July Recap: DBP, Darwin, Robots.. Oh my.

Didn’t win in the Darwin Race of Languages… that wasn’t a big shock! Ah well congratulations to the individuals that did, some of the submissions were really well done and significantly easier to install than mine. Check out the entries!

Good prizes as well.

Dream Build Play

St. Mary’s College is fielding two teams for Microsoft’s Dream Build Play contest. I’m part of one, we’re working on ideas now. Hopefully we get started soon, we only have approximately two months left. Should be a blast if we can dedicate some time and effort to a good game building on experience from last year.

Thesis

I’ve a final thesis to do. I want to build robots. This is not entirely physics as my adviser will probably point out, but I am a joint major. So, at the suggestion of a partner, we’re going to play with genetic algorithms and robots.

First Stages:

We need a robot platform, and we’re strapped for cash. I’m going to be in charge of building something cost effective that will allow us to run simulations from a host. Let’s look at some candidates for parts for a platform to test the feasibility of our idea:

• (1) PICAXE-08M Microcontroller - the brains of the little guys. 128 bytes to work with. 8 pins. This could get hairy!
• (1) L293D Driver. Used for controlling motors. Actually, we might be going with a project board for the picaxe which would give us 4 digital on/offs and 2 reversible power outputs without much headache. Enough to turn two servos and collect a little input from the environment.
• (1) 5V Voltage Regulator. We don’t want any blue smoke.
• (2) Microswitches to collect input.
• (1) 9V Battery.
• (2) GM10 Motor Kits.  They have to move somehow.

All of these parts thrown together should make a fairly basic robot. If we add a wireless serial controller, then we’ve a mobile platform which we can control from a host.

Where’s my credit card? I’ll be using it at Octopart, that’s for sure!

Steve