#define WINDtechzone

graVITas Robotic workshop Week! (Sep 5th to 13th)

2011-08-15T09:53:00.000+05:30

Workshop India is conducting a Workshop Week *prior* to graVITas so all of you who need assistance in making bots for the competitions in graVITas can just pop in and learn the basics.

Why would you want to, you ask? Well, We've got workshops catering to every level of proficiency. If you're just starting out, we would recommend our manual workshops priced at Rs350 a pop. Here you'll learn the basics yes, but the basics are important. Understanding how to build a manual robot and actually doing so in the comfort of an AC hall, will completely cure any robophobia you might have.

But you say, hey I know all that stuff. I need something more high-tech! Well then, we have our autonomous workshops for you to bring intelligence to your bot. We teach things a bit differently, our aim is not just to have you build a bot and leave, but to give you the skills to do so consistently. We'll let you work on our development boards gaining hands on experience in programming motors, sensors, LCD and various other peripherals. This experience we provide for ony Rs850 for 6 hours.

Now, you've understood the basics of everything right? so you want to move on to bigger and better things. Enter the Arduino. Its an open source development platform that you can use to build anything you can dream of. Thats right.. and we'll help you do so. In this workshop, we not only let you learn about the basic fundae about the arduino and how to use it but we let you do your very own unique project with the arduino!!! yes! we'll give you some components, some time and we'll let you run wild with your imagination and creativity. For all this, we charge a measly Rs1500 for a 12 hour fun ride in the arduino roller coaster.

These workshops are going to be on weekdays.. between 6-9pm. We'll give you late slips to get back to your hostels, we'll give you some dinner too since you'll probably miss the mess. But above all - we'll give you the sense that you've learned something useful from us. and in the end, thats why we have our company..

For registrations contact graVITas control room desk. For queries, ping us at info@workshopindia.com.

cheerios
CTO, Workshop India
Workshop India. 2011. All rights Reserved

We're back!

2011-08-13T20:05:00.001+05:30

So its been a while since our last post in 2009.
We apologize for the hiatus the blog has taken. A lot of us have been really busy with the company and so the blog got kinda neglected for a while.

But, fear not, everythings all-good and the company has a new office here in Vellore.
And you can expect frequent updates from us here.

Cheers

Workshop India. 2011. All rights Reserved

WIND ARDUINO

2009-12-12T23:40:00.001+05:30

Workshop India is proud the announce the launch of WIND Arduino series of low cost open source development boards

Coming January 2010 a new revolution in low cost high performance embedded and robotics boards with full code and tutorials

Regards

Aditya Singh Baghel

CEO Workshop India

visit www.workshoppindia.com

Sixth Sense awesome technology

2009-12-12T23:19:00.001+05:30

ABOUT

'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.

We've evolved over millions of years to sense the world around us. When we encounter something, someone or some place, we use our five natural senses to perceive information about it; that information helps us make decisions and chose the right actions to take. But arguably the most useful information that can help us make the right decision is not naturally perceivable with our five senses, namely the data, information and knowledge that mankind has accumulated about everything and which is increasingly all available online. Although the miniaturization of computing devices allows us to carry computers in our pockets, keeping us continually connected to the digital world, there is no link between our digital devices and our interactions with the physical world. Information is confined traditionally on paper or digitally on a screen. SixthSense bridges this gap, bringing intangible, digital information out into the tangible world, and allowing us to interact with this information via natural hand gestures. ‘SixthSense’ frees information from its confines by seamlessly integrating it with reality, and thus making the entire world your computer.
The SixthSense prototype is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.
The SixthSense prototype implements several applications that demonstrate the usefulness, viability and flexibility of the system. The map application lets the user navigate a map displayed on a nearby surface using hand gestures, similar to gestures supported by Multi-Touch based systems, letting the user zoom in, zoom out or pan using intuitive hand movements. The drawing application lets the user draw on any surface by tracking the fingertip movements of the user’s index finger. SixthSense also recognizes user’s freehand gestures (postures). For example, the SixthSense system implements a gestural camera that takes photos of the scene the user is looking at by detecting the ‘framing’ gesture. The user can stop by any surface or wall and flick through the photos he/she has taken. SixthSense also lets the user draw icons or symbols in the air using the movement of the index finger and recognizes those symbols as interaction instructions. For example, drawing a magnifying glass symbol takes the user to the map application or drawing an ‘@’ symbol lets the user check his mail. The SixthSense system also augments physical objects the user is interacting with by projecting more information about these objects projected on them. For example, a newspaper can show live video news or dynamic information can be provided on a regular piece of paper. The gesture of drawing a circle on the user’s wrist projects an analog watch.
The current prototype system costs approximate $350 to build.

