Remembering...

This Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) styled image of R2-D2 reminded me that this Halloween and All Saints' Day, Robotics Under the Stole should remember the life of Kenny Baker, the English actor who played R2-D2. Baker died on August 13 of this year at age 81.

This "little droid" is surely one of the most iconic robots ever conceived. Thanks for bringing him to life Kenny Baker!

The Tractor of Tomorrow

There was an amazing article in The News-Star, our local newspaper, titled "Tractor of Tomorrow." It was about Case IH's newest concept vehicle. It is an autonomous, or driverless, tractor and was recently showcased at the Future Farmers of America (FFA) convention in Indianapolis. Read more about it at caseih.com here.

Like a Hog on Ice!

In response to a post on the Parallax Forums today I did a bit of Googling and found this great video - though the inviewer reminds me a bit of the old Bob and Ray "Komodo Dragon" interview! ;-)  - I was familiar with the concept of these wheels and have posted about this before.

The post was about Ilon Wheels - designed by Sweedish inventor Bengt Ilon in 1973. Omni-wheels, Mecanum Wheels and Ilon Wheels are derivative of the same idea!

Pen Lifter

Good, good stuff from Parallax - See here!

Blockly and S3 Robot Google Hangout

Just registered for Parallax's Blockly and S3 Robot Google Hangout hosted by Ken Gracey. More info is here. Should be lots of fun!

Sensor Box from Parallax

So jealous that my friend Edwin, got one of these before I did. This is cool idea. Check it out here. Great price too!

Parallax S3 in the Classroom

This is what it is all about. My good friend, Ken Gracey, the President of Parallax, Inc., sent me an email saying,

"Well, today another class got started with the S3s. This particular teacher has been using the S2s for four years already. She begged her administrators to get a full elective course in robotics and they gave it to her this year. It consists of S3s, soldering activities, and some show-and-tell from the high school kid's engineering program next door (the middle and high school are attached)."

Look at all those happy faces! That's Ken on a knee in the glasses (lower left). Hard to say who's having more fun. ;-)

Theo and E.O.

Something shared by my friend Eric Ostendorff, aka erco on the Parallax Forums - Eric says,

"A fun evening at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Dutch artist/inventor Theo Jansen gave a talk at JPL about his famous Strandbeest walkers. I showed him the Strandbeest-style "TheoBot" I made and he controlled it with hand gestures. A DIY article I wrote about this robot was published in SERVO magazine. I gave him a copy and he autographed a copy for me."

Neat. Jealous on many levels - a night at JPL, a night with Theo Jansen and designing a cool robot and showing it off to a hero! Way to go erco!

And lastly erco's TheoBot...

Parallax S3 Scribbles Fibonacci Spiral

Great work from my friend Nikos Giannakopoulos using some very clever code made with BlocklyProp. The possibilities for using the S3 to teach mathematical concepts are endless!

You can see the code below or at http://blockly.parallax.com/blockly/editor/blocklyspin.jsp?project=966 

S3 with Pen Lifter Hack

A little treat for Ken Gracey and the folks at Parallax, Inc. This code is for a tutorial that is in the works...here is a preview video.

Beaten to the Punch!

Yesterday, I did a pet blessing for a local animal rescue group. A friend (erco from the Parallax Forums) suggested a blessing of the bots. So, I decided to look on the web...The Dalai Lama beat me to it, though!

I told Eric about this... This was his reply! HA!

Good One...

A bit of geek humor...