Monday, March 26, 2012

OpenQbo - Open Source Robot Linux distribution.


Qbo - the robot is definitely under my watch list recently, a robot can talk and learn is going to be released in the year 2012. The company is also releasing the OpenQbo, the Linux distribution that uses on the robot.

Basically, you can download the beta version here: http://thecorpora.com/blog/?p=886 and then boot from CD, you will enter the OpenQbo.

There are at least two things, you may try :

The Speech Recognition System:
http://thecorpora.com/blog/?p=411

The Text to Speech System:
http://thecorpora.com/blog/?p=389


Hope I can learn more how to use this OpenQbo and perform somethings cool later.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Top 12 Robotics Trend for 2012.

IEEE Spectrum published an article about the latest robotics trend for 2012. Be sure to check it out here:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/robotics-trends-for-2012

List of the robotic trends:


#1 CO-ROBOTS: ROBOTS AS CO-WORKERS AND CO-INHABITANTS
#2 3D SENSING: THE KINECT REVOLUTION CONTINUES

#3 CLOUD ROBOTICS: THE FORECAST CALLS FOR CLOUDS

#4 COMPLIANT ACTUATION: ROBOTS WITH A SOFT TOUCH

#5 SMARTPHONE-BASED ROBOTS: THE NEW ROBOT BRAINS

#6 LOW-COST MANIPULATION: A ROBOT ARM YOU CAN AFFORD

#7 SELF-DRIVING VEHICLES: COMING TO A STREET NEAR YOU

#8 FACTORY ROBOT HELPERS: THE FUTURE OF MANUFACTURING

#9 RAPID PROTOTYPING: A 3D PRINTER IN EVERY HOME

#10 UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES: CROWDED SKIES

#11 TELEPRESENCE ROBOTS: YOUR AVATAR IN THE REAL WORLD

#12 BIONICS: THE LINE BETWEEN HUMANS AND MACHINES GETS BLURIER




Thursday, March 15, 2012

My 3D Led Cube Assembled.

Recently, I buy a 3D Led cube from mainland China, it contains 8x8x8 Blue Leds. It powers up by normal USB +5V source. Also, It comes with a pre-programmed MCU, you get few features build-in (looping some cool 3d patterns, lamp and audio visualizer) .

The audio visualizer is very cool and handy, you can just plug in an audio jack and play music. There is API for you to control the leds via i2c, but I don't have time to try.

 Let's see some photos:

Audio Visualizer Demo: