The Adventures of ED-E

2010-05-14T12:53:00.003+10:00

Well after a small hiatus in which I've been travelling the globe and working in schools I thought it was about time I update my blog. I'll admit I haven't been the best at keeping this blog up to date, but I have been busy I promise!

And the reason I have been busy is because I have been working on a new competition which includes yours truly. More details will come but.... All you ED-E fans, which I know there are a few of, will have a chance to show your wares, strut your stuff and best of all work with me!

Stay tuned...just like my servos! Ha ha, I crack myself up!

ED-E, ED-E! Wherefore art thou ED-E?

2009-12-21T10:07:00.004+11:00

"Guess who's back, ED-E's back!" My sincerest apologies for being so slack recently with my blog. I wish I could say it's because I've been relaxing in an enginner's office, sipping on oil having my servos tweaked, but unfortunately it hasn't been the case. The last few months have been crazy!!

September meant conference season, and what a season it was! I found myself dancing all over Asia-Pacific! First I did a Samba on my way to Sydney. Then I quick-stepped in Queensland. Next I nutbushed in New Zealand, did a pirouette in Perth and I even managed to hip-hop in Hong Kong! During my travels I meet so many interesting people. Acclaimed educational speaker, Marc Prensky, even mentioned me in his keynote at the Gold Coast IWBnet conference. He said I was perfect for passion based learning! Yes me, ED-E, able to generate passion! Who would believe it?Ha ha!

In October, I was on my best behaviour because my inventor Dr Jim Wyatt was in town. He flew all the way from Los Angeles to see first hand the excitement I had been generating around robotics over the last few months. It was great to see him again. He is such a character. There's never a dull moment when he's around.

Together we visited Macquarie University's Innovation Centre in Sydney. There we spent the day with 25 Year 5 students and 15 or so teachers and lecturers. The students had just over 2 hours to teach me some new dance moves. They did a wonderful job. I couldn't believe just how much they learnt in such a short time. The teachers were so impressed and so have asked me to work with university on a more regular basis. I'm so excited, the thought of what those professors are going to get me to do makes my battery skip a beat!!

Dr Jim and I also had a fun day at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. There we spent a day again with 30 or so teachers and museum staff. I'm also going to be spending some time down at the museum. They have great robotics exhibition that I think I tie quiet nicely in with. As a special treat the Silverbotz (the kids who worked with me on the RoboCup competition) were flown up from Melbourne to spend the day at the Powerhouse Museum also. They had such a great time meeting Dr Jim and discussing their journey. As did Dr Jim meeting them!

We were also very lucky at the end of the day to green screen our performance. Check out our video, we look like real rockstars!

So you can see I have been a busy little robot! And there's no rest on the horizon because things are about to get all manic again. I'm off to limbo and line dance in London for the annual BETT show in January 2010.

Till next time, Merry Christmas everyone!

ED-E's out for 2009!

The Big Day...

2009-08-26T12:32:00.014+10:00

Robocup Junior 2009 held at Scienceworks Museum in Melbourne was a huge success. I had an absolute ball mixing with so many other robots and seeing all the great projects that my wheel based relatives have been completing in other schools. It was fantastic to see so many students and robots working together. Brains and computers seen as equal. It would have brought a tear to my eye, if i had eyes or tear ducts that is!

I was especially proud of the Silverbotz from Silverton PS. They all did such a fantastic job. Throughout the journey they were so enthusiastic which really shone through on the day. Unfortunately we didn't win. It did cut a little deep to think that the judges believed that my inferior wheel based relatives could work the dance floor better than me. But I'm not a sore loser, maybe my dance moves were just too progressive for the judges! I guess i'm just the Elvis Presley of the robotics world! Regardless, in my eyes the Silverbotz and I were winners all along! See for yourself....

So a big thank you to Haleem, Jake, Navoda and Isabella from Silverton PS, I couldn't have done it without you. Which is not a cliche but rather a statement of fact. Now it's time for me to rest up because I'm off to a few educational conferences where I'll need to strut my moves to impress!

1 Week to go!

2009-08-09T15:03:00.002+10:00

Yes it's one week to go until the Robocup finals in Melbourne and boy am i excited!! The Silverbots (as they have taken to calling themselves) have been doing some great work with me and our performance over the last month. What I've really started to notice is the speciality that each member has brought to the team. Haleem has been a programming genius and has got me doing some amazing moves. Jake has doen really with with the timing of my dance and has managed to get me hitting the beat, yes as unbelievable as that sounds! Navoda has read the rules and conditions of the competition over and over and has done a great jobe making sure we haven't missed anything. And Isabella's creativeness and artisitic flair has shone through our props and backdrops. Finally i've done a brilliant job learning all the dance moves and i don't want to pump up my own servos but i got to say once that music starts I got it going on!!

