Robots and Physical Computing

figure 1 This post builds on two earlier posts and tries to address some of the very useful comments from people who have tried this. I hope this helps. Overall the project builds on an earlier project to get a simple X-Wing into Minecraft on a Raspberry Pi.  The goal was get Python to build and move the X-Wing. Details of this project can be found  here . Main revision: In this project and the earlier one is based around Python 3 running the Raspbian 'Jessie' November version OS. Also additional libraries may need to be add to get the minecraftstuff (such as ShapeBlock() and MinecraftShape() ). Details on how to obtain and install these can be found at    http://www.stuffaboutcode.com/2013/11/codin g-shapes-in-minecraft.html  . In this post the additional of Pirmoroni's  Skywriter is included to allow movements of a hand or a finger to enable the X-Wing to take-off, land, move forward or backward. It builds on ideas from the book  Adv...

Junkbots ( http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/ ) are based around using  materials such as drink's cans, broken propellors and motors to produce something that moves by vibration. Previous designs be found at: Raspberry Pi Controlled Junkbots Junkbots blog The latest tweak to the Raspberry Pi based Junkbot design is to use the combination of Python and Pimoroni's Explorer HAT PRO to control it. Explorer HAT Pro is a good choice, it can control two motors with a library provided to simplify the programming. For this the Junkbot was the one shown above: a drinks can, pen, LEGO bits, motor and broken propellor. Before the Explorer HAT can be used the library needs to be installed via the Terminal and the instructions below curl get.pimoroni.com/explorerhat | bash Python code to control the junkbot is shown below. import explorerhat from time import sleep def spin1(duration):     explorerhat.motor.one.forward(100)     sleep(duration)...

Reblogged from:  http://scott-ltattempts.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/robot-behaviours.html Behaviour based robots was used in the teaching as way of getting the students to think out AI a little deeper and in particular  Do we need Human Level intelligence ? or rather  Do we  always  need to aim for Human Level Intelligence? Lego Mindstorms robot are a good vehicle for students to start trying out idea around behaviour-based robotics. They are inexpensive, programmable and with the  LeJOS  software installed on them; have behaviours built into the programming which is done in Java. A good example to use comes from Bagnall's book (B Bagnall (2002) Core Lego Mindstorms:  Programming the RCX in Java , ISBN:  978-0130093646) code 1: HitWall //Taken from Bagnall (2002) import josx.robotics.*; import josx.platform.rcx.*; public class HitWall implements Behavior { public boolean takeControl() { return Sensor.S2.readBooleanVal...

figure 1 This post builds on an earlier project to get a simple X-Wing into Minecraft on a Raspberry Pi.  The goal was get Python to build and move the X-Wing. Details of this project can be found here . In this post the additional of Pirmoroni's Skywriter HAT included to allow movements of a hand to enable the X-Wing to take-off, land, move forward or backward. It builds on ideas from the book Adventures in Minecraft on using Python and Minecraft using a Raspberry Pi. figure 2 The  Skywriter  is a Raspberry Pi HAT (see figure 2) that allows positional information of the hand just above the board. In this project it is detecting flicks of the hand up, down, or across the board to determine the direction of motion. Before you start, to use the Skywriter, in the terminal you need to add  curl -sSL get.pimoroni.com/skywriter | bash To start with we just placed the X-Wing above the player by placing blocks in the shape (roughly) of the X-Wing bas...