PICTURES

. . . some more pictures are coming soon.

VIDEOS

. . . more videos are coming soon, too.

PUBLICATIONS

P. Mistry, P. Maes. SixthSense – A Wearable Gestural Interface. To be appeared in SIGGRAPH Asia 2009, Sketch. Yokohama, Japan. 2009
P. Mistry, P. Maes. SixthSense – A Wearable Gestural Interface. To be appeared in SIGGRAPH Asia 2009, Emerging Technologies. Yokohama, Japan. 2009
P. Mistry. The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology. TEDIndia 2009. Mysore, India 2009
P. Mistry, P. Maes, L. Chang. WUW - Wear Ur World - A Wearable Gestural Interface. In the CHI '09 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems. Boston, USA. 2009
P. Maes, P. Mistry. Unveiling the "Sixth Sense," game-changing wearable tech. TED 2009. Long Beach, CA, USA 2009

AWARDS

Popular Science

Technology Review

this is truly amazing

Regards

Aditya Singh Baghel

CEO workshop India

AVR Arduino

2009-12-12T22:20:00.001+05:30

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).

The boards can be built by hand or purchased preassembled; the software can be downloaded for free. The hardware reference designs (CAD files) are available under an open-source license, you are free to adapt them to your needs.

Buy an Arduino Board

Download the Arduino Software

Development: For information on the development of Arduino, see the Arduino project on Google Code. Changes to the software are discussed on the developers mailing list.

Elsewhere: You can find lots of pictures of Arduino projects and workshops in the Arduino tag on Flickr. Related links can be found on the Arduino tag on del.icio.us.

Getting Started

To get started, follow the instructions for your operating system: Windows, Mac OS X or Linux; or for your board: Arduino Nano, Arduino Mini, Arduino BT, LilyPad Arduino, XBee shield. If you're having trouble, check out the troubleshooting suggestions.

Learning

Examples of how to work with the Arduino language and common electronic components; further readings on the foundations; information on hacking and extending the Arduino hardware and software; external resources.

Reference

Reference for the Arduino language (see also the extended version); a collection of libraries for working with various types of hardware; a comparison with other prototyping platforms, and information about the components of the Arduino board.

Hardware

Information about the Arduino hardware, including reference designs (EAGLE files).

Blog

General announcements and thoughts from the Arduino team can be found in our blog.

Forum

The multi-lingual forum is the place to go with questions of all kinds.

Playground (Wiki)

We're collecting Arduino knowledge, tutorials, and instructions in the playground wiki.

Regards

Aditya Singh Baghel

CEO Workshop India

ICUB ---HUMANOID

2009-11-26T23:58:00.001+05:30

We report about the iCub, a humanoid robot for research in embodied cognition. At 104 cm tall, the iCub has the size of a three and half year old child. It can crawl on all fours and sit up to manipulate objects. Its hands have been designed to support sophisticate manipulation skills. The iCub is distributed as Open Source following the GPL/FDL licenses.
The iCub has been developed by the RobotCub project, a collaborative effort funded by the European Commission under the sixth framework programme (FP6) by Unit E5: Cognitive Systems, Interaction and Robotics. It has the two-fold goal of: i) creating an open hardware/software humanoid robotic platform for research in embodied cognition, and ii) advancing our understanding of natural and artificial cognitive systems by exploiting this platform in the study of the development of cognitive capabilities.
The RobotCub stance on cognition posits that manipulation plays a fundamental role in the development of cognitive capabilities. As many of these basic skills are not ready-made at birth, but developed during ontogenesis, RobotCub aims at testing and developing this paradigm through the creation of a child-like humanoid robot: the iCub. This “baby” robot will act in cognitive scenarios, performing tasks useful for learning while interacting with the environment and humans. The small (104cm tall), compact size (approximately 22kg and fitting within the volume of a child) and high number (53) of degrees of freedom combined with the Open Source approach distinguish RobotCub from other humanoid robotics projects developed worldwide.
We focus here on the description of the iCub, both in terms of hardware and software. In particular, we will briefly discuss the rationale of the hardware design, the modularity and reuse of software components, and the consequences of the Open Source distribution policy.
The hardware of iCub has been specifically optimized and designed somewhat holistically: modularity in this case had to be traded for functionality and overall size. Software, on the other hand, has been designed with modularity and component reuse in mind. Both the hardware and software of the iCub have been released under the GPL and FDL licenses.
Additional initiatives are aiming at promoting the iCub as the platform of choice for research in embodied cognition.

regards

B.VARUN REDDY,

CTO,

WORKSHOPINDIA.

