We've been running a contest that uses similar hardware. Take a look at http://maslab.lcs.mit.edu. Our platform uses a slow (but more power-efficient than the epia) Natsemi GX-1 (300MHz x86). We've built a custom robot controller board (4 motor drivers, support for quad-phase optical encoders, analog and digital i/o, etc). We're not mass-producing them, but should have a few extras at the end of January. Should be much cheaper than the $500 those folks talk about.
We use the CPU power to do vision processing and allow autonomous operation. The versatility of the ORC board allows teams to build really cool robots.
We used Linux last year and this year we're trying Windows XP Embedded with C#.
If you're in the Boston area, come check us out at the end of January!
I don't want to wait for the official release; I'll be on my plane already! So, how did you get the advance copy for a review? Since it's 900 pages, I presume you received it some time ago. Or read -really- fast.
Check out the program and video from MIT's MASLab 2003. Our robot's use a very similar setup. Geode+Orinico+RedHat. Next year we're moving to Eden+WindowsXP Embedded:) Can you guess why?
From the program:
The electrical components used in MASLab are quite different from other contests. At the heart of each team's robot is the "Geode," a 300 MHz x86-compatible processor. With 256 MB of RAM, a 6GB hard disk, wireless networking, and a full complement of peripherals. This PC runs an unmodified installation of RedHat Linux.
The Geode itself cannot control motors nor interface with sensors, so the MASLab staff designed and manufactured a robotics controller board. We call the controller the "ORC", for "Our Robotics Controller". This board serves as a slave to the Geode, executing simple commands under the direction of a program running on the Geode. The Geode and ORC communicate over an RS-232 serial link. It contains an LCD display, support for four 12V motors, integrated battery charger, and power regulation. The ORC board features several Cyprus Microsystems Programmable System-on-a-Chip (PSoC) parts connected by a serial bus. The PSoCs are configured to support three servos and an array of analog and digital sensors including ultrasound and optical encoders.
While the usual assortment of robotics sensors are available (ultrasound range finders, infrared range finders, momentary buttons), MASLab additionally includes a web camera. This color camera has a resolution of 640x480 and serves as most robots' primary sensor, scanning the playing field looking for targets and scoring areas.
Some shameless self-promotion that addresses some of the questions that have a appeared so far. We investigated peer-to-peer backup in a class project and wrote up the results in a technical memo. The abstract:
In an effort to combine research in peer-to-peer systems with techniques for incremental backup systems, we propose pStore: a secure distributed backup system based on an adaptive peer-to-peer network. pStore exploits unused personal hard drive space attached to the Internet to provide the distributed redundancy needed for reliable and effective data backup. Experiments on a 30 node network show that 95% of the files in a 13 MB dataset can be retrieved even when 7 of the nodes have failed. On top of this reliability, pStore includes support for file encryption, replication, versioning, and sharing. Its custom versioning system permits arbitrary version retrieval similar to CVS. pStore provides this functionality at less than 10% of the network bandwidth and requires 85% less storage capacity than simpler local tape backup schemes for a representative workload.
@techreport{pstore:2002,
author = {Christopher Batten and Kenneth Barr and Arvind Saraf and Stanley Trepetin},
title = {{pStore}: A Secure Peer-to-Peer Backup System},
institution = {Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Computer Science},
year = 2002,
month = {October},
type = {Technical Memo},
number = {MIT-LCS-TM-632}, }
Educational stations (eg WCBN) that stream their over-the-air broadcast would have been negatively affected by the passage of this bill. Hopefully, language will be added to give them a break even if they don't get a free ride. See: Save our streams
This all reminds me of the article that persuaded me to get my PC airbrushed: Go ahead, dominate your pristine PC. PC-Computing v3, n11 (Nov, 1990):372. Back in '90, he was asking, "why is that thing still beige? . . . It's because you're a coward!"
It's an amusing read, like all of those articles...
If you read the bugzillas about this, it's a good reality check about the open source concept. Sure, everyone can see the code and fix it, but this bug basically turned into a GIGANTIC committee meeting with most of the effort spent trying to figure out whether it should be classified as bug x, y, or z; and whether it should be address via a, b, or c. See 22994, 30888, 119266
posted by an irrate fencer, a sport that is in danger of being cut because we aren't "TV Friendly".
neither is golf or baseball, but those are TV all the time. Apparently people love these sports, but I stopped watching baseball on TV around 1987. The also have bowling and billiards on TV, but I'm sure you could argue that these aren't "TV friendly."
Anyway, isn't it more of a popularity thing than a "friendliness"/excitement thing? Lots of people like ice skating, ski jump, and the 100 meter dash. Not so many like fencing and team handball.
What's the story on bootp. I understood that it was no longer being developed and at risk for buffer overflows, etc. Most distros patched a 2.4.3 version, but is that sufficient?
Wow. I'm glad we bought the G450's (and we're running redhat 7.x which is what Matrox developed on). This GUI tool worked without a hitch. Nothing to compile -- just sorta did what it was supposed to. (Though the Matrox mga_hal.o worked a lot better than the default or non-existent HAL).
One weird thing is that there are no modelines in my XFConfig? Where are they?
How does grad school play into this? Despite the prestige and eventual relevance of my current situation, I'm definitely more loyal to my undergrad institution. Keeping an email address from one and not the other would be like choosing a favorite child! Two addresses would just confuse people.
