Announcements

New For the last week:

The page for project 3 has a new addition addressing the issue of using top hat sensors on the "terrain" of the egg hunt.

Battery charge issues: Several of you have reported battery charge issues. I suspect that you are not charging your batteries sufficiently. This is text from the handyboard website explaining what you need to do.

Please explain the Handy Board's battery charging system


  • Adapter plugged into the Serial Interface/Battery Charger board; HB connected via telephone wire; ``NORMAL CHARGE'' mode selected. The yellow ``CHARGE'' LED on the interface board will light. This is a trickle-charge mode, which means that (1) the Handy Board will fully charge in about 12 to 14 hours, and (2) the HB may be left in this mode indefinitely.
  • Adapter plugged into the Serial Interface/Battery Charger board; HB connected via telephone wire; ``ZAP CHARGE'' mode selected. The yellow ``CHARGE'' LED on the interface board will not light. The ZAP CHARGE will fully charge the HB's battery in just 3 hours, after which time the battery will become warm and it should be removed from charge or placed into the  trickle-charge mode.
    • So if you are zap charging, you need to monitor the handyboard, but if not, you should charge the board for 12-14 hours (overnight or so) to get it up to full charge.

    Artificial robot legs to replace wheel chairs in the future?

    More interesting robot articles from the news

    Check out the Recent Polar robots article

    a woman with a robt camera with feeds to her optic nerve. We are now seeing genuine cyborgs. This woman was blind, but how long till it moves into the mainstream? Is it a good thing. Note that this surgery is done in portugal; it is not yet approved in the US due to safety and infection worries.

    A fast two legged walking robot is in the news as well.

    There have been a few interesting robot articles in the news recently

    It turns out the US is not the only country testing military robots. This report describes and Indian military robot for explosives disposal.

    PBS has recently run a show on the Darpa grand challange 2005 robots and made much of the material available on its website.

     Robots in Japan to care for older people: Japan is expected to have more elderly people than young people soon. Who takes care of the elderly who have a hard time taking care of themselves in such a situation?

    Micro robot project in Europe: This project wasn't entirely successful, but still interesting.

    Non-mobile robots in Japan used for keeping tack of children

    The presentation on sensors used in this class is now available.

    Welcome to robotics: We will meet in Moakley 301 for those of you who registered early and might have seen another room listed.

    Welcome to Robotics for Spring 2006. Announcements will be posted here. Check this site if the class is ever cancelled for any reason.

    John F. Santore