C programming and the butterfly ! !

2009-11-12T01:21:00.000+05:30

Although i always suggest BASCOM for beginners who are interested in doing simple micro controller based projects, But then when it comes to some serious embedded applications BASCOM may not do the job as it has a lot of deficient functionality as it uses BASIC as its programming language hence keeping the user away from advanced structures advanced functions parameter passing and loads of other functions that c provides and BASIC does not. C programming of the micro controllers is agreeably more difficult than BASCOM but once you get a hang of it. It is very easy and useful for any one.

I recently came across this combination of the AVR butterfly and the Book by Joe Pardue and they are an awesome combination for learning the basics of C programming and The Butterfly.

Here is the book its a torrent download you will need a bit torrent client to download it

for practice and simulation use AVR studio which is even vista compatible now

Company site

configuration of LCD RW pin in bascom

2009-11-06T15:30:00.000+05:30

hi

we recently got stuck with a problem that would seem very normal and trivial but could blow the functioning of your bot if u were dependent on an lcd for some data or output.

The problem:
Bascom does not cater to the programming of the LCD RW pin which is in most cases shorted or soldiered in a way that we did not have issues with boards till now. but in our case it was not and we did not have it connected and we were not able to write to it ! ! !

The solutions:

we tried connecting lcd rw pin to another port and and giving it a signal.

we had no results to this , we tried all possible signals and pulses for it but it dint work.

We tried shorting the pin to the enable and other pins of the LCD again no output.

Finally we Decided to ground the pin directly. And then we got the out put.

hence solution:
If u need to only write to the lCD then ground the pin. If you need to read as well as write to the lcd then you must connect the rw pin to a circuit where if you give a certain input from a port then the lcd rw gets a ground and if you remove the input it gets a VCC. This works we tried it on an atmega 32l.

Or use AVR studio to program it ! !

but in my opinion the above solution is simpler and easier to achieve.

regards

aditya singh baghel
CEO workshop india
company site

Embedded C With ATmega32

2009-11-03T10:36:00.001+05:30

Note: I do not work for deccan robotics nor do i endorse all their products. This is an open review.

here is another board for those who are interested in autonomous robotics or any other embedded application especially using c language. This board is amazing for those who want to work with embedded c. The tutorial is comprehensive and self explanatory, its for all those self learned people out there who believe in learning every thing themselves and like to get their hands on the hardware as soon as possible and get it working. I went through the tutorial details and find it very comprehensive for a start. Another advantage of this kit is that it works on embedded c which gives us an amazing power and control over what is happening and what we want to do. Compared to bascom it gives us more control over files and streams as well as i/o related operations.

here is a pic of the board it is very compact and can be mounted on any bot with very little space needed and the option of a battery is included.

here are the specifications:

ECAVR is ATmega32 based development board. On board ISP programmer and various interfaces are made available.

LEDs, LCD, Temperature sensor, Light sensor, 4x4 keypad, IR receiver, Real Time Clock, EEPROM, switches, RS232 and buzzer are mounted on board.

Get "Audio Visual Tutorial" software Free along with this

"Audio Visual Tutorial" Software will teach you following:

