give you an idea of how I think the chip stacks up against other options.