The Plotter

This is a cool robot which i just did. He can write on a ball. So far the building of the robot was easy but the programing is quiet tough. I have created a program only for writing the letter A and have another 25 letters to go in the alphabet. I hope that it opens up the mind in or robotics class from only robots that are moving around like truck to something more innovative.

Ashwin

Battle Bots!

Hey everybody!

For the last few weeks we have worked on our battle bots for the competition which was finish on the day before diwali. There were supposed to be 4 robots but the robots which qualified for the actual battle was three robots only... Luca had created two... The actual winning robot belongs to him because of his master in the making... Then there was my big guy which was kind of a failiure. But what really mattered at the end was the total out come and the fun that everyone had... Well we all enjoyed this division of the robotics study... The next stp will be updated to you asoon as a recieve it...

Ashwin

The Originals

Masters of the Robots

SCM Microsystems

It was 6am when my alarm went off, the same old ring tone from my mobile phone telling me to wakeup for the big day. The sun was out and everything was going on its way. I got up and got ready by 7.10am and was of to Aurolec to catch my ride to our presentation. Today we are of to this company called SCM mirosystems were we are going to give a presentation of what the masters of the robots have understood and mastered so far. "Beep" "Beep"... It was Uli's car, i got in and we were waiting for the other car to see how the pan was going to go. After that we were of to SCM the there were two cars, There was me Jonas and Uli Blass in one car and the rest in the other car. Our first destination was Motel Mamalapuram were we filled our tummies. The our next and last destination was Tidal Park, this is were the SCM company was situated. We were welcomed in with some grand escorts which seemed quite elevated their expectations of our work. We were there and we first had a introduction on what the company was all about and their presentation of what they were doing. They gave pretty much a great explanation of what technically and mentally how advanced their technology about smart cards and stuff was... Our expectations were very high for our selves as well. They demonstrated their robot arm which they found primitive and then they showed us their products and their working environment. Then we were of to some deliciouses lunch with coke. Now was the big time we were presenting our robots and we had pretty much a tough time but still a interesting to find out how unprofessional we are. The environmental issue towards robots was something that we did not think about because the environment that we worked in and the environment that the had was different and this was something which was tough to handle. Then There was this question and answer section were we answered their questions and they felt a pretty much as a good look from them. Then it was time for us to leave, we reach auroville by the evening and were pretty much satisfied of what we did. And i feel pretty much proud that, that was our first presentation to something or someone from the outside and to some big company...

ASHWIN (MOTU)

Destination => Chennai

As our skills improved new tasks faced us.
That morning our heroes had an important mission: to reach Chennai in time for a meeting!

At 7 o'clock we were all ready, well not all of us but the majority, for start our trip towards Chennai.
A nice and huge Taxi with Artic A.C. was our ride and only armed with few NXT for famelic town.

Half freezed and half still sleeping we waited inside the car for the only moment for which everyone was waiting: breakfast.
At the Mamalla Motel we finally had it.
Between loud voices and the smell of spicies we filled our bellies with delicious food and Milk-Coffè\The.

As we finished the refrigeretor was waiting for us ready to move on in the schedule.

After an hour or more we reached the borders of Chennai were life started to bloom a flowers in spring.
People walked; cycled; rode a bike; or travelled on a car;
Shops of every kind and dimension were everywhere.

But nothing of this was our destination.
Reached the rails ...

Looks cool but nothing much!

This was a robot which i created. It can stear itself by moving from the two fron motors in the opposite side and or one way or the other. It has the third motor sticking up which can be used as a scaning device which rotates 360 degrees. It looks really cool and all with the scaning thing on top but the problem was that it was useless because that if the whole robot can turn 369 degrees whats the point of the scaner on top? well that was the useless part of it... then that is a touch sensor at the back which can be used for a device which tells the robot to move infront when the robot hit the wall or something like that... I have used a Ultra Sonic sensor, a Touch sensor and three motors and the Mind...

Success!!!

Success on our mission. So our first mission called "Mars Lander", (I am not sure though), has reached success on monday the 17 of september 2007. A promising day for the Robotics scientists. Or robot managed to land on the unidentified table of 2 by 2 meter and managed to find a the red ball which was supposed to be there amongst the unknown number of blue ones... This success leads us to another up coming challenge... We as scientist dont know the challenge but we excpect it to be somthing more complicated, something like "Mission Pluto"...

