Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Frederick University’

Programming Lego NXT Robots with RobotC

November 14th, 2007
No comments

Chris Anderson from Wired Mag gives a great article covering some issues concerning environment of Lego Mindstorms robots using different programming languages.

For anyone who’s ever programmed, there’s nothing better for understanding logic than properly tabbed and commented code, all in a column of text as God intended. And for your kids, there’s no time like the present to introduce real , using coding conventions that will be as relevant in the decades to come as they were in decades past.

Simple and straight advantage of RobotC platform - coding in plain C, with well written Documentation on each function used for ’s. For the last month, RobotC upgraded from v1.05 to 1.10, so there are some improvements and updates from Carnegie Mellon University developers.

A great is that for our projects on and Automation subject, we have switched from Microsoft Studio to RobotC due to some reasons:

  • Lack of documentation on MRS (Professional MRS from Wrox will be published at the end of the year)
  • Missing some simulation sensors’ files for (can’t test all the capacities of sensors without robot)
  • Not all of students run Windows (but can be managed via Wine)
  • Full access to encoders and sensors data in simple manner.

As more sensors are about to come in stock, I believe will become one of the easiest ways of implementing concepts and algorithms for students.

Cyprus , , ,

Robotics - toys for Bachelor students

October 11th, 2007
No comments

Due to the faculty specifics, most of the forth course classmates took & Automation course this semester.

For catching up the idea of automation procedures, the teacher gave us a small NXT Robot to play around. I couldn’t remember when was the last time I did these stuff, however this amazed me a lot.

This small “toy” is equipped with:

  • Light Sensor (black and white spectrum)
  • Ultrasound Sensor
  • Bump Sensor
  • Sound Sensor

Lots of things to play around, especially taking in account the programmatic aspects of generation and Open Source C compiler for these robots: RobotC project.

Gadgets , , , , , , ,

Frederick University Cyprus: tiny upgrades

October 3rd, 2007
2 comments

So, what are the changes for the last year in Frederick?

  • I’m on my 4th year, doing bachelor.
  • To end up with 60 ECTS credits, I’d have to take 7 subjects in average this year
  • Small amount of subjects added
  • Price increas, so far up to 4200 CYP annually (if there’s no scholarships)
  • Want to participate in Frederic Research Centre - easily, just catch needed supervisor!
  • MSc in Information Technologies from Frederick will be launched by the next year.
  • MSc in exists in FIT, but ’s provided by Herriot Watt University.

As you can see, nothing special so far added or changed, thus the hype slowly goes down with the fact that of Technology (FIT) has become (FUC).

Blogging , , , ,

Matlab offset values and histograms

April 26th, 2007
No comments

The semester slowly moves to its logical ending - the summer, and the only question I have is, if I’m going to use Matlab after finishing Data Image Processing lectures or not.

But since, I’m still using , here is going to be one of the last projects for DIP lesson - offset changes of an image, with later on processing of histograms.

Comparing erode and dilate functions - offset procedure doesn’t effect the neighbouring pixels - all the actions are performed on each pixel respectively.

For changing offset value of an image we need to:

  1. Create a matrix of an initial image;
  2. Create a colour array for mapping pixels of the same colours (will be used for histogram);
  3. Accept the offset value from the user;
  4. And, of course, recalculate all!

Since we’re going to work with grey scale image, we have up to 255 colours from black to white. Later on, I’ll use the picture which was taken close to the institute.

%Reading the image
Ia = imread(’a.jpg’);
disp(’..Image “A” is loaded’)

%Initializing the colour array

arrA = zeros([1 255]);

Since the image has 683×1024 size, we’re going to use the nested loop to match all the colours and store its pixels into the array:

for m=1: 683
for n=1: 1024
%Storing repetetive color indexes in color array.
for i=1: 255
%Placing colors into color arrays for 3 images respectively.
if i == Ia(m,n)
arrA(1,i) = arrA(1,i) +1;
end
end
end
end

After eliminating the matrix picture, and entering the offset value, we can create an offset.m function file, where the rest of the calculations will take place. For , we’ll need to initiate a new matrix, of the same size, and another colour array, which will hold transformed pixel colours, and their quantities, to show the difference in the histograms:

for i=1: 683
for j=1: 1024
for k=1: 255
if k == Mtrx(i,j)
newArr(1,k) = newArr(1,k) + 1;
end
end
end
end
%…
disp(’Resulting images…’)
figure,imshow(y); title(’Initial Image’);
figure,imshow(Mtrx); title(’Result of Offset.jpg’);
disp(’Histograms…’)
figure,plot(z);title(’Initial Histogram’);
figure,plot(newArr); title(’Resulting Histogram’);

I’ve mentioned the main states of the calculation, but if you need to get really into the sources, simply download the source files, where three images have been processed, and enhanced with scaling function source files. For more complicated offset functionality, you may be interested in the offset filter made in Boston University.

Design, Gadgets ,

University buzz in Limassol

March 20th, 2007
No comments

As appeared, in few weeks, somewhere in the old city part of , the municipality plans to open a University of Technology. Great idea, especially when the main studying resorts like Intercollege and Frederick Institute are planning to achieve the status of University this year.

After studying three years in the institute, I’ll be graduating already the university: sounds good, but already some changes started to piss off:

  • Someone decided to start filtering Lab computers according to the Internet usage (they could have left at least admin logins unfiltered,damn!)
  • The rumours about increasing payment fees up to the “university” level (will be equal to 1 year MSc payment fees).
  • Free wi-fi over the whole building. (Did anyone tell where to find the installation settings, or ’s for VIP’s?!)

Well, in September, all filials of should be prepared for getting the status of the university, which university, and who’ll be prepared by that time and how well - no one knows…

Cyprus, FIT , , , , ,

Taking Master degree in Frederick Institute

January 28th, 2007
1 comment

Finally, the situation cleared up a bit. Due to the lack of updates on the official website of of Technology (FIT), I had to contact one of the lecturers from Computer Science Department in the main campus of FIT - in Nicosia.

As appeared, FIT offeres Master programmes for Bachelor students provided by Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh, therefore, if there would be no problems with staying in , I’ll be able to proceed with my Master Degree in .

Cyprus, FIT , , ,