2007/03/27

Personal Space Assistant

"The Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA) is a robotic assistant for astronauts working in space. The PSA is about the size of a softball and has sensors for measuring gases, temperature, and air pressure. Also, the PSA is able to perform video conferencing and can communicate with electronic support devices such as computer servers, avionics systems, and wireless LAN bridges. "

Make sure to check the Simulation Page and the Video

Don't you just wish they would do something like this to work in gravity?

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2007/02/08

If Leonardo Had Made Toys - New York Times



LEONARDO DA VINCI’S 15th-century vision of mechanical flight apparently never included fixed wings assisted by propellers or jet engines. His chief inspiration was birds, reflected in drawings of a flying machine fashioned to stay aloft by flapping its wings. More than 500 years later, WowWee, a robotics and entertainment products company, shares that vision. Next month, it plans to release a mass-produced, functional ornithopter, a device that flies in birdlike fashion — in this case, a radio-controlled toy that mechanically flaps its Mylar wings. Full Story @ If Leonardo Had Made Toys - New York Times

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2007/02/06

Links for Lecture 8

Modeling


Generate a Tree as an L-System
L-Systems Explorer
Another L-System Applet
Applets to model nature
L-System Figures
The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants
L-Systems and Music

The Computational Beauty of Nature

Boids
Floys
Vectors

History of Computer Graphics and Animation

Dirk Helbing's Videos and Simulations

Icosystem - The Game: Description



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