Sunday, July 31, 2011

HeatSync Labs Hacker Space

HeatSync Labs

Established in 2009, HeatSync Labs is Arizona's first 501(c)3 hackerspace. We are a community workshop that makes workspace, tools, and other resources available to artists, engineers, students and hobbyists to build tomorrow’s innovations. We believe in creating a community of collaboration and learning-by-doing.

Gangplank

Gangplank HQ

Gangplank is a group of connected individuals and small businesses creating an economy of innovation and creativity in the Valley. We envision a new economic engine comprised of collaboration and community, where industries come together to transform our culture.

We’re not coworking – we’re a collaborative workspace.

Noisebridge Hacker Space

Noisebridge

Noisebridge is a space for sharing, creation, collaboration, research, development, mentoring, and of course, learning. Noisebridge is also more than a physical space, it's a community with roots extending around the world.

For we're excellent to each other here
We rarely ever block
We value tools over pre-emptive rules
And spurn the key and the lock.
— Danny O'Brien, 2010-11-09 general meeting notes

We make stuff. So can you.

Friday, July 29, 2011

The Ben Heck Show

The Ben Heck Show

The Ben Heck Show is presented by the amazing Benjamin J Heckendorn; a graphic artist turned internet celebrity famed in the world of electronics "modding". From hits like his Bill Paxton pinball machine to the in-demand XBOX 360 Laptop, Ben is known for hacking-in-to pop culture's biggest gadgets and giving them his own unique and playful spin. Ben fires-up his bi-weekly show this fall sponsored exclusively by element14.

Friday, July 22, 2011

NI LabVIEW Interface for Arduino Toolkit

LabView for Arduino Toolkit Download

The NI LabVIEW Interface for Arduino Toolkit helps you easily interface with the Arduino microcontroller using LabVIEW.

With this toolkit and LabVIEW, you can control or acquire data from the Arduino microcontroller. Once the information is in LabVIEW, analyze it using the hundreds of built-in LabVIEW libraries, develop algorithms to control the Arduino hardware, and present your findings on a polished UI.

A sketch for the Arduino microcontroller acts as an I/O engine that interfaces with LabVIEW VIs through a serial connection. This helps you quickly move information from Arduino pins to LabVIEW without adjusting the communication, synchronization, or even a single line of C code. Using the common Open, Read/Write, Close convention in LabVIEW, you can access the digital, analog, pulse-width-modulated, I2C, and SPI signals of the Arduino microcontroller. To learn how the under-the-hood functionality works so you can modify or extend it, look inside the subVIs or open the Arduino sketch.

The Arduino microcontroller must be connected to the computer with LabVIEW through a USB, serial, Bluetooth, or XBee link. This toolkit does not provide for headless operation.

Requires LabVIEW 2009 or later.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Trust Your Technolust

Hak5

Put together by a band of IT ninjas, security professionals and hardcore gamers, Hak5 isn’t your typical tech show. We take on hacking in the old-school sense, covering everything from network security, open source and forensics, to DIY modding and the homebrew scene. Then we wrap it all up with a healthy dose of cocktails and geek comedy. Damn the warranties, it’s time to Trust your Technolust.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Tech United - TURTLE Robot

TECHNOLOGY
Are you interested to know how these robots work? At the TURTLE page you can see how it is build up, and how the different components of the robot work. For servicerobot AMIGO a similar page is available. The RoboCup project is fully open source so all information is available!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

RoboCup 2011 - Istanbul, Turkey

"There are few events that match the complexity of RoboCup. It is both a venue for artificial intelligence and intelligent robotics research and a display of the advancements in a format visible for people who are not experts, and allows them to share the enthusiasm of the researchers. Initially with a focus on robotic soccer and a goal of having a team of robots having a match with a human team in 2050 and winning, the competition now has leagues also for rescue, @home, and logistics. There are also competitions for junior students. Seeing the advancements in the leagues each year as 2050 becomes a closer date, our hope in meeting the challenge increases more." - Prof. H. Levent Akin

Monday, July 11, 2011

ECCE Robot



ECCEROBOT (Embodied Cognition in a Compliantly Engineered Robot) is a three-year project funded by the 7th framework program of the EU (ICT-Challenge 2, "Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics"). It has three goals: to build the first truly anthropomimetic robot; to find out how to control it; and finally, to investigate its human-like cognitive features.

Standard humanoid robots mimic the human form, but the mechanisms used in such robots are very different from those in humans, and the characteristics of the robots reflect this. This places severe limitations on the kinds of interactions such robots can engage in, on the knowledge they can acquire of their environment, and therefore on the nature of their cognitive engagement with the environment.

However, a new kind of robot is being developed by this project consortium – an anthropomimetic robot. Instead of just copying the outward form of a human, it copies the inner structures and mechanisms – bones, joints, muscles, and tendons – and thus has the potential for human-like action and interaction in the world.

ECCE Robot Website

Robot & Creative IT Education


HelloApps.com provides a number of easy-to-follow free materials for the teachers and professors who are looking for a creative curriculum.

Robotics Education Quick Start

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Trackuino - An Arduino APRS tracker


Trackuino was designed primarily to track high altitude balloons, so it has other handy features like reading temperature sensors and a cut-down mechanism. Trackuino is intended to be used by licensed radio amateurs. The project comprises both the firmware and the schematics/PCB to build your own stand-alone tracker. The tracker board includes the microcontroller, the GPS module and the radio transmitter. You can also run the firmware on an Arduino and wire up the GPS and radio modules externally.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Engineering Education

"Engineering education is not just what goes on in the classroom. It’s very much what goes on in the laboratory, and blurring that boundary is very worthwhile."

- Edwin Thomas, Department Head, Materials Science and Engineering, MIT

MIT School of Engineering

Monday, July 4, 2011

Robot Operating System (ROS)



ROS (Robot Operating System) provides libraries and tools to help software developers create robot applications. It provides hardware abstraction, device drivers, libraries, visualizers, message-passing, package management, and more. ROS is a a completely open source (BSD) and free for others to use, change and commercialize upon.

Source: Willow Garage

Next Big Thing in Silicon Valley: Robotics?

Can Silicon Valley be the center for robotics too?
Posted by Norri Kageki on GetRobo

Silicon Valley is known for its software, semiconductor, and Internet companies. Can it become a high-tech nexus for robotics too?

Adept Technology

Founded in 1983, Adept Technology is the largest U.S.-based manufacturer of industrial robots. Adept intelligent automation product lines include industrial robots, configurable linear modules, machine controllers for robot mechanisms and other flexible automation equipment, machine vision, and systems and applications software.

Willow Garage

Willow Garage is a team of experts in robot design, control, perception, and machine learning, with both a strong theoretical background and a demonstrated drive to produce practical systems.