Maxbotix MaxSonar-EZ1 Sonar Sensor

The MaxSonar®-EZ1™ is one of the easiest to use ultrasonic range finders available.
The MaxSonar®-EZ1™ offers very short to long-range detection and ranging, in an incredibly small package, with ultra low power consumption. The MaxSonar®-EZ1™ detects objects from 0-inches, even objects pressing against the front sensor face, to 254-inches (6.45 meters), and provides sonar range information from 6-inches to 254 inches, with 1-inch resolution. Objects between 0-inches and 6-inches range as 6-inches.
Traditional dual-sensor piezoelectric ultrasonic range-finders have many subtle peculiarities. These include the inability to detect very close objects, a central up-close blind spot between the transducers, and very wide-angle beams (some more than 90 degrees!). In addition, if a piezoelectric sensor has a narrow beam, it will, in general, have much shorter detection zones, especially for small objects.
The MaxSonar®-EZ1™ overcomes these problems and more by utilizing a single 42KHz ultrasonic transducer coupled with a continuously variable high gain amplifier. The MaxSonar®-EZ1™ is half the size of competing sensors, while the 2mA nominal current draw is the lowest of any range sensor.
The MaxSonar®-EZ1™ is very easy to use. It has holes for easy mounting, and provides the range directly, using three user interfaces. The pulse width output is similar to other low cost ultrasonic range finders. The analog voltage output provides 10mV per inch output and always holds the latest range reading. In addition, after each range event the digital output sends asynchronous serial data in an RS232 format, except voltages are 0-5V.

Devantech CMPS03 Electronic Compass

This compass module has been specifically designed for use in robots as an aid to navigation. The aim was to produce a unique number to represent the direction the robot is facing.
The compass uses the Philips KMZ51 magnetic field sensor, which is sensitive enough to detect the Earths magnetic field. The output from two of them mounted at right angles to each other is used to compute the direction of the horizontal component





Devantech CMPS03 Electronic Compass

Squash (sport)

Squash is a racquet sport played by two players (or four players for doubles) in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball. Squash is recognized by the IOC and remains in contention for incorporation in a future Olympic program.

The game was formerly called squash racquets, a reference to the "squashable" soft ball used in the game (compared with the harder ball used in its parent game Racquets (or rackets; see below)).




History



Squash developed from at least five other sports involving racquets, gloves, and balls having roots in the early 1500s in France.[1] It's stated that “Squash, with its element of hitting balls against walls, was for entertainment. For example, boys and girls slapped balls in narrow alleys and streets”[1]. Religious institutions in France, such as monasteries, developed a similar game. Monks used gloves that were webbed to hit balls against a fishing net strung across the middle of the courtyards of the monasteries.[1] This developed the early “racquets” used in tennis and squash. Then in late fifteenth century, tennis was developed and spread to other European nations. The next major development of squash took place in England where the game of "racquets" was developed in Fleet Prison, a debtor’s prison.[1] Similar to tennis, it involved racquets and balls, but instead of hitting over a net as in tennis, players hit a non-squeezable ball against walls. A variation of rackets that also lead to the formation of squash was called fives, similar to handball. Fives was essentially the game of racquets, without racquets. (The ball was hit with the hand.)[1] It is played against a wall or walls.
These games gained popularity and were further developed in schools, notably Harrow School in England.[2] The first courts built at this school were rather dangerous because they were near water pipes, buttresses, chimneys, and ledges. The school soon built four outside courts. Natural rubber was material of choice for the ball. Students modified their racquets to have a smaller reach to play in these cramped conditions.[1]
In the 1900s the game increased in popularity with various schools, clubs and even private citizens building squash courts, but with no set dimensions. In April 1907 the Tennis, Rackets & Fives Association set up a sub committee to set standards for squash. Then the sport soon formed, combining the three sports together called “Squash”. It was not until 1923 that the Royal Automobile Club hosted a meeting to further discuss the rules and regulations and another five years elapsed before the Squash Rackets Association was formed to set standards for squash in Great Britain.[1]
The sport spread to America and Canada, and eventually around the globe. Players such as F.D. Amr Bey of Egypt dominated the courts in the 1930s, Geoff Hunt of Australia dominated the game during the 1960s and 1970s winning a record eight British Opens at the time and during the 1980s and 1990s Jahangir Khan of Pakistan won the British Open a record of ten times and Jansher Khan of Pakistan won the World Open a record of eight times.[2]No list of squash champions is complete without referencing the legendary Hashim Khan, winner of 7 British Open championships, and his son, Sharif Khan, winner of 12 North American Open titles. Hashim is considered one of the best athletes of all times and is the patriarch of the only sports dynasty in modern history, consisting of himself, his brother, Azam, nephews Mohibullah and Gul, sons Sharif, Gulmast, Aziz, Liaquat Ali, and Salim Khan - all of whom are squash champions in their own right and all of whom have had successful professional squash careers. Both Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan are part of the legendary Khan dynasty begun by Hashim in the 1940s and 1950s.


