Asked
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We stood up a new EZ-AI website. http://www.ez-ai.net and have had a limited group of people checking out the knowledge engine. We will be starting the Beta test in about 9 days. EZ-AI is almost here... I can hardly wait.
Coming soon to a robot near you
This is just showing off a bit of the knowledge engine. I will do another one this weekend showing reminders and such. Work has worn me out already this week but wanted to get something showing that this is a real thing out to this community.
Enjoy!
Tony
We will be running through the EZ-AI plugin code to make sure that all possible errors are caught and such. We will be posting it for download on May 4th. We will make the client open source after the Beta, but the project is obviously open source when we share it.
Good day all, and thanks for the coments.
Exciting times around here for sure.
This is a photo of me and my son Nicholas. It is appropriate that he posted this today as EZ-AI Beta goes live tonight. He graduates with his CompSci degree this month and is a heck of a programmer. He is the programmer behind EZ-AI now and I couldn't be more proud. I also loved that Amiga with that video toaster on it. I think it enabled the Amiga to use 4096 colors if I remember correctly.
You must be very close to offering this to customers. Do you have a pricing structure yet? Forgive if you covered any of this already. I've been way busy and not paying much attention to robots lately
I can't say a pricing structure quite yet because we are working on some things that will reduce the cost. I can tell you that it will be $30 or less per month depending on how much we can get implemented during the beta. from there we will be working to further reduce your cost.
We need to design our own AI engine now though, because API.AI was bought out by Google...
We are in the process of developing our own engine for what we were using API.AI for. Also, we are waiting on the IoTiny to be finished up for our pods.
While we wait, I am starting a school to teach EZ-Robot products to students. This school opens in January. We will offer the curricilum that I am developing over the next few months online. It is an introduction to robotics course. From there, I will continue on to how to script and develope plugins course for next summer.
There will eventually be a course on more advance topics like AI programming and other things...
The school is my personal focus now, with the AI software being led by my son.
I have a videographer friend who will be recording some classroom discussions for the video hopefully this weekend. From there we should be able to finish up a majority of the first class. My hope is to start on the programming/scripting classes in February or so.
yep, this is why I am writing my own curriculum. We have an LMS to house all of our classes. We did this because we will be targeting home school and the current curriculum is setup for standard education environments like brick and mortar schools. Unfortunately the license to use the normal curriculum would not work for a home school environment due to costs associated with it. The cost is great for a brick and mortar school but not for areas where very small student populations exist. We do sell this curriculum to schools but also offer our curriculum to anyone who wants to sign up to use it but it is focused on and marketed to students who are not able to attend brick and mortar type schools due to physical, religious or any other of a number of conditions. The good news is that this allows us to reach a large population across the world who wants more education about these products whether they are the traditional student or not.
Here is a list of the subject material.
Introduction
About the EZ-B V4
Introduction to the EZ-B V4
Connecting devices to the EZ-B
EZ-B Port Overview
Types of ports and what they are used for
To Tether or Not to Teather
About Power
Tethering the robot
Multiple Wifi Modes for Different Needs
Connection Troubleshooting
Resetting Wifi mode
The All Important Datasheet
Quiz over the EZ-B (must pass to proceed)
Battery Care and Charging
Battery Quiz (Must pass to proceed)
Download ARC
Clip and Play introduction
Assembly Instructions Inside ARC
Build your robot Quiz (Must pass to proceed)
How a servo works
Intro to servo motors
Lever servo calibration
Calibrating lever servo quiz
Fine tuning servos
Fine tuning Quiz
HBridge Wiring
Rotational servo Calibration
Gripper servo Calibration
Camera Maintenance
JD Example Project Videos (Goes over how the JD Example Project works)
Six Example Project Video (Goes over how the Six Example Project works)
Roli Example Project Video (Goes over how the Roli Example Project works)
Introduction to Controls
ADC, Digital, Infrared, Ultrasonic, Servos and PWM controls
Audio and HBridge Controls
I2C and Touch Controls
Camera controls
Misc and Third Party Robot controls
Mobile control
Scripting controls
RoboScratch
ARC Menu Bar Part 1
ARC Menu Bar Part 2
[End of Instruction on ARC software directly]
What is the Cloud?
