Robots and Physical Computing

Sorry not programming this time, but this is a great little toy. An App-control robot from Sphero based on the Star Wars new Sphero BB-8 Droid . The video shows it in patrol mode, which in the case of my one is either rolling under the chair or rolling around the room. One of the other parts of the app include an augmented reality option where on the tablet it appears to be projecting messages and videos (included ones you create). It is difficult to resist playing with this one.

With a bit of time off, I had a chance to play with the Ohbot (see Previous related links below) a little more. My son and I played with trying to find could we get it to say hello if there is a face on camera but otherwise make it move randomly as if it was looking. We based the code on the examples codes that can be found at the OhBot website ( http://ohbot.weebly.com/ ). The video below shows it in action. Previous related posts OhBot Experiment OhBot a social robot 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.

When it is a Codebug - a board with 5x5 LED matrix and 4 connectors that can be either inputs or outputs.  Programming is through a Blockly interface (as above). Code can be tested using the simulator on the left, before downloading to the CodeBug. The site contains a excellent video showing all the steps (see  http://www.codebug.co.uk/gettingstarted/ ). Codebug, Experimenter Kit CODEBUG-EXPKIT at the moment is usually programmed on-line. There is though a Scratch version in development by  Cymplecy (SimpleSi) http://simplesi.net/scratchcodebug-beta-testing/  that is an potential option for off-line programming. It is currently at the Beta testing stage but is good fun to play with. What is nice about Codebug and, in fact, most of the Physical Computing device coming out that the moment is the developing community. There is a lot of sharing of projects, ideas and solutions to problems being provide to others through the site (and via Twitter) ...

A paper has recently been published in   International Journal of Quality Assurance in Engineering and Technology Education  on problem-solving and programming by two members of the Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies, University of Northampton. Problems First, Second and Third.  Gary Hill and Scott Turner DOI:   10.4018/ijqaete.2014070104 Abstract This paper considers the need to focus initial programming education on problem-solving, prior to the teaching of programming syntax and software design methodology. The main vehicle for this approach is simple Lego based robots programmed in Java, followed by the programming of a graphical representation/simulation to develop programming skills. Problem solving is not trivial (Beaumont & Fox, 2003) and is an important skill, central to computing and engineering. The paper extends the authors earlier research on problems first and problem solving (Hill & Turner, 2011) to furthe...

International partnership pays off for robotics expert Safaa Shwail, as he defends his PhD thesis : "Postgraduate student Safaa H Shwail, who studied at both the University of Babylon and University of Northampton, has recently defended his PhD thesis. His work investigated robot pathfinding - how to make robots move at the same time, going to different places, without crashing into each other" To read more go to:   http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/international-partnership-pays-off-for-robotics-expert-safaa-shwail-as-he-defends-his-phd-thesis 'via Blog this' If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

As a bit of fun and an excuse to play with the OhBot - I was wondering whether I could get it to produce an introduction to a module when hello is said by the user. Features To move randomly with small movements. When the word hello is spoken it starts speaking (or appear to). Go to a standard starting point initially. The video below shows the results. Related links Ohbot- social robot OhBot ( http://ohbot.weebly.com/ ) 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.

I have just finished  building an OhBot ( http://ohbot.weebly.com/ ); a robot face (see picture to the left - I fixed the cross-eyes later). This cool little kit actually comes with some very nice software, that includes face tracking and a Scratch-like blocks programming language. One bit of advice is put as aside several hours to do this, my experience is takes quite a while to build (that might just be me though). It is worth it, when you see the head, eyes, etc moving it is very engaging.  The site has links to all the software needed and some very useful sample programs. This is nice engaging robot that comes with a user-friendly programming language.  The finished robot reminds me a bit of Cynthia Braziel's Kismet robot ( http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group/kismet/kismet.html ) from MIT in the 1990s. So this might also be a good introduction to the area of social robotics  and, as at the time of writing this, only £99, a relative ine...