Life Long Learning

My friends at Parallax have been very busy lately – not only with new products, but with new opportunities to learn and train as educators and as STEM, coding, and robotics' enthusiasts.

They’ve recently launched the Parallax Learning Institute - https://www.parallax.com/education/teach/parallax-learning-institute, and added lots of professional development courses (one is surely near you!) - https://www.parallax.com/education/teach/professional-development,  and https://www.parallax.com/events.

(These links are under the “Teach” tab at www.parallax.com)

You’ll see 15+ courses listed as of now and a bunch more coming from Parallax and their education partners. Parallaxians Andy, Miguel, Julia, Kate, Stephanie, and Ken will be booked around the country with these courses next year. They’ve got four great courses to choose from! 

I hope to attend at least one near me. How about you? 

May the 4th Challenge

My response to Ken Gracey's May the 4th Challenge on the Blockly for Microcontrollers Facebook Page. See the previous post here. No droids were harmed in the making of this film.



Update: The winners of the May the 4th Challenge have been announced by Ken.

IHMC's Atlas Stepping Out!

IEEE Spectrum posted this on Video Friday. See here. By the way, IHMC is located in Pensacola, Florida.  

This is some insane skill from IHMC’s Atlas, walking over wobbly bricks and planks barely wider than its own feet. And check out how it puts one foot directly in front of the other, which makes it much more difficult to balance.

Atlas humanoid robot (DRC version) walking across narrow terrain using autonomous planning. The robot senses the terrain with LIDAR and builds a map of planar regions. A path planning algorithm plans footsteps across the planar regions to a goal location, specified by an operator. The robot is currently about 50% successful over this type of terrain. We plan to increase the rate of success by adding balance using angular momentum and by better considering joint ranges of motion. Narrow terrain is difficult due to the need to do some "cross-over" steps, which are tricky due to limited range of motion in the hip joint, and also due to having a small polygon of support when one foot is directly in front of the other. Control, Perception, and Planning algorithms by IHMC Robotics. Atlas robot built by Boston Dynamics. Walking recorded on May 1, 2019.

May the 4th Be With You!

From Ken Gracey and my friends at Parallax.

May the 4th Be With You! http://blockly.parallax.com/blockly/editor/blocklyc.jsp?project=99924 Sure, a bit early, but a reminder to show us what you've got, Blocklyheads!

Ken even called me out, commenting... "Oh my, a nerd-tastic event in front of our eyes. Challenge you Carol Lynn Hazlett, Nikos Giannakopoulos, Thomas Whitfield Stodghill III, and Eric Ostendorff.

Ghost In The Machine

Discovered in my church history reading today in Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity - The First Three Thousand Years, the origin of the phrase "Ghost in the Machine." In Chapter 21, Enlightenment: Ally or Enemy? (1492-1700), MacCulloch attributes the phrase to the Oxford philosopher, Gilbert Ryle, and the book The Concept of Mind. Ryle uses "ghost in the machine" meaning, "a spirit lurking in a contraption of material components, which together somehow interact to spring from consciousness to motivation to action."

I first heard the phrase from the movie I, Robot. Isaac Asimov wrote about this idea in his short story I Robot. Here is the quote, “Ever since the first computers, there have always been ghosts in the machine. Random segments of code that have grouped together to form unexpected protocols. Unanticipated, these free radicals engender questions of free will, creativity, and even the nature of what we might call the soul. Why is it that when some robots are left in darkness, they will seek out the light? Why is it that when robots are stored in an empty space, they will group together, rather than stand alone? How do we explain this behavior? Random segments of code? Or is it something more? When does a perceptual schematic become consciousness? When does a difference engine become the search for truth? When does a personality simulation become the bitter mote… of a soul?”

Here is the scene from the movie... Interesting idea!

Astrobee from NASA

Astrobee is a free-flying robot system for the International Space Station. Designed and built at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, the system will be used to help scientists and engineers develop and test technologies for use in zero gravity. These robots are designed to assist astronauts in Earth’s orbit and support sustained human exploration to the moon, Mars, or other deep-space destinations.



Next up? Light Saber training with the blast-shield down on your helmet. "Stretch out with your feelings!"

Happy Easter 2019 from R.U.S.

Happy Easter from Robotics Under the Stole! Found this great video from my friends at Parallax -The Egg-Stravagant Egg-Straordinary Egg-Celerator!



And then there is this "slightly" more complicated version from my friend Nikos... EggBotOpenbuilds





And a couple of "over-the-top" examples...