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| RobotBlogg |
| RobotBlogg brings news and information related to Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio, LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT system, simulation, and others micro sized robots for hobby robot enthusiasts. |
| Language: English |
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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 39 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 2344030 |
| Visitors Out: 4109 |
| Total Visitors Out: 5140 |
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| AlienCortex, One Board To Rule Them All. |
| 2011-06-14 14:03:00 |
There is currently an interesting project on KickStarter, the AlienCortex board.
AlienCortex AV provides a new and powerful electronic canvas. The specificity of the Aliencortex is that it doesn't use a traditional micro-controller. Instead, the heart of AlienCortex is a Xilinx Spartan 3e 500K FPGA.
A Field-programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by the customer or designer after manufacturing—hence "field-programmable". The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a hardware description language (HDL), similar to that used for an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). FPGAs can be used to implement any logical function that an ASIC could perform.
The ability to update the functionality after shipping, partial re-configuration of the portion of the design and the low non-recurring engi...
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| RobotShop Microcontroller Instructables Contest |
| 2011-06-09 08:39:00 |
RobotShop is partnering with Instructables, to bring you the Robotshop Microcontroller Instructables contest. To enter the Microcontroller Contest, you will jast have to Create a new photo, video, or step by step Instructable. From simple buzzer,to high tech rover, no matter what the project is as long as it includes a microcontroller and that you share your code. A video showing what it does will be a big plus !
Prices.
500$ RobotShop Gift certificate and a DFRobotShop Rover for the grand prize, 250$ robotShop Gift certificate and a DFRobotShop rover for the second prize. A DFRobotShop Rover for the runner-Up Prize...
The three happy winners will also get a RobotShop/Instructables prize pack (which includes several promotional goodies such as pens, a mousepad, a screw driver, and more).
An extra special prize for the best instructable tha...
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| The Robot Can, Mbed Controlled |
| 2011-06-07 16:21:00 |
Cool DIY robot... Controlled by an Mbed controller... See our article on the MBed controller HERE
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| Arduino With Servo Motor |
| 2011-06-06 16:05:00 |
If you plan to build a robot based on an Arduino, sooner or later, you will have to drive a servo motor. Servo motors enable you to accurately control movement because they move to a position instead of continuously rotating.. Servos are easy to connect and to control because the controller is built into the servo, and because the Arduino environment comes with a servo library.
Servos contaims a small motor connected through gears to a shaft. The shaft drives the servo arm and is also connected to a potentiometer to output position feedback to an internal controller.
Servos respond to changes in the duration of a pulse. A short pulse (1 ms or less) will position the servo to one extreme, and a longer pulse will rotate the servo to the other extreme. Pulses ranging in between these extremes will rotate the shaft proportionally to the pulse duration.
Note that although the duration ...
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| FreeScale Tower System: New Peripheral Modules |
| 2011-05-30 16:11:00 |
The Freescale Tower System is a modular development platform constitued of interchangeable and reusable modules (along with open source design files). Sold in kits or as individual modules, the expansion of the Tower System is simple and cost effective. You will find a link to our previous article about the Tower system below.
FreeScale announced two new peripheral modules.
Sensor fusion with the accelerometer and magnetometer
The LFSTBEB3110 is an evaluation board for the Freescale MAG3110FC 3-axis magnetometer. The LFSTBEB3110 kit includes a daughter board containing the MAG3110FC and MMA8451Q to allow for system calibration and compensation for demonstrating ecompass capability. For customers already familiar with the Sensor Toolbox Platform, the LFSTBEB3110 is designed to work with the LFSTBUSB for communication to a PC. For customers that desire the complete system, the development kit RD4247MAG...
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| Arduino and Near Field Communication (NFC) |
| 2011-05-29 16:03:00 |
The Near field communication, or NFC, is a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4 cm or less. NFC operates at 13.56 MHz and at rates ranging from 106 kbit/s to 848 kbit/s. NFC always involves an initiator and a target; the initiator actively generates an RF field that can power a passive target. This enables NFC targets to take very simple form factors such as tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards that do not require batteries.
