The Cyborg Fly Project Guides a Robot Through an Obstacle Course

I want my Cyborg !!


The Cyborg Fly Project Guides a Robot Through an Obstacle Course
http://gizmodo.com/5624422/the-cyborg-fly-project-uses-a-tethered-fly-to-guide-a-robot-through-an-obstacle-course


So what's the significance of having a fly-controlled robot? Apparently, the technique could be used to help track micro and nano robots, which are difficult to follow due to their high relative velocities. Although the Cyborg Fly Project is not the only bug "flight simulator", it has a unique high-speed vision component that could translate into both future biology research and industrial applications like keeping tabs on a production line. [IEEE Spectrum via Boing Boing]

Free booklet on mechanisms for automata and other projects

MAKE:

Free booklet on mechanisms for automata and other projects

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/08/free_booklet_on_mechanisms_for_auto.html

For a limited time, Cabaret Mechanical Theatre is offering a free download of an eighteen page booklet by famed automata-maker Paul Spooner. This is a great resource for the mechanically-curious and must have for automata-makers.




--enjoy !!

--http://www.vintagecomputer.net/ragooman/

ERROR !!
***The schematic is being updated to reflect the fixes made over the weekend and will be posted online soon. ***

This is still using the AVR TINY2313. One of the guys picked up a RC Car from the Thrift store. So naturally he wanted to hack this into a Terminator, crush, kill, destroy --hah-- a robotic rover of course, something which could navigate on it's own.

The drive motor and the steering motor is wired using a L298 motor driver chip.

BTW, from all this we have another AVR convert !! Yes, another hacker devoted to the world of AVR microcontrollers :)

Make: Online : Multitouch robot swarm controller

This is a very interesting application for Robot Swarming technology

Make: Online : Multitouch robot swarm controller:
"Got an unruly swarm of robots that needs taming?
Whip them into shape with this multitouch control interface by Mark Micire of UMass Lowell. [via BotJunkie]"

LED Matrix using an AVR ATTINY2313 and 74LS374

LED Matrix using an AVR ATTINY2313 and 74LS374

This is a little circuit to drive a 5x7 jumbo LED matrix module that I picked up at a local hamfest. All it takes is a ATTINY2313 and a 74LS373 octal latch to create a row/column mux to access the individual Leds in the module. Attached is the schematic. the 6pin ISP programmer is not shown, this is a given , if you're using one of the available programmers, such as the AVRISP mkII from Atmel. I will post a pic of the module shortly with the pins labled.

NOTE: Atmel released a newer version of this microcontroller, it's now the ATTINY2313A

Slashdot Hardware Story | Dutch Hackers Create Wi-Fi Sniffing Drone

This looks like a great UAV Robot project...

Slashdot Hardware Story | Dutch Hackers Create Wi-Fi Sniffing Drone:
"The WASP, or Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform, has been built out of a hobby-grade airframe and open source Ardupilot autopilot, reports sUASnews. In the words of the Rabbit-Hole website, it's a 'Small Scale, Open Source UAV using off the shelf components. Designed to provide a vehicle to project cyber-offensive and defensive capabilities, and visual / electronic surveillance over distance cheaply and with little risk.'" Want a drone of your own? The makers have some pointers to helpful resources.

Final Projects ECE 4760

Here's a great AVR project page done by college students at Cornell. I only wish I was back in college with all that free time again :)
Final Projects ECE 4760