IC Fabrication

How a CPU is Made – CPU Manufacturing

The History of Robotics

The History of Robotics Learn about some of the fascinating moments that have helped define the history of robotics. This timeline features a number of historic events of the past as well as recent developments that have helped shape the world of robots and technology in general. Read about advances in artificial intelligence, changes in industrial robotics, research into robotic arms used in car manufacturing, mars rovers and much more. Follow the history of robotics from its humble but visionary beginnings right through to the complex robots of today. These robots tie together a range of interrelated areas such as…

Connect Raspberry Pi to Laptop or PC

Interface / connect Raspberry pi to a PC monitor and Laptop

Today we will be learning how to interface /connect Raspberry pi to a PC monitor and Laptop Last week, I hope we have finished how to burn RASPBIAN image (OS) file in to Memory card. Now, Let us look at the ports of Raspberry pi: Out of the ports we have as shown in the above figure, we will be using only HDMI, Ethernet and Audio and video jack to connect to PC monitor /Laptop/TV Respectively. Interfacing of Raspberry pi with the above depends on the individual, his availability and his requirements. HDMI interface: With the HDMI port available on…

Getting started with Raspberry Pi

Hello Everyone, here is our first weekly updating blog on a specific technology. Today we will be starting with ‘Raspberry pi’.   What is a ‘Raspberry pi’? If you Google the same thing, you will be seeing it as a low-cost, small credit-card sized computer.   Yes, It is a credit card sized computer which can easily be connected to a display just as TV or PC’s monitor and there are many other displays such as TFT screens, LCD screens specially designed for ‘Raspberry pi’ with different sizes. As  every computer has an OS to access the system, Raspberry pi also has OS…

What is the concept behind gyroscopes and accelerometers?

Here is an excellent explanation of both Accelerometer & Gyroscope. Source: A Guide To using IMU (Accelerometer and Gyroscope Devices) in Embedded Applications. Acclerometer When thinking about accelerometers it is often useful to image a box in shape of a cube with a ball inside it.. You may imagine something else like a cookie or a donut , but I’ll imagine a ball: If we take this box in a place with no gravitation fields or for that matter with no other fields that might affect the ball’s position – the ball will simply float in the middle of the box…..

Robot! What’s that?

Whether you’re a kid or an adult, everyone has an idea of what robots are … from the Robot on “Lost in Space” to the “Transformers”. But they do so much more than just “compute”. It is a machine that gathers information about its environment (senses) and uses that information (thinks) to follow instructions to do work (acts).   This is the working definition of robots that Robotics exhibit developers used for this exhibit. Today technology is changing at incredible rates making the identification of a robot somewhat difficult. Things that we use everyday incorporate features beyond those of early…

In the simplest terms, how does a PID controller work?

Interestingly your intuitive, human control is not that different from a PID controller.   Imagine you are driving a car, trying to reach and maintain speed of 50 kilometers per hour. – You watch the difference (error) between your speed and the desired speed. – You press more or less on the gas pedal (control output).   The PID control has three parts (rules): P, I, D. Each contributes to the control output.   P – proportional The less you have, the more you push.  The farther you are from the desired speed, the more you press the gas pedal;…

Why Kids Prefer Robots To Teachers And Parents?

A study founds that kids not only love robots but also that robots benefit kids in the classroom. The implications of this “benefit,” however, might not seem so benign on closer examination.   The study, “Robots @ School,” was implemented by Latitude, an international research consultancy, in association with the LEGO Learning Institute and Project Synthesis, an Australia-based idea consultancy. It asked 350 students, ages 8-12, from Australia, France, Germany, South Africa, the UK and U.S. to write and illustrate a short story answering a simple question: What would happen if robots were a part of your everyday life at school…

Lithium Polymer Charging/Discharging & Safety Information

Lithium Polymer Safety Tips: Lithium Polymer cells are a tremendous advance in battery technology for RC use. However, due to the chemistry of lithium cells, there is a possibility of fire if charging is not properly done. It is unavoidable due to the nature of lithium itself. This is no different from many things we use in daily life – knives, kitchen cleaners, automobiles, for a few examples – which are inherently dangerous, but which can be used safely by adhering to simple rules and precautions. Batteries should NEVER be left unattended while charging. Be absolutely sure that the Lithium…

