Saturday, 31 July 2010
Monday, 26 July 2010
So, robots eh? How's that going?
Yes, I work on robots ... but what exactly do I do all day? Well, here's one thing:
This is a test I did today to make sure the navigation software I've written for our robots could handle a variety of dynamic obstacles and trap situations. The robot is told to navigate through a series of way points around my lab, and along the way I ambush it with boxes and try to confuse it =) It eventually succeeds in making it back to my desk.
Navigation and obstacle avoidance are foundational requirements for the rest of my work, so this is actually what I started with several years ago. What I do now involves multiple robots moving around our lab, achieving a complex task through communication and team work without a leader or other central decision maker. More on that some other time.
This is a test I did today to make sure the navigation software I've written for our robots could handle a variety of dynamic obstacles and trap situations. The robot is told to navigate through a series of way points around my lab, and along the way I ambush it with boxes and try to confuse it =) It eventually succeeds in making it back to my desk.
Navigation and obstacle avoidance are foundational requirements for the rest of my work, so this is actually what I started with several years ago. What I do now involves multiple robots moving around our lab, achieving a complex task through communication and team work without a leader or other central decision maker. More on that some other time.
Monday, 12 July 2010
more garden goodness, and preparing to move!
It's been a foggy, cool summer so far, with high temperatures barely reaching the 70s (under 21 celsius), and not very much direct sunlight. The regular 'June Gloom' has done a good job of sticking around for July. Still, our plants are persevering, and we've been eating lots of delicious zucchini, chard, lettuce, brussels sprouts, and the occasional side of kale. There are now the beginnings of tomatoes, a couple cucumbers, and little proto-peppers. It's a race to the finish to see how much of the new things we'll get to eat before we leave. Nonetheless, the garden continues to be very enjoyable. And - drumroll - today we ate our first ear of corn! It was a little... shall we say... undernourished. As you'll see in the pictures, only about 2/3 of the kernels got fertilized and grew, so the aesthetics of the whole are not perfect. However, the ones that did come in were very tasty :)
While the garden grows we are quite busy: packing things, figuring out how to pack other things, selling things, figuring out how to ship things, and so on. There isn't much time left! We'll definitely miss having the garden, but there also won't be very much time to tend one in our new roles, so while it will be sad not to be gardening, it's probably a good thing. In the mean time, we'll continue to take advantage of the fruit of our labour here. Enjoy the photos!
The very tall corn, dwarfing the zucchini plants at the back of the cage
Our strawberry plants have gotten bigger, and are bearing more. Yum!
Peppers! These little plants have had a hard time - they need more hot weather than they've gotten...
Tomato plants lining the right side of the garden
Joey, shucking.
Who knew corn could be so suspenseful?
See? A little funny-looking. But deeeelicious!
The End.
While the garden grows we are quite busy: packing things, figuring out how to pack other things, selling things, figuring out how to ship things, and so on. There isn't much time left! We'll definitely miss having the garden, but there also won't be very much time to tend one in our new roles, so while it will be sad not to be gardening, it's probably a good thing. In the mean time, we'll continue to take advantage of the fruit of our labour here. Enjoy the photos!
The very tall corn, dwarfing the zucchini plants at the back of the cage
Our strawberry plants have gotten bigger, and are bearing more. Yum!
Peppers! These little plants have had a hard time - they need more hot weather than they've gotten...
Tomato plants lining the right side of the garden
Joey, shucking.
Who knew corn could be so suspenseful?
See? A little funny-looking. But deeeelicious!The End.
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Garden pictures from May
Here are some pictures from our garden from late May, the swiss chard we've been eating for the last several months, our first crop of zuchinni, and the corn which is now as tall as I am! We'll post some new photos soon for contrast ...
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