NFC peer-to-peer communication is of course possible, where both devices are powered. According to the NFC Forum, the three main uses of NFC currently are “sharing, pairing, and transaction.”
Currently, The most practical means of accomplishing a wireless communication with an Arduino Board is to use a Bluetooth or WiFi module, adding significantly to the cost of a project (between $30 and $60). Fortunatel...
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| TurtleBot, The Clones War |
| 2011-05-29 15:22:00 |
A few weeks ago, Willow Garage introduced the TurtleBot, which is basically an IRobot Create, a deck, a laptop and a kinect. We also saw the introduction of the Bilibot, also based on the Irobot Create platform. Unfortunately, both kits are priced at $1199.99, which might be an obstacle for some students or hobbyists to get access to these robots.
Based on this observation, Martin Mason, professor of physics and engineering, wrote a very detailled article which describes how to build your own turtlebot's clone.
You will find the necessary cad files to build the deck, a schema to connect the kinect to the battery and to the computer. There is even replacement solution for the laptop, which might be replaced by a mini-itx system. The lowest cost solution is estimated to $650.00. Nice Job professor !
&nb...
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| Fairly Priced Android Development Kit (ADK) Board By Seeeduino |
| 2011-05-24 15:14:00 |
Good news, Seeeduino just added an ADK board (Open Accessory Development Kit) to its catalog. Unlike the board sold by a japanese company around $400.00, the Seeeduino product is offered at a very fair price, $79.90. It is already possible to pre-order on the Seeeduino web site, but you will have to wait until June 20th to be delivred.
Features
Arduino Mega2560 compatible
56 Digital IOs
16 Analog inputs
14 PWM outputs
4 Hardware serial ports (UART)
1 Hardware TWI (I2C)
1 Hardware SPI (upto 8Mbps)
On board USB host(MAX3421), and IO breakout
On board USB slave(FT232), and Is breakout
Build-in 5V-1A switch power regulator (input range 6V - 18V)
Build-in 3.3V-500mA LDO power regulator
Red PCB, ROSH compatible and Golden finish
Android compatible
The Open Accessory Dev Kit allows external USB hardware (an Android USB accessory) to interact with an Android device in a special "accessory" mode. When an Android device (smartpho...
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| Kleekbots In Beta: NXT Bots Controlled With a SmartPhone |
| 2011-05-22 14:51:00 |
KleekBots lets you controls pre-defined MindStorms NXT robots with a smartphone, namely IPhone, Android based devices, Windows Mobile devices, Nokia, Samsung, IPod Touch, IPad and BlackBerry.
Kleekbots requires a client application running on a Windows PC. Once installed, You will be able to connect on "My Kleekbots". Kleekbot will communicate you precise information to build a MindStorms NXT robot. There are different robots you can build and control with kleekbots. You will have then to plug in the robot to your computer. You will also be able to specify if you want to use a webcam.
after that, You will access a screen that will let you check if you can control your robot and specify if you allow other users to access your robot with a "Share" option. Finally, you will have to activate an application on your smartphone by surfing on the http://www.kl...
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| LittleBits, Big Idea |
| 2011-05-15 10:39:00 |
LittleBits is a library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny circuit boards that snap (or don't) together with tiny magnets. The concept is extremely simple, and will allow people without any knowledge in computing, electronic or programmation to try, test and develop ideas and concepts in electronic.
There are over 50 littleBits modules, divided into 4 categories: power, input, output, wire.
The starter kit contains 10 blocks and can be pre-ordered for $99.00.
LittleBits has been founded by Ayah Bdeir. She is an engineer and interactive artist who does not believe in boundaries set by disciplines or cultures. With an upbringing between Lebanon, Canada and the US, Bdeir's work uses experimental tools to look at deliberate and subconscious re...
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