RC (Radio control) Flying..

I was always attracted to planes and wanted to do something about it. I use to watch videos on youtube about those RC planes which people fly. RC stands for Radio controlled. Yes, it has a remote control which emits radio frequency and the plane flies. So i dived into the world of RC controlled aircrafts and soon discovered that its a whole new world. RC planes are expensive, you need to join a RC flying club to fly at public parks, you have to be a member of a national organization to join a local club. You have to adhere to safety codes while flying RC... there are many more factors to this hobby.

RC Planes are of different types with different controls. The full blown model planes are same as real planes with the reduction ratio of 1/3 to 1/6th of the actual aircraft. It has actual controls like rudder, elevator, ailerons, motor and even flaps. They work exactly on the same principle as the real planes work. Flying a RC plane is far more difficult than flying an actual plane because you are looking at a 3rd party view which is very difficult and confusing. When the plane is going away from you, you have the correct controls but when the plane is coming towards you .. guess what .. the same controls get inverted. The RC planes being smaller in size can change directions abruptly because of the wind confusing you enough to lose control and you may crash pretty easily.

The different types of RC planes are, electric (which fly on battery power) and fuel/gas type. You actually fill gas in it to run the engine and you control it via Radio controller. Then there are fighter models, WWII models, gliders, bi-planes.. and many more.. just think of it and its there.

The Radio controllers are different also. The basics are the 3 channel radio controllers and they go upto 14 channel. You actually need maximum of 6 channels to fly the most advance planes of today. You have to check the frequency at which other RC pilot is flying and you have to select a different frequency. If you select the same frequency as his or hers and you suddenly start interfering with his aircraft and he may lose control :) .. fun world huh !!

Its a very attractive hobby .... lets see where i go from here :)

Robotics.

Robotics

The term robotics brings many thoughts in mind. Its a very catchy word, maybe because we see lot of sci-fi movies and the word is related to it??Being a software engineer, i was always attracted to Artificial intelligence and Robotics and use to read a lot every now and then on the internet but everything was just theory. I use to wonder how those people who take part in robotics competitions, can create robots ??.

So i dived into the world of robotics and tumbled upon the exciting world of Lego mindstorm XT. Mindstorm XT is a robo kit from Lego which contains the robo brain called "Brick" two rotary motors, and 4 sensors viz. touch sensor, sound sensor, light sensor and ultrasonic sensor. The "brick" is completely programmable. We can write our own custom program, compile it and load the executable on the "brick" using a USB or Bluetooth and woooo the robot works as you want it... isn't that cool.
currently i am in the process of learning more about this kit and i am sure i am gonna buy it :)

so.. i will soon post a video of my own programmed robot.. stay tuned.