Search results matching tag 'A1DW'

Think Computer Science 2012

paulfo — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 20:01:00 GMT

Together with colleagues from Microsoft UK and Microsoft Research I attended the Think Computer Science event today.

Think Computer Science is an annual event by Microsoft Research in Cambridge, to inspire local high school students to follow a scientific or engineering education path. Over 600 children attended the day of special lectures by leading industry figures, and the exhibition of technology wizardry.

The event opened with a keynote between the planes of the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, by Microsoft Research Chief Scientist Chris Bishop.

For may contribution I took my SeaPerch prototype, Sphero, Eddie and A1DW and my Robo-Float.

Eddie was able to run safely under the aircraft as the Kinect sensor could see the red cord used to cordon off the plane exhibits from visitors. This cord is only about 5mm thick, but amazingly the Kinect could see it, and the obstacle avoidance program I ran on Eddie enabled it to wander about, staying within the safe area beneath the planes.

The SciTech club SeaPerch project is coming along well. I have been able to obtain two of the original books describing the SeaPerch construction. It is one of those fabulous books full of drawings and practical projects to explore building submarines and underwater remotely operated vehicles. The picture shows the SeaPerch and the full 15 metre tether used to power and control the three thrusters (port, starboard and vertical).

The last picture above is the first public picture of my robo-float. It is a very simple cylinder design, incorporating a linear actuator that can pull open and push closed a syringe contained within the body of the float. The robo-float is ballasted so that the addition of the syringe full of water causes the float to sink. On expelling the syringe content, the float is then positively buoyant and rises again to the surface.

The control electronics were easily assembled from a .Net Gadgeteer kit. The Gadgeteer is a fast prototyping, microprocessor based, electronics fabrication technology developed by Microsoft Research Cambridge, in response to the need of the Microsoft researchers to have a fast way to prototype environmental sensors. The processor board, RGB LED, Power supply board and control switch all fit neatly into the top of the Robo-Float. The end caps and section headers (in black) I created on my new lathe

Our exhibition area looked pretty impressive:

But was soon overrun by interested students:

It was a fun day out for all

First SciTech club meeting

paulfo — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 18:37:00 GMT

As the opener for the new high school SciTech club I took along several of my robots:

A1DW

Eddie

Sphero

and my DIY Drone’s Quadrocopter

All the above robots except for the Quadrocopter are ‘differential drive’ robots. That means they are driven by two motors which can steer the robot ‘like a tank’ or other tracked vehicle. Put one motor forward, and the other in reverse and the vehicle will turn on the spot.

Eddie has a Kinect as the primary sensor. This is a powerful sensor being able to determine depth data. It makes an effective tool for enabling Eddie to determine obstacles and then take avoiding action.

Club members enjoyed listening and seeing how the Kinect works. Using a video camera it is possible to see the matrix of IR dots projected from the Kinect to enable it to sense depth.

The Quadrocopter remained a static exhibit – as it is a very similar to an up turned lawn mower which it is running!

Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio R3 released

paulfo — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:02:46 GMT

Slipping out at the end of May was the R3 release of Microsoft RDS. I’ve played with RDS since the early days, but my time has been occupied lately with mobile phones. But the most significant change with RDS is that it is now FREE – not more express, standard or academic editions. RDS is now built for VS2010 :-) which means I just need VS2010 for Windows, Web, Cloud, Xbox Games, Windows Phone7 and ROBOTS.

Completely awesome :-)

A1DW who has been peacefully sitting under the stairs for the last 6 months is already on charge preparing for a upgrade to R3. His already running Windows 7…

See Trevor Taylor on Channel 9 talking about MS RDS R3, and download if from here. Additional, codeplex samples are here.

Speech controlled robots

paulfo — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:29:00 GMT

At Maker Faire UK I wanted to have an exhibit anyone could interact with. So I took along my robots and modified one of the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (MRDS) Visual Programming Language (VPL) examples to allow both speech and Xbox controller control of them. Note to product teams: shorter product names would be appreciated :-)

All my mobile robots use a differential drive system, that is two wheels independently driven by their own motor. These drive systems allow the robots to spin on the spot or turn progressively in an arc as well as go forwards and backwards just be setting each motors power settings. So both motors going in the same direction at the same speed the robot moves forwards or backwards. One motor going slower than the other causes the robot to turn progressively in one direction. One motor going forward and one going back at the same rates causes the robot to spin.

