Arduino driver, windows 2008

A while ago I had to connect Arduino to a Windows Server 2008. Well those who are familiar with the limitations on Windows Servers would not be surprised to know that it did not install automatically. It did not even get to know the UART communication protocol after installing MS Developers kit neither !!! The trick was only to turn on driver findings through windows updates which is deactivated by default on Windows 2008 (it is enabled by default on Windows 7).

Rubik's Cube Solver

 

OBS: click on the image to see the animated gif file

JBI File Extension

Job file created by Motoman robot programming software; contains instructions for motion and other actions that control the robot; can be programmed and simulated offline and then uploaded to the robot's job database.

Motoman software is primarily used in industrial settings, but also in academic environments to teach robot programming. Motoman robots can be used for tasks such as assembly, handling, machine tending, packaging, palletizing, painting, and welding.

Source : http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/jbi
Programs that open this file extension :
Motoman MotoPallet EG
Motoman MotoFTP
Motoman FDDWIN32
Motoman ROTSY
Compucraft RobotWorks

Robotica Osloensis Semester start party, fall 2011

Robotsystems: DFKI Bremen - Robotics Innovation Center

A very good collection of research on Robot systems both meant for space and under sea exploration

Robotsystems: DFKI Bremen - Robotics Innovation Center

RoboGames 2011 - Day 3 Humanoid Robot Kung-Fu

avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51 Error on Arduino IDE

If you are receiving the following error from Arduino :

avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51

Double check if you have the right Arduino board selected. The most common cause of this error (IMO) used to be people choosing the Duemilanove 128 when they had the newer Duemilanove 328.  Click on Tools - Board and make sure you have the right board chosen, and try again.

Processing and Arrow keys

Although in the Processing API it is mentioned that key returns the value of the pressed key, but when it comes to arrows it just returns question mark !!! The magic is to use keyCode :-)

void keyPressed(){
  //print(keyCode);
  if (keyCode == RIGHT){
    //GO RIGHT
  }
  else if (keyCode == LEFT){
    //GO LEFT
  }

  else if (keyCode == UP){

    //GO UP

  }

  else if (keyCode == DOWN){

    //GO DOWN

  }

}//end of keyPressed

visual tracking algorithm

Labyrinth

Top 40 Arduino projects on the web

Very cool projects :
http://hacknmod.com/hack/top-40-arduino-projects-of-the-web/

Ignite Oslo, Rapid Prototyping

On Thursday I hold one of the most difficult presentations of my life. I was representing Robotica Osloensis, a student community which I am deputy chairman of, at Ignite Oslo. I talked about Rapid Prototyping which we use as our main method at Robotica in our projects. Ignite is a style of presentation where participants are given five minutes to speak on a subject accompanied by 20 slides. Each slide is displayed for 15 seconds, and slides are automatically advanced. The Ignite format is similar to Pecha Kucha, which features 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds each.

The Ignite Oslo was a very nice event. They had 5 minutes presentations about different topics(list over topics) which were very interesting. Presentations about art, film making, music composition with applications on iPad, 3D printing, air balloons and fashion, etc. It was pretty stressful when it came to my turn. The whole idea of 15 seconds intervals and having a lot to say about a subject that actually belongs to the nerd world made me very nervous. Thanks to my friends Magnus Lange and Ole Jacob, who helped me both about the content and preparing in advance for the presentation, I was well prepared. Also I should thank my friends who came there to support me when I was actually holding the presentation. My presentation can be downloaded by clicking here.

A red bleeding edge artifact

I liked this one ;-) very cool :-D Soooooo bleeding edge, we HAD to maked it RED ;-)

RxTx API, Java

By clicking on the following link you can have access to the full directory of RxTx library API's in Java :

• http://users.frii.com/jarvi/rxtx/doc/index.html

Robotics and a big market to feed ...

After reading this article(Let the robots do the house work for you) on a Norwegian newspaper I was thinking to write a comment about it. As computers got into every single home in last 30 years, the robots do have the "same potential" and even more. The computers made their ways to our homes because they were good in some tasks(at least in early years), while robots have the potential to enter every single aspect of our life and simply automate the process. That's why it is important that robot designers are smart enough to discover the needs out there in the market and design the simplest machinery that can do the job :-)