A while ago I had mentioned that I would be starting a video podcast that functions as technical classes for homeschool students. I had also mentioned that I would go all in if I did it. Well, I went all in. My office has been converted to a video podcaster's paradise. Last weekend I was able to get the mixer, compressor, gate, Audio interface, green screen, dynamic mics, cameras, lighting and sound dispersion panels installed in my studio. My hosts (Tanner and Stori) both have a JD now and are learning about them by going through the LMS curriculum that was developed. We will start some "test" shows on Thursday evenings which will help the hosts to be more comfortable in front of the camera and allow them to get really comfortable with the robots and the technology behind the video podcast. The podcasts will be live so you will get to see all of the fun if you want to
On another project, I have been working with a group in the middle of nowhere Texas that is setting up a ranch for people who have aged out of the foster care system in Texas. Next week I will be setting up their firewall, NAS, domain server, some workstations, network and such. They will be using the class mentioned above for their students to teach them about robotics on the EZ-Robot platform. I want to do a show from the ranch but the logistics could make that difficult.
I will post the links to the video podcast streams later. We will be streaming on Youtube and Twitch. We also will have the RTMP feed available to be viewed directly. We have a mumble room and IRC channel that I will publish also. These allow participation in the discussion that is happening and in the show. Along with that, 662-4ROBOT1 is a direct phone number into the show, and Skype is also available. If you want to check out our early tests, I will post the links later. The official start is on May 6th 2017. We will be broadcasting from our booth at a Homeschool show in Oklahoma City.
I want to also do a show on Saturdays on more generic topics but all relating to technology. Nicholas (my son) will be teaching an Intro to Programming class. The next semester we will move up to intermediate programming and robotics classes.
SM@RT Club is the Patreon support page for the classes. I still have some work to do on it, but it is there at least.
I guess I still need to clean up some cables...
There is an email address that is used for questions. It is [email protected]. To date, there have been 0 emails hit that mailbox. It is used for suggestions, questions, feedback and so on. I will mention it in tomorrows video to remind people of it. I haven't done that in a few shows or about a month or so.
There will be a show this evening at 7PM US Central time. Swing by and enjoy the show. https://www.gearupforrobotics.com/techtoday.php
Today's show (starting in about 2 hours at 7 PM Central time) will focus on API.AI and how you can use its features inside of ARC with the plugin at https://synthiam.com/redirect/legacy?table=plugin&id=193.
You can find out more on this thread. I will discuss how to setup intents in API.AI and then how to use those in ARC using the example projects that I gave in the thread below. https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/10407
You can visit https://www.gearupforrobotics.com/techtoday.php to watch the show live or visit https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-ROcXzNBboLRIdImbWQ5g to catch the recorded show.
@CochranRobotics,
@3:43
Love the start of an InMoov in the background and the EZB4.
Best thing is we get to see it develop with future episode's.
Latte Panda sounds interesting, also the castle lubecs? (BECS?)
Adjustable voltage regulators will be the go. Its something i will be looking at for a future project.
Enjoyed the episode thanks DC.
Sweet...looking forward to it, especially to the api.ai part of it!
Hey @David... I would be interested in one of your inMoov control boards if you have any left... Another great show as usual... Thanks
Hi David,. Great show as usual. Thanks for the clarification and information on API.AI. I learned a lot. Looking forward to seeing more Imoov updates.
Just finished watching your Number 10...and it has been as always, highly interesting and entertaining! This is such a great thing for the community!
I really liked the whole walk thru, especially the detailed description on how to use system variables versus Entities plus the advice to take care in not cluttering api.ai with too much non sense Intents!
I did not dig in as deeply, but am getting the feeling that api.ai might be intended to be used in a different way than I thought in the first place. This came up in my mind while watching your show, and seeing the problems being caused when you tried to fire specific commands! A while ago I was checking some YouTube clip on how to build agents with api.ai using Actions On Google...the approach was to call the agent first and then it would execute what it was build for!
So in your example, you would not have the weather agent, the movement agent and the small talk agent all being fused together but you would call for the specific agent and then execute the action it is build for! This would eradicate the mess being caused by asking the robot to lift his arm and instead turning the heater on.
Each different agent would have a different token to be called for, so this approach would need the plugin to be changed a bit... Also it would need a trigger upfront, something like "Hey Rafiki" followed by something like "I would like to move your arms" and then the Movement Agent would kick in?
I might be wrong here...it just came into my mind when watching the show!
I really liked how you made a point that api.ai is so much more than a chatbot, but I must disagree a bit. The way I am planning to use it is to tie the returned small talk action eg smalltalk.agent.crazy to a specific movement of the robot, so it will use a corresponding gesture together with the spoken response!
Great show, let start leveraging these great tools within our projects! I am getting excited!
Btw this was the clip