Farrusco – Guilherme Martins

Differential wheeled robot simulator

This Processing application is ment to simulate a differential wheeled robot, very used nowadays. This app will be usefull in our Robotics Workshops!

~~I missed the github class so here it is the good’old zip~~
Here’s the link to the repo, you’re welcome to contribute ;)

There are still a couple of enhancements on the list:

real metrics and scale
connect to motor encoders
record a path on the virtual world and let the real robot follow it
become real simulator of the arduino code used in our robotics workshops

The video is reproduced a lot faster than the program really performs :p

Some control keys are available:

The overall program is quite simple to use, just pass the mouse over the joystick area to control the bot.

The program basically maps joystick values X and Y to a differential drive system where two motors are used to drive a robot.

There is also a representation of a robot and its path according to the motors differential rotation.

Credits:

The joystick program was based on a program entitled ‘JoystickSimulation’ by: Vince Thompson
http://diyroboticslab.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/joystick-simulation-with-processing/

The robot program was based on a program entitled ‘Kephera Simulator’ by Adam Matic of Croatia
http://gritsgroup.org/robotsimulator.htm

Workshop de Introdução à Róbotica no AltLab

Farruscos @ TedxKids@CentralTejo

Here is another great video of this memorial day!! :D

TEDxKids @ CentralTejo

We had the pleasure to be part on the first portuguese TEDxKids!! We brought our Farrusco’s tribe for a brief introduction to robotics during the afternoon, what a great time!! Big thanks to all the TEDxKids team for the opportunity and support!! This kind of events should happen more often!

There will be a TV show dedicated to the event this Saturday and Sunday @ SICNoticias

http://imagensdemarca.sapo.pt/emissoes/tv/pecas/promo-pequenos-grandes-oradores/

Livebots.cc

Have you ever controlled a robot online??
How about controlling two robots?

Just try it @ livebots.cc

All credits belong to XicoMBD! Respect!!

Farrusco v2, stage 0

We are preparing a new Farrusco’s batch, keep tuned because soon there will be plenty of tutorials, addons and other goodies.

Another day at the office…

I know, I haven’t posted anything since… March!?

But these “no posting days” are ending I assure you!!!

Workshop “Introduction to Robotics”

Teatro ABC.PI invited Artica to give a one day “Introduction to Robotics” workshop at “Ponto de Encontro” in Cacilhas (Almada), and the good news is that it is totally free, the not so good news is that you need to hurry up because there is a limitation to 15 participants. This is an initiative of “Quinzena da Juventude” and “Camara de Almada”.

SapoBot

SapoBot is a robot that wonders through spaces avoiding obstacles detects holes on the ground, follow walls and follow lines, to change between behaviors you only need to press the shell, and when he detects a collision gives a frog sound. This project was comissioned by Sapo, means frog in portuguese.

This bots were made with a Farrusco chassis and Motoruino and once again with the great IDMind hardware and electronics skills, all the credits for the eyes mechanics and all the rest of the hardware upgrade goes to them.

The shell was made by Fernando and Margarida Antunes, don’t forget to check their amazing art work at http://margaridantunes.weebly.com.

This is a Farrusco on steroids!! Only the pins 0 and 1 for serial communication are free, all the other pins are taken for a considerable amount of sensors and actuators: 3 infrared sensors to measure distances on the front, 3 infra red sensors facing the ground, a speaker, 1 RGB LED, 1 servo motor, 2 dc motors and 2 bumper micro-switches to detect collisions.

The eyes are meant to give some human expression to the bot, they turn organically to both sides according the direction that the robot takes.

We coded an application in Processing to check all the sensors and actuators, allowing to save settings on the microcontroller EEPROM. This code will be available on Artica’s github soon.

Time to drink some juice :]

And the result is a happy family!

Artica @ TEDxEdges

This TEDxEdges was a huge event, and Artica marked its presence on stage with the Einstein VideoPlayer adapted to play the videos between the talks, and with a video mapping system to display the data captured by biometric PLUX sensors.

There were 4 gloves on the room, and each person wearing a glove would be able to send its emotions to the assigned ‘TEDx’ letter.

I went to stage with André to briefly present Artica’s presence on the event, they mentioned the Farruscos playing sumo, the Magabot in telepresence mode being driven by Francisco Dias and finally what was behind the ‘TEDx’ letters.

In the foyer there were an arsenal of 5 Magabots all available to be remotelly controlled in Telepresence. This system is made with Skype and simple interface running on the robot side. So all you need is a Skype account and nothing more.

Gareth, Voodoobot, Birdmun and Ro-Bot-X from LetsMakeRobots were very present on the site, some of them even went outdoors and had a couple of adventures!! :)