We just finished doing a number of demonstrations at local schools, introducing students to Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, and showing them potential careers in Computer Science. More images can be seen in the latest gallery.
If you're interested in having us come to your school, and you're within reasonable distance (though you never know, we once went 1000km to Gillam because it worked out), please get in touch!
Some of our former students have developed some very nice software for robot simulation and visual programming. Cogmation's robotSim software is a lightweight 3-D simulator, supporting the packbot, roomba, and iRobot create, with realistic physics implemented by the Ageia PhysXTM Physics Engine. The simulator supports Laser Scanner, IR, Sonar, GPS, and other sensors. Their robotFoundry software supports a complete graphic coding environment for robot control software.
Best of all, you can get a free activation license for Mac/Windows just by filling in a survey.
John Anderson, along with Rodrigo de Silva Guerra from the University of Osaka, are handling qualifications for the 2008 RoboCup simulation league mixed reality competitions. Qualified teams will receive a set of the second generation citizen microrobots, and will be expected to compete at RoboCup 2008 in China.
The official Call for Teams and qualification submission instructions are hosted locally. The main page for the competitions is at the University of Osaka. Deadline for submissions (a 12-page team description paper in LNCS format) has been extended to February 8, 2008.
