July 2010

Servo Magazine

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Features

RoboGames In Retrospect

Team Tesla Prime shares some insights and lessons learned from their experience at RoboGames 2010.

Robot Rescue: ROVs Lend a Hand During Gulf Oil Spill Disaster

Get a closer look at the ROVs that were put to use within hours of this highly publicized offshore tragedy.

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Projects

Determining a Rechargeable Battery‘s mAh Capacity

Set up this test system to restore — rather than toss out — some of those “unuseable” batteries you may have lying around.

See How Easy Coding a Rotary Optical Encoder Can Be

Fellow roboteers ... cast your fear aside and join me as I give you everything you need to add an optical encoder to the input end of your robotic projects.

Building a Real-Time GPS Tracking System

Learn how to add a tracking system to your autonomous robot or vehicle using a GPRS/GPS module, a local web server, and a simple web interface with Google Maps API.

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Columns

by Jeff Eckert
Robytes
Stimulating Robot Tidbits

by David Geer
Aqua Robot
The Aqua Robot — a collaboration of participating universities including McGill University, York University, and Dalhousie University (all in Canada) — swims beneath the water and walks on land either autonomously or tethered to capture environmental images for preservation efforts.

by Dennis Clark
Ask Mr. Roboto
Your Problems Solved Here

SERVO TankBot
by Calvin Turzillo
TankBOT: Basic Robotics 101
A Beginner’s Guide to Building Your Future Robot Overlord

Twin Tweaks
by Bryce Woolley, Evan Woolley
I Am Encoding
This month, we have the pleasure of presenting the Position Controller Kit from Parallax.

Then and Now
by Tom Carroll
What is a Robot?
Today’s new influx of personal and service robots are not being developed because they are ‘cool’ but because people have really come to rely on them for daily tasks.

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Combat Zone

RioBotz ComBot Tutorial Summarized: HammerBots

in The Combat Zone

Professor Marco Antonio Meggiolaro, of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has translated his popular book — the RioBotz Combot Tutorial — into English.

BUILD REPORT: A Reintroduction to Wedges

in The Combat Zone

In mid 2007, I began the construction of Gilbert — MH Robotics’ first antweight.

COMBAT ZONE’s Greatest Hits

in The Combat Zone

This month, once again, only one builder submitted to Greatest Hits. Come on, bot fighters! There are tons of events going on, and gourmet damage abounds!

EVENT REPORT: Power Play! Robot Rumble 2010

in The Combat Zone

The Museum of Life and Science, in Durham, NC, hosts this one day event each spring. Last year, three local teams got together to put on a “show and tell” about combat robotics as part of the museum’s much bigger robotthemed event.