I'm intrigued by several recent high-tech robot toys that provide an immersive, augmented-reality experience that is grounded in a real, physical robot.  Almost universally, these new toys are controlled by smart phones or tablet computers (eg. iPad / iPhone / iPodTouch or Android devices) and will likely be hacker / developer friendly.  They are becoming increasingly sensor-rich and often offer video feedback -- all enabled by the commoditization of robotic components.  For example, the Parrot AR.Drone is a quadrotor helicopter that enables UAV aerial dogfights.  Another is the forthcoming Orbotix Sphero, a simple robot ball that will presumably support many mini-games: like a real-life version of Super Monkey Ball or the best cat toy ever!  Yet another example for you hackers out there, Matt Might created an iPhone-based multitouch remote control for a Scribbler robot in just 6 hours and 200 lines of JavaScript / Python!Drone quadrotor helicopter is a $300 robot "toy" with integrated camera(s). 

It connects to an iPhone or iPad over WiFi and creates an augmented reality (AR) display over-top the video, upon which interesting games can be designed.  Check out the photos and videos below. Orbotix unveiled its "ball robot" named Sphero at CES 2011, where it was a finalist for "Best in Show." The hardware seems pretty similar to other spherical robots that have been created over the years (eg Solarbotics miniballs, that I remember building over a decade ago).  However, having the brains and controls on a remote smart phone is fantastic.  Just imagine all the fun mini-games that can be created -- it's like a real-life version of Super Monkey Ball!  Even with just teleoperation, I think Sphero would make a fantastic pet (cat or dog) toy, so I'm sure we'll eventually end up purchasing one. Photo credits to OhGizmo. At Georgia Tech's IPRE (Institute for Personal Robotis In Education) winter workshop, professor Matt Might built an iPhone multitouch interface to teleoperate a Scribbler robot. 

It took him just 6 hours and ~200 lines of JavaScript and Python code.  You can learn how he did it on his blog. Of course, I'm pretty sure Matt is a programming ninja, so your mileage may vary.  black ops 2 drohne einsetzenHowever, it's still pretty encouraging -- the Scribbler is meant to be an educational platform for highschoolers and undergrads, so the technology to build these sorts of robots should be pretty attainable.parrot ar drone forum deutsch Naturally, plenty of other robots will eventually leverage the ubiquity of smart phones and tablets -- for example, we've already seen an iPad being used on iRobot's AVA telepresence robot prototype.  parrot ar drone police mod

However, it looks like the robot toy industry is (once again) the first to take up the trend.If you’ve ever read a white paper, a validated design guide, an RFC, or any other technical documents out there, then you know that although they are rich in content they can be pretty dry reads. ar drone parrot autonomiaAfter a long, hard day at work, the words start to blur together and acronyms begin to take on a whole new meaning — side note: my favorite TLA is TLA. parrot ar drone prijzenThe documents previously mentioned are absolutely necessary to read, but I guarantee you’ll go crazy if that’s all you do. parrot ar drone price malaysiaThere are alternative ways to learn skills applicable to your profession. If there’s something you want to learn, try to make it interesting!

Try to combine your new learning path with a hobby or something else that genuinely engages you. I know I need to learn Python because that’s where networking is going. Automating redundant tasks leaves more free time for the cool projects that really interest you. Python will enable that. “But I’m a network engineer, not a code monkey; writing scripts sounds so boring!” So make it engaging. I watched a TED talk about flying robots about a year ago, and it amazed me how these robots could be programmed to follow a certain set of rules, even working together as a team, to accomplish a task. There are so many practical applications that can be realized with this technology, and it genuinely piqued my interest. But how do they do it? Well, it turns out that one of the ways to control these robots is to use Python! In this day and age, there is a wealth of information available to us at our fingertips. , which is a collection of universities that have gotten together to provide their coursework online, for free.

MIT, Berkeley, Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, just to name a few. These are respected universities that charge an arm and a leg to take their courses. The courses offered range from Arts & Literature to The Sciences. One of the courses they offer is Autonomous Navigation for Flying Robots, which teaches how to use the data gathered by the plethora of sensors on a common flying robot, the Parrot AR Drone, to control its behavior with Python scripts. So far, the course is fantastic. So that’s how I’m learning Python. It won’t teach me everything I need to know about the language, but it will give me a great start to learn the basics and get comfortable with it. If I pick up a new hobby at the same time, then that’s even better! If you’re interested in the course, check out the link I posted above. I think you can still register for it. The 3rd week is about to start, but you should be able to catch up pretty quickly. The hardest part about learning something is taking that first step.