🚗 How Software Is Eating the Car
Good article about the latest trends in automotive industry and development of electronics and software in modern cars.
The semiconductor shortage has placed an intense spotlight on the auto industry’s reliance on the dozens of concealed computers embedded throughout vehicles today.
Ten years ago, only premium cars contained 100 microprocessor-based electronic control units (ECUs) networked throughout the body of a car, executing 100 million lines of code or more.
Today, high-end cars like the BMW 7-series with advanced technology like advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) may contain 150 ECUs or more, while pick-up trucks like Ford’s F-150 top 150 million lines of code.
Even low-end vehicles are quickly approaching 100 ECUs and 100 million of lines of code as more features that were once considered luxury options, such as adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking, are becoming standard.
More information...
#articles #automotive
Good article about the latest trends in automotive industry and development of electronics and software in modern cars.
The semiconductor shortage has placed an intense spotlight on the auto industry’s reliance on the dozens of concealed computers embedded throughout vehicles today.
Ten years ago, only premium cars contained 100 microprocessor-based electronic control units (ECUs) networked throughout the body of a car, executing 100 million lines of code or more.
Today, high-end cars like the BMW 7-series with advanced technology like advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) may contain 150 ECUs or more, while pick-up trucks like Ford’s F-150 top 150 million lines of code.
Even low-end vehicles are quickly approaching 100 ECUs and 100 million of lines of code as more features that were once considered luxury options, such as adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking, are becoming standard.
More information...
#articles #automotive
👍1
🤖 Moley Robotics: The future is served
"The Moley Robotic Kitchen allows you to save time, free up your day from routine cooking, plan and adapt your menu according to different diets and lifestyles, enjoy international cuisine anytime, control calories and get cooking tips and recipes from chefs around the world."
Moley Robotics is a robotics company headquartered in London, United Kingdom that developed, created and put on the market the first robotic kitchen based on a multifunctional cooking platform.
Company emphasizes that it aims to improve quality of life and health by combining innovative technology and nutrition in every home and commercial institution. The ultimate goal claimed by Moley Robotics is to design a robotic kitchen that can be delivered to the mass market at an affordable price.
More information...
#robots
"The Moley Robotic Kitchen allows you to save time, free up your day from routine cooking, plan and adapt your menu according to different diets and lifestyles, enjoy international cuisine anytime, control calories and get cooking tips and recipes from chefs around the world."
Moley Robotics is a robotics company headquartered in London, United Kingdom that developed, created and put on the market the first robotic kitchen based on a multifunctional cooking platform.
Company emphasizes that it aims to improve quality of life and health by combining innovative technology and nutrition in every home and commercial institution. The ultimate goal claimed by Moley Robotics is to design a robotic kitchen that can be delivered to the mass market at an affordable price.
More information...
#robots
🧠 Techniques for studying books more effectively
I developed an elaborate and carefully-specified system of shorthand notation to represent causal, temporal, and physical structures. It used Newick notation for tree structures, variants on arrow signs to articulate causation, sequence, combination, and more, templates to rewrite the stereotyped information presented by textbooks in a uniform format, and hyperlinks in Obsidian to represent the relationships between concepts.
The rigid structure of my note-taking approach gave me clear guidance on what it means to "read" or "study" a textbook chapter. The idea of bringing together any data, formula, charts, or techniques I needed to solve a problem, and then making a plan of attack before setting to work, was a big upgrade for my accuracy and sense of ease.
More information...
#articles
I developed an elaborate and carefully-specified system of shorthand notation to represent causal, temporal, and physical structures. It used Newick notation for tree structures, variants on arrow signs to articulate causation, sequence, combination, and more, templates to rewrite the stereotyped information presented by textbooks in a uniform format, and hyperlinks in Obsidian to represent the relationships between concepts.
The rigid structure of my note-taking approach gave me clear guidance on what it means to "read" or "study" a textbook chapter. The idea of bringing together any data, formula, charts, or techniques I needed to solve a problem, and then making a plan of attack before setting to work, was a big upgrade for my accuracy and sense of ease.
More information...
