How to access a database from an App

In the previous post, Writing an Android application – investigating Xamarin Forms, I looked at how to get a basic Android application running on my phone. Most applications’ purpose are to represent data to the user in some way and in most cases this data is stored in a database. This […]

Where is the centre of gravity of a self-balancing robot?

This is part of a series of posts covering the development of a self-balancing robot: Modelling an inverted pendulum Building a self-balancing robot This post The mathematical model of an inverter pendulum previously developed for the self-balancing robot, needs three parameters to accurately represent reality. These are Weight of the […]

How to contruct a self-balancing robot

This is part of a series of posts covering the development of a self-balancing robot: Modelling an inverted pendulum This post Dertermining the centre of gravity for a self-balancing robot   Previously we investigated how to model an inverted pendulum. It is now time to go ahead and build the […]

Low cost STM32F3 board

If you are looking for a STM32F3 board for your next project it might just be worth your while to consider the SP Racing F3 board. In a previous post I discussed how you can program an old Naze32 flight controller board using Arduino. While writing it I also looked […]

Programming Naze32 with Arduino

The Naze32 is one of those iconic flight controller boards of the early days of FPV quads. It superseded the 8bit boards of the time and was the board to have. Fast forward to today, flight controller firmware has generally become much more complex with support for new features and […]

First steps with ROS

As with many other complex problems, we can often solve and handle robotic problems more effectively if we break them up into smaller pieces. One way to achieve this is by using ROS (Robot Operating System), which promotes a more distributed design approach. The basic idea is that we break […]

Modelling an inverted pendulum – deriving a mathematical model

This is part of a series of posts covering the development of a self-balancing robot: This post Building a self-balancing robot Dertermining the centre of gravity for a self-balancing robot Aim Accurately model an inverted pendulum to use for control algorithms development for physical implementation. Personal goal: refresh basic understanding […]

Blob detection and tracking

In an upcoming project I want to experiment with image recognition and have a balance robot track and follow a colored ball. As a prelude to that project and to learn more about what is involved in terms of the image processing I came up with a smaller sub project. […]

Building a UAVCAN Node

Using CAN bus to connect peripherals on a drone has always sounded like a good idea. It is well known for it’s robustness and efficiency in connecting electrical control units in cars together, so it should also be well suited for drones. Flight controllers like the Pixhawk and Cube have […]