 Court


The 'softball' or 'international' court size was codified in London, England in the late 1920s, at 32 ft (9.75 m) long and 21 feet (6.4 m) wide. The front wall was provided with an "out line" 15 feet (4.57 m) above the floor, connected by a raking "out" line meeting the "out" line on the back wall at 7 feet (2.13 m) above the floor. The front wall also has a "service line" (originally called the "cut line") 6 feet (1.83 m) above the floor with a 19 inch high (48 cm) "tin" acting as a 'net' (originally sheeted with metal in order to make a distinctive sound when hit by the ball). The floor is marked with a transverse "half-court" line and further divided into two rear "quarter courts" and two "service boxes", as shown in the diagram above.
The traditional "American" court for the U.S. game, (now referred to as "hardball squash") is a similar size, but narrower at 18 feet 6 inches (5.64 m). The floor and wall markings differ slightly from the "International" court and the tin is lower, at 15 inches (38 cm) high. However, hardball squash was replaced by softball in America as the standard version of squash and has since almost completely died out.
A "Converted Court" is the result of converting racquetball courts to squash. Racquetball courts are 20 feet (6.1 m) wide and 40 feet (12.2 m) in length, so it is relatively easy to install a back wall, producing a squash court of 20 feet (6.1 m) wide by 32 feet (9.75 m) long.


Playing equipment


Standard rackets are governed by the rules of the game. Traditionally they were made of laminated timber (typically Ash), with a small strung area using natural gut strings. After a rule change in the mid-1980s, they are now almost always made of composite materials or metals (graphite, kevlar, titanium, boron) with synthetic strings. Modern rackets have maximum dimensions of 686 mm (27.0 in.) long and 215 mm (8.5 in.) wide, with a maximum strung area of 500 square centimetres (approx. 90 sq. in.), the permitted maximum mass is 255 grams (approx. 9 oz.), but most have a mass between 110 and 200 grams (4-7 oz.).
Squash balls are 39.5 mm and 40.5 mm in diameter, and have a mass of 23 to 25 grams.[3] They are made with two pieces of rubber compound, glued together to form a hollow sphere and buffed to a matte finish. Different balls are provided for varying temperature and atmospheric conditions and standards of play: more experienced players use slow balls that are smaller and have less bounce than those used by less experienced players (slower balls tend to 'die' in court corners, rather than 'standing up' to allow easier shots). Depending on its specific rubber composition, a squash ball has the property that it bounces more at higher temperatures. Small coloured dots on the ball indicate its dynamic level (bounciness), and thus the standard of play for which it is suited. The recognised speed colours indicating the degree of dynamism are:










A double yellow squash ball.

Potentiometer Sensor Board

This handy little board is an easy way to provide an adjustable input voltage to your robot controller. Typical uses include LCD brightness adjustment, or timing adjustment of peripheral devices (such as spark advance).

A small phillips head screw driver can be used to adjust the onboard potentiometer.
The sensor board has three inputs: Vin, Vout, and Gnd, and requires a Vin of +5V. Vout represents the reading of the potentiometer, which has a range of 0-5V DC.
There are two holes along the periphery of the board to allow for rigid mounting to your robot or experiment.
The kit includes stainless steel screws & aluminum standoffs to easily bolt the potentiometer board to your robot base or experiment

Ambient Temperature Sensor

This handy little board is an easy way to allow your robot to read ambient temperature (of the surrounding air).

The sensor board has three inputs: Vin, Vout, and Gnd, and requires a Vin of +5V. Vout represents the reading of the onboard LM335 sensor, which has a range of -55C to +150C. Accurracy is +/- 3 degrees C
There are two holes along the periphery of the board to allow for rigid mounting to your robot.
The kit includes stainless steel screws & aluminum standoffs to easily bolt the temperature sensor to your robot base.

Push Button I/O Board

This handy little board is a perfect way to add an I/O interface to your robot or controller. It features five tall Push Buttons to serve as inputs, 5 Green LEDs to serve as outputs, and a (really loud) buzzer.

The Push Button I/O board also features two holes to allow for rigid mounting to your robot. You interface the board using the 0.100"(2.54mm) headers on the back side

Global Vipassana Pagoda

The Global Vipassana Pagoda is a notable monument in Mumbai, India. The pagoda is to serve as a monument of peace and harmony. This monument was inaugurated by Pratibha Patil, the President of India on February 8, 2009.[1] It is located in the north of Mumbai in an area called Gorai and is built on donated land on a peninsula between Gorai creek and the Arabian Sea. The Global Vipassana Pagoda is built out of gratitude to the Buddha, his teaching and the community of monks practicing his teaching. Its traditional Burmese design is an expression of gratitude towards the country of Myanmar for preserving the practice of Vipassana. The shape of the pagoda is a copy of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar. It is being built combining ancient Indian and modern technology to enable it to last for a thousand years[2]

