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Butlers, lunar rovers, snakes and airboats: the best of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute
How was your week? We got to spend a couple of days trekking around the Carnegie Mellon campus in Pittsburgh, PA to check out some of the latest projects from the school's world renowned Robotics Institute -- a trip that culminated with the bi-annual induction ceremony from the CMU-sponsored Robot Hall of Fame. Given all the craziness of the past seven days, you might have missed some of the awesomeness, but fear not, we've got it all for you here in one handy place -- plus a couple of videos from the trip that we haven't shown you yet. Join us after the break to catch up.
AirBot and WaterBot help localize pollution data collection (video)
Want to do something about pollution in our water and air? Carnegie Mellon's CREATE Lab is working on a few interesting solutions to the problem of localizing pollution data with a trio of devices aimed at making the process accessible and affordable for regular people. First up is AirBot, a "particle counting robot" that monitors pollutants that can contribute to breathing problems like asthma. Aimed at a $99 price point, the little black boxes are portable enough to bring around with you, so you can, say, compare the air quality in areas when apartment hunting. The lab has made six prototype devices (one of which was on-hand during our visit), and is aiming to bring them to market next year. WaterBot, meanwhile, is set to bring the solution to streams near you. Stick one end in a body of water near your home and it will upload water purity information to the web via a built-in ZigBee module. CREATE's also cooked up the CATTFish, a method for recording such information in your home via, yes, your toilet. Dip one end in the reservoir and the box on top of the tank, and it will give you a reading of the cleanliness of the water being used to refill. That information can then be uploaded to the web via a USB port. The lab is shooting for a $50 price tag on the device. The big thing here is the ability to let the community take its own readings to build a bigger picture of water and are purity levels through online applications. More information on all of the above devices can be found in the video below.
Can Pals help kids get their voices heard (video)
Message from Me isn't the only way Carnegie Mellon's CREATE Labis helping kids communicate. The lab's Hear Me team has come up with Can Pals, a clever twist on the tin can phone that helps students share their stories with the world. Kids record their non-fictional tales on computers or via mics brought in by the Hear Me team, who will edit and upload them to the site and transfer them onto the electronic cans. Afterwards, kids can draw a picture or add some text to a label, which is adhered to the outside. The Hear Me team then brings them to another school, where the stories are shared with other students, who can pull off the labels and respond to the speakers. The group has also designed CanEX displays that are already at some businesses around town, letting customers catch a glimpse into the lives of local children. CREATE calls it an "empowerment tool for advocacy" -- we can't help but refer to it as This American Life or The Moth for kids. Either way, pretty cool.
Message from Me offers dispatches from early education, we go eyes-on (video)
What do you get when you attach a point-and-shoot, display, microphone, RFID reader and a bunch of big buttons to a clear plastic box and stick it all in a classroom with a bunch of three- to five-year-olds? Carnegie Mellon's CREATE Lab calls the creation Message from Me. It's a way of engaging early education students with technology, developing language and social skills and helping keep parents abreast of their school day activities. The tool encourages kids to record a thought or take a picture and send it to a parent by pulling a card with their face on it down from the wall and scanning on the RFID reader. Parents can get updates via text message or email from kids who are often unable to pass along such information at the end of the day. According to the lab, the machines have already been installed in nearly a dozen schools in the Pittsburgh area -- and from the looks of the boxes on the floor in the CREATE Lab, plenty more are on the way.%Gallery-169260%
Hummingbird is a 'pre-Arduino' for kids (video)
It's an Arduino -- you know, for kids. Or, as BirdBrain Technologies' chief robot design Tom Lauwers put it, a "pre-Arduino." It's never too early to get kids into robot building -- or so goes the thought process behind this nectar-loving kit. At its center is a custom controller that can be used to manipulate a slew of different sensors, motors and lights, a number of which are included in the box. Getting started is extremely simple -- don't believe us? Check the video after the break, in which Lauwers connects two wires to get the whole process underway. The kit's also reasonably priced at $199 a piece. On top of the controller, you get a handful of LEDs, two vibration motors, four servos and light, temperature, distance and sound sensors. The kits are currently available through the company's site (click on that source link). Lauwers tells us that his company (which you may remember from last year's MakerFaire NYC) is working on a slightly more affordable option priced at around $130, which scales back a bit on the in-box components. Check out a conversation with Lauwers -- and a pretty awesome cardboard dragon -- below.