Course Contents / Syllabus

C Programming Basics
- C Programming Introduction
- Datatypes
- Statements
- Loops
- Modular Programming using C
- Functions
- Address and Pointers
- Concept of #include
- Concept of #define
- #if, #ifdef
Input/OutPut in Embedded C
- Input devices for Embedded Devices
- Output Devices for Embedded Devices
Input => Processing =>Output
- How to accept Input for Embedded Devices?
- Who processes input data?
- How to Send data to OutPut Devices in Embedded Applications?
What is the difference between C Programming & Embedded C Programming
Introduction to Microcontroller?
- What is microcontroller?
- When should I use Microcontroller?
- Which Microcontroller should I use?
- What is the meaning of buzzwords like 8051, AVR, PIC, DSP, ARM, VLSI, FPGA etc
Hardware & Software requirements for Embedded Learning and Development
- Hardware requirements
- Software requirements
Your First Encounter with Embedded System Development
- How to write a simple Input & Output program for AVR Atmega32 Microcontroller?
- How to use an IDE?
- What is MAKE file?
- Your first MAKE file for your First embedded application.
- Compiling your first Embedded C Code.
- Download your program to ATmega32 and Run it in realtime.
AVR Microcontroller features
- Why AVR is a preferred microcontroller in real life development?
- What are the features of AVR microcontroller?
- ATmega32 Pin and Port Details
- How to Program ATmega32?
Capturing External Events using Interrupts
- What is an Interrupt?
- Why should I use an Interrupt?
- What are the types of an Interrupt?
- How to write an Interrupt using Embedded C code?
- Write your First Interrupt based Program.
Use Delay routine from a library file
Timers in ATmega32
- What is a Timer?
- Why do I need a Timer?
- What functions can a Timer perform?
- How Timer works?
- Your First Program to Generate 1 Second delay using AVR's Timer.
Oscillators and Crystals for ATmega32
- Why Oscillators are must for microcontroller's functionality?
- Internal Oscillator pros and cons.
- External Oscillator for AVR
- How do I instruct my AVR about the oscillator selection?
- Fuse Bits for Oscillators
Timer in ATmega32 - Revisited
- Generate 1 Second Delay using Internal Oscillator at 1MHZ
- Generate 1 Second Delay using Internal Oscillator at 4MHZ
- Generate 1 Second Delay using External Crystal at 4MHZ
Output Device - 16x2 LCD
- How LCD Works?
- Circuit diagram for LCD Interfacing
- Library for LCD interfacing
- Print your Name on LCD
Analog to Digital Conversion
- How many built-in ADC channels does ATmega32 have?
- What is the meaning of ADC Resolution?
- Can I use all ADC channels in my project at a time?
- What type of applications Can I make using AVR's ADC/
Temperature Indicator
- Read Temperature using Temperature Sensor
- Convert the reading to digital data
- Display the digital data over output device - LCD
Bad Light Indicator
- Read light level using light Sensor
- Convert the reading to digital data
- Display the digital data over output device - LCD
Voltmeter using ATmega32
- How to measure voltage?
- Read voltage and write embedded C code to convert the reading to digital data
- Display the Voltage to LCD
How to use 4x4 Matrix Keypad as Input Device?
- Matrix KeyPad Circuit Details
- Concept of Rows and Cols
- Reading a Key from the keypad
- Accept Data and Display it to LCD
Pulse Width Modulation
- What is PWM?
- Why do I need PWM?
- Who generates PWM signal?
- Sound Frequencies using PWM
- Write your Embedded C Application for ATmega32 to generate Sounds using PWM?
Receive and Demodulate RC5 Infra-red data
- What is Infra-red light?
- What is RC5 Format/
- How to receive RC5 IR Signal?
- How to decode RC5 IR data?
- Write your application to Accept IR data and display it over LCD
RS232 data communication
- What is RS232?
- AVR ATmega32 support for RS232
- Write your first application to Transmit data over RS232
- Write your first application to Receive data over RS232
- How to develop a Temperature Data Logger
TWI
- What is TWI?
- Why TWI is important to me?
- Applications of TWI
Real Time clock using TWI
- What is RTC?
- Applications of RTC Time Keeping
- How to interface with RTC using ATmega32?
- How to display date-time using LCD?
EEPROM using TWI
- What is EEPROM?
- Applications of EEPROM
- How to interface EEPROM with ATmega32?
- Save and retrieve data to-from EEPROM using TWI
ATmega32's Internal EEPROM
- When to use internal EEPROM of ATmega32?
- What are the limitations of internal EEPROM?
- A simple application to demonstrate internal EEPROM

Product Packing:
Product contents:

One assembled and tested ECAVR with all components
One serial cable M-F (** Not included in Export Shipment)
One 10.5V DC Adapter (** Not included in Export Shipment)
One CD
One RC5 Remote (** Not included in Export Shipment)

you may but the whole set from retailer website

although priced a little high its a must have ! !

Technorati Tags: embedded c,robotics,newbie robotics,autonomous robotics,workshop india,cheap robotics,robotic kits

regards

aditya singh baghel

CEO workshop india

company website

technical blog

company status blog

SERVO MOTORS

2009-11-02T16:56:00.001+05:30

A Servo is a small device that has an output shaft. This shaft can be positioned to specific angular positions by sending the servo a coded signal. As long as the coded signal exists on the input line, the servo will maintain the angular position of the shaft. As the coded signal changes, the angular position of the shaft changes. In practice, servos are used in radio controlled airplanes and also in position control surfaces like the elevators and rudders. They are also used in radio controlled cars, puppets, and of course,advanced smart robots like humanoids.

