Greetings Robot Fans!
I am pretty much full time (personal time that is) on robotics stuff, including localization research on monocular SLAM algorithms. I am hoping to have an announcement in this regard sometime soon.
DARPA Urban Challenge
In the meantime, I was inspired by the great work of the DARPA Urban Challenge competitors, with 6 teams finishing all of the required missions. As I watched the live video stream on the DARPA website, I could not help but think of how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go. Each team constructed their own vehicles, often emphasizing a particular approach requiring an extreme amount of computing horsepower, while others seemed to focus more on the implementation of the supporting software. Though I am clearly a biased observer, I believe that we must solve this problem in software, before we can achieve human level driving capabilities in hardware. Whenever I think otherwise, I am reminded of a friend who is blind in one eye, and is still a proficient driver. His neural wetware easily competes with the multitude of sensors jammed into each Urban Challenge vehicle.
RoboticsConnection.com
For my latest project please visit RoboticsConnection.com. I have developed the Serializer C++ Library, based on the original .NET library developed by RoboticsConnection.com. I was so impressed with the hardware produced by this company, that I felt compelled to create a tool that I know I needed, and thought others might as well. The RoboticsConnection components will be at the heart of most of my robot platforms used for vision based localization algorithms.
Imagine Cup 2008
I am also contributing to the Imagine Cup 2008, Embedded Development Invitational this year. I have helped out with competitions for the past two years, and it is great fun to witness college students experience the thrill of conceiving an idea and bring it to life in the form of a working device. If you are an engineer, visit the forum from time to time to help answer the student’s questions and concerns.
Onward!