All About Community
Mobile Interface Building
[This is where I am at with the instruction at this point]
Activities - These will be a series of 4 activities that have the students attempt to do something and then check their work against the Example Project that has been created. This will include some scripting and use of the common controls in ARC.
What is a plugin and how do I start one.
From here, we work with students to help them with their own projects for about a month or so until the class ends. The class is setup to be 48 hours of instruction and hands on learning. About 24 hours of the class will be instruction with the other 24 hours being hands on learning.
I have a videographer friend who will be recording some classroom discussions for the video hopefully starting this weekend. From there we should be able to finish up a majority of the first class. My hope is to start working on the programming/scripting classes in February or so.
I have multiple groups signed up to use this education solution. The most interesting is a group in Texas that has bought a ranch and is fixing it up now for people who were in the foster care system but have aged out of it and want to get more education and job skills along with mentor-ship from successful business professionals. A friend of mine is on the board of directors and is close friends with the oil tycoon guy who is funding all of this. This one really excites me. I am also starting a home school Coop that will focus on STEM based education in Oklahoma. This allows all students to attend, whether as an after-school program or as a home school program. It became obvious at a show that we attended about a month ago that this is a huge need here.
https://www.facebook.com/smartclubyukon/ - I dont like facebook much but, you know how that goes.
http://www.gearupforrobotics.com/ - I have someone who is going to take the content and make it look better. I just don't have the time for this right now.
https://twitter.com/smartclubyukon?lang=en - and I am even less on twitter it seems.
I am also working with a group in Stillwater OK that has a couple of rather large transformers that they want to make move. I met with them a couple of weeks ago and they decided that it would be best to build some from scratch instead of using the existing ones (which are basically statues that can be disassembled fairly quickly). This project is on hold for a bit while they finish building their mom's house but I am looking forward to working on it with the Oklahoma State University robotics and engineering departments.
Will you be offering these classes only through or to educational organizations or also as a course for individual students? Is it planned to offer EZ robots with, or as an option, to the classes?
Ron
There are some differences and I wont say that one is any better than the other or market it that way. The difference is that EZ-Robot's curriculum is geared toward brick and mortar type schools. Mine is geared toward individuals or small groups of individuals with the exception of the group in Texas that I mentioned.
It is all about economics. If you have 10 students, it would be better to buy the EZ-Robot curriculum. You do have to have a static IP address also, but that is normally the case where 10 students are gathering. If you have 5 students or less or you don't have a static IP address, mine is more cost effective. By offering both, I hope to be able to serve the brick and mortar type establishments along with the homes with a student or two.
I am also offering a school type environment for home schooled students. This is a brick and mortar location that allows students to come in and learn about robotics and then continue through multiple classes to continue educating them further than just the basics. I believe what is currently available in schools is quite limiting for the most part and want to give students the opportunity to further their education building on what they learn in previous classes. I talked about doing this a couple years back at a private school here but that didn't pan out. I still have that passion but decided that the way to do this was by opening the doors to a facility that is owned by me. This prevents actions that someone outside of a private school might deem normal and okay from affecting my ability to teach the subject that I believe is very important and has flown under the radar for too long.
Anyone will be able to sign up for my classes. It doesn't matter if the student is a traditional type student or if they are older members of this community. I simply feel that there isn't enough focus on home school students who are there because of no fault of their own. Also, I believe that the country is in for a rude awakening when a large portion of the population is not employable.
To use my curriculum someone will have to have the equipment to follow along in the class. Where this comes from is irreverent to me, but if purchased from me I discount the classes. Its the best way that I have to get sales without breaking any agreements. Its also the best way for me to make sure that people buying the robots from me are happy with their robots.
Ron