Servos are extremely useful in robotics. These motors are small, as you can see by the picture above,they have built in control circuitry, and are extremely powerful for their size. A standard servo such as the Futaba S-148 has 42 oz/inches of torque, which is pretty strong for its size. It also draws power proportional to the mechanical load. A lightly loaded servo, therefore, doesn't consume much energy. The guts of a servo motor are shown in the picture below. You can see the control circuitry, the motor, a set of gears, and the case. You can also see the 3 wires that connect to the outside world. One is for power (+5volts), ground, and the white wire is the signal control wire.

the above picture shows the disassembled servo.

So, how does a servo work? The servo motor has some control circuits and a potentiometer (a variable resistor, aka pot) that is connected to the output shaft. In the picture above, the pot can be seen on the right side of the circuit board. This pot allows the control circuitry to monitor the current angle of the servo motor. If the shaft is at the correct angle, then the motor shuts off. If the circuit finds that the angle is not correct, it will turn the motor the correct direction until the angle is correct. The output shaft of the servo is capable of travelling somewhere around 180 degrees. Usually, its somewhere in the 210 degree range, but it varies by manufacturer. A normal servo is used to control an angular motion of between 0 and 180 degrees. A normal servo is mechanically not capable of turning any farther due to a mechanical stop built on to the main output gear.

The amount of power applied to the motor is proportional to the distance it needs to travel. So, if the shaft needs to turn a large distance, the motor will run at full speed. If it needs to turn only a small amount, the motor will run at a slower speed. This is called proportional control.

How do you communicate the angle at which the servo should turn? The control wire is used to communicate the angle. The angle is determined by the duration of a pulse that is applied to the control wire. This is called Pulse Coded Modulation. The servo expects to see a pulse every 20 milliseconds (.02 seconds). The length of the pulse will determine how far the motor turns. A 1.5 millisecond pulse, for example, will make the motor turn to the 90 degree position (often called the neutral position). If the pulse is shorter than 1.5 ms, then the motor will turn the shaft to closer to 0 degrees. If the pulse is longer than 1.5ms, the shaft turns closer to 180 degrees.

As you can see in the picture, the duration of the pulse dictates the angle of the output shaft (shown as the green circle with the arrow). Note that the times here are illustrative, and the actual timings depend on the motor manufacturer. The principle, however, is the same.

with regards

varun reddy

Bascom an awesome development tool for avr

2009-11-01T22:54:00.004+05:30

hi

i have been working with micro controllers for more than 4 years now. the one thing that i always missed or rather i would say i lacked was a simple and fast development software that was simple and removed all the obvious settings from the user and made the selections on their own without reducing any functionality in the code.

This software i find is very good for beginners those who want to learn the basics of programming simple bots and learn how to manipulate timers, counters, registers, memory or any other interface like I2C or usart. In Bascom its just a piece of cake i must say. The built in modules are amazing and very comprehensive.

the only disadvantage that is see is that the programming is in BASIC or beginners all purpose symbolic instruction code so that makes it loose a little functionality provided you are going to develop code for advanced image processing algorithms etc. But if you are a newbie who just want to make a line follower or a micro mouse work then this thing rocks. With the proper guidance you could make your own micro mouse in 12 hours even if u at the beginning had absolutely no idea of what is what when it came to robotics!.

you can download a version form here bascom but do check for a more recent version it might help.

regards

aditya singh baghel
CEO workshop india

company site

Development board for beginners

2009-11-01T22:40:00.005+05:30

hi

this is our first technical article on the blog. Although the company is still in the process of finalizing the exact contents of the blogs but one thing is for sure robotics is always going to be there. We will be covering queries on programming as well as development of bots.

i came across this board recently and i think the whole tutorial package is a must have for developers and newbies. check out the specs.

This product is suitable for beginners. If you are the first time user of microcontroller and planning to learn the technology in detail, then this product is must for you.

"Practical Course For ATMEL Microcontrollers" (PCAM) product is combination of

1. Hardware board
2. On board ISP Programmer
3. On board interfacing sections
4. Tutorial software to teach you the technology
5. Life time email support for your technical and coding related queries

See a detailed list of contents at the bottom of this page.

Learning microcontroller is fun only if you have all required items with you. The list of necessary items are hardware + programmer + various softwares + Sample source code + Computer based Tutorial + technical support during the learning phase.

PCAM product covers it all.

