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Sunday, July 27, 2014

INTRO to ROBOTICS

Robotics is wide field that design, construct and application of robots. Simply we can define robots as an "automated human", because actually we design robots to make our work easy and safety, to perform several or a specific work done by us. In present robots were used in various fields, various places for various purposes

  • Industrial: Mostly robots were used in industrial assembly lines. Using robotic systems in assembly lines increase accuracy, precision, quality, speed and specially useful to produce uniform product with minimum defects. For example, in most manufacturing assembly lines uses robotic arms.

Robotic arms in vehicle assembly line
  • Military: In present every armed force uses robots in their military work. Specially they use for spying enemy forces and attacking. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are much popular in these day. Specially unmanned air-crafts are using to attack enemy forces.  
Unmanned Air-craft used for military purposes
  • Medical: In medical field robotic systems are used from customer care to surgeries. In present there are robots manufactured to take care patients. Those robots were able to medicate, assist patients who are unable to walk or who are with other injuries. And also robots are developed that able to perform surgical operations.
The da Vinci Surgical system (robotic platform designed to expand the surgeon’s capabilities and offer a minimally invasive option for major surgery.)
  • Rescue: when accidents happened or after any natural disaster (like earthquake) rescue teams have big responsibility of saving people who still survived. They have to save them quickly, and the most hardest work is finding them. So they use robotic systems for rescue purposes. Such a robot is "The active scope camera" [It is a rescue robot that is designed for the purpose of searching for victims left behind in collapsed buildings. The scope camera can actively penetrate narrow paths as small as 3cm wide using a unique thrust mechanism and can take pictures using the camera mounted to the front of the scope.]

 
The active scope camera

  • Exploration: Nowadays robots to guarantee safety in hazardous environment like underwater caves, nuclear disaster environments, areas affected by landmines etc. For example, during the "Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster" (on 11 March 2011), which is the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, robots were used to performed readings of temperature, oxygen levels, and radioactivity.
The PackBot inside the reactors


This is only brief outline of real world applications of robotics. Applications of robotics is very wide which revolutionize from automotive industry to medical field.

This is the end of the brief introduction to robotics.
The main purpose of this post is to introduce, how robotic equipments were used in real world applications and to encourage people who are interested in this awesome field.

In future posts we will discuss the basic theoretical stuff behind basic robotic systems



Saturday, July 26, 2014

How to create desktop file in linux

If we install software in linux (in this case consider Ubuntu) manually, which is without using package management software like "Ubuntu Software Center", we are unable to launch them from the launcher or main menu (we need to launch software from the terminal).

Let's see how we can list our application on the menu ......

To add applications to the menu we have to create a desktop file which is a text file with ".desktop" extension with a unique name which contain meta-data about the application.

Before creating a desktop file, we'll see how applications installed via Ubuntu Software Center appeared in main menu.

If I install "myPaint" application using software center, the desktop file is look like this:



Let's see how we can create a desktop file.

The primary functions of desktop file is to inform desktop environment, how to handle file such as menu placement, and how to display.

Format of .desktop file

The desktop file consists set of key-value pairs.

[Desktop Entry] Header to recognize key value pairs associated with desktop
Type [required] Type of desktop entry
Encoding [optional] Encoding of the entries in the file
Name [required] Name of the application / directory. This is the display name in the menu or launcher
GenericName [optional] Can used to state the generic name of the application.
eg.: "Text Editor" for "GEdit"
Comment Comment which can be used as a tooltip. Can include any useful information
Exec [required] The actual command to execute the target application from a shell. We also can add additional arguments if needed.
Icon [optional] Icon to be used
Terminal [optional] Boolean entry to specify whether the application requires terminal to execute

There are more optional entries refer Recognized desktop entry keys

Now let's test .......

 here are steps to follow to add eclipse IDE to the main menu in Ubuntu

  • Extract eclipse distribution to the target installation directory.
  • Create the desktop file
       Create the desktop file at:
           /usr/share/applications/ directory if it is globally available application
          ~/.local/share/applications if only for specific user 

[Desktop Entry]
  Version=1.0
  Name=Eclipse

  Exec=eclipse
  Terminal=false
  Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
  Type=Application
  Categories=IDE;Development
  X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=NewWindow

  [NewWindow Shortcut Group]
  Name=New Window
  Exec=eclipse
  TargetEnvironment=Unity
  • Restart the PC or logout  

Now the you can invoke eclipse from main menu....

Cheers ..