Today Class 10/09/2007

Well there's not so much to say, as the previous lessons we worked on Robo-Explorer.
After we started everything seemed perfect, but it was too early for saying so.
Nearly a quarter pasted nine Ashwin had the 'marvelous' idea of adding a pair of claws at the robot.
So for the rest of the day he tried to add them.
I don't blame him for this 'lost' time because while waiting for him I had the idea for my newest robot that sooner will be working!!!


Bye by Grem.

Worlds Smallest Robot!

Meet the world's smallest robot created by Chang Ho Yu, general manager of GeStream Technology Inc. Taiwan. The 15cm tall robot has about 65526 motions and is highly customisable.
Link to the page
Video

Class - 03/09/2007

Sorting Ideas

After the robo-club passed by the NXT kits we had to reorganize everything that we had and most important make it work.

So we stared to adjust our robot and enable it to find and distinguish the right ball.
In that way we assembled to our robot the Ultra Sound sensor and the Light one.

After a while we managed to make it work but afterwards we decited to rebuild the robot, for making it function better, and to write the program for running it.

I was assigned to compiling the program.
Without finding any problem Jason and I created a good looking program.
I say good looking because we do not yet have the possibility to transfer it on the brain and try it .

Bye by Grem

Additional sensors on the market

NXT Gyro Sensor (Model NGY1044) It costs: $ 48

Measure the additional dimension of rotation with the NXT Gyro Sensor. This sensor that lets you accurately detect rotation for your NXT projects. The NXT Gyro Sensor returns the number of degrees per second of rotation as well as indicating the direction of rotation. Measure +/- 360° per second and build robots that can balance, swing or perform other functions where measurement of rotation is essential.

NXT IRSeeker Sensor (Model NKS1042) It costs: $38

Great for RoboCup Jr competitions to detect the direction of the infrared RoboCup soccer ball. The IRSeeker has an array of infrared detecors that give a 135 degree view and returns the direction and relative signal strength indicating the location of the soccer ball. Your NXT robot can easily find the soccer ball and keep it in sight. A winning combination when combined with the HiTechnic NXT Compass Sensor!

NXT Compass Sensor (Model NMC1034) it costs: $46

Expand your NXT experiences with the new NXT Compass Sensor and add accurate navigation to your Mindstorms® NXT projects. The NXT Compass Sensor is a digital compass that measures the earth's magnetic field and outputs a value representing the current heading. The magnetic heading is calculated to the nearest 1° and returned as a number from 0 to 359. The NXT Magnetic Compass Sensor updates the heading 100 times per second. The Compass Sensor operates in two modes, Read mode and Calibrate mode. In Read mode, the current heading is calculated and returned each time to the NXT program executes a read command. In Calibrate mode the compass can be calibrated to compensate for externally generated magnetic field anomalies such as those that surround motors and batteries, thereby maintaining maximum accuracy.

NXT Color Sensor (Model NCO1038) It costs : $46

Add a spectrum of color to your models with the HiTechnic Color Sensor. Detect a range of target colors and program your NXT robot react to each color. Build a color sorter to sort LEGO bricks or a line follower that will detect different color lines and surface colors.

The HiTechnic Color Sensor is “tuned” to standard LEGO colors. When positioned over a surface, the Color Sensor will return a numeric value identifying the target color.

NXT Acceleration / Tilt Sensor ( Model NAC1040) It costs: $46

Now you can make robots that know which way is up! The HiTechnic Accelerometer / Tilt Sensor measures acceleration in three axes. It also measures tilt along each axis. Using the sensor, you can measure the acceleration of your robot build robots in the range –2g to + 2g. Great for experimenting with acceleration forces in cars, on amusement rides, even on swing sets. This sensor will also tell you if your robot is level so you can build self-leveling robots and much more.

FIRST LEGO League 2007

FIRST LEGO League 2007

June 15th, 2007

Have you registered your FIRST LEGO League team yet? Registration is open - what are you waiting for?

Details? You want details? Okay, we can do that for you.

Registration opened May 1, and continues until all slots are filled. This usually happens sometime after mid-September.

The cost to register a FLL team this year is $200.

The FLL team registration process and fee do not include participation in an event. The tournament application process will open in October.

When you register, be sure to also order the Field Set-Up Kit for this year’s challenge, Power Puzzle. Without it, you won’t really be able to do much to practice for FLL competitions! The Field Set-Up Kits will begin shipping out on August 1.

