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(a little late for X-mas, but maybe in time for New Year's...)
As many of you know, when I was at MIT one of the last things I worked
on (from 1996 to 2000, actually) was a tiny robotics controller called
the Cricket.
In May, 2001, I obtained rights to the Cricket work, and set about
designing a "hardened" commercial Cricket.
That Cricket is now ready! I'm calling it the "Handy Cricket," to
distinguish it from the MIT work (which is on-going).
The Handy Cricket is a miniature robotics controller based on a
Microchip PIC processor. It's powered by four AA batteries, and can
operate two DC motors and receive information from two sensors.
There are a few things that make the Cricket special.
1. Crickets are programmed in Logo, a powerful yet easy-to-learn
language with an interactive interface. The design of Interactive C --
with its C> prompt -- was in fact highly influenced by Logo. With the
Cricket, turning on a motor is as simple as typing "a, on" into the
Cricket Logo command center.
2. Crickets have a built-in IR port for communications and program
download. The LEGO RCX has this now too, of course, but the Cricket's
IR is higher-performance, more reliable, and easier to use. To send the
value 5 to another Cricket, simply execute the code "send 5". The
receiving Cricket then checks the value of a system variable named "ir"
to see the latest value received.
3. Crickets have a device expansion "bus port," that will allow all
sorts of other peripherals, sensors, and actuators to be connected to
the Cricket. Lots of these were developed at MIT, and I will releasing
these designs for public use, as well as publishing complete
specifications so that anyone can readily develop a Cricket peripheral.
So while 2-motors/2-sensors seems limiting, there's no hard upper bound
on how many bus devices can be connected to single Cricket. We've built
Cricket projects that had a dozen or so devices connected to a single
Cricket, and more are possible.
Crickets are being distributed by Gleason Research. We have lots of
Crickets in stock and are ready to accept orders.
The Cricket home page is now part of the Handy Board site, at
http://handyboard.com/cricket/ . It's a little bare-bones right now,
but enough information to get going is there.
If you'd like to order a Cricket, go to http://gleasonresearch.com .
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday season.
Yours,
Fred
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