Because of the way MRDS abstracts common actuators and sensors with generic programming interfaces it means that despite each of my mobile robots having a different differential drive system they can still all be controlled by the same program. All I have to do is configure the program with a manifest file to point it at the right implementation of the differential drive for each robot. I don’t have to change the code of the program at all :-)

Using VPL makes programming robots pretty easy. Your just joining up advanced functions like speech recognition and text to speech, sonar, drive systems etc by defining what output goes into what input. Knowing the available inputs and outputs of each function is the hardest part :-)

There are many things I like about MRDS:

A hobbyist version is free
The dev tool you need for the hobbyist version is free
You get a physics based graphical simulator – so you don’t actually need a real robot to get started
There are several simulated robot platforms to choose from include: Lego NXT, iRobot Create, Coroware Explorer, Mobile Robots Pioneer 3DX.
You don’t have to be a programmer to get going (although in doing real stuff it does help)

The big news flash is that since 26th March Microsoft’s DREAMSPARK means that even High Schools can get the full MRDS Academic version for free!!! Along with all the other ‘developer’ stuff they might want.

Watch my short video on the speech and xbox controller control program I took to Maker Faire – then have a go yourself!

Live on campus - European tour

paulfo — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:18:02 GMT

I'm taking part in the Microsoft Windows Embedded European Tour - doing the Turin and Stockholm gigs later this month :-)

I shall be presenting the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio session and including as many demos as possible. A1-DW is to heavy to travel - so with a bit of luck I'll be showing a tele-presence demo. Windows Home Server will provide a third party camera view so attendees can see him moving about as well as the view from his camera.

Other demos will include exploring my Amazed RoboChamps solution which includes visual analysis as well as IR sensors. Have you completed your entry yet?

Should be cool. See you there.

Home technology projects

paulfo — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:25:38 GMT

This week I attended the Architect Insight Conference in the UK. The conference is for leading software architects to share the latest implementation strategies.

I was exhibiting my Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio(MSRDS) work accompanied by Lib-b and A1-DW. My goal was to talk about the software services approach used by MSRDS and the core technology - Concurrency and Coordination runtime (CCR) as this has huge potential way beyond 'robotic' applications.

I had many really interesting discussions about the technology and about the home technology projects some of the delegates were working on. These ranged from remote holiday home heating control to the automated control of model steam locomotives (real steam locomotives despite being models!). They even included the automation of a discarded golf cart by one delegates teenage son :-)

All superb stories and right on target for my enthusiast activities. I was happy to help some of these projects on with my own experiences and to learn about delegates own experiences. One thing is clear: the Windows operating system coupled with MSRDS and broadband services provides a complete infrastructure for such applications, allowing the project developer to focus on the unique aspects of their project. It was also clear that much work was saved by the availability of project source code on the Codeplex site - Microsoft's shared software source repository.

All in, project developers found that they really didn't have to do very much development work to achieve their automation goals because of the wealth of features and functionality already available to them in the Microsoft platform.

That's something I have always maintained but it is extra special to hear it told by none Microsoft people :-)

I'll publish more details of some of the delegates projects in later blog posts - but for now it is off to the Manchester MSDN Roadshow. See you there!

Robotics in the curriculum

paulfo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:10:31 GMT

Today I was at the Open University attending a robotics in the curriculum event. The event, organised by Dr Ashley Green (of Walking with robots, RoboCup Jr and Roberta activities), was designed to bring together educators and industry to share ideas and success stories for incorporating robotics within the UK education curriculum. The day finished with a brain storming exercise and discussion.

A1DW attended, as I was exhibiting Microsoft Robotics Studio (MSRS) - showing off several of the simulations and my Lynxmotion L6 arm, Braintech's face detection and various MSRS success story videos.

Thanks to everyone who dropped by my 'booth' and chatted about MSRS and robotics in general. Looks like I need to start building a 'micromouse' after being given a guided tour of various implementations. Of course, mine will need to be X86 based and be running Windows CE or XP Embedded - but this just adds to the challenge (now to find the budget).