It supports ATMEL's 89S52 controller (known as 8051) and ATmega8 + ATmega32 (known as AVR).
These controllers can be interfaced with the following On-board circuits:

* LEDs
* Seven Segment displays
* 16x2 LCD
* Stepper Motor Driver (Motor not included)
* 8 bit ADC
* RS232
* Temperature Sensor
* IR (Infrared) transmitter
* IR (Infrared) receiver
* RC5 IR Receiver
* Serial EEPROM
* Switches
* And any externally connected interface circuits

You get sample source code in assembly language for 8051 (89S52) and C language samples for AVRs.

Product Packing:
Product contents:

* Experiment board with on board ISP Programmer
* 89S52 microcontroller is included. ATmega8 and ATmega32 are not included
* CD with all required softwares, user manuals in pdf format and sample source codes
* Serial cable (** Not included in Export Shipment)
* Connectors for interfacing
* 10V SMPS Adapter (** Not included in Export Shipment)
* RC5 TV Remote

do visit www.deccanrobots.com they have some really amazing and i must say well priced kits for learners as well as advanced developers.

with regards

aditya singh baghel
CEO workshop india

company site

Recent developments in robotics

2009-11-01T22:32:00.002+05:30

Unlike the "cyborgs" beloved by TV and movies, robots today are deaf, dumb, blind and anchored to the spot. In fact they are actually rather crude machines, capable only of following a programmed sequence of steps and with no ability to respond to changes in their environment.

But does this mean the sci-fi writer's dream of androids replacing humans will never be realized? A brief review of the major themes in robotics research will show that this nightmare scenario is still some way off.

Most robots today are used in industrial situations where they weld and paint car bodies, load machines, and apply beads of sealant. What little research is going on into industrial robots is aimed at increasing the utility of these machines by:

* Giving the robot more awareness of its environment through the use of multiple sensors (especially cameras.)

* Improving the flexibility of the robot through re-configurable grippers and finding ways to program the robot offline in a simulated environment (think Second Life.)

* Broadening the range of tasks the robot can perform by enabling it to move faster, and with greater accuracy, and to carry greater loads.

The "hot" areas for robotics research are in military and healthcare applications. The military is primarily interested in developing autonomous vehicles while healthcare applications range from robot nurses to robot surgeons. Let's look at each of these in turn.

The military would like to keep their most precious resource, (men and women,) out of harms way. To this end, the DARPA "Challenge" was conceived to spur development of driverless vehicles, the goal being to produce robot vehicles that can traverse routes too dangerous for humans. The million dollar prize encouraged several teams from universities and the private sector to build vehicles that could take in data from multiple sensors such as radar, cameras and infra-red detectors, and navigate through complex environments. Unmanned vehicles are yet to debut on the battlefield, but they are not far off.

On the healthcare front, as our population ages one of the biggest challenges is going to be caring for the growing numbers of frail and infirm centenarians. To this end, many researchers are working on forms of robot nurse. Some of these will bring meals or medicines while others help people to bathe and even change their bed sheets. Some scientists are even working on robot companions that will help ward off loneliness.

Hospitals are also beginning to explore the potential of robot surgery. The da Vinci surgical system, while not strictly a robot in the truest sense of the word, shows the direction the technology is moving. In the future many surgeries will benefit from the superior precision, repeatability and speed of robotics.

Closer to home, while Rosie, the robot who cared for The Jetsons, remains out of reach, we are starting to see domestic robots. These have been designed to perform a single task, such as vacuuming our house, cutting our lawn, or cleaning our pool. One of the biggest challenges for engineers of these products is to extend battery life.

Our cars are also going to develop more robot-like capabilities. By adding cameras to electronic braking, steering and GPS systems, they will not only sense an impending accident but take evasive action. From there it's only a small step to a car that can drive us to the office while we sit back and read the newspaper (if they still exist!)

Mobile robots are also under development for agriculture. Already there are robots that prune grape vines, while others drive tractors that apply fertilizers or sow seeds. As with all branches of robotics, improved sensor technology will combine with more powerful computers to increase the ability of these machines to deal with an unstructured environment.

So do we need to fear the "rise of the machines?" No, we don't, for the simple reason that while robots are becoming ever more adept at working in the real, unstructured, world, they are still only machines that follow a computer program. For now the development of intelligent machines that can think and reason as we do still lies in the realm of science fiction.

company site

introduction

2009-10-31T13:41:00.001+05:30

hi

welcome to the workshop india techzone here we will be updating our latest technical developments and achievements as well as what we like on the net and all over the world. this is the place for the tech geeks and gizmo freaks

visit: www.workshopindia.com