Why It’s Important to Always Use Tolerances

Ambiguity is not your friend. If you leave a dimension without a tolerance, no one else will know the importance, or the unimportance, of that dimension. Not only can a lack of tolerances lead to improper fits, it will also add to delays and higher costs.   Imagine you are working on a design for a high efficiency windmill. Due to its complexities you need various custom parts, so you send out manufacturing drawings to various vendors for them to be made. Several weeks later you receive all the parts, but some do not fit.   One of your special…

Inductive versus capacitive position sensors

When it comes to inductive and capacitive position sensors, each is built quite differently, meaning that each technology is suited to particular geometries and applications.   When German scientist Ewald Georg von Kleist suffered an electric shock from his laboratory apparatus in 1745, he suddenly learned that it was possible to store a substantial electrical charge. Arguably, he had built the world’s first capacitor. A capacitor is a collector of electrical charge and typically comprises two conductive plates separated by a relatively small thickness of non-conductive material, or dielectric. The dielectric is typically air, plastic or ceramic.   Capacitors are…

10 Things We Couldn’t Do Without Robots

Since the advent of robots, work has been shared between man and machine. But, as robots become more technologically advanced and autonomous, they learn how to do jobs faster and better than humans. Their precision, intelligence and endless energy levels make them the perfect employees for a wide variety of jobs that humans just can’t afford to do.   Here are 10 things we couldn’t do without robots: Military Services: Military robots are some of the most high-tech and important robots used today. These state-of-the-art machines save lives by performing extremely dangerous tasks without endangering humans. Some common robots used…

WinAVR compilation error on Windows 8.1

Problem: After upgrading Windows 8(64bit)to 8.1 version, when try to compile project in AvrStudio 4 (WINAVR20100110) I get error: 0 [main] sh 2312 sync_with_child: child 4744(0x14C) died before initialization with status code 0xC0000142 73796 [main] sh 2312 sync_with_child: *** child state waiting for longjmp /usr/bin/sh: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable rm -rf main.o test.elf dep/* test.hex test.eep test.lss test.map make: [clean] Error -1073741502 (ignored) Build succeeded with 0 Warnings… 0 [main] sh 1484 sync_with_child: child 2300(0x14C) died before initialization with status code 0xC0000142 64185 [main] sh 1484 sync_with_child: *** child state waiting for longjmp /usr/bin/sh: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable avr-gcc -mmcu=atmega644pa…

Firo (Fire Entinguisher Robot)

Fire is like a double-edged sword. Discovery of fire stands as a milestone in the history of mankind. Fire fighters try their best to fight and extinguish fires when in need. But at the household level, it is observed that if the fire can be extinguished at an early stage, many major accidents can be averted. The aim here is to build a robot that can  detect and extinguish fire.   Circuit and working This fire extinguishing robot is a prototype (Fig. 1) of the actual one. Sensors used here are simple infrared (IR) photodiodes that detect IR rays coming…

Arduino IDE 1.6.1 not launching on Win7/64

Hello everyone, just a quick update. I was in the same situation, Win 7 64-bit 8Gb RAM, Arduino IDE 1.6.1 won’t start. Has suggested: I opened up the commands prompt (launch cmd.exe from Start button) I typed cd c:\program files (x86)\arduino then launched arduino_debug.exe I checked that the error was the VM’s reservation space I opened the two files arduino.l4j.ini and arduino_debug.l4j.ini with Notepad (Run it as Admin!!) I edited both files changing -Xmx1024M to -Xmx512M Saved and rerun Arduino IDE, everything fine!

Guide for the visually impaired…

As engineers, it is our job to fix something that is broken, or replace it with something better. Usually, these issues arise in man-made creations. A constant process of repair, refurbish, replace, redesign is what has brought mankind to it’s current state; those are all reworks of problems created by man as a side-effect of creating his comforts. But what about problems that have nothing to do with man’s progress? What about issues that would persist regardless of man’s endeavours?   One such issue, the issue of visual impairment, also called as blindness, is what I had aimed to tackle…

Arduino Morse Code generator

First of all, you might want to know my motivation for this project, so here goes. MIT, Manipal – my engineering college, had offered to take classes for people wanting to own Amateur Radio licenses. This seems like a great opportunity to be one amongst about half a million around the world with special radio privileges. These people are actually hobbyists that get to legally play around with basic radio communication and they follow a certain convention – one of them being, you guessed it, Morse Code communication. And so, people who wish to apply for the general license need…

How to build PCB