One of These Days

A New Kind Of Labrat 28 May 2010
¶ The study of robotics is moving from exorbitantly funded research centre’s and organizations to the humble garage workshop. Hobbyist robotics is a growing field and is being adopted all over the world. LabRat is just one of the many platforms that is allowing this to happen. Designed to fit inside the body of a typical computer mouse, LabRat gives students, researchers and hobbyists a low-cost, but in depth look into some of the core fundamentals of robotics. From between $120 and $250 (USD) the LabRat provides an 8MHz 8bit AVR processor, optical sensor, touch sensors, Infrared (IR) sensors, IEEE 802.15.4 wireless extensibility, basic IO pins, Gumstix processor extensibility and Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) driving motors that fit neatly on to an open-sourced Printed Circuit Board (PCB). The development environment for the robot is an open-sourced C based library that gives the user exact control over the robot, allowing complete freedom of creativity. The open-source nature of the device has accelerated its own design as researchers and students were able to identify bugs and flaws which LabRat could take on board straight away. It has also led to some interesting projects with the device including autonomous charging and wireless control through a playstation controller. The majority of this work has come from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, where the LabRat was used as the basis of an introductory robotics course. The device was given to the university before its final release, giving the company time to act on any feedback they received. The robot has a unique selling point in its low price and open sourced nature. As it is the only hobby level robot with open-sourced hardware, it is the obvious choice for anyone interested in extending the basic functionalities of the device, which cleverly allies with the market they are targeting. Researchers want a device they can customise to suit their own research areas or courses; students want a device they can take apart and see precisely how it works; hobbyists want a device that they can extend, hack and use in other projects; and certainly all groups want a device that doesn’t cost a lot of money. The report that was released at the 2009 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems portrays precisely these attributes, providing a perfect sales pitch for those who read it. The background on robotics it provides gives the reader a very clear context in which to read the remainder of the report, and serves to highlight its key benefits and features. (note: this was an article review written for a robotics class)

A New Kind Of Labrat

28 May 2010

The study of robotics is moving from exorbitantly funded research centre’s and organizations to the humble garage workshop. Hobbyist robotics is a growing field and is being adopted all over the world. LabRat is just one of the many platforms that is allowing this to happen.

Designed to fit inside the body of a typical computer mouse, LabRat gives students, researchers and hobbyists a low-cost, but in depth look into some of the core fundamentals of robotics. From between $120 and $250 (USD) the LabRat provides an 8MHz 8bit AVR processor, optical sensor, touch sensors, Infrared (IR) sensors, IEEE 802.15.4 wireless extensibility, basic IO pins, Gumstix processor extensibility and Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) driving motors that fit neatly on to an open-sourced Printed Circuit Board (PCB). The development environment for the robot is an open-sourced C based library that gives the user exact control over the robot, allowing complete freedom of creativity.

The open-source nature of the device has accelerated its own design as researchers and students were able to identify bugs and flaws which LabRat could take on board straight away. It has also led to some interesting projects with the device including autonomous charging and wireless control through a playstation controller.

The majority of this work has come from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, where the LabRat was used as the basis of an introductory robotics course. The device was given to the university before its final release, giving the company time to act on any feedback they received.

The robot has a unique selling point in its low price and open sourced nature. As it is the only hobby level robot with open-sourced hardware, it is the obvious choice for anyone interested in extending the basic functionalities of the device, which cleverly allies with the market they are targeting. Researchers want a device they can customise to suit their own research areas or courses; students want a device they can take apart and see precisely how it works; hobbyists want a device that they can extend, hack and use in other projects; and certainly all groups want a device that doesn’t cost a lot of money.

The report that was released at the 2009 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems portrays precisely these attributes, providing a perfect sales pitch for those who read it. The background on robotics it provides gives the reader a very clear context in which to read the remainder of the report, and serves to highlight its key benefits and features.

(note: this was an article review written for a robotics class)