If Mio Pup is making eyes at you, it’s because that’s how he communicates. This robotic Rover can walk, talk, play music, and more. And he lets you know exactly what he wants with his more than 100 “eye-cons”–images that light up in his eyes to express moods like happiness, hunger, love, and surprise. Standing about 10 inches tall, the futuristic friend is an interactive companion that uses technology to let owners know how he’s feeling.
Four touch sensors let Mio Pup know when you are petting him (and, again, his eyes will tell you how much he likes it). Tickling him under his chin may cause him to strut, wag his tail, wiggle his ears, or even play music. When Mio Pup’s eyes tell you that he’s hungry, you can “feed” him the included magnetic bone until his eye-con lets you know he’s had his fill.
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Mio Pup Robot Toy ...
The FIRST Robotics Competition is a high school robotics competition organized by FIRST. As of early 2007, 1,303 high school teams of 32,500 students from Brazil, Canada, The Netherlands, Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and others compete to build 100 to 120 pound robots that can complete a task that changes every year. Teams are given a standard set of parts and the game details at the beginning of January and are given six weeks to construct a competitive robot that can accomplish the game’s tasks. In 2007, teams competed in 37 regional competitions throughout March to try and qualify for the championship event in Atlanta, Georgia in April. Previous years’ championships have been held in Houston, Texas and at Epcot in Walt Disney World.
Competition concept
The FIRST Robotics Competition involves teams of mentors (corporate employees, teachers, or college students) and high school students who collaborate to design and build a robot in six weeks. This robot is designed to play a game, which is designed by FIRST and changes from year to year. This game is announced at a nationally simulcast kickoff event in January. Regional competitions take place around the United States as well as in Canada and Israel, but FIRST has a multinational following that further includes the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, and Germany.Teams are expected to solicit local businesses for support in the form of donations of time, money, or skills. The average team has approximately 25 students, but participation can range from 10 to 100.
Sure, Mindstorms NXT is a toy, but it is an important toy, like a piano or a chemistry set. It’s one of those items that engages an imagination and possibly opens doors to new interests. Since our future is surely to be shared with robots–it’s already started happening, just look at Roomba–those robots will need, at least initially, humans to program and maintain them. Those people, years from now, will likely remember their experiences with Lego Mindstorms.Out of the Box
The main part of the kit is the NXT itself. It’s about the size of an iPod (though a bit thicker) with a a loudspeaker, a monochrome LCD, and navigation keys on the front. This is the controller for the robot–it’s brain, if you will. It has three ports on top for connecting to the servo motors and four ports on the bottom for connecting to four different sensors: Touch, Light, Sound, and Ultrasonic (see detail below).
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- The NXT: the computer-controlled brain of the Mindstorms robot
- Touch Sensor: enables the robot to feel and react to its environment
- Sound Sensor: enables the robot to react to sound
- Light Sensor: can detect light and color
- Ultrasonic Sensor: allows the robot to measure distance and react to movement
- Servo Motors: ensures the robot moves with precision
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The set includes Ethernet-like wires for connecting all of these to the NXT, as well as software and a basic USB cable for downloading programs from your computer. Then there are all the Lego parts, hundreds of them, and most are very small. It would be a good idea to get a plastic organizer for the different parts–it would not only make construction and storage easier but also part loss less likely.
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LEGO Mindstorms NXT ...
RoboGames (previously ROBOlympics) is an annual robot contest held in San Francisco, California. The next RoboGames will be held in June 12-15, 2008.
RoboGames is the world’s largest open robot competition (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) They invite the best minds from around the world to compete in over 70 different events: Combat robots, walking humanoids, soccer bots, sumo bots, and even androids that do kung-fu. About 2/3’s of the robot eventss are autonomous, while the remaining 1/3 are remotely operated (ROV’s.)
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RoboGames was founded as the ROBOlympics in 2004. Founder David Calkins, who worked with all types of robot competitions, realized the need for cross-pollination between events, as too many robot builders over-specialized within their own field. By bringing builders from combat robotics (mechanical engineering), together with soccer robotics (computer programming), sumo robotics (sensors), androids (motion control), and art robots (aesthetics), robot builders could exchange ideas and learn more.
PALMER – Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School had great success in its first robotics competition last spring and during this academic year the school will not only compete but also host the Massachusetts regional tournament.
It means a lot of work for electronics technology teacher Eric A. Duda, but he is up for it.
“The educational value of this is great,” Duda said.
He is not only teaching and guiding the students in this program, he is watching them do work at a level that he was involved with as an electrical engineering student at Western New England College.
“It’s amazing,” Duda said. “They design something. They build it. They test it. They record all of their results.”
School teams all over the world compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge Championship by building a robot that meets required specifications and can perform a designated task.
The 2008 contest calls for a robot that can pick up rings that are 3 inches in diameter and put as many of them as possible on a pole while racing the clock.
While Duda’s students find it fun and exciting, their work also fits into the state’s curriculum frameworks for electronics technology.
“It takes a lot of math skills and a real scientific approach. They do a lot of computer programming,” Duda said. “This covers a real wide range and ties everything together.”
“They are doing a great job,” he said.
AFC Stamping and Production, Inc. produces finished components used in power sports and automotive applications, and automotive stampings that have welded components.
The Dayton, Ohio, company was established in 1989, and employs 100 people. It is a subsidiary of FC Industries, whose family of companies includes Barsplice Products Inc., AFC Tool Inc., Dayton Precision Punch and FC International.
AFC Stamping and Production is housed in an 115,000-square-foot facility that accommodates nine production lines, including a CNC bender, end finish equipment, resistance welding, and fully equipped press and manual welding departments.
Jon Lambert, engineering manager for AFC Stamping and Production, Inc., is responsible for capital expenditure, continuous improvement, plant layout and process and tooling concepts, and supports the company’s lean manufacturing initiatives and internal and external customer requirements.Before adding a robot to the workforce, the product mix was produced by an outside contractor. Prior to outsourcing, the assemblies were welded manually, creating several disadvantages, including cost, lack of manpower, operator control of quality and poor product flows.
Without strong public interest, Legislature could hold upper hand on project’s location
MONTGOMERY — If Alabama’s rumored tight finances let Gov. Bob Riley move forward with his dream robotics campus in 2008, an economist says a campus closest to Huntsville makes financial sense.
But political experts say you can’t leave the Legislature out of the equation if the project needs state funding. Decisions about the future of the robotics campus could lie with politics for that reason.
Calhoun Community College and Wallace State Community College in Hanceville are contenders for the first phase of the robotics project. Riley had promised site selection by December, but his press spokesman, Jeff Emerson, said the governor will make no decision until after Jan. 1.
Phase one includes student-training facilities to prepare people for high-paying jobs working with and maintaining robots in industry. Later phases would include robotics research and demonstration areas where industries could show their robotic toys to potential customers.
With both colleges vying for the robotic plum, the experts say the final decision may hinge on one of several factors. Those factors include public opinion, proximity to high-tech research facilities in Huntsville, the governor’s plans after he leaves office in 2010 and who holds the political upper hand.
Unless there is strong public opinion, the decisions about new projects often hinge on political wheeling and dealing, especially in the Legislature.
The International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) began in 1991 on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Since 1991 collegiate teams, with the backing of industry and government have fielded autonomous flying robots in an attempt to perform missions that required robotic behaviors never before exhibited in a flying machine. In 1990, the term “Aerial Robotics
