Robotics newsletter

Top new questions this week:

How to detect when a stepper motor has stalled?

How can I detect when a stepper motor has stalled? A google search led me to some people who say that when the stepper motor stalls, the current spikes up, which is easily detectable with a Hall …

stepper-motor stepper-driver force-sensor

asked by David Cary 2 votes answered by kurtnelle 2 votes

What reward function results in optimal learning?

Let's think of the following situations: You are teaching a robot to play ping pong You are teaching a program to calculate square root You are teaching math to a kid in school These situations …

machine-learning supervised-learning

asked by Shahbaz 2 votes answered by Ian 1 vote

How can I convert RGB colors to CMYK for my airbrush robot?

I am developing a robot which paints using an airbrush (3D painting). I intend to use several colors as a CMYK printer, but I do not know how to do the conversion of RGB colors in the computer to the …

robotic-arm

asked by user1669089 1 vote answered by jwpat7 1 vote

How to connect an infrared remote control to PC or Arduino or Raspberry Pi?

I bought my kid a robotics kit with several motors and an infrared remote control (you can steer the robot using IR remote control). Now I want to take it to the next level and control the robots …

mobile-robot arduino raspberry-pi

asked by Dmitri Pisarenko 1 vote answered by mpflaga 2 votes

What is the easiest way to install ROS on OSX Mountain Lion?

The latest OSX documentation I found on the website is from 2011, and the latest build is from over a year ago. I'm a complete n00b to all things ROS and wanted to start playing with it. What is the …

ros

asked by obvio171 1 vote answered by Ian 2 votes

How to measure and dispense a finite ammount of powder or liquid

I've been watching too much How It's Made, and I've been wondering how they build devices that spray/inject/dispense a finite amount of liquid (to within some amount of error). I wanted to try this …

mechanism manufacturing

asked by awiebe 1 vote answered by jwpat7 1 vote

How can I get Windows Kinect working on Angstrom on Beaglebone?

I have tried following a number of guides on the internet but most of them fall down as libfreenect does not exist in opkg, which is the apt-get of Angstrom. Has anyone got it working and if so what …

kinect

asked by Tom Bamber 1 vote answered by Ian 0 votes

Greatest hits from previous weeks:

Why are capacitors added to motors (in parallel); what is their purpose?

I've seen many motors having capacitors attached in parallel in bots. Apparently, this is for the "safety" of the motor. As I understand it, all these will do is smoothen any fluctuations--and I doubt …

motor protection

asked by Manishearth 11 votes answered by David Cary 13 votes

Why do quadcopters have four propellers? (Besides the name)

I've noticed that almost all research being done with helicopter robots is done using quadcopters (four propellers). Why is there so little work done using tricopters in comparison? Or a different …

quadrotor design uav

asked by golmschenk 10 votes answered by DaemonMaker 10 votes