Humanoid robot competition is one part of RoboGames that seems to be dominated by Japanese roboticists. Lem Fugitt, who runs Robots Dreams, has been involved with the humanoid robot scene in Japan for nine years, and tends to bring a few “professional” Robo-One players with him on his annual trip to RoboGames. We spoke with him about how he got involved in the Robo-One scene and how 3D Printing has started to benefit the builders.
Despite the large number of categories of robots here at RoboGames, the resounding sounds of metal on metal and cheers from the crowd keep drawing us back to the combat arena. We were immediately surprised by the variety of locations and backgrounds these teams come from, whether it’s a High School from across the country, a local engineer working in his garage, or a robotics team from Brazil.
Imagine the carnage that ensues when you pit two 200+ lb. robots against each other, often with weapons that spin at around 3500 rpm. The noise level and adrenaline both run high as they bang away at each other. Intern Coordinator Sam Freeman and I are at RoboGames to witness not only the combat, but all sorts of other robotics events as well. We only got here a little while ago, but have already been fascinated by the great stuff we’ve seen.
Ever battled SRAM limitations with your sketch on the Arduino Uno? Decided reluctantly to break out an Arduino Mega, and suffer with the resulting shield incompatibilities? Then the new Goldilocks board might be just what you’re looking for in a micro-controller.
Tomorrow kicks off the 10th year of RoboGames, a three-day extravaganza of robots and technology. The dozens of competitions cover everything from line following and fire fighting to weight lifting and mech warfare.
Last time I was up in Rhode Island my good friend Brian Jepson pushed a small red box into my hands with the words, “…try this, you’ll love it.” I immediately started looking for the blue pill. However I needn’t have worried, because it turned out to be a SensorTag from Texas Instruments. It’s an interesting bit of hardware aimed squarely at simplifying smart phone developers lives when prototyping Bluetooth accessories. It can add a lot of data collection capability to your maker project quickly and cheaply.
Right now I’m sorting all my resistors into plastic bags, and it’s kind of a lengthy process! Anthony Clay wrote a program called EESPeak that speaks the numeric value when you describe the colors. Have you ever had a giant pile of loose resistors to organize? I have! Instead of slowly calculating every single part […]
