Robots and Physical Computing

In a recent post controlling the Sphero BB-8 with the Tickle App was discussed. This is not the only alternative software, the Tynker App can also control it. This is also a graphical drag and drop programming tool, that you can connect certain 'toys' to. Though the App itself is about developing programming skills. The Sphero BB-8 Droid can be connected to Tynker (or how I did it anyway) by: Clicking on the Create button on the opening screen; Clicking on Blank Template; Deleting the 'Actor' that has there and clicking on the + button in the top right hand corner of the screen; Clicking on connected toys and selecting the grey ball; On the main screen it should say spherobot with a code button at the side, click on the button; You should get a screen with some code for changing the colour shown and then moving in a square- you can change this for your own code. Not all the commands, listed down the side, will work with the BB-8 - I re...

Previously I have shown the Sphero BB-8 rolling around the room under its own control .  One of the features of the Sphero BB-8 Droid  is it programmable either by its own downloadable software but also by one of my favourite apps - TickleApp  which has been discussed in previous posts. This app allows control of a quite an impressive range of devices using the same interface. Examples, some of which have been discussed previously (e.g Parrot Minidrone  or Dash and Dot ), are shown below.  The App uses an graphical programming interface similar to Scratch or Blockly  to produce code. The example here it a very simple one of: Spin twice for one second; Move roughly in a square; If the BB-8 collides (or is bumped) it is set to spin twice for a second.   Ok, not the most sophisticated bit of coding; but it ...

In the previous blog posts for this 'series' "It is a good time...."  Post 1  looked at the hardware unpinning some of this positive rise in robots; Post 2  looked at social robots; Post 3  looked at a collection of small robots; Post 4 looked at further examples of small robots Robots, such as the forthcoming Buddy and JIBO, will be based some established open sourceand other technologies. Jibo will be based around various technologies including Electron and JavaScript (for more details see:  http://blog.jibo.com/2015/07/29/jibo-making-development-readily-accessible-to-all-developers/ ). Buddy is expected to be developed around tools for Unity3d, Arduino and OpenCV, and support Python, C++, C#, Java and JavaScript (for more details see http://www.roboticstrends.com/article/customize_your_buddy_companion_robot_with_this_software_development_kit ).  This post contin ues with some of the software being used with the smaller robots.  A number ...

Recently I bought a Minidrone Rolling Spider Parrot and used a beta version of the Tickle App ( https://tickleapp.com/en-us/ )  to control it. This was the first time I have actual programmed something that flies and it is quite addictive having something you are controlling being able to move in all directions. On the left is an example code used, essentially lift off, repeatedly move forward, turn and in the end land. I wish the mini-drone had a little bit more battery time (I would suggest getting an extra battery).  Combining with the drone and the Tickle App does add something to the experience, rather than just control it directly (though that is fun). 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.

Wonder Workshop ( https://www.makewonder.com/ ) produce the  robots Dash and Dot robots (see picture above). It is hard not to be charmed by these robots, they are cute, easy to use, download the Apps and you are ready to go almost out of the box - and add to this an easy to use but fairly powerful tool for developing programming. At the time of writing the software is only available for IOS but there are plans for Android.  Blockly, available as one of apps, can be used to program the robots. It is a simple looking graphical language (simpler looking but similar to Scratch). A simple example (shown opposite) where Dash (the bigger of the two) does things such as  moves forward,  going left, lights change to orange, , left ear changes colour, head moves forward and it roars like a dinosaur. It relatively easy to then add loops and test (such as checking if it's 'friend' Dot is in view). Below is a very short video of Dash moving around until it 'sees' Dot. ...