FPV Racing League
International FPV Multicopter Racing League:
EQUIPMENT
In the spec class, competitors must use a quadcopter with 2300Kv motors, 3S LiPo and 5" props. This is to ensure a level playing field amongst competitors with different budgetary constraints.
SCORING
10 points will be awarded for 1st place, 8 points for 2nd place, 5 points for 3rd place and 1 point for 4th place. These results will be recorded on the regional leaderboard, with the champions at the end of each season being invited to a national competition.
OBSTACLES
Throughout the course there will be obstacles such as hoops. Missing an obstacle will incur a time penalty. These obstacles should be made clearly visible with brightly-colored material or flashing lights...
(Official page) (Subreddit) (Next event Brisbane, Dev 7)
Boston Magazine Profiles Rodney Brooks of Rethink
Long article about Rodney Brooks co-founder of Rethink and former CTO at iRobot:
...Brooks cofounded the bedford-based iRobot in 1990, and his motivation, he explains, had something to do with vanity: “My thoughts on my self-image at the time was that I didn’t really want to be remembered for building insects.” Then he pauses for a moment and laughs. “But after that I started building vacuum-cleaning robots. And now there is a research group using Baxter to open stool samples. So now it’s shit-handling robots. I think maybe I should have quit while I was ahead. You know, that’s something no one ever says: ‘I hope my kid grows up to open stool samples... (full article)
Rethink Robotics Introduces Industry-First Robot Positioning System
This disruptive technology enables Baxter to switch between tasks without retraining by using environmental markers, called Landmarks™, in conjunction with its existing, embedded vision system.
Reverse OCR
From Reverse OCR's tumblr:
I am a bot that grabs a random word and draws semi-random lines until the OCRad.js library recognizes it as the word.
By Darius Kazemi, creator of Alternate Universe Prompts, Museum Bot, and Scenes from The Wire... (see the latest results)
Small DC Motors Power Mini Reconnaissance Robot
Ruggedized motors, coupled with a titanium housing and clever clutch design deliver a dumbbell-sized unmanned ground vehicle that can survive a 30 foot drop onto concrete.
3D Reconstruction Firm Paracosm Has Closed $3.3 Million In Seed Funding
From Paracosm:
Paracosm, a cloud-based software company, raised 3.3 million in seed round funding to further its mission to 3D-ify the world. The round, led by Atlas Venture, includes contributions from iRobot, Osage University Partners, BOLDstart Ventures, New World Angels, Deep Fork Capital and a number of angel investors.
Paracosm's advanced three-dimensional reconstruction technologies create digital models of physical spaces. When shared with machines, these models serve as blueprints which provide robots and applications a greater sense of awareness and understanding of the physical world. Such technologies are valuable for robotics, video game development, special effects, indoor navigation applications, and for the improvement of both virtual and augmented reality experiences... (full press release)
Telemedicine Robots Bring Expertise to Remote Areas
Sophisticated controls and positioning deliver a lifelike experience to doctor and patient alike.
MegaBots: Live-Action Giant Robot Combat
From MegaBots Kickstarter:
The mad scientists at MegaBots, Inc. have been zealously working on the prototypes and final design of 15-foot-tall, 15,000-pound, walking humanoid combat robots with giant, modular pneumatic cannons for arms. A driver-and-gunner team pilot each MegaBot in a battle against other MegaBots, vehicles, and a variety of other defenses and obstacles in live-action combat – the likes of which the world has only dreamed of through video games and movies...
