S4A: Scratch modification for Arduino
S4A:
Scratch for Arduino (S4A) is a modified version of Scratch , ready to interact with Arduino boards.
Supported boards
S4A works with Arduino Diecimila, Duemilanove and Uno. Other boards haven't been tested, but they may also work.
Connectivity
Components have to be connected in a particular way. S4A allows for 6 analog inputs (analog pins), 2 digital inputs (digital pins 2 and 3), 3 analog outputs (digital pins 5, 6 and 9), 3 digital outputs (pins 10, 11 and 13) and 4 special outputs to connect Parallax continuous rotation servomotors (digital pins 4, 7, 8 and 12).
You can manage a board wirelessly by attaching an RF module to it, such as Xbee.
S4A allows you to control as many boards as USB ports you have.
Compatibility
S4A is backwards compatible with Scratch, so you can open Scratch projects in it. However, you won't be able to share your projects on the Scratch community website because doing so goes against the Scratch terms of use.
Take in account that this compatibility doesn't work both ways, so you won't be able to open an S4A project from within the original Scratch.
Using a PicoBoard along with an Arduino board is also supported... cont'd
The Poppy Project
The Poppy Project :
OPEN SOURCE
Both software and hardware are available under an open source licence for academics, artists and geeks.
EASY TO REPAIR AND DUPLICATE
Poppy only uses off-the-shelf components (motors and electronics) and limbs that can be printed with regular 3D printing services.
OPTIMIZED FOR BIPED LOCOMOTION
Poppy’s body has a morphology modeling human skeleton: bended legs, multi-articulated trunk, soft body. This increases robustness, agility and stability during the walking.
AFFORDABLE
The overall materials needed to build your own Poppy robot costs around 7500€ ($10500, including motors, electronics and 3D printed parts). We hope the community will find ways to build and use even cheaper solutions.
Introducing UBR-1
Introducing UBR-1 from Unbounded Robotics on Vimeo .
UBR-1 Robot From Unbounded Robotics Revolutionizes Affordable Mobile Manipulation
Unbounded has been working in stealth mode for the past year, but our best guess was that they were developing a low-cost mobile manipulator for research and education: something like a PR2, except (we were hoping) significantly cheaper. Today, Unbounded is unveiling UBR-1, a shiny new human-scale one-armed robot designed to completely revolutionize the market for research and education robotics and beyond, for just a tiny fraction of the cost of similar platforms.
UBR-1 is a 13-DoF mobile robot that includes a 7-DoF arm. It navigates with a laser scanner in its base, and uses a PrimeSense 3D sensor in its head for perception. Thanks to a torso lift, the robot can pick objects up off the floor, and put them onto tables and countertops. It's got a beefy computer in the torso, along with two big fat batteries that'll keep it running for up to 5 hours continuously, or up to 10 if it's not moving around too much, and you can get a charging dock so that you never have to plug it in. UBR-1 runs ROS, and comes out of the box with the ability to navigate and interact with objects. And (arguably) the most important spec of all is that UBR-1 starts at just $35,000, which is wicked cheap for a robot this capable.
UAV Textbook Delivery Service
Australia-based Zookal and Flirtey want to deliver textbooks to people in Sydney using aerial drones:
Impacts of Robotics on Employment, Safety, Quality, Productivity, and Efficiency
Some analysts assert that technological change is beneficial for all groups in our society, that the changes are more evolutionary than revolutionary in nature.
Robotics in Education
Robotics and STEM education can be deployed as part of other school curricula, and not just science. As an example, there are programs in which teachers are using robotics in art and history classes.
Vacuum Systems For Successful Robot Implementation
The design of a vacuum system and choice of vacuum components for robot end effectors can be of crucial importance for a successful robot installation. This paper discusses vacuum solutions for robot end effectors, which increase the possibility of a successful robot installation. At the same time, I would like to resolve the misunderstanding that all vacuum ejectors are expensive to operate.
ATI's 7th Annual Technology Training Fair
We covered a variety of recently developed ATI products including new Robotic Tool Changers, Utility Couplers, Tool Changer Modules, and other new robotic end effector products and applications.
New Boston Dynamics Videos
Introducing WildCat:
Legged Robot Testing in Desert:
Atlas Update:
Arduino Galileo From Intel And Arduino TRE From TI
Official Intel Datasheet :
Galileo is a microcontroller board based on the Intel® Quark SoC X1000 Application Processor, a 32-bit Intel Pentium-class system on a chip. It is the first board based on Intel® architecture designed to be hardware and software pin-compatible with Arduino shields designed for the Uno R3. Digital pins 0 to 13 (and the adjacent AREF and GND pins), Analog inputs 0 to 5, the power header, ICSP header, and the UART port pins (0 and 1), are all in the same locations as on the Arduino Uno R3. This is also known as the Arduino 1.0 pinout.
In addition to Arduino hardware and software compatibility, the Galileo board has several PC industry standard I/O ports and features to expand native usage and capabilities beyond the Arduino shield ecosystem. A full sized mini-PCI Express slot, 100Mb Ethernet port, Micro-SD slot, RS-232 serial port, USB Host port, USB Client Port, and 8 MByte NOR flash come standard on the board.
Available Nov 29 for under $60
Arduino Blog :
Arduino TRE, based on the Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 processor is the “most powerful Arduino to date” and the first that will be able to run “full Linux.”
Thanks to the 1-GHz Sitara AM335x processor, Arduino developers get up to 100 times more performance with the Sitara-processor-based TRE than they do on the Arduino Leonardo or Uno. This performance opens the doors to more advanced Linux-powered applications. The Sitara-processor-based Linux Arduino can run high-performance desktop applications, processing-intensive algorithms or high-speed communications.
The Arduino TRE is expected to be available in spring 2014
IEEE Spectrum Tours NASA's Drone Research Lab
IEEE Spectrum:
The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) is located approximately in the middle of nowhere, inside Edwards Air Force Base on a huge dry lake bed out in the Mojave desert. The remoteness of the area, plus the availability of over 100 square kilometers of empty flat lake bed to land on if necessary, makes Dryden a fantastic place to test out all kinds of futuristic and occasionally bizarre aircraft. And we got to meet a few of them... cont'd
Integrated Wheel Drives for Electric Utility Vehicles
Well look at electrically-powered vehicles in this load class of about 100 lb (45 kg) up to 2,000 lb (900 kg), and in particular the types of propulsion systems used in them, including fully integrated traction drive systems.
The DARPA Robotics Challenge Rundown
Teams are competing to develop and put to the test hardware and software designed to enable robots to assist humans in emergency response when a disaster strikes.
Solar Powered Unmanned Vehicles
When you have the combination of high energy density and thin and flexible form factor, you can apply this solar material to anything with a battery that moves, can be carried, or worn.
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Industrial Robotics - Featured Product
PI USA - High Precision R-Theta Stages for Semicon, Laser Processing Apps
2-axis R-Theta motion systems are better suited to spiral motion than Cartesian XY stages. R-Theta systems often find applications in precision laser / semiconductor applications due to higher throughput, precision, and smaller size. See examples and options.
