14. 2. 2016
Creating the shutdown button
One of the most important parts of the Blue Seal Robot is the shutdown button which sends a shutdown signal to the Raspberry Pi. The button is controlled by an independent Python script running as Daemon in the background and has an absolute priority over all other processes. Once the button is pressed, the Raspberry Pi shuts down and we can safely cutoff the power without risking any damage to the SD-card. We can learn how to construct and program such a button in this article.
14. 2. 2016
Programming the Blue Seal Robot
Since the Blue Seal Robot has to control a lot of external devices as stepper motors, LED and various sensors and all of them demand individual approach, it is not possible to use one single Python program to operate all the devices at the same time without serious drawbacks. In this chapter we are going to learn about four processes which form the neural network of the Robot and ensure proper communication between sensors and control of stepper motors and LED diodes.
24. 12. 2015
Creating a Wi-Fi router on the Raspberry Pi
Have you ever wonder how to create your own Wi-Fi network with the Raspberry Pi? Since it is rather complicated to transform the Raspberry Pi into a Wi-Fi access point, we present two easy-to-use scripts to automatize the job in this article. The first script sets Wi-Fi router running the network on the Raspberry and the second one lifts all changes made by the first script. This way you can easily create our own network with minimal effort.
21. 12. 2015
Preparing the Raspberry Pi for the Blue Seal Robot
Before we start to use the Raspberry Pi as the brain of the Blue Seal Robot, we need to install several essential programs and libraries in order to use the GPIO ports, I²C bus or stream video. All the important programs can be downloaded easily by a shell script presented in this article. Moreover, we present a brief tutorial on how to prepare the Raspberry Pi for its first launch.
5. 12. 2015
Full manual on the Blue Seal Controller
The full manual on the Blue Seal Controller is online!
You can learn more about the Blue Seal Controller in this chapter. In the chapter you can discover how to modify layouts of its two parts: the Basic Controller and the Video Controller.
How to connect the Blue Seal Controller to a Wi-Fi network and what has to be set in order to use the Controller fully, see the following chapter.
In the last chapter you can learn in two easy tutorials how to interconnect the Blue Seal Controller with a PC or robot by a simple Python script or how to stream a video from your PC or a robot into your Android device using GStreamer.
17. 11. 2015
Follow the Blue Seal Project on Facebook
The Blue Seal Project has its own page on Facebook so you can be regularly updated and you will not miss any news about the project!
9. 11. 2015
The Blue Seal Controller is available on Google Play
From this day on, the Blue Seal Controller for Android is on Google Play and can be downloaded for free. You can also appreciate it by a donation if you like it! For further information how and where to download the app visit the section Download.
13. 8. 2015
Adding sections on motors, Wi-Fi module and sensors in the robotic part of the project
In order to understand the full potential of the Blue Seal Robot and its limits one has to learn about the individual components of robot. We will learn about the stepper motors and the Wi-Fi USB module able to create an access point in section
Motors and Wi-Fi.
The functionality of the robot is determined by its sensors, which allow the robot to obtain information about its surroundings. We will learn about the sensors used in the project: camera module, gyroscope+accelerometer module and ultrasonic sensor in section
Sensors.
19. 7. 2015
Adding introductory section for the robotic part of the project
The project is getting started and you can learn more info about the robot in the section Introducing the robot.
If you are planning to build your own robotic project and your are not sure, which computer board you should choose, have a look in subsection Choosing the right board, where I make a very basic comparison between Raspberry Pi boards and Arduino boards.
1. 7. 2015
Adding quotes
I decided to add some quotes. Sofar, I have added quotes from the famous book "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov. I read this book a long time ago and I was amazed by Asimov`s visions of troubles caused by a strict implementation of his laws of robotics. This is how we, the living creatures, differ from machines, because we are able to break our learnt behavior patterns if we get really frustrated. Unlikelly from the machines.
The second source of citations is the play "R.U.R.: Rossum`s universal robots" written by Czech playwright Karel Čapek. In this play the word "robot" occured for the very first time. The word "robot" was invented by his brother Josef Čapek. Karel Čapek was a visionary and was concerned with the impact of robots on humans and their social implications. He was also afraid that one day the robots could replace humans.
25. 6. 2015
Starting the website
Finally, after one month I have spent working only on this website alone, I was able to get it online!
This website is dedicated to the Blue Seal Project. The Blue Seal Project is a complex project of mine constiting of two parts: a Raspberry Pi based robot and its wifi controller for Android phones.
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