If you can wait a (few) month(s), "the second edition (due in June) covers Kernel 2.4 and adds discussions of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), Universal Service Bus (USB), and some new platforms." (from http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive2/)
No, I don't work for them, but found the book very helpful in writing a driver for the PLX 9050. It gets my newbie seal of approval.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.mit.edu/~kbarr/ipod.html
We've been running a contest that uses similar hardware. Take a look at http://maslab.lcs.mit.edu. Our platform uses a slow (but more power-efficient than the epia) Natsemi GX-1 (300MHz x86). We've built a custom robot controller board (4 motor drivers, support for quad-phase optical encoders, analog and digital i/o, etc). We're not mass-producing them, but should have a few extras at the end of January. Should be much cheaper than the $500 those folks talk about.
We use the CPU power to do vision processing and allow autonomous operation. The versatility of the ORC board allows teams to build really cool robots.
We used Linux last year and this year we're trying Windows XP Embedded with C#.
If you're in the Boston area, come check us out at the end of January!
I don't want to wait for the official release; I'll be on my plane already! So, how did you get the advance copy for a review? Since it's 900 pages, I presume you received it some time ago. Or read -really- fast.
Check out the program and video from MIT's MASLab 2003. Our robot's use a very similar setup. Geode+Orinico+RedHat. Next year we're moving to Eden+WindowsXP Embedded :) Can you guess why?
From the program:
The electrical components used in MASLab are quite different from other
contests. At the heart of each team's robot is the "Geode," a 300 MHz
x86-compatible processor. With 256 MB of RAM, a 6GB hard disk, wireless
networking, and a full complement of peripherals. This PC runs an
unmodified installation of RedHat Linux.
The Geode itself cannot control motors nor interface with sensors, so
the MASLab staff designed and manufactured a robotics controller board.
We call the controller the "ORC", for "Our Robotics Controller". This
board serves as a slave to the Geode, executing simple commands under
the direction of a program running on the Geode. The Geode and ORC
communicate over an RS-232 serial link. It contains an LCD display,
support for four 12V motors, integrated battery charger, and power
regulation. The ORC board features several Cyprus Microsystems
Programmable System-on-a-Chip (PSoC) parts connected by a serial bus.
The PSoCs are configured to support three servos and an array of analog
and digital sensors including ultrasound and optical encoders.
While the usual assortment of robotics sensors are available (ultrasound
range finders, infrared range finders, momentary buttons), MASLab
additionally includes a web camera. This color camera has a resolution
of 640x480 and serves as most robots' primary sensor, scanning the
playing field looking for targets and scoring areas.
Some shameless self-promotion that addresses some of the questions that have a appeared so far. We investigated peer-to-peer backup in a class project and wrote up the results in a technical memo. The abstract:
T -L CS-TM-632.pdf
In an effort to combine research in peer-to-peer systems with techniques for incremental backup systems, we propose pStore: a secure distributed backup system based on an adaptive peer-to-peer network. pStore exploits unused personal hard drive space attached to the Internet to provide the distributed redundancy needed for reliable and effective data backup. Experiments on a 30 node network show that 95% of the files in a 13 MB dataset can be retrieved even when 7 of the nodes have failed. On top of this reliability, pStore includes support for file encryption, replication, versioning, and sharing. Its custom versioning system permits arbitrary version retrieval similar to CVS. pStore provides this functionality at less than 10% of the network bandwidth and requires 85% less storage capacity than simpler local tape backup schemes for a representative workload.
http://www.lcs.mit.edu/publications/pubs/pdf/MI
@techreport{pstore:2002,
author = {Christopher Batten and Kenneth Barr and Arvind Saraf and Stanley Trepetin},
title = {{pStore}: A Secure Peer-to-Peer Backup System},
institution = {Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Computer Science},
year = 2002,
month = {October},
type = {Technical Memo},
number = {MIT-LCS-TM-632},
}
Educational stations (eg WCBN) that stream their over-the-air broadcast would have been negatively affected by the passage of this bill. Hopefully, language will be added to give them a break even if they don't get a free ride. See: Save our streams
the very fact that I've been bcc'd leads me to believe other people have received the same message, and I'm less likely to reply.
Seeing a "To:" is important.
It's an amusing read, like all of those articles...
If you read the bugzillas about this, it's a good reality check about the open source concept. Sure, everyone can see the code and fix it, but this bug basically turned into a GIGANTIC committee meeting with most of the effort spent trying to figure out whether it should be classified as bug x, y, or z; and whether it should be address via a, b, or c.
See 22994, 30888, 119266
Am I a troll, or did I just blow your mind?
Huh... I always thought it was Lichtenstein. Either way works...
Unless you side with the Kafka folks, it's a good way to eliminate grief.
neither is golf or baseball, but those are TV all the time. Apparently people love these sports, but I stopped watching baseball on TV around 1987. The also have bowling and billiards on TV, but I'm sure you could argue that these aren't "TV friendly." Anyway, isn't it more of a popularity thing than a "friendliness"/excitement thing? Lots of people like ice skating, ski jump, and the 100 meter dash. Not so many like fencing and team handball.
What's the story on bootp. I understood that it was no longer being developed and at risk for buffer overflows, etc. Most distros patched a 2.4.3 version, but is that sufficient?
Wow. I'm glad we bought the G450's (and we're running redhat 7.x which is what Matrox developed on). This GUI tool worked without a hitch. Nothing to compile -- just sorta did what it was supposed to. (Though the Matrox mga_hal.o worked a lot better than the default or non-existent HAL). One weird thing is that there are no modelines in my XFConfig? Where are they?
How does grad school play into this? Despite the prestige and eventual relevance of my current situation, I'm definitely more loyal to my undergrad institution. Keeping an email address from one and not the other would be like choosing a favorite child! Two addresses would just confuse people.
If you can wait a (few) month(s), "the second edition (due in June) covers Kernel 2.4 and adds discussions of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), Universal Service Bus (USB), and some new platforms." (from http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive2/) No, I don't work for them, but found the book very helpful in writing a driver for the PLX 9050. It gets my newbie seal of approval.