the bachelor's degree project demonstration last week showcased dozens of robots of all shapes and sizes… they travel in air, on land and underwater… not to mention the amphibious ones… from the legless snakes to the two-legged bipeds to the four-legged turtle to the six-legged crab… i'm not sure if there were any with even more legs… and then there were the helicopters, boats and hovercrafts… i wasn't present for most of the demonstrations so i can't be sure what else there were… anyway… here are some of them in pictures… to view their videos on youtube… just follow the links… they include stairo… brat… enigma… turtletron… micromouse… snake… dexterous hand… and of course… vortex

my hovercraft has been christened vortex earlier this week… after some inspiration gathered during a random im chat with a course mate of mine… he's got a spanking new blog launched recently too… anyway… if you search for sem2007 in youtube… you'll come across a whole lot of videos of the robots during our demonstration last week… uploaded by another course mate of mine… anyway… here's one of vortex in action… :)

from the past month… i have learnt that i'm a worse procrastinator than i thought i was… i can't seem to work without an immediately pressing deadline… such a bad habit caused me to stay up for more than a day continuously… tapping away at my keyboard furiously to conjure up a thesis in twenty-four hours… well… i managed to do so but it was a little too late to hand it up today when i finished it in the afternoon though… the same goes for my hovercraft… which was only truly completed nine hours before the demonstration… it was some minor tweak but nevertheless… i could have done everything much earlier if i wanted to…

anyway… i'm taking this opportunity to extend my thanks to all of you out there who have helped in various ways… you know who you are… from hardware construction… circuit troubleshooting… computer-aided designing… surface painting… and et cetera… i truly appreciate all the assistance… advice… and support… at long last… it is accomplished…

the most crucial part came to pass… and serpent immediately celebrated the joyous post-demo hours hanging out downtown… as well as jamming… for the first time this semester… and after that it was time for command and conquer 3… and good old counterstrike till sunrise… it was tiring but fun nevertheless…

the final touches and tweaks are complete… it's half-past six now… nine hours to the climax of all the effort throughout these recent months… this is it…

hovercraft build 1.0… ready for public release soon… since i'm waiting for the glue to dry i guessed might as well snap some pics and post them up in the meantime… it's painted in my fave colours… with special thanks to the guest artist who gave it such a nice finishing touch… zooming to a place near you in no time… :)

at long last… it finally hovers… for real… i am pleased beyond words… the light at the end of the tunnel is brighter… and i am one step closer to the end…

i am relieved that much of the soldering that needs to be done is over… my eyes are red and i even got finger cramps while holding the wires… it is indeed a hazardous job… not to mention the constant inhalation of toxic fumes… i was worried that at the end of a long day's work… the circuit would be problematic… but it's working like it should so far… so i guess that's good… its five in the morning… and for once i didn't stay up late unproductively…

the slightest errors and oversights have lost me precious hours in my race against time to finish my receiver circuitry… and of course i have learnt that theoretically reasonable assumptions do not always result in practically functional results… i just hope it all falls in place soon…

the deadline is looming and i'm panicking… i spent hours inhaling poisonous fumes… just to get the radio frequency transmitter working… after the first one malfunctioned all off a sudden… i had to redo it painstakingly… what luck… anyway… the one on the left is the current working board since the other one gave up for no apparent reason… :(

time to rest after a day's frustration…