Interview with Co-Founder of iRobot, Helen Greiner

A few weeks ago, I sent a message to the co-founder of iRobot, Helen Greiner. I asked if I could interview her by asking robot related questions.
I was amazed when I got a reply back that said, "yes!" I hope you guys enjoy!

Me: "When did you first become interested in robotics?"

Helen Greiner: "1977, when I saw Star Wars. R2D2 did it for me."

Me: "Did you ever think that you would help with the founding of a robotics company."

Helen Greiner: "No, I thought I would be a robotics engineer working in Academia or Corp Research Center. This changed when I saw the impractical systems that were and still are being worked on."

Me: "Were you interesting in technology as a child?"

Helen Greiner: "Yes, my dad brought home a trs80 Radio Shack computer which quickly became mine... as the only one with the interest and patience to program it."

Me: "Who was your major role-model as a child?"

Helen Greiner: "R2D2"

Me: "How do you think robotics will change people's lives in the future?"

Helen Greiner: "Robots will make people more efficient at work, stronger, faster, and more precise. We need to capitalize on the strengths on both robots and people, which are different."

Simple Tiny Fuzz Face pedal circuit

It's been nearly a month since we've done any nerding around at Nerd Towers. Unfortunately, it's just that time of year - when everyone else is easing into the New Year and starting again, we're going hell-for-leather trying to keep real-world work from overtaking us; January is a particularly busy month for us in the real-world, so hopefully now it's out of the way we can get back to to some serious geekery.....

Despite having numerous projects on the go at the minute, there's never a better time to drop everything and start a new project, than when you're already juggling about eight balls in the air. So here's our latest one.
In fact, it's quite a quick-and-easy project and took only an evening to put together.

As we're due to move again before too long, we've been sorting out the nerd cupboard(s) and having a bit of a clear out, to make sure everything will fit into the new place. In the corner of the cupboard are a few (full-sized) guitars which we just can't leave behind. But we've not done anything with them for about 18 months.

Maybe it's time we did:
One of the easiest (and most satisfying) mods to make to a guitar is to add some onboard electronics. After a quick hunt around on the 'net we found some schematics for the original FuzzFace stomp box and decided not only to have a go at building one ourselves, but to get the chisels out and actually embed it into the guitar body, with an onboard switch to flick between "clean" and "dirty" output.

Here's the schematic:

Fuzz Face revision 1b Schematic

And the PCB layout - with components placed as closely together as possible.
Note that the two potentiometers and the DPDT switch connect to three-way connectors on the board via short wires, they are not actually mounted onto the board!

Fuzz Face revision 1b Pcb
As ever, print this onto your press-n-peel as-is so that when it is transferred onto the copper board, it is reversed. This is fine, since you're etching the bottom of the PCB, not the top - don't panic, everything will just work out in the end!

The Solsylva CNC Machine Build Part 4.... Progressing Nicely

Press the YouTube button for a bigger view of the video.

  This week members of the QC Co-Lab maker space (Davenport Iowa) and I started assembling a good portion of the parts for the Solsylva CNC machine. With the helping hands of John Richards, Ben Ziegler, and Steve Hamer work progressed nicely.  Steve is the president of the QC Co-Lab maker space and is a driving force when it comes to projects like this one.  These friends of mine are shown in the video putting the machine together as I directed the construction and handled the camera work.  It's much easier having someone else handling the tools while trying to create video at the same time.  
  A group effort that makes this whole project that much easier, fun, and better in the long run. Enjoy this installment of the build and see how easy it is to put one of these great machines together.
  

Quadrotor gets zapped by tesla coil

I know I have been writing a lot about quadrotors lately, but they seem to be sparking up some audience on the web. Anyways, I found this video on YouTube, and it shows a quadrotor (not quite nano but it's still small) and a tesla coil. One guy controls the bot while the other activates the coil. Sounds pretty neat huh? It's pretty obvious what happens to the robot, but it's still interesting to watch. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy that zapping video!



Source: video listed

The Solsylva CNC Macine Build Continues....Part 3

Press the YouTube button for a bigger view of the video.

This week at the Tinker's Workshop I continue on with the building of the Solsylva CNC machine designed by David Steele.  This video covers a lot of the parts that I have made which will be assembled in the coming weeks (with videos of course) for the CNC stand and major components of the CNC machine itself.  It will start taking shape here very quickly in the coming weeks so keep checking in and see what it is all about to build your own machine for your workshop!
  Also if all falls into place I will be putting together a video tour of the QC Co-Lab maker space in Davenport Iowa very soon. I hope to get this video shot over the coming weekend along with interviews of a few of the members of the maker space. This should be interesting and fun at the same time.

New quadrotor controlled via Kinect

What do you get when you merge a Kinect sensor and a quadcopter? The answer is, awesomeness! Unlike it's cousin, CrazyFlie, this robot is controlled via hand and arm movement using the Kinect. The way it works is that the Kinect tracks the human's movements and then converts them to the robot's movement. This robot is even capable of flipping and swirling in mid-air, and it can land with the clap of a hand. Just like playing a game with Kinect, this robot requires light. All together, I think that this kind of control will bump up robotics to the next level. Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment below!


Info source: video listed

The Biggest Swarm of Nano Quadrotors

If you thought that the PCB quadcopter was interesting, then you'll love this. A team at the University of Pennsylvania has experimented with a swarm of quadrotor robots developed by KMel Robotics. These robots are small, have four propellers, a lightweight PCB, and a size that makes an ant look like King Kong (not really, but they still are pretty small). I was actually amazed when I saw the swarm in action. Each robot was in its correct position, and they all moved together at once. You can clearly tell that creating 3D shapes is no hassle for these bots, and weaving in and out of small areas seams to be no problem too. I guess that nano size really does make a difference. Thanks for reading and check out the video above to see the best robotics video ever!



Source: video listed