On his blog, Stephen Wolfram, worldwide known as the creator of Mathematica (a widespread computational software) and Wolfram Alpha (a knowledge engine), describes his experience at last NY Maker Faire, where he was supposed to give a public talk.

One of his sons, Christopher (13 years old) suggested him a very cool way to improve his talk, by making it much more dynamic with some practical demos. Indeed, after his father’s talk, he reached the stage and started his personal presentation, which involved the use of both Mathematica and Arduino.

After showing how to graphically and interactively present analog readings from an Arduino board, he moved on to show how to control a quadricopter drone just by indicating the path to follow directly from Mathematica. As if it wasn’t enough for a 13-years old boy, several questions arose from the audience, which allowed him to show also how to directly process real-time video coming from the quadricopter with the computational software.

More information can be found here.

As a final remark, it’s always very nice to see what very young boys can do with the availability of right tools that can help their creativity and their imagination.

[Via: Stephen Wolfram's blog]

Read the full article on MAKE

Between old Paro the robo seal and the original iteration of Keepon, we've seen plenty of adorable robots designed for therapeutic purposes. Romibo's creators have no qualms admitting that their own creation is following in those cuddly footsteps, but what sets their furry 'bot apart from much of the competition is a focus on (relative) affordability. For starters, there's the fact that Romibo is being offered up as an open-source project online, letting do-it-yourselfers build their own versions and contribute custom designs.

The company's also hoping families will get into the act, making sure that Romibo is "able to be assembled by a neurotypical child 10+ and a parent" -- and then there are the plans to offer up workshops to let folks build robots to be donated to special needs facilities. Once built, Romibo can drive around, blink its eyes, speak and move its antennae. Crack it open and you'll find WiFi, bluetooth, light sensors, an IR Proximity sensor, accelerometers and a big 'ole Arduino Mega. There's a certain amount of autonomous functionality (watch in the video below as Romibo's handler warns about it driving off the edge of the table), or you can control the robot via an iPad app. You can also use an SD card to help teach it some new words.

Gallery: Romibo robot eyes-on

Continue reading Romibo therapeutic robot, eyes-on (video)

Filed under: Robots

Romibo therapeutic robot, eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The new improved Micro Magician V2 is here! It has all the features you loved in the original Micro Magician but with an ATmega328P, improved power supply that can work at lower input voltages and both 5V and 3.3V LDO regulators for powering all your sensors. The new black and yellow PCB looks great and is easier to read.

Features:

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Well my boss is organizing a robot head building contest in China and asked me to make an example to inspire the contestants. I know many will just be made from cardboard and wood but I decided that if I was going to spend time on this project then I wanted to make the most of it and develop a new product.

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Well I sent 2 Doodle Bots to Andrew to show at Makers Faire and for anyone interested I have now put detailed, step by step instructions here:

Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-Doodle-Bot-kit-from-DAGU/

MAKE Projects: http://makeprojects.com/Project/Building-a-Doodle-Bot-kit/2627/1#.UGbsra4_5Sm

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Hi, I'm new to LMR as a member. But I've been browsing around LMR to learn robotics. First, sorry for my bad English. I finished making my quadruped robot a couple weeks ago. It was my first robotic project using microcontroller. In fact, it was my first microcontroller project. Unfortunately it wasn't well documented during the making process since I didn't plan to publish it before. :( So here is what I can collect from scattered file in my PC..

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Baobot is my team's entry into the AFRON Design Competition. It is a 2-wheeled design intended for classroom use as a way to teach middle and high school students about electronics, programming, and robotics.

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This is a cool site with some interesting PCB's including an I2C GPS Arduino sheild. The owner of the site, Wayne Truchsess has also written a great I2C library that I am using now.

Check out his open source tracking device that featured on Kickstarter here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dsscircuits/open-source-tracking-device

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[V0R73X], who is 17  has been working on a project, to build A robotic arm. This project started out as a challenge put forward from one of his school teachers to build a robotic arm for $200.  [VoR73X] accepted, and the challenge began.

He came up with a robotic arm that can be controlled from his mobile phone and other bluetooth enabled devices. He also designed it so that he can control it from the infrared remote control of an old tv set. [VoR73X] decided to kept the design simple, to make it easy for others to build.  [VoR73X] has shared the code and a step by step process of how to build in the hopes that others would also like to take up the challenge.  Watch the video after the break for further details on his project.

via[Instructables]