bots
IN BRIEF
DVDs SERVED UP PEZ STYLE
Andrew Goessling (http://einfacheleben
.com/ dvd.html) made this DVD dispenser for his
senior project in high school. It uses an ATmega8515 for the
brains and a custom coded driver for the LCD. You select a
DVD by various identifiers such as genre or title, then it
pushes that DVD out of the rack so you can grab it. Right
now, all the DVDs have to be placed in predetermined
positions, but the project is definitely on the right track.
PITY FOR PLEO
If you haven’t heard yet, Ugobe has
officially filed bankruptcy. Yep, Pleo is
headed for extinction. If you happen
to have one, you might want to
refrain from hacking it, just in case it's worth something
some day. At roughly $250 per unit, these things weren't
exactly flying off the shelves.
CONTEST SPARKS INTEREST
SparkFun Electronics (
www.sparkfun.com) hosted their
first annual SparkFun Autonomous Vehicle Competition
at their headquarters in Colorado. Originally an employee-only event, it was opened up to customers as well, and
16 teams showed up with
both UGVs and UAVs.
Only two vehicles managed
to complete the entire
course (including a UAV),
but a fun time was had by
all, and the fire department
only had to be called once.
Deathpod 3000 by
Team Mookemobile
was the UGV team that
successfully finished.
Cool tidbits and interesting info herein provided by Evan Ackerman at www.botjunkie.com.
SERVO 07.2009
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