General Information

Major Site Changes

Posted Wed, 20/01/2010 - 01:24 by peteh

The site is undergoing a major change. I have dumped the old content management software used in the root and imported all the blog posts here from the Wordpress site they were living in. Once the indexes have re-built, that will mean that the old CMS pages and the blog posts can be searched together. The new software makes many aspects of the site easier to manage and will let me import the content currently found on my original micromouse site at Cannock.

A new day dawns

Posted Sat, 21/02/2009 - 21:27 by peteh
ED6DCA67-D4B3-46EA-BAE9-4FB2DB2542A4.jpgAfter several weeks playing with a MacBook, I have become a bit of a Mac convert. Not only are the machines very pleasing and the operating system a relative delight to use, I can also run Windows on it for that 'best of both worlds' experience.

Robot Racer - line followers in Japan

Posted Wed, 09/07/2008 - 17:24 by peteh

There has been some talk of changing the schools micromouse competitions. I am in favour of a more flexible line-following class of competitions. While doing a bit of research, I found many examples of the kind of thing I had in mind. Given that these competitions are much more popular in South East Asia, I was not surprised to find that most of the information and examples were to be found in Japan. What I was surprised to find was just how well advanced the state of the art is over there.

Rise of the Robots Update

Posted Mon, 19/05/2008 - 01:59 by peteh

IMG_2749 I have just returned form the Rise of the Robots event at the National Space Centre in Leicester. Just one of many specially themed weekends they hold, this proved a great success for exhibitors and guests alike. Visitors were able to experience a variety of robotic experiences from the mayhem of Robot Wars to the more genteel charm of a range of walking robots made by David Buckley. Naturally, there was room for micromouse. The space tie-in was provided by the presence of a particularly scary set of Daleks...

Robotics in the Curriculum

Posted Wed, 02/04/2008 - 01:32 by peteh

IMG_2515 All fools day it may have been ... but not at the Open University headquarters today in Milton Keynes. The 'Robotics in the Curriculum' event was attended by a variety of people from the commercial and education worlds. Looking for ways to develop the use of robotics in education, there was plenty of experience to be shared. I was there showing off micromouse and the related schools competitions to  pretty well anyone who would stand still long enough to look interested...