For anyone interested in building a robot like this, our new A-Star 32U4 robot controller includes most of the electronics shown here, on a single PCB. So if you use that, you can skip the breadboard and directly wire your batteries, motors, and sensors to the controller.
I have not made a wiring diagram (need to learn Fritzing!), but I still have the robot, so if there are any connections that are not clear in my post, I would be happy to check them for you.
Paul's dead reckoning robot
- 19 August 2015For anyone interested in building a robot like this, our new A-Star 32U4 robot controller includes most of the electronics shown here, on a single PCB. So if you use that, you can skip the breadboard and directly wire your batteries, motors, and sensors to the controller.
Paul's dead reckoning robot
- 20 July 2015I have not made a wiring diagram (need to learn Fritzing!), but I still have the robot, so if there are any connections that are not clear in my post, I would be happy to check them for you.
Math on the Pololu website!
- 27 June 2014Ben wanted me to post the details of the Gaussian integral, so here we go.
It's simpler to think about the full integral from ``-oo`` to ``+oo``. Let's give that a name:
``lambda = int_-oo^oo e^(-x^2) dx``.
Then, instead of trying to compute ``lambda``, we work on ``lambda^2``:
``lambda^2 = ( int_-oo^oo e^(-x^2) dx )^2 = int_-oo^oo int_-oo^oo e^(-x^2) e^(-y^2) dx dy``.
We note that ``e^(-x^2) e^(-y^2) = e^(-(x^2+y^2))`` and rewrite in polar coordinates:
``lambda^2 = int_0^oo e^(-r^2) 2pi r \ dr``.
Luckily, that integral is easy, since ``d / (dr) pi e^(-r^2) = - 2 pi r \ e^(-r^2)``:
``lambda^2 = - [ pi e^(-r^2) ]_0^oo = pi``;
``lambda = sqrt(pi)``.
Finally, since the Gaussian is an even function, our desired integral is just half of that value:
``int_0^oo e^(-x^2) dx = sqrt pi / 2``.
Pocket-sized USB charger adapter
- 6 March 2014Thanks for the nice feedback, and please let us know when you post more projects!