The center of the Global Vipassana Pagoda contains the world's largest stone dome built without any supporting pillars. The height of the dome is approximately 29 metres, while the height of the building is 96.12 meters, which is twice the size of the previously largest hollow stone monument in the world, the Gol Gumbaz Dome in Bijapur, India. External diameter of the largest section of the dome is 97.46m and the shorter sections is 94.82m. Internal diamter of the dome is 85.15m.[3] The inside of the pagoda is hollow and serves as a very large meditation hall with an area covering more than 6000 m2 (65,000 ft2). The massive inner dome seats over 8000 people enabling them to practice the non-sectarian Vipassana meditation as taught by Mr S.N. Goenka and now being practiced in over 100 countries. An inaugural one-day meditation course was held at the pagoda on December 21 2008, with Mr S.N. Goenka in attendance as the teacher.

The aim of the pagoda complex is, among others, to express gratitude to Gautama Buddha for dispensing for what followers believe is a universal teaching for the eradication of suffering, to educate the public about the life and teaching of the Buddha, and to provide a place for the practice of meditation. 10-day vipassana meditation courses are held free of charge at the meditation centre that is part of the Global Vipassana Pagoda complex

Single Line Following Sensor

This Single Line Following sensor can see white or black, and allows you to track a white line against a black background, or a black line against a white background.

The sensor board has three pins Gnd, Vcc, and Signal. The Vcc requires +5V. The Signal pin outputs 0v or 5v, depending on if it sees white or black, respectively.
The sensing distance is approximately 0.04 inches to 0.5 inches (1mm to 12mm).
Two holes on the board allow the Line Following sensor board to be rigidly mounted to your robot.

I2C Line Following Sensor

I2C Line Following Sensor

This I2C Line Following sensor allows your robot to track a line on the floor using five sensors. The five onboard sensors see white or black, which allow you to track a white line against a black background, or a black line against a white background.
In addition to the five onboard sensors, we added two additional inputs to the sides of the board. This allows you to connect any kind of sensor that outputs 0-5V, and query them through the board. This allows you to connect additional Single Line Following Sensors, Bump Sensors, and/or Cliff detection sensors.
When queried, the onboard firmware returns a single byte representing the status of all five sensors and the two additional inputs, in a range from 0 to 127, where 0 means all sensors see 'white' and 127 means all sensors see 'black'.
The sensor board has four typical I2C inputs (Vcc, Sda, Scl, and Gnd), two GPIO inputs (Gnd, Vcc, Signal), and requires a Vcc of +5V.
The sensing distance is approximately 0.04 inches to 0.5 inches (1mm to 12mm).
Two holes on the board allow the Line Following sensor board to be rigidly mounted to your robot.
The Line Following sensor board has a bi-color (red/green) LED. The Red LED is used to indicate when power is applied to the sensor. The Green LED flashes to communicate the currently programmed I2C address upon power up. It is then used to indicate if any of the sensors see white or black. If the green LED is off, then all of the sensors see black, otherwise if any of the seven sensors see white, the green LED lights up.

cam used for robotics

What is Computer Assisted (Aided) Manufacturing?


Since the dawn of the industrialrevolution many changes have taken place. One of the more recent changes which has radically changed manufacturing is CAD/CAM (computer aided manufacturing) where computers and robots are used to help produce products.

Through the use of CAM a factory can become highly automated. Robots and much CAM equipment is expensive but once the outlay has been made many tasks can be automated which were formerly carried out by people. The CAm computer/ controller will control the production process through varying degrees of automation. Once the outlay has been made a high degree of precision can be achieved that is not possible with a human workers.

The CAM system will set the toolpath and execute this precisely based on the design which has been entered into the computer. Some CAM systems bring in additional automation by also keeping track of materials and automating the ordering process, as well as tasks such as tool replacement.

CAD

Computer Aided Manufacturing is commonly linked to Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems because the initial designs which need to be entered into the computer will feed off this information. The resulting integrated system will then take the design and turn it into a series of precise processes such as drilling or turning on a lathe and so into a precisely made product.

Advantages of CAM

A big advantage of Computer Aided Manufacturing is that it can be used to facilitate mass customization: the process of creating small batches of products that are custom designed to suit each particular client. Without CAM, and the CAD process that precedes it, customization would be a time-consuming, manual and costly process. However, CAD software allows for easy customization and rapid design changes: the automatic controls of the CAM system make it possible to adjust the machinery automatically for each different order.

Ethical Issues: Job Losses

The fear of robots replacing workers is a growing concern. It has been a gradual process which is almost unnoticeable but the reality is that it is happening more and more. At this stage robots are limited in what they are able to do and still require human intervention. Robotic arms and machines are commonly used in factories, but do require human workers. The nature of those workers' jobs change however. Many jobs are being deskilled and jobs that were skilled trades are disappearing in some industries. For instance welding is a skilled trade but in the car manufacturing industry robots have been doing this task for many years