National Robotics Week

Mark your calenders, National Robotics Week is April 10th through 18th.

More information about events can be found at the website.


[From: DIY Drones & Robot Living]

Reliability Testing & Framing

Drop ball, check operation, repeat, forever.

I like the use of 80/20 T-Slot framing. For smaller projects, hopefully MakerBeam works out well. I Just hope they replace the screws in the current design with carriage bolts.

The Curse of the Rolling Shutter

As you can imagine this will cause serious problems for computer vision systems on mobile robots, especially UAVs.

Unfortunately, it looks like all of the Logitech webcams suffer from this. An easy test to determine if you have a rolling shutter is quickly pan your camera left and right, if vertical lines tilt left when panning left and tilt right whem panning right, it has a rolling shutter.

There are some alternatives.

Style: Ready to wear for 2010

The new I Heart Robotics T-Shirt.
Hot or not?

Underwater Robot Torpedo Launcher

This is a video of the torpedo launcher from USC Robotics, developed for their AUV.

Aluminum Arduino Case

 

Some design revisions from the previous version. Adjusted the outer size to 1.5" x 3" since that is a standard aluminum tubing size. I'll post the parts to Thingiverse if I can ever figure out how to get the fasteners to keep from breaking the plastic ends.

Feedback is greatly appreciated, and if you are interested in buying a case in plastic or aluminum send an email or post a comment.

Cool Tool: Precision Crow Bar

This chip lifter / pry bar is one of the best tools I have purchased recently. Perfect for reducing consumer products down to their component parts.

Under $6.