• Robots to take over Korea - "Expect to run into robots in local post offices in the latter half of this year."

•  A new way of doing voice recognition - "... memory of only 1 KB would be sufficient for a processor to confidently recognize all numerals and some simple commands ... "

• Interesting write up on the NextFest 2005 - "You know you're in a world of extravagantly high technology when you find yourself establishing active animosity toward some of the robots in an exhibition and deep affection toward others."

I will make no commentary ...

The first is an interview with Thomas Burick, founder of Whitebox Robotics. Burick talks about how he got started with Whitebox and the grand visions he has for the future. One interesting thing from the article is that he says that the more expensive "Founder's Edition" of the robot are out-preordering the regular models 2 to 1. Direct link to the MP3.

 
The second is an interview with Gordon Kruberg & Craig Hughes the guys behind Gumstix. They discuss their thoughts behind the Gumstix platform and their latest product the 'robostix' (catchy, eh?). Direct link to the MP3.

 Do some interviews, product reviews, go over the weeks news, etc. Giveaways?

 Ideas? Send me some e-mail (william at gorobotics dot net) and let me know or IM me at 'gorobotics'.

 I'd really appreciate some feedback on the idea.

We spent the first week building a personal robot for each of the students. It was powered with a Basic Stamp. The next two weeks they split into 4 teams of four and constructed Fire Fighting robots to compete in a fire fighting contest.

Pictured are the completed products. For safety reasons we decided not to use a real flame - instead they had to lower the cup over a light bulb. Keep in mind that none of these students had prior robot building experience. 

Needless to say, they greatly impressed me with their hardwork and finished products. Great work guys!

PS: I'm the redhead.
 

After playing around with microprocessor controlled robots for a few years I started to get bored with them and started to look for ways to give them more powerful brains. During the time I was a member of the Robotic Society of Southern California I had a few conversations with Alex Brown about ways to use a PC type processor to control a robot.

Late in 2003 Alex posted to the Robotic Society of Southern California (RSSC) list that he and another RSSC member, Bruce Weimer were going to work on a robot using a laptop computer for the main processor. I joined the Yahoo group for that robot which was to be called Leaf that same day.

In April of this year Alex posted that he was putting together a group order for bare microcontroller circuit boards for the Leaf project. I placed my order for 2 boards and thus began my active participation in the project.

Through a cooperative effort between Triangle Amatuer Robotics member Bill Foard and Bruce Weimer, leaf will have the ability to control things in your house using home automation techniques. As an example you could say "Leaf, turn on livingroom lights" or "Leaf, turn on stereo" and the robot would do it.

Ever wish you could dispatch a robot to grab you a beer? That day might soon be here, thanks to an as-yet-unannounced decision by iRobot. In early July the company will post instructions for controlling its Roomba vacuum cleaner via the built-in serial port, so programmers can modify it however they want - from equipping it with a camera to, yes, adding an arm and training it to retrieve brewskis. iRobot hopes the move will foster the development of Roomba accessories - like the ecosystem of add-ons that has sprung up around the iPod - thus driving sales.

 

 I for one, can't wait for all the hacks that will happen because of this. Also, check out the NEW Roomba Scheduler that you can program to start at a certain time. Think: late at night.