Robots and Physical Computing

For a few years, I have been a fan of Aframe and AR.js - these are fantastic tools for creating web-based Virtual and Augmented Reality.  Now AR.js has just got easier - no coding need with the Beta version of  AR.js Studio   including using markers (see this previous post for more details) and the focus of this post, geo-located or markerless AR. It so easy I am going to show two examples. First going to the start screen of  AR.js Studio https://ar-js-org.github.io/studio , select location based project type. You will then be asked for the longitude and latitude on where you want your AR to be located, up to 10 locations can be used - I have only used one to trial it. If you don't know these co-ordinates they have included a link to a site  https://www.latlong.net/  (see below) that will give you these and you can then transfer them into AR.js Studio that is the geo location bit done. Now for the thing at the location. So for the first experimen...

For a few years, I have been a fan of Aframe and AR.js - these are fantastic tools for creating web-based Virtual and Augmented Reality.  Now AR.js has just got easier - no coding need with the Beta version of AR.js Studio https://ar-js-org.github.io/studio/ The start screen above gives you the option of location-based or Marker-based projects, I am selecting marker-based and then pressed Start building. I am going to use the premade marker but you can upload your own )there is a guide to what makes a good marker ). The premade marker you can download from the site using the download marker link underneath the marker. Apart from that, you don't have to do anything else to select the marker. Now you choose whether you want 3D object, image or video. So for this experiment, I going to use a free 3D model from  https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/duck-6e039c6c606c4c26a1359514352629fd  produced by likangning93 and released under a creative commons licence on Sketchfab . It i...

Popular Posts Programming Robots Virtually 3: LEGO EV3 In this series of posts, I am going to look at experimenting with a few  tools that allow robots to be simulated, programmed, these are ide... Programming Robots Virtually 1 - VEXcode VR For a number of years, I have been playing with robots as a means of developing programming/coding skills with students. The problem is when... Programming Robots Virtually 2: iRobot Simulator In this series of posts, I am going to look at experimenting with a few  tools that allow robots to be simulated, programmed, ideally web-ba... Micro:bit, Servo control with Micropython or blocks You can control servos (small ones) from a Micro:Bit directly. Following a link from the David Whale (Twitter  @ whaleygeek ) , thank you, t... Robot Software In the previous blog posts for this 'series' "It is a good time...."  Post 1  looked at the hardware unpinning some of... PS3 Controller to move a USB Robot Arm Guest Blogger Hiren ...

In this series of posts, I am going to look at experimenting with a few  tools that allow robots to be simulated, programmed, these are ideally web-based, free and simple to use. In this post,the focus is on one that has been around for a while Makecode for the  LEGO Mindstorms EV3  robotics kit available at  https://makecode.mindstorms.com/#editor  another example of the flexible MakeCode format. A very useful guide to using this coding tool is available at  https://makecode.com/blog/lego/05-15-2018 This time it does not give you a built robot but a programmable simulation of the Brick, all the sensors and motors; which it automatically connects together depending on the code (see above). I like this idea it means it is flexible, as well as encouraging thinking about the design and operations of the programs before trying it out physically. So to experiment with it.  I played with a number of elements: When touch sensor is pressed (lo...

BBC micro bot - tweeting BBC Basic (updated) BBC Mirco Bot site  https://www.8bitkick.cc/bbc-micro-bot.html  - where you tweet  @bbcmicrobot  and run BBC Basic code on BBC Micro emulator. It returns a video of your code running. Programming Robots Virtually 1 - VEXcode VR For a number of years, I have been playing with robots as a means of developing programming/coding skills with students.  Coral Dev Board and Raspberry Pi This is the second of a planned occasional series of posts on playing with some of the current AI specific add-on processors for Intenet of  things (IoT) Programming Robots Virtually 2: iRobot Simulator In this series of posts, I am going to look at experimenting with a few  tools that allow robots to be simulated, programmed PS3 Controller to move a USB Robot Arm Guest Blogger Hiren Mistry, Nuffield Research Placement Student working at the University of Northampton. Ho...

In this series of posts, I am going to look at experimenting with a few  tools that allow robots to be simulated, programmed, ideally web-based, free and simple to use. In this post, I am looking at iRobots recently released free tool that can be used on computers, tablets and phone to program a simulated  iRobot Root robot  targetted at educational use. The initial inspiration for looking at this was through an  IEEE Spectrum online article ; the tool is web-based app and can be found at  https://code.irobot.com/#/   In my opinion, it's most interesting feature is the same code can be written in three different ways. The codes below were the same thing (touch the left sensor turns and draws left, similarly for the right sensor; and lastly when front bump sensor touched it moves forward and plays a C) on all three levels. You only need to write it in one and it is usually available in all three levels, potentially good for transitioning betwee...

For a number of years, I have been playing with robots as a means of developing programming/coding skills with students. The problem is when classes get larger or it is used as part of an assessment there is very rarely enough robots to satisfy all the students  Turner and Hill (2008) . So therefore, the search has been on for a tool that allows robots to be simulated, programmed, ideally web-based, free and simple to use. Lately, a number of interesting tools have arisen. In this series of posts, I am going to look at experimenting with a few of them. In this post, starting by looking at VEXCode VR - available at  https://vr.vex.com/ . VEXcode VR  https://vr.vex.com/   from VEX Robotics ( https://www.vexrobotics.com/ ) is a simulator and programming tool for their Scratch-like programming tool VEXCode - at the time of writing is free. If you can do Scratch this is a nice next stage, consisting of the simulator (playground) and the programming environment (s...