Class bboards:

academic.mech-e.24-354.2004.discuss:
General discussion. Post questions, gripes, discussions, anything here.
academic.mech-e.24-354.2004.announce:
Official announcements

Robots in the News:

CubeSolver, A Lego Mindstorms robot to manipulate and solve a Rubik's Cube. There's also a lot of other cool Lego stuff on his webpage.
Aping Biology, Computer Guides Automated Evolution of a Robot (NYT 8/31/00)
Why the future doesn't need us (Wired 8/4/00)

Handy Board Resources:

The Handy Board Home Page: The most comprehensive collection of Handy Board information, straight from it's creator, Fred Martin. This site includes documentation, circuit schematics, software libraries, assembly instructions, part lists, relevant links, and more.

The Handy Board Mailing List: (handyboard@media.mit.edu) This is an e-mail distribution list of about 500 Handy Board users ranging from basement tinkerers to rocket scientists. When you have a specific Handy Board question, this is a good place to go. You will usually get a reply in a few minutes regardless of what time of day. The 24-354 d-list will be subscribed to the HB mailing list, so do not subscribe individually or you will be getting HB mail twice.

Interactive C Resources:

The Free Version of Interactive C is available from the Handyboard web site in MS-DOS, Mac and Unix versions. The Newton Labs sells a commercial version of IC that has a number of improvements over the free version. You can download version 3.2, and enter the registration code for the class to use it. (Send email if you missed the announcement)

Interactive C v5.09 can be found here . It allows // comments, quasi-teleoperation through its console (you can tell to robot to call specific functions with specific arguements directly), and a simulator (we never used and know nothing about). Connecting with the handyboard much easier and more reliable, and the compiler, while still imperfect, has far fewer problems. You can cascade if statements a lot with the newer version.

Additional Libraries for the Handyboard are also available (tested under older version, but should work for newer version). This includes the encoder libraries you will need to interface the shaft encoders. A collection of contributed resources can also be found here.

Serial I/O Libraries

serial_interface.ic -- improved version of the serialio.c library written by Peerapong Dhangwatnotai. Fixes a delay in the input due to serialio.c looking at an incorrect bit. Note: the interface functions are named sgetchar and sputchar.

serialio.c -- another improved version modified by Team 17 (F05). Adds a timeout to the getchar and putchar functions and works for IC versions later than 4.3.

C Tutorials

Short C Tutorial C tutorial found on the cmu domain.

C Language Tutorial Basic tutorial featured by drexel university is well organized and has excellent information on it.

C Programming Tutorial Well written Tutorial with clear examples and great organization.

Tips for the C newbie Some basic types written by us to assist with Homework 1

Working in groups tips

Lego Building Resources:

LDraw.org: Ldraw.org has 3D Lego modeling software you can download, as well as libraries of virtually every Lego part ever made. Very cool.

The Art of Lego Design: An article by Fred Martin, originally written for the magazine, The Robotics Practitioner. This article contains a lot of low-level Lego tricks and explanations that may help you in your designs. Click here to download it. Also, please visit Fred's web site under the heading "Educational Material."

Lego User Group Network (LUGNET): This is a web-based message board of all kinds of Lego users and enthusiasts. Some are collectors, some are into particular product lines like the Lego train sets, and some are into Lego robotics. The site is very well organized and well archived.

INS Systems:

An overview of INS Systems.

Sensor Resources:

An overview of the Sharp IR range sensors, including tips on use, mounting, beam pattern, etc. More links availible from the Lab 6 page.