Month: August 2008

Autonomous Helicopter Learns Autorotation

August 12, 2008 by 10 Comments


Stanford’s autonomous helicopter group has made some impressive advancements in the field of autonomous helicopter control, including inverted hovering and performing aerobatic stunts. The group uses reinforcement learning to teach its control system various maneuvers and has been very successful in doing so. One of their latest achievements was teaching the bot the emergency landing technique autorotation. Autorotation is used when a helicopter’s engine fails or is disengaged and works by changing the collective pitch to use the airflow from descent to rotate the blades. The group has more flight demonstrations on their YouTube channel.

[via BotJunkie]

Drive A Robot In Australia Over The Web

August 12, 2008 by 32 Comments


BP Australia has commissioned an online game where you get to drive robots around an obstacle course. Make no mistake, these are real robots. Actually they are modified versions of the Surveyor SRV-1 vehicles that are popular with research labs, and schools everywhere.

Go to the website, get in queue and pray for no clouds. These babies are solar powered, so you’ll have to try to get in while its day time in Australia. The entire set is built in miniature, so you feel like you’re driving a tank around a city.

[via Robots Dreams]

Defcon 16: Glimpses Of The Network Operations Center

August 11, 2008 by 5 Comments


Wired’s Threat Level takes us on a photo tour of the Defcon Network Operations Center, giving a unique behind-the-scenes perspective of one of the largest computer security conventions. The Defcon Network Operations Center is run by a volunteer group named the “Goons”. They keep operations running smoothly and securely with both high and low-tech resources, like a Cisco fiber switch and an armed guard, to protect the router and firewall.

Wiitendo: A Wii In An NES Case

August 11, 2008 by 17 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTs8c4r8m94&hl=it&fs=1]
[Matt] has managed to cram a Wii into an old NES. The write up is fairly short, but does mention a few details. He installed some Game Cube controller ports and a Game Cube memory card. He’s added some external LEDs connected to the Wii’s power button. He put a lot of effort into this, as he said almost every area of the internal case needed some serious dremel action to make the Wii fit inside. He’s even promised a more detailed write up, so keep an eye out for that.

You might also remember the Wii Laptop previously on Hackaday.
[via Hack a Wii]

Miniature Balancing Robot

August 10, 2008 by 12 Comments


It might not be as elegant or technologically-advanced as a Segway or a motorized unicycle, but this easily constructed 2-wheeled robot might be a fun project for a free afternoon. The heart of the balancing mechanism is an SPDT switch with a button cell attached that reverses the motor when the robot begins to tip in one direction. It’s not controllable and it tends to fall over quite a bit, but it’s a good starting point and could be refined by lowering the center of gravity or figuring out a simple way to change the motor speed based on how far the robot has tipped over. There are no accelerometers or tilt switches so the components could be sourced from a parts bin, and its simple design definitely leaves a lot of room for improvement.

Defcon 16: Covert Warballooning Flight

August 10, 2008 by 6 Comments


Since last month, when the Defcon warballooning event was announced, [Rick Hill] finished building his rig and even got FAA approval for the flight. Just when everything seemed set, the Riviera Hotel management decided not to allow the takeoff from their property. So, naturally, [Rick] and his team rented a moving truck and covertly inflated the balloon inside. They launched it in an abandoned parking lot and drove through the Vegas strip. They were surprised to find that about one third of the 370 wireless networks they scanned were unencrypted.

[photo: JoergHL]

[via /.]