Robots and Physical Computing

In previous post I looked at a few on-line robot simulators (see links below) Programming VEX Code Programming  iRobot Simulator Programming Lego EV3 simulator A recent addition to these is the Edbot Studio Virtual Playground https://studio.ed.bot/;   a preview of simulation technology for  Robots in Schools Ltd  Edbot robots.  Two Edbot robots are shown in a gym; you can select actions for the robots to carry out, including Gangam-style dancing and Head Stands. This is really a preview of the tech, rather than a programming option - at the moment . Robots in Schools Ltd, who make the Edbots, say the Virtual Playground will be part of their Edbot Studio a browser-based Environment to allow both coding in Scratch, Python and JavaScript, of both virtual and real robots. I am really curious to see the full Edbot Studio in action when it is released, but for the moment getting virtual robots to dance and kick is still really good fun. The physical robots -EdBot are...

Confession time, love playing with robots, but I am not a big fan of building robots from kits; this one was too much to resist after seeing what  https://robotsinschools.com/ , with their EdBot, have been doing.  The EdBot is based around the Robotis Mini robot (I got mine from http://www.robotshop.com/en/robotis-darwin-mini-humanoid-robot.html )  is a robot kit with an open source embedded board,  uses the OpenCM9.04-C microcontroller, running on a 32bit ARM Cortex-M3.  Software is free to download, I am running it on an Android (appropriately) Tablet. At the moment I am at the calibration/setting up stage and finding I might have made a couple of mistakes in the build. Good fun so far but more to follow in future posts. All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

I will start with a confession, I only had about 2 1/2 hours at BETT 2017  due to external time pressures so to say I didn't yet a chance for a good (or even a bad) look around is an understatement; so I am not reviewing the show just a few notes on what I did manage to see. STEAM Village First and mostly, it was great to talk to so many people, only few I had met face to face previously, about robots, micro:bits, Raspberry Pis and coding. Most of this happen in the relatively small (compared to the event space) STEAM village and nearby stalls. It was great to see the strong presence of both Raspberry Pi and Micro:Bit Foundation, along the variety of different activities and example usage of both, with Code Club (I know it is part of Raspberry Pi Foundation) there was well. This was all alongside some other companies Four of these stuck in my mind. 1. DFRobot ( https://www.dfrobot.com/ ) with their range of Arduino-based robots and non-programmable kits....