Meerkat is famous!

-

I want to give a big shout out to the folks over at DIYODE Magazine because in their latest issue (#11), they have run a feature on Meerkat, my obstacle-avoiding robot.

 The little guy has dressed up really well for the story, and my self-driving car even makes a brief appearance.

 

 Read for yourself here, and please think about supporting this local publisher and by purchasing the issue or better yet, subscribing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring Solar Power - Where do I begin?

-
Image
I've got a new shed... And even though it's wired for power, my 16x9m shed is going to be powered as much as possible from solar panels and batteries.  Given that I have more than a few computers and radios in there, this is going to be a challenge. The house already has a set of panels and a big inverter, so this is really my own personal R&D project.  For safety, I am not attempting to connect my work to the house wiring, or feed into the grid.  I will be running separate wiring to power this gear. A note on safety Electricity is dangerous.  Contact with live wiring or components can be fatal.  I can't state this clearly enough, electric shocks can, and do kill people.  Batteries contain dangerous chemicals and can give off flammable gasses, which in a confined space can be explosive.  Connecting or disconnecting batteries can cause sparks, which could have very bad side effects. I will detail steps to mitigate these risks, but ultimately it is up to you to be careful
Read more

DIY Self-Driving - Part 9 - New Imaging

-
Image
Please Note:    Unlike most of my projects which are fully complete before they are published, this project is as much a build diary as anything else.  Whilst I am attempting to clearly document the processes, this is not a step-by-step guide, and later articles may well contradict earlier instructions. If you decide you want to duplicate my build, please read through all the relevant articles before you start. We have a lot of work to do in pretty short space of time now, with new competitive opportunities in the very near future. To be honest, the line detection has simply not been good enough, and this is leading to some of the poor performance I have been experiencing with the car.  Whilst it really does work, it is not accurate enough.  There are a couple of issues here which need to be dealt with: The core processor is just not powerful enough; and The optics aren't good enough Processing As I noted in my "Next Iteration" article I am looking at othe
Read more

Life with Deep Racer - Part 1

-
My Deep Racer has finally arrived back in Australia There's a few things I have learned already, and I will share them as I go along. Charging the batteries Power The charger for the compute battery pack simply needs a 3-pin appliance cable to connect it to non-US power outlets.  Yes, you can use a plug adapter, but I find they get loose over time. The LiPo charger needs a 9V 0.5A plug pack.  The centre pin is positive.  There is a considerable power drain on the CPU battery even when the module is off.  My advice is disconnect both batteries when not in use, because that big pack takes a long time to charge. Tail light colours Note that these colours might vary depending on the version of software you're running.  When I first unpacked it, there were no lights at all. Red - Something is wrong.  The usual cause is failure to connect to WiFi.  The official documentation lists some troubleshooting tips Blue - Connecting to the WiFi network Green - Re
Read more