Monday, September 10, 2007

Robotic Techs Revamp iRobots

Were you the type of kid who would take apart and correctly put back together the toaster oven? Or maybe you rewired the blender to have an extra special speed for making that wood pulp you used to in your homemade paper projects. Well times have changed for kids these days, the old Rector set no longer moves by human muscle power alone. You can't just be mechanically inclined anymore. Programmable robotics are becoming a pervasive part of early childhood development. So what recourse are the adults left with these days except to steal some alone time with their kids favorite robotic recreation set; hardly, if you have a hankering for some electrical, robotic, and mechanical engineering you could just hack your Roomba or Scooba iRobot or get the hackers version, the iRobot Create, which is capable of anything your imagination can dream up and you and your brain can figure out, provided of course that the task involves the iRobot running along on the floor. How about this dot matrix based poster maker robot[Wyatt]. Complete with an extra wide vertically mounted sharpie that slides back and forth in order to write the letters which, of course, are really just a series of marker dots. Undoubtedly, it's easier to hand write your poster, or print a banner on your non dot matrix printer...but where's the fun in that. Creativity and technical knowhow enjoy a harmonious dance, when adaptations such as this are created. Now, with the FCC just last year approving the WiFi module for the iRobot, any number of programming commands can be given on the fly. So do something to satiate your creative appetite while wrestling with the technical challenges of programming. "Techies" pick your task and re-designate and re-program your own iRobot.

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