Archive for May, 2007

Interface bits

Saturday, May 12th, 2007

I’m always on the lookout for interesting interface devices between the computer and the real world. Cheap is also good. I came across a nice looking mini servo controller from Pololu here: http://www.pololu.com/products/pololu/0207/.

Also, I’ve been thinking about trying out some of these too:http://www.phidgets.com/. They are input and output devices with an easy to use USB interface built in. Seems like you could create quite a few interesting things with them.

PingPong Removal Photos

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007

Here are some newly posted photos of our most recent battle. Doug’s robot came in first with about 20 balls removed from the arena. He also had the most entertaining bot, which would fire a ping pong ball about 10 feet or more through the air. It was a riot. Will’s robot was over-engineered as usual and removed about a dozen balls from the arena. Mike’s robot was also entertaining. After hitting the wall a couple of times it usually would fall into pieces. He successfully removed two ping pong balls from the arena.