FIRST LEGO League estimates that approximately 6,720 teams will register this year, and so far, 1,715 teams already have (as of June 14th)!

This is the tentative schedule for the season:

May 1
Registration Opens

Mid-May
Registration Materials and Robot Sets Begin to Ship

August
Field Setup Kits Begin to Ship

September 5
International Challenge Release

Mid-to-late-September
Team Registration Closes/Last Day to Order Products

October 1-12
Tournament Applications Accepted (If FLL is handling applications)

November- January
Tournament Season

April 2008
World Festival

Here are some links to useful pages at firstlegoleague.org:

• Product Information and Pricing
• Contact Information
• Teams and Tournaments in Your Area

The Robotics Class Club...

Hey Guys Jason Has Started The New Club Called The Robotics Club...Its At 1.30pm In Future School...
Dont Miss It...

International Robot Olympiad

Hi Everyone!!!
I have again found another competition that's happening very soon!!!! But this one is in Singapore!!!! And is in November!!!
If you want to know more here is the website:
Information On the Olympiad!!!!
If you go to game categories listed on the left side of the wbepage, there is big list of tasks for different age groups!!!

The LEGO League!!!!!

Hi!!!!
I've found this really cool website where it shows the the date of the lego tournaments in many countries!!!! Though it has a certain age limit to compete, the website has a lot of informations on mainly the tournaments and leagues happening internationally!!!!
So here is the site:
The Lego League

Robots

Our Robot!

Today post will be about the robot that we realized.
As you may remember, from where I left you, we had a series of problems with our robot but all of them are, for now, solved, and the only thing that now will bother us is to program of the robot.

The first problem that we faced was the fact that the push coming from the two touch sensors was too great, and unfortunately it lifted the front wheels (the ones that push the robot forward, backward and enable it to turn right and left) so that instead of moving the robot was perfectly still.

The problem was solved by increasing the weight on the front part of the robot, by moving the 'brain' forward.

The second problem revealed itself when the back wheel(the one that makes easier to the robot to turn) started to be unables to moves so that the robot found a lot harder to move.

The problem was apparently solved when we did increased the length on the rod that was holding the wheel so that every movement was enough strong to move and direct the wheel.

However the problem was not solved at all, because when the robot turned more that 90 degrees the back wheel and a part of its rod touched one of the front wheel,
making the robot unable to turn.

As you may know with the help of Luca the problem was ended.
In fact we changed the back wheel and its rod into a single sphere, that not only did not created problems but was even more efficient by reducing the friction!

So for now thats all.

Bye by Grem.

Today Class 27/08/2007

Hi, everybody.
After a very moving speech by Jason to our class today, I have decided to write a post for each class, or at least all of them at which I will attend!
In each of these posts I will recap what we did and what did we discussed about.

I hope that my effort will be appreciated and of course knowing myself better than anyone here that I will continue this task.

Today Class: Enlightenment!

I am very happy to announce that our group (Me,Ashwin and Luca) had, today, finally made our robot works without any problems!!!!
(Special thanks goes to Luca who has been enlightened and resolved our problems!!!)


Before continuing with this litany I'll explain what was our task.


A very famous society called "Stewart & Jason" hired us and an our rival, for projecting and realizing a robot, made by pieces of LEGO for a important mission: tracking and send back home the crucial data stored in to their old robot called "B.Ball".


Even though our GPS are the best on the market our robot won't be perfectly dropped in the right position.

So first of all we will have to locate B.Ball's corpse and then get near enough to permit to our robot to interface to its hardrive and then to transmit all those data.

Even thought this task is very difficult there is also an other problem:
the last known position of B.Ball was on an upland.
This require a special upgrade, that for us was very difficult.
Enable the robot for a new task: to avoid all those cliffs.



You know our task, and into the next posts I will inform you about how our robot works and what problem we were and are facing!


For now is all, I wish you a good day, a good night or what ever you'll do next!



Bye by Grem

Useless...

It was really nice of Vinay(tha great) trying to encourage hi team saying it is the best, because they found a way to avoid the cliff using the light sensors... But the point is that when searching for a ball with the color blue the light sensor is the only way to find out the difference between the red and blue ball. So what am trying to say is that Vinay, Angelo, and Jonas have found something really cool which doesn't help in our task...
The point would be that only the touch sensor which doesn't have a big importance in the finding the ball, can be used to avoid cliffs. Finding the ball is taken care of by the Ultra sonic sensor. but finding the ball with the correct color would work only with the Light sensor.
Although the information that Vinay (tha great) was trying to say was totally of, I appreciate that he tried to do his home work... By posting a post!