The next UK Micromouse competition is on June 28th at the Millennium Point in Birmingham. Competition starts at 10:30 until 16:00. See more here.

I promised to post the link to the Princeton University's DARPA challenge site also - so here it is!

My conclusion from the day: Lots of interest and interesting ideas/products; but ultimately it all comes down to having teachers willing AND CAPABLE of implementing this stuff. These teachers are in very short supply most are over whelmed with the day job let alone taking on extra work. Unless someone steps up to the table prepared to produce training materials and class room activities to remove some of the burden from individual teachers I don't think we're going to progress :-(

This is a sad state of affairs for the UK. Maybe the Government should spend £1Billion on hi-tech science/engineering/electronics education training and materials rather than give the over 60s free bus travel!!!!

It was also depressing to hear that ICT lessons mainly revolve around using Microsoft Office products rather than doing CREATIVE stuff on the PC. So dull, no wonder kids are choosing not to take computing courses!

914 PC Bot Microsoft Robotics Studio services

paulfo — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:32:18 GMT

Just a shout out to say I've been working on building some services for the White Box Robotics PC Bot 914. This work has been a bit delayed due to various reasons but I'm making good head way now.

My plan is simple. Working from the good work of Chris Jones - fellow UK 914 owner - I've built out a base PC Bot 914 hardware service from which I am now building out support for generic service implementations for the differential drive and the sensors. The base service was 'tested' in the live environment of the Microsoft Heroes Happen Here launch event at the Birmingham ICC. They worked really well; I used VPL to quickly put together various tests that ran through the day.

As soon as I'm comfortable with the services I'll make them available via the PC Bot community site. So stay tuned!

Robot missile targeting

paulfo — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:35:09 GMT

I'm off to Leicester University's 50th anniversary Science Day celebration this weekend - Saturday 8th.

I'll be showing off a number of fun things including something I'm working on at the moment - robotic missile launcher targeting :-)

With Braintech's new Volts-IQ vision SDK there is a Microsoft Robotics Studio service for face detection.

Using this service coupled with the also supplied USB Missile Launcher service (see my MSN USB Missile Launcher post - working in the robotics world is such fun!!) I intend to be able target visitors to my exhibition booth. I will of cause not allow the missile launcher to fire at people - but the missile launcher will pan around and show them being targeted on a small screen attached to the front of A1DW. Yes the missile launcher is already a planned peripheral for my favourite robot - my PC Bot 914 called A1-DW.

The Science day runs from 10 to 15:30. I will be in rooms G24 and G25 in the Maurice Shock Building. If your about it'll be great to see you!

My robot life comes full circle

paulfo — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:17:17 GMT

27 years ago (or there abouts) as a young lad, I desperately saved to buy a Heathkit Hero Jr. Hero Jr was the little brother of the Hero 1 (which featured in an American TV serious and got me hooked on robotics). By the time I had enough money to phone Maplin and order a Hero Jr they had discontinued them :-(. This was a major blow to my robotic dreams. I managed a few lowly robots after this, religiously purchased the various early robot magazines but never managed to build a robot with all the features of the Hero range.

27 years later, I saw the White Box Robotics 914 PC Bot. It was still in proto-type and they were looking for 'pioneers' to order the first batch. A risk but also an opportunity. I immediately placed my order.

During the following 12 + months I kept the faith and waited patiently, lapping up any little nugget of information on the device. During this time, the EU passed the RoHS directive, the 914 was assembled in Canada - North American doesn't have similar laws. So even while my 914 was ready for delivery I had to engage the government to find out the detail - could I import my 914 without RoHS certification. After a short delay the response was positive - a personal import was fine.

And now to yesterdays announcement (13th). Heathkit producers of the original Hero 1 and White Box Robotics are in a multi-year strategic agreement under which 'Heathkit will produce, manufacture and distribute an educational version of the robot to be known as the HE-RObot'!!

So full circle, I missed my Hero Jr, got my 914 PC Bot, and now so have Heathkit :-) Wow, the children of our time are going to have some fun.

Read more at Heathkit and White box robotics.

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