#articles
📰 NASA Awards PickNik an SBIR Grant for Orbital Robot Autonomy
PickNik Robotics announced on June 8th that it has been awarded a NASA Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to develop its technology for advanced planning capabilities for robots in microgravity environments.
Founded in 2015, PickNik is a robotics software company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. PickNik is the lead maintainer of the open-source MoveIt project, a widely used robotic motion planning framework within the Robot Operating System (ROS).
“We are so excited to be collaborating with NASA in pushing the frontier of robotic manipulation beyond factories and warehouses, and into the most difficult domains,” commented Dr. Dave Coleman, PickNik founder and CEO.
More information...
#news #robots
PickNik Robotics announced on June 8th that it has been awarded a NASA Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to develop its technology for advanced planning capabilities for robots in microgravity environments.
Founded in 2015, PickNik is a robotics software company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. PickNik is the lead maintainer of the open-source MoveIt project, a widely used robotic motion planning framework within the Robot Operating System (ROS).
“We are so excited to be collaborating with NASA in pushing the frontier of robotic manipulation beyond factories and warehouses, and into the most difficult domains,” commented Dr. Dave Coleman, PickNik founder and CEO.
More information...
#news #robots
📟 Raspberry Pi Matrix Cube Takes LEDs to a New Dimension
Matrix panels are awesome to play with using a Raspberry Pi but why limit yourself to a 2-dimensional plane? This maker, known as M4ngolicious online, is using six panels of 64 x 64 pixels, 24,576 pixels in total, to create a portable, wireless matrix cube.
M4ngolicious designed and 3D printed custom frames for each panel along with internal structures for mounting the hardware inside. The top panel even has magnets glued into place so it can be removed to access the internal components.
In the project, M4ngolicious is using 2200mah 3S 30C LiPo battery and two YPG 20A SBEC step down converters. The battery can last between 15 and 30 minutes but will vary depending on how bright the output is while in use.
More information:
Original post
Github page
#projects #raspberry #3d_modeling
Matrix panels are awesome to play with using a Raspberry Pi but why limit yourself to a 2-dimensional plane? This maker, known as M4ngolicious online, is using six panels of 64 x 64 pixels, 24,576 pixels in total, to create a portable, wireless matrix cube.
M4ngolicious designed and 3D printed custom frames for each panel along with internal structures for mounting the hardware inside. The top panel even has magnets glued into place so it can be removed to access the internal components.
In the project, M4ngolicious is using 2200mah 3S 30C LiPo battery and two YPG 20A SBEC step down converters. The battery can last between 15 and 30 minutes but will vary depending on how bright the output is while in use.
More information:
Original post
Github page
#projects #raspberry #3d_modeling
💻 Python vs. C/C++ in Embedded Systems
The article covers the merits and drawbacks of these programming languages and explains why Python can become a serious competitor in embedded systems for C.
The Case For Python:
▫️ Automated testing. Python provides developers with automated testing due to its ability to control tools that send and receive information from the embedded system.
▫️ Data analysis. The ability to receive and store information from the embedded system allows programmers to use Python to develop methods for real-time data visualization.
▫️ Easy-to-learn.
▫️ Extensive libraries.
▫️ Doesn’t use pointers in comparison to C. It lets developers manage the problems in the code easier.
The Case For C/C++:
▫️ Runtime speed. These languages don’t need to interpret the code at runtime.
▫️ Code is easy to control making the language highly-efficient.
▫️ More compact programs. It is crucial as embedded devices usually have little memory and lower-powered CPUs.
More information...
#articles
The article covers the merits and drawbacks of these programming languages and explains why Python can become a serious competitor in embedded systems for C.
The Case For Python:
▫️ Automated testing. Python provides developers with automated testing due to its ability to control tools that send and receive information from the embedded system.
▫️ Data analysis. The ability to receive and store information from the embedded system allows programmers to use Python to develop methods for real-time data visualization.
▫️ Easy-to-learn.
▫️ Extensive libraries.
▫️ Doesn’t use pointers in comparison to C. It lets developers manage the problems in the code easier.
