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Well, it's been a long time coming, for which I appologise, but better late than never... hope you're going to find the new functionality usefull. Questions, suggestions and bug reports should be posted in the Site Feedback section of the forum.

Existing members should use the login link to synchronise their status on the site with their existing forum status. If you check the 'remember me' box when you login, this should be a one-time operation. I'm pretty sure that the merging of membership operation between the site code and the forum has gone OK, but in case anyone experiences any problems, the standard Snitz forum code will be running on http://www.robotbuilder.co.uk/oldforum

Although the site is up, it's still quite heavily a work in progress. Status reports, updates and other site related ramblings will be published in the Robot Builder News section of the forum.


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This section contains various robot building related resources. Currently these are Articles, Tutorials and FAQs.

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Directory of robot building related links and contact information for other robot building related resources.

Robot Builder Events
Robot related events - competitions, exhibitions, seminars, get-togethers, conferences. If it's robot related and you know the date, put it in the calendar and let everyone else know about it.


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There is no fee for entry - just turn up on the day.

Maze Solver, Wall-Follower, Time Trials, Mini-SUMO, Line Follower, Drag Race and Freestyle




Basic Stamp Educator's Course, University of Bath, England
(Wed 15th & Thurs 16th June 2011)

Active Robots offer a 2-Day residential BASIC Stamp Educator’s course held in association with Parallax, to introduce teachers to simple circuits, microcontroller programming, and robotics through hands-on instruction and labs.




TechFest events: UK Micromouse 2011, Wall Follower, Time Trials, Drag Race, Wall Follower, Line Follower, Mini-Sumo.







Latest posts on RobotBuilder
RobotBuilder

LifeAI robot demonstration (by: jeremiah)
Season's Greetings (by: Agog)
Johnny Five (by: AlsRobotics)
Working in the robotics field (by: mike23)
Robux Project, the PC robot (by: AlsRobotics)

Last Refreshed 2/5/2012 6:04:33 AM

robots.net
Recent robots.net articles

Swarming Nano Quadrotors from GRASP Lab
David Anderson on Subsumption-based Robots
Political Pundits Discover the Uncanny Valley

The Uncanny Valley has been called upon to explain why Mitt Romney's persona disturbs so many people despite general agreement that he's a "successful, good-looking family man". Like Democrat Al Gore in previous races, Republican Mitt Romney creates a strange unease even among his supporters. A recent essay in the Atlantic provides an explanation for this phenomenon based on the Uncanny Valley theory that we are repulsed by slight imperfections in human-like action. The author argues that Romney's personality exhibits traits which put him into an "uncanny valley" for politicians.

"Most politicians tend to be ordinary-looking people who spend their time convincing voters they're office-quality material. Romney is rushing the other way: he's the politician from central casting who is stumbling through an audition for a role of regular human."

There were lots of jokes and comments about Al Gore being a "robot" in earlier races. But here we've got a more detailed attempt at explaining what makes people uncomfortable about this type of politician. This raises interesting questions: 1) is this just an amusing analogy or could there be any real psychology behind claims of a political uncanny valley? 2) does a reference to the uncanny valley by a political pundit mean even relatively obscure robotics and AI science is going mainstream? 3) if even some humans fall into the uncanny valley, is it more important that robots climb the other side or that we adjust our expectations of intelligent behavior?
Diagram based on Mori Uncanny Valley

Robots Podcast: Advances in Bipedal Locomotion
"My robot is better than your robot."

Last Refreshed 2/5/2012 6:04:34 AM

KurzweilAI » News
Accelerating Intelligence

Highest-resolution in-vivo images of mouse brain achieved
New super-Earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby star
iRobot goes to the hospital
NASA probe captures 1st video of moon’s far side
Self-guided bullet could hit laser-marked targets from a mile away

Last Refreshed 2/5/2012 6:04:40 AM




Last Refreshed 2/5/2012 6:04:41 AM