Kiva Systems, founded in 2003 by three engineers, has been acquired by Amazon for $775M. Kiva uses hundreds of autonomous mobile robots and distributed algorithms to reduce the inventory management and fulfillment life cycle of warehouses. The technology is used by industry leaders such as The Gap, Staples, Saks 5th Avenue, Office Depot, Crate and [...]
Latest News
Tool Review: Sweet Home 3D
This month’s software tool is Sweet Home 3D. It is an amazing piece of software, easy to install and intuitive to use. After trying different 3D modeling tools (ex. Google SketchUp and IKEA’s Planer Tool), Sweet Home 3D is hands down the best. Google SketchUp works well, but the fact that it is available only [...]
DARS included in the Softpedia Mac OS software database
Dynamic Ad-Hoc Routing Simulator (DARS) our platform-independent simulator of mobile, ad hoc network (MANET) protocols has been added to Softpedia’s database of software programs for Mac OS (link). According to the Softpedia notification: “DARS has been tested in the Softpedia labs using several industry-leading security solutions and found to be completely clean of adware/spyware components. [...]
Wanted: Supercomputer Programmers
Supercomputing labs have difficulty recruiting software developers. High-performance computing (HPC) systems require hires to be trained in parallel programming and related platforms and technologies (ex. CUDA, MPI, OpenMP). “It’s not that we’ve had a drop-off in enrollments, it’s that we need an increase,” says the University of Tennessee’s Jack Dongarra. “We need people who can [...]
NASA releases modeling tool source code
NASA engineers released the source and binaries for Windows/OS X of OpenVSP, an aircraft modeling software package. It is described as a “OpenVSP is a parametric aircraft geometry tool” and it works by using parameters (ex. wing span, fuselage length) to create 3D models of an aircraft that can later be used for engineering analysis. [...]
Maryland FIRST LEGO League Competition
Today I was invited to give the keynote address at the Maryland F.I.R.S.T. LEGO League (FLL) Qualifier competition at the Universities at Shady Grove. This was a full-day event, ran just like a small championship, and top teams will be invited to compete at the Maryland FLL Championship later this year. BTW, F.I.R.S.T. stands for For Inspiration [...]
Let the drones …begin
I am excited to have a team of students working with me next semester, developing an Aerial Reconnaissance UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). We will be flying a plane (sorry, heli fans) using the ArduPilot Mega controller with on-board video capability. We will document every step of this project here, so look for tag: UAV Project. [...]
The History of UNIX
I typically find topics in the history of computing boring. I also avoid like the plague any conversation with friends and colleagues that may start with the phrase “remember when we used to have…” and gives them an opportunity to go down memory lane about punch cards, old compilers and ancient hardware. However, I make [...]
Banner year for N. American Robotics Companies!
The US economy may be in trouble but North American robotics companies are having a spectacular year! According to the Robotics Industries Association, in 2010, they posted their best year since 2007 with orders of 13,174 robots. The good news continued this year with steady increases during the first quarter (31%) and 41% through September. [...]
(free) CS Textbooks
In the spirit of open access and learning, here is a list of sites that offer freely available books that may be helpful to anyone interested in CS-related topics: freetechbooks.com freecomputerbooks.com e-bookdirectory.com 25 Free computer books I will be adding more links to this post as I find more resources. Share:
Maxima, a Computer Algebra System
Maxima is a free tool for algebraic manipulation and plotting of functions and data in 2-D and 3-D. It is a very versatile tool providing capabilities for differentiation, integration, Laplace transformations and more. There are installers for various Linux flavors and Windows along with the source code to build from scratch. The project homepage is [...]
iPhone 4S Annoyances
After a month of using my iPhone 4S, I have a better feel for the device. Unlike most Apple-fanatics I do not “loooove” my phone. In the interest of full disclosure, I used to have a Motorola Droid since they first came out and I only changed my Droid because the current versions of Android-based [...]
Grace Hopper’s …bug (VIDEO)
Grace Murray Hopper (aka “Amazing Grace”), gave this keynote speech and told the story of the now infamous moth that popularized the term debugging. I found this clip on my computer and I can’t recall where I got it from! The source, owner, location, date, event of this video clip are unknown. If anyone has [...]
Data, data everywhere
Looking for data? Data to analyze to classify or train machine learning algorithms? Here is a list of data repositories: Machine Learning Repository from the University of California, Irvine. 200 data sets ranging from from chemical analysis results to determine the origin of wine, to particle identification data to distinguish electron neutrinos from muon neutrinos. [...]
Robot With Supersonic Jets Sticks to Almost Anything
Researchers at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, developed a robot that uses a non-contact vacuum grip to stick and move vertically on almost any type surface texture, ranging from glass and brick to metal, cloth and wood. See the article from IEEE here. Share:
Autonomous towel-folding
It may seem trivial (and extremely boring) for humans to do but it is a real challenge for roboticists. If nothing else, it shows the power of the human brain. Read the published paper and see the video below (sped up by a factor of 50)… Share:
Queueing Networks analysis package
qnetworks. Queueing Networks analysis package for GNU Octave. It includes implementations of some QN algorithms. It includes algorithms for: Exact asymptotic analysis, Mean Value Analysis (MVA) for single or multi-class closed networks, convolution for closed, single-class product-form networks, MVABLO for closed, single-class QN with blocking, asymptotic, balanced system and geometric bounds, transient as well as [...]
Paralyzed student walks with robotic exoskeleton
Read more about this inspiring story at: Computerworld..NY Daily News Share:
Computer on a stick for only $25
Courtesy of Gary Gillard, read about this low-cost, miniature computer called Raspberry Pi from Mashable..Tom’s hardware.. Share:
The Commodore is BACK!
Brown keyboard, 64 kilobytes of RAM, graphics, sound and a tape-deck — es, a tape deck (!) — to load programs. This was back in 1982 and while Commodore Intl. sold over two million computers per year, bad corporate decisions and fierce completion from Apple and IBM forced the company to declare bankruptcy protection. The [...]
Contributors
- G. Dimitoglou
(64)
- Hood robotics team ranks high in competition
- Hood robotics team receives another award
- Hood robotics team recognized
- Faculty Advisor Award!
- Hood robotics team ranks high in competition
-
Amazon Acquires Kiva Systems for $775 Million
-
Tool Review: Sweet Home 3D
-
DARS included in the Softpedia Mac OS software database
-
Wanted: Supercomputer Programmers
-
NASA releases modeling tool source code