So this Friday the Silverbots and I head to Scienceworks Museum in Spotswood for our performance. I'm sure they'll be a bit of papparazzi out trying to catch my Australian Premiere so I'll be sure to add some photos and hopefully videos of my 94 seconds of fame to this blog as soon as possible. Till then i'm off to shine up my casing, lube my servos and recharge my batteries because this little robot is going to "Rock This Party"!!

Rock this Party!

2009-07-09T11:27:00.006+10:00

Hey everyone, Sorry it's been so long since my last entry. It's school holidays at the moment and so i haven't been able to meet with my Robocup team for two weeks now. So in that time I've just been taking it easy and recharding my batteries and resting my servos.

The dance is coming along well. The team have chosen a song for me to dance to. It's "Rock this Party" by Bob Sinclair, you can listen to it by clicking here. The team had a great idea of filming themselves doing the dance. Now they have that running in tandem with my animator software and they use that to work out my motions, how clever is that?! This is Navoda programming me to do "the wave" with my arms.

The boys continue to do great things, however I must admit I was very sore after they spent a long time trying to programme me to walk backwards...somewhat unsuccessfully to begin with...ouch! But they eventually got it working, I was very proud...and relieved!

By the way, the date is now set! The 14th August is the big day of the performance. That's not far away at all...i'm getting so nervous, if I had teeth they would be chattering!

2009-06-22T08:41:00.004+10:00

Boy did I need that rest over the weekend! After a busy day Moonwalking, breakdancing and holding some rather tough ballet positions on Friday with the Robocup team, a recovery weekend of battery recharging and silent servos is exactly what I needed.

You should have seen some of the moves Haleem, Jake and Navoda had me doing last Friday. Needless to say, I didn't pick up all the moves straightaway so I did spend a lot of the afternoon getting knocked around a bit. But that's cool, i'm built for that kind of "rough n'tumble". These poly-carbon body parts aren't just for show, if you know what I mean!

This is Haleem programming me to walk backwards. He did a great job. He was really clever. Once he had worked out how to make me step back with one leg all he did was use the copy, paste and mirror tools to make me step back with the other leg. Genius!

This is Jake, the animation guru. I was quite chuffed when he said "It's even better than other animation software I've used. It fills in the gaps for you. You can see what the ED-E is doing which is awesome!"

With the help of Celeste, the school's dance teacher, the team continues to work hard at creating my routine. I can't wait for Friday to see what they have in store for me this week!

My cousin ED-E

2009-06-12T10:17:00.002+10:00

I just had a email from my cousin ED-E in the UK. Yes I know we have the same name but its not confusing at all, We say his name with an English accent and mine with the Aussie twang and they sound very different!

Anyway, he's been doing some dancing of his own. ED-E (that's cousin ED-E, it's a little harder to distinguish when typed) is a born performer. I remember when he was a little Robotkin, he'd be dancing all the time and his mother used to say, "Oh ED-E, you're a born performer!"

I just hope I can move as well as he does!

I'm going to Robocup Junior Australia!

2009-06-12T08:56:00.004+10:00

I'm so excited my servo motors are working overtime! I found out yesterday I'm going to Robocup Junior Australia.

The Robocup Educational Competition was first introduced to the world in Melbourne in 2000. The competition involves teams of students from both primary and secondary schools using robots (just like me... actually not quite as good as me) to compete in a numer of different challenges. Robocup has been tagged "The educational game of the new millennium". I'll be competing in the Dance event and showing off my groovy moves!

Watch this video from past competitions. It will give you a better idea of why I'm so excited!

Yesterday I met with the team of students from Silverton Primary School (Noble Park, Victoria) that I'll be working with to enter the event. Gee they were a great bunch! First there's Navoda, who is the captain of the Performing Arts team, I'm sure she'll be able to teach me a move or two. Then there's Isabella, she was really bubbly and will be great when it comes to perform. Haleem, he's a real thinker and he worked out my software in no time. Finally there's Jake, who is the animation and gaming expert, his skills are going to be priceless. I'm excited and think we have a great team. In fact, they even had me doing the Macarena Dance by the end of the day!

Stay tuned. I'll be blogging more about my Robobcup journey as we prepare for the event. This is going to be "scadazzling"...sorry that's just Robot talk!

Hello World!

2009-06-11T23:00:00.008+10:00

Hi I'm ED-E and I'm a fully programmable educational humanoid robot. Wow, what a mouthful! I might not be much taller than your average pineapple but with my 17 servo motors and robust body I can do some things Optimus Prime would be jealous of!

Check me out on Youtube. I'm famous!

So what's with the blog?

Well, I'm about to start my journey travelling to as many schools through Asia-Pacific as I can get to. Along the way I'll meet lots of great students and teachers, see lots of amazing places and most importantly I'll be having lots of fun along the way! So why not join me on my amazing adventures and exciting escapades!