The RepRap (Reproducing Rapid Prototyper) people announced last week that they had succeeded in creating their vision of a self replicating machine. Now my personal opinion is that they’ve jumped the gun a bit since they have just managed to create all the non off-the-shelf parts for their device, but it is great to see their progress! On Show #9, I talk just a bit about why the Fab @ Home guys (and by extension the RepRap team) got me interested in Robotics studio and the talks and shows that have come out of that.
Archive for category Robotics
You’ll probably recognize the hardware, but the software is new. 
In Show #8, I look at the Concurrency and Coordination Runtime (CCR) and the Decentralized Software Services (DSS) capabilities of the runtime environment. This is really the heart of Robotics Studio and the primary engines for ensuring the responsiveness, accuracy, and flexibility of the entire system.
Robotics Studio
May 30
For Show #7, I wanted to talk just a bit about Robotics Studio. I’ve been doing a number of talks around it, but I wanted to let those who haven’t been able to make it to the launches, TechFests, CodeCamps and other events hear just a bit about it.
Show #8 will be a continuation about some of the deeper pieces of Robotics Studio that can help you even if you don’t have motors and blinking lights in your solution.
I’ll take two of them
May 13
Video from the Maker Faire for the Wall-E automata. http://gizmodo.com/search/wall_e Evidently it’s going to be $190 so that will probably bump back to just one (though I really would love to have a spare for replacement parts since I know I’ll want to mod one.
Robotics Studio Wiki
May 2
If you’re working on RoboChallenge Competitions (or any other Robotics project for that matter) you’ll probably be interested in the Channel9 Robotics Studio Wiki – http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel9.MSRoboticsStudio
Chewy Chong (DE for Signapore) is doing videos for RoboChallenge. Very Cool! I managed to meet him up in Seattle last summer and he’s a bundle of energy and enthusiasm. Maybe I can put a bot up against him and see how we do.
Found on the RoboChamps site
Apr 28
There’s a lot of great information on the RoboChamps learning area, but I did see something that tied directly into the free books offer that Chris had on Friday. There’s a free sample chapter for you Roboticists up on the RoboChamps site! Grab a copy here and make the most of your robot in the challenges!
RoboChamps Amazed Challenge
Apr 28
If anyone has been working with the bot for the Amazed Challenge, note that the Corobot configuration used on this challenge has a Phidgets 8/8/8 Interface kit installed on the physical device (not connected by default on the shipped bot.) Might be useful later on when real hardware comes into play.
I did want to note that Dezhen Song at Texas A&M was one of the award winners for his work in Human Robot Interaction. His work with Ken Goldberg at UC Berkeley won them a spot in a very prestigious list. Take a look at this year’s awards for the full story on what the award is about, and the work that all of the winners did. Everything from a social snack bot to disaster rescue bots, to work towards a robotic wheelchair that can be deployed to the real word!
Bravo to all that participated in the program!