The Case For C/C++:
▫️ Runtime speed. These languages don’t need to interpret the code at runtime.
▫️ Code is easy to control making the language highly-efficient.
▫️ More compact programs. It is crucial as embedded devices usually have little memory and lower-powered CPUs.
More information...
#articles
🔌 Shine Turbine: Foldable Turbine Puts Wind Power in Your Backpack
It can harvest three phones worth of power in as little as an hour
Shine Turbine, a 3-pound, 40-watt wind turbine that can charge handheld electronics, is the first of a series of renewable power devices designed by the startup to provide freedom from the electrical grid.
The team had to overcome several engineering challenges to get its design right since there were many variables contradicting each other. It had to be durable enough to use as an outdoor product but also lightweight and compact to be easily carried around, and also efficient enough to generate lots of power. This all meant it had to be highly engineered.
When wind speeds double, power output increases eightfold, and when you combine this with Shine's patent-pending technology (high-efficiency blades and lightweight design), you get yourself a wind charger that can provide the most energy for the least amount of weight.
More information...
#articles #energy
It can harvest three phones worth of power in as little as an hour
Shine Turbine, a 3-pound, 40-watt wind turbine that can charge handheld electronics, is the first of a series of renewable power devices designed by the startup to provide freedom from the electrical grid.
The team had to overcome several engineering challenges to get its design right since there were many variables contradicting each other. It had to be durable enough to use as an outdoor product but also lightweight and compact to be easily carried around, and also efficient enough to generate lots of power. This all meant it had to be highly engineered.
When wind speeds double, power output increases eightfold, and when you combine this with Shine's patent-pending technology (high-efficiency blades and lightweight design), you get yourself a wind charger that can provide the most energy for the least amount of weight.
More information...
#articles #energy
📊 Best RP2040 Boards 2021
While Raspberry has its own RP2040-powered board, there are now more than a dozen, third-party solutions
1. Raspberry Pi Pico: $4 Dual core Arm microcontroller
+Low cost
+Small size
+Ease of use
+Built-in ADC
-No USB-C
-Only three ADC pins
2. Adafruit Feather RP2040: The Gold Standard of ‘Pi Silicon’
+Great form factor
+STEMMA QT easy to use
+FeatherWing add-ons
+Onboard battery connection and charging
+Pin labelling on both sides of the board
-No pull up resistors on I2C pins
-No battery monitoring
3. Cytron Maker Pi Pico: The ideal way to build your Raspberry Pi Pico projects
+Low cost
+Easy to use
+Lots of extra features
+Inline LEDs
+Grove connectors
-ESP-01 needs extra work
4. Adafruit QT Py RP2040
+Small size
+Stemma QT Port
+USB-C
-Lack of GPIO pins
5. Pimoroni Tiny 2040
+Small size
+More ADC pins than Pico
+Built-in reset button
+Pin IDs printed on top
-Tricky to surface mount
-Incompatible with Pico add-on boards
-Premium price
More information...
#articles #boards
While Raspberry has its own RP2040-powered board, there are now more than a dozen, third-party solutions
1. Raspberry Pi Pico: $4 Dual core Arm microcontroller
+Low cost
+Small size
+Ease of use
+Built-in ADC
-No USB-C
-Only three ADC pins
2. Adafruit Feather RP2040: The Gold Standard of ‘Pi Silicon’
+Great form factor
+STEMMA QT easy to use
+FeatherWing add-ons
+Onboard battery connection and charging
+Pin labelling on both sides of the board
-No pull up resistors on I2C pins
-No battery monitoring
3. Cytron Maker Pi Pico: The ideal way to build your Raspberry Pi Pico projects
+Low cost
+Easy to use
+Lots of extra features
+Inline LEDs
+Grove connectors
-ESP-01 needs extra work
4. Adafruit QT Py RP2040
+Small size
+Stemma QT Port
+USB-C
-Lack of GPIO pins
5. Pimoroni Tiny 2040
+Small size
+More ADC pins than Pico
+Built-in reset button
+Pin IDs printed on top
-Tricky to surface mount
-Incompatible with Pico add-on boards
-Premium price
More information...
#articles #boards