Happy New Year from RUS

Happy New Year 2018 from Robotics Under the Stole!

Image Credit: Florida Center for Instructional Technology

Robot(s) Around the Christmas Tree!

Merry Christmas from Robotics Under the Stole! Hope there was something robotic under your tree this year...

Great Idea from Harvard/MIT Robotics

I ordered a battery powered vacuum/air pump today and want to build a lightweight gripper using this concept from Wyss Institute at Harvard/MIT.

Me - Outside and Inside

Me on the outside...

Me on the inside...

Not so different, really...

New RUS Meme

This new Robotics Under the Stole meme was created using the Bright Lights! app - http://apps.ape-apps.com/bright-lights/. 

For those of you who are too young to remember, Lite-Brite was a plastic peg "pixel" drawing device long ago - you can get modern versions, but they are not really like the old ones. This image and link are from All-TIME 100 Greatest Toys - check out the whole list here.

The app creates art that is similar - I added the text at the bottom with a "paint" program. 

Greek Geek!

My friend Nikos is busy in Greece!

One Wheel Wonder!

Carol Lynn Hazlett's  tribute to Ken Gracey the unicyclist! Unbelievable!

Robots and Robotics News

Shared this today on Facebook - https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics

Women in Robotics!

Coco K was a presenter at the Downtown Los Angeles Mini Maker Faire along with my friend Eric Ostendorff (erco).  Eric mentioned her and her blog at the Parallax Forums in a steadily growing thread I began titled "Why Are Too Few Females in Robotics? Could It Be the Robots?" It was based on this article - Why Are Too Few Females in Robotics? Could It Be the Robots? - Robotics Business Review.

Coco K is a very creative and apparently very happy young roboticist building very happy robots! Check out her blog here.

With my friend Carol Lynn Hazlett, of the Seattle Robotics Society, and a contributing editor at SERVO Magazine, the pair demonstrate that female roboticists of all ages are active and doing great work! Carol is doing her part to inspire a new generation of male and female roboteers!

Visit the thread above to read about many more inspiring women in the field, and then do your part to encourage young women (and young men) to join in on the fun! 

One Creative Cat!

There is no end to my friend Eric Ostendorff's creativity and no match for his productivity! Eric is "erco" on the Parallax Forums and his YouTube channel is here. Eric spent 30 years with Mattel, designing Hot Wheels and other fun products, and is a robotic's enthusiast, collector, writer, and inventor. He won the very first Trinity College Robot Firefighting Contest (On Facebook here.)!

Eric is also a husband, father of twins, a serious cyclist, and all around good guy!  I am proud to count him as friend and mentor! Always an inspiration!

Light My Fire!

Friday Fun Hack made simple with BlocklyProp! 

In this example, a flickering LED (taken from a LED "candle") is attached to Pin 0 on the Parallax ActivityBot. What can you make? Add a Christmas Carol and I can have a parade...

Simple code is here - http://blockly.parallax.com/blockly/editor/blocklyc.jsp…