Critical Task!!!!!

In our last class, we were working on the cliff avoidance task!!! We came up with several ideas and finally our group(Angelo, Jonas, and Vinay) came up with the idea of using the light sensor to detect the cliff!!! And the other group (Ashwin, Ema, and Luca(who actually din't show up for no reason)) did the cliff avoidance using the touch sensor. Our group had some trouble using only one light sensor, the bot couldn't detect the cliff if it went in a steep angle... So we decided to use 2 light sensors on each of the sides!!! And then we did some massive programming, big thanx to Jonas and Jason!!! And by the end of the class we managed to make the bot stay on the table without falling!!!! We did have some troubles during the class, but succeeded at the end!!! Team work makes it PERFECT!!!!

Nice Test for Bluetooth?

This blog entry on nxtasy.org provides a data logging tool where the robot can send information back to a PC via bluetooth that records the data to a file

Online Robotics Bookmarks

I'm making a collection of cool links for robotics stuff on my del.icio.us site

Feel free to recommend links that you want me to add...

Good Blogs for learning more about the NXT

so here's a nice blog about the best LEGO NXT blogs out there...

start checking some of these out to learn more info, and share what you find with the class here on the blog...

Challenging stuff!

I was looking on the internet of some robot competition and saw something really interesting thing on the NASA web site. It talks about competitions... The competition is also basically on Lego as well...

Tank Rover

Tank Rover
Hey guys I was looking through this lego site i found an intresting thing...
Check out the link its a little bit like our course and it too has obstacles and looks cool too...

Blog Visit

Red Alert...
So after a long time of pleading i agreed to Manu's suggestion... What he pleaded was that he wanted me to post out a advertisement of the Hamsterbotics site... As we are the Master Minds of robotics i agreed to his pleading after 3 hours of non stop pleading and finally posted it only on the Future School bulletin board... Anybody disagree with this??? Anybody wanna fight about it??? Anybody wanna have a one on one death match? Come meet Manu after school... or send an email to < address withheld > for appointments... If you still are not satisfied... Come meet Jason the "key of behind all this pleading"... After school as well...

This is Ashwin (master of the universe) reporting to you hidden from the sight of Manu and Jason...
Thank you on behalf of the FSR
(Future School Robotics)

General NXT Tutorial

Here is a set of nice flash-based tutorials with movies and a voice track that introduces a lot about the NXT. Check out the Data Hubs tutorial in the advanced tutorials section to get an idea of how to get sensor output to display on the NXT's front display panel.

Engineering Tutorial

Part of the focus of this course is engineering - how to use the lego components to build a stable robot. There is a nice tutorial on learning the new 'studless' building methodology of the lego technic kits.

Software Updates available

I found a couple of useful updates from the lego.com site

• a firmware upgrade - version 1.04
• dynamic block update - allows adding custom blocks designed by other people

A big hand for Ashwin!

hi everyone,
First i would like to point out that one of our prized members, Ashwin, has already managed how to change the font size, thus creating a truly amazing affect that keeps the readers in a constant anticipation, not knowing what size he will choose next! (in short he is the Masteroftheuniverse)

Otherwise i would like to inform everyone, that during our last FSIG meeting, Uli Blass put me in the spotlight, and set upon himself the task of a small interrogation, asking me several questions about the FSR. Indeed i answered these questions positively, giving him an optimistic view on our project. He has even suggested, he would send us to Chennai where we would present our achievements to the chief executives of his former company.

Thank you...:)

Jonas

New Things...

Robotics
Robotics
Robotics
Robotics
Robotics

Ok So the last class we had this intensifying discussion about who is going to charge the batteries... Then we were here on computers trying to create this marvelous blog for all those that don't have the capability to communicate with our far too advanced brains in robotics and technologies... Therefore we created this blog so that people who are slow in the brain could at least communicate through this internet technology which we created few decades back...

Sincerely Ashwin
speaking on behave of the FSR (Future School Robotics)

P.S: Hey guys who's going to charge the batteries any way?

First things First

... the wise one spoke!

After many hours of intensive research and training our specialized team of robotics experts have come up with the latest in lego robot technology for your viewing pleasure.

Stayed tuned for more posts.

Sincerely, the FSR