Seb's Blog

Segway RMP

sebgray — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:13:31 +0000

Segway's new RMP, sporting omnidirectional tires

Segway, the company that brought you the two wheeled, self balancing electric get- around vehicle, has unveiled a new model at RoboBusiness 2008. At the moment we don’t know much about the new RMP (Robotic Mobility Platform), apart from it being a standalone autonomous object transportation robot and the suggestion that it might cost up to £31,500, that’s $50,000 for you americans . The platform itself in this concept seems to be relatively low to the ground, giving it a low centre of gravity. It will be sporting my new favourite concept subject- omnidirectional wheels! These wheels would obviously allow the robot to move in any direction required, giving it the capability of moving in and out of spots that other conventional robots would not be able to move around in. As for the weight it can carry, in the video it shows a man kneeling on top of it, and later in the MAKE article it says that it can carry up to 400lb. See the video below.

This year, so far, I have found two different concepts which use omnidirectional wheels, both designed by major companies, suggesting the future is looking bright for this new technology.

You can find the original article at MAKE here.

My Birthday!

sebgray — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:27:56 +0000

Cake!

Once again, 26th of October, and I’m sixteen! Hooray!!!

I’ve had this blog since I was 14, and it has only succeeded and thrived over time. It has had fairly constant number of hits every day, even when I haven’t been able to write much, eventually adding up to a massive number of views- I’ve now beaten the 60,000 mark. Thanks to everyone who has made this possible- I’m very proud of it!

Mitsubishi MMR25- Vision of a Future Rally Car

sebgray — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:02:16 +0000

You may remember a post I wrote a little over a year ago now on a concept for omnidirectional tires for vehicles. You can find the old post with a video showing how they work here. In that particular video, the tires are shown to be used on a forklift truck, allowing it to manoever in ways never possible before with conventional tires.

Mitsubishi's concept rally car

This week, while Stumbling, I came across this page, which I was surprised to see, showed a concept vehicle designed by Mitsubishi unveiled at the LA Auto Show this year that incorporated omnidirectional tires! The original article was taken from Jalopnik and shows Mitsubishi’s vision of what they think will be a future rally car. I think that as omnidirectional tires are shown in more concepts, people will gain more of an interest and perhaps one day they may even become mainstream, built on normal domestic vehicles!

The MMR25

“The MMR25 incorporates an omnidirectional wheel design that consists of eight independently-controlled electric motors within each wheel hub. This makes the MMR25 the first and only “8 x 4” wheel drive vehicle. The rotational direction of the tires allows the vehicle to be driven forward while pointing the nose of the vehicle in any direction, instead of drifting you can actually drive sideways (or at any angle.) Innovative “Oblique Aerodynamics” gives the vehicle aero advantages when driving sideways.”

I think that this new, completely revolutionary (excuse the pun) technology is all very exciting will be offering amazing new possibilities in the world of automobiles.

Usain Bolt- Wow!

sebgray — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:18:41 +0000

I am sure the Beijing Olympics have escaped nobody, and am even more certain that Usain Bolt’s performance there has been outstanding. I am not a huge sports fan, but when I saw his 100m and 200m races, I was amazed!

I have been able to find the videos of the two races which I hope you will enjoy!

Men’s 200m Beijing 2008

Unfortunately this video’s video and sound is out of sync, but if you find a better one please tell me and I will replace this one.

Men’s 100m Beijing 2008

I have been unable to find a 100m video on any official sites, and I cannot embed this video, oddly, so please click on the link to watch the 100m race.

Click here to watch

Bebo Kick Ups Cheat

sebgray — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:30:11 +0000

Many of you may use the Bebo social networking site. This site has fairly recently allowed third party applications such as games, and one of the most popular games is kick ups. In this game you have to click on the ball at the right time to make it bounce. This is not as easy as it sounds, and a pretty average score is about 12 or 13 before the ball drops to the ground. If you look on the leaderboards, you often see people with huge scores like 998. This is thanks to a computer program being used by people to train up their kicks. What I am going to explain is not this technique, but a simpler one that doesn’t involve downloading anything, meaning that there’s no risk of getting viruses. With this you can go on as long as you like, but it’s quite time consuming.

What you do, is you click on the ball to start, and then as it is in the air, quickly right click and push P. The ball will stop in mid air, and all you have to do is move your mouse to it and click on it again. You just repeat this process until you have the number you would like, when you just let the ball fall to the ground, which will save your high score. It’s a simple and silly little thing, but it’s good fun when your friends have no idea how you got such a high score.

A Quick Reaction Test!

sebgray — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:16:14 +0000

Hi everybody, sorry I haven’t posted for so long. I’ve had exams, but now I’m back I have been overwhelmed by the number of hits I have been getting! Thanks everybody!

I found this quick reaction test a while ago- be careful- it gets very addictive! Click here to play it.
The best I managed to get was Rocketing Rabbit- but I haven’t managed it again

Tell me what you get in the comments below!

How to draw different facial expressions- 15,000 hits!

sebgray — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:32:45 +0000

While browsing around today, I found a great blog post on how to draw facial expressions. You can find the original article on this site, along with other interesting articles and other tutorials.

Here is a small selection of the drawings on the blog post at DaniDraws.com. You can find the full post with many more diagrams here.

I would also like to thank you all for your presence here on my blog, as without you I would have no audience, and without an audience, I could not have reached the 15,000 hits I have achieved! So thank you!

Lolcats

sebgray — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:46:14 +0000

Lolcats- we internet people all know what they are. Amusing pictures of cats or other animals with funny captions (usually lacking in grammatical correctness) related to what they’re doing in the picture. The top WordPress blog is a lolcat site- ICanHasCheezburger. You can even create your own lolcats with this generator.

Occasionally I’m going to post my favourites on here for you all to enjoy.

An amusing video for you all- Cyriak’s Animation Mix

sebgray — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:09:58 +0000

I found this cool video today whilst browsing for something cool to post up here, at the request of one of my most loyal readers. I’ve seen this video before and I thought I should share it with all of you, I love it. It’s made by Cyriak, and I strongly suggest you have a look at the rest of his work here.

The music in the video was also composed by him, and he has quite a repertoire of previous animations. He has even been hired by larger companies such as Coca Cola to make adverts (in his case a Coke Zero ad).

This animation mix is really most enjoyable for English people in my opinion, although I’m sure you will all enjoy it.

It’s My Birthday!

sebgray — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:58:48 +0000

26th of October- my 15th birthday!

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to Seb,
Happy birthday to me!

Wahay!!!

Sorry I haven’t been writing recently, but I’ve been really busy with work etc.

I hope you all have a great day and do lots of fun things. Luckily over here in the UK we’re on holiday!!! What better time to have a birthday?