Parallax - National Robotics Week Robot Challenges

The folks at Parallax have issued some robot challenges for National Robotic's Week. Here is the announcement (all the links should be live):

Celebrate National Robotics Week with 5 Parallax Robot Challenges!

Although every week is robotics week here at Parallax, we are ready to celebrate National Robotics Week with our community by sending out a little challenge for April 7th - 15th. Complete an activity challenge with your Parallax robot and post the results to our Forums, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to share (be sure to tag us). Get those AB360, S3, Boe-Bot, and Shield-Bot robots ready! We've got 5 challenges lined up to make next Monday through Friday rock and roll, and we hope you join us.

Are you up for the 5 Robotics Week Challenges?

Making Robots

Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction drama film directed by Fritz Lang. It features the evil inventor Rotwang's creation of the robot, Maria.

My friend, Carol Lynn Hazlett, just 3D printed her own Maria (see below).

Making robots and programming them is just plain fun! The image on the YouTube video at timestamp 0:25 and following capture how I feel every time a robot I build or programs works as planned! I am sure Carol agrees. 

I still say you don't have to be evil to build robots!

Rotwang and Maria are featured on the sidebar of this blog and have been since its beginnings.

S3 BlocklyProp Onboard OLED Test

S3 BlocklyProp Onboard OLED test of a line moving in a circle as a fast-moving "second hand." This uses the trig functions in BlocklyProp. The goal of this work is eventually an onboard PingDar display. The speed of the sweep of the "second hand" can be adjusted by a variable.

OLED blocks are saved as a block file from FLiP or Propeller Activity Board WX and then uploaded into an S3 BlocklyProp file using the append function.

See OLED Display with BlocklyProp on learn.parallax.com for reference.
OLED pins - GND to GND, VCC to 3.3V, DIN to P0, CLK to P1, CS to P2, D/C to P3, RES to P4 on the S3 Hacker Port. BlocklyProp Code is #37085 - http://blockly.parallax.com/blockly/editor/blocklyc.jsp…

Domino’s Pizza goes Robotic!

Domino's Pizza has created a way for the customer to slice a pizza any way they wish via a slicing robot. The company says, "A state-of-the-art robotic pizza maker that you control, it’s the closest thing to working in a Domino’s yourself. Awesome! The future of pizza making is in your hands. Literally." 

Happy Easter from R.U.S.

From the 10 Best Easter Eggs for Children List - The Telegraph in England

Chococo C181 Robot Easter egg £9.50 for 175g (by the way, that is $13.32 an egg!)

Hidden within the thick milk-chocolate shell are two solid-chocolate robots, intricately designed right down to the nuts and bolts. A smattering of edible gold sprinkles inside and a dusting of silver outside makes this a very special egg to open on Easter morning. Picture: ANDREW CROWLEY

German 'Robot Priest' Helps Mark Reformation Anniversary

A robot named BlessU-2 has been installed as part of an exhibition in Germany to mark 500 years since Martin Luther wrote Ninety-five Theses, a list of propositions for academic debate that started the Protestant Reformation in Europe. BlessU-2 can deliver blessings in five languages and beams light from its hands. Note: This is from May 2017, but was too good not to share!

Yikes!

Like its biological model, the flic-flac spider, the Festo BionicWheelBot can both walk and roll. Together with its discoverer, Professor Ingo Rechenberg, the Festo bionics team has used these unique movement patterns and turned them into a technical masterpiece. This is the work of Festo's Bionic Learning Network.

Hat tip to erco (Eric Ostendorff) on the Parallax Forums. Don't know what is spookier, the real spider or the robot!