...At our minimum funding level ($1.8M), we can build two robots. They’ll duke it out in an epic 1-on-1 deathmatch tournament. At higher funding levels, we can build more MegaBots and unlock the gameplay options you know and love: team deathmatches, free-for-alls, king of the hill, capture the flag, home base capture, escort missions, and more! (Kickstarter)
Meet Lowe's New Robot Retail Workers
From Business Insider:
Lowe's is introducing a fleet of multilingual robots at one of its Orchard Supply Hardware stores to help out with customer service, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The 5-foot-tall robots, called OSHbots, will greet customers at the door and ask them what they need, according to a video posted by Lowe's Orchard Supply Hardware Co. store in San Jose, California, where the first robots will be located... (full stories)
NEXCOM IoT Controller Solution Brings Intelligence to Manufacturing
In this white paper, NEXCOM will explain how the NEXCOM IoT controller NIFE 100 provides a unique open-architecture solution with the configuration flexibility to surmount communication barriers in building the Factory-of- Things and supporting the necessary data communications for connecting the enterprise domain and the operation domain.
Grabit Inc. Demos Electrostatic Gripper
From Grabit Inc.:
Enhanced Flexibility
Grabit technology eliminates the need for part-specific grippers and minimizes gripper changeover, dramatically reducing costs and downtime.
Gentle Handling
Grabit grippers offer scratch and smudge-free handling with its clean grasping and eliminates the need to remove residue left by vacuum cups. Grabit’s uniform grasping effect eliminates high “point stresses” on large format glass sheets.
Low Energy & Quiet Operations
Grabit products operate at ultra-low energy levels providing cost savings and enabling mobile robot applications, and also offer quiet operations improving factory conditions and supporting the adoption of collaborative robots... (homepage)
High-torque, Compact Motors And Rugged Design Create Economical, Light-weight Bomb-disposal Robot.
In a world in which an abandoned suitcase, a box, or even a pile of rubble can conceal an improvised explosive device (IED), bomb-disposal robots have become essential.
UCSD Investing in Robotics
San Diego already has major industry and defense players and employers with many robotics technologies and applications. There are also significant manufacturing sectors in San Diego and nearby Tijuana.
Gartner Says By 2017, 50 Percent of Internet of Things Solutions Will Originate in Startups That Are Less Than Three Years Old
Similar to other technology advances historically, the growth promise associated with the early stages of IoT will lead to the creation and funding of a large number of startup organizations that will maneuver to capture what they perceive to be early opportunities or overlooked product niches. This will lead to creative solutions and a wide range of products, many of which will fail in the market.
Watch That Windows Update: FTDI Drivers Are Killing Fake Chips
From Brian Benchoff at Hack A Day:
The FTDI FT232 chip is found in thousands of electronic baubles, from Arduinos to test equipment, and more than a few bits of consumer electronics. It’s a simple chip, converting USB to a serial port, but very useful and probably one of the most cloned pieces of silicon on Earth. Thanks to a recent Windows update, all those fake FTDI chips are at risk of being bricked. This isn’t a case where fake FTDI chips won’t work if plugged into a machine running the newest FTDI driver; the latest driver bricks the fake chips, rendering them inoperable with any computer.
Reports of problems with FTDI chips surfaced early this month, with an explanation of the behavior showing up in an EEVblog forum thread. The new driver for these chips from FTDI, delivered through a recent Windows update, reprograms the USB PID to 0, something Windows, Linux, and OS X don’t like. This renders the chip inaccessible from any OS, effectively bricking any device that happens to have one of these fake FTDI serial chips... (full story with workaround solution)
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Elmo Motion Control Inc.
Elmo has been a motion control technology leader for over 35 years, with millions of servo drives working 24/7 worldwide. Elmo offers complete motion control solutions from design to delivery of cutting-edge servo drives, network-based multi-axis motion controllers, and integrated servo motors. All solutions can be customized and configured using Elmo's proprietary advanced and easy-to-use software tools for any machine in any industry, such as semiconductors, lasers, robots, life sciences, industrial automation, AGV, and more. The company employs more than 350 personnel with headquarters in Israel and offices in the United States, China, Germany, Italy, Korea, Singapore, and an additional manufacturing facility in Poland. Elmo has a worldwide distribution network. By advancing motion control with state-of-the-art technology, Elmo makes smart machines even smarter. As of 2022, Elmo is a Bosch Rexroth company.
