Robotic Dog Sitter...

This is awesome!   When Jordan Correa and his wife both started working full time, they found themselves away from their home much more often, leaving their dog, Darwin, alone all day. Most people would have just had to leave the problem as is, or maybe get a part time pet sitter. But Correa, being a test developer for the Microsoft Robotics Team, came up with a solution right in line with his talents and built a dog-sitting robot, so he could play and speak with his pet over the internet while he's at work



Correa constructed a robot that can interact with his dog much like he would himself, which he named the "DarwinBot." A Slate PC on the front lets the owner speak to his dog over Skype, while a dispenser on the side can distribute treats on his command. The DarwinBot can also play fetch, thanks to a ball launcher on top and a robotic arm that can retrieve the ball after the dog drops it in front of it.  This is just what every pampered pooch needs on their shopping list :0)

Flyfishmagazine: The elusive Colorado snow trout

Flyfishmagazine: The elusive Colorado snow trout - love it!

Adactus, F1 in Schools competition...

They won - YES!!!!!!!

Team Adactus have won the central England F1 in Schools Championship & also best engineered car...

Adactus say:

"The team was successful at the 2012 Central England Regional Final at Loughborough University on the 10th of February. We won first place in our category and the award for the best engineered car. Because of this, the team now qualifies for the 2012 National Final at the Big Bang Fair at the NEC on the 16th and 17th of March.

We would like to thank our sponsors for helping us get this far:

◦SMB Bearings
◦McDonalds
◦Red Firecracker Decals
◦UKHost4U
And of course we would like to thank our school, Lutterworth College".

You can keep up to date with the team's news via their blog, which is full of great things :0) - good work guys!



Video edits from our Facebook friends...

Thanks to everyone who's shared an edit with us this week, there's been some real talent on show & we thought we should share it with our friends who aren't Facebook nuts!

Charlie Whitehouse:

Luke Dafforn:

Liam Witchard:

& last but not least, Shannon Francis!

Thanks guys, a great range of talent & fun on show here - surely enough to inspire everyone to get out & give it a go this weekend! :0)

****

Corski Alpinskis...

Just spoken to the lovely people at Corski, who have designed these amazing Alpine/downhill skates, so you can practice skiing off-piste altogether!

This video shows the speed you can get up-to on these things & was filmed by an uber-skilled BMX rider:

Apparently, the product has been in development for about 10 years & is just about to go into serious production - good luck to all at Corski with that!

Shannon Francis, stunt scooter star...

We're delighted to be able to share the latest video creation from Shannon Francis.  The Bristol-based stunt scooter rider shows off some great skill & very kindly shows off our logo too :0)



We are delighted to sponsor someone so proactive & enthusiastic - keep up the good work Shannon!
You can follow Shannon at her fanpage, where there's lots of news about the Bristol scoot scene.

Vélo Vogue: she likes bikes

Vélo Vogue: she likes bikes: I think it's a safe assumption.

Adactus - F1 in Schools update...

We are proud sponsors of team "Adactus", who are competing in this year's F1 in Schools Championship.  The challenge involves teams of students, aged between 9 & 19, designing, analysing, manufacturing, testing, and then racing miniature gas powered balsa wood F1 cars,

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish them all the very best, as this Friday sees the team competing in the UK's Central regional finals at Loughborough University.

The team say: "We are currently competing in our fourth year of the competition and have recently changed out name from Mach1. In our first year we won Best New Team at the Central England Regional Finals, In our second year we came first at the Regional Finals which meant we qualified for the National Finals and In our third year we won Best Engineered Car, Fastest Car and First Place at the Regional Finals. At the National Finals we won Best Engineered Car and Second Place. We were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to collaborate with a Malaysian team to compete in the International Finals in Singapore under the name Team Fusion in 2010.



"Mach1", now "Adactus" are pictured in blue


After taking a break for a year, the team is now competing with the strong intention to come first at the International Finals. The team has welcomed two new members this year and has had a complete makeover with a new team identity.

With new sponsors, new ideas and a new identity we are ready to achieve our goal and enjoy it!"

Well guys, we've sent our very best bearings out to you & we hope very much that they help you on the way to victory!  We can't wait to hear how you get on :0)

RC Quadcopter swarm...

How cool is this?!



Remote-controlled quadrotor robots have been around for some time, but in the following video just released by a research team at the University of Pennsylvania's General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab, science fiction edges much closer to science fact as a swarm of the Nano Quadrotors perform some astounding maneuvers.


Admittedly, use of the term "nano" may be stretching things a bit, but even so, the capable little robots provide an interesting glimpse into what the future may hold for surveillance, search and rescue, light construction and a myriad of other apps.