NAO becomes open source

Aldeberan Robotics, makers of the popular humanoid robot NAO just announced during the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation that they will release what they claim as a ‘significant part’ of the software source code. The release is aimed at the research and educational community where NAO has already a substantial user base. You can read the official press release about the NAO open source software here (pdf). Aldeberan Robotics is also launching a NAO developer program for those who are interested on a more direct involvement.
RobotsPodcast recently featured Luc Degaudenzi , the Vice President in Engineering of Aldebaran and his colleague Cédric Vaudel who is the Sales Manager for North America. You can listen it here.

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European Robotics - Part 2

In the new episode of robotspodcast we continue with the second and last part of our feature special about The European Robotics Forum.
We talk to Bernd Liepert, CTO of KUKA AG, one of the world’s leading suppliers in the field of robot technology. Bernd Liepert is also the president of the European Robotics Technology Platform (EUROP) as of May 2010. EUROP is an industry-driven framework that aims at strengthening Europe’s competitiveness in robotic R&D, as well as global markets, and to improve quality of life. Our second guest is Rich Walker, the managing director of Shadow Robot, a UK based company that started from bipedal robots 20 years ago and now has one of the worlds most advanced robot hands, the Shadow Dexterous. Read on or Tune in!
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Windows.h

windows.h

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The primary C header file for accessing the Win32 API is the <windows.h> header file. To make a Win32 executable, the first step is to include this header file in your source code. The windows.h header file should be included before any other library include, even the C standard library files such as stdio.h or stdlib.h. This is because the windows.h file includes macros and other components that may modify, extend, or replace things in these libraries. This is especially true when dealing with UNICODE, because windows.h will cause all the string functions to use UNICODE instead. Also, because many of the standard C library functions are already included in the Windows kernel, many of these functions will be available to the programmer without needing to load the standard libraries. For example, the function sprintf is included in windows.h automatically.

Windows Programming

Introduction:

*****************

This book aims to be a comprehensive source for any developer who is interested in programming for the Windows platform. It starts at the lowest level, with the Win32 API (C and VB Classic) and then goes over to MFC (C++). Beyond these basic sections, it will cover COM, and the creation of ActiveX modules from a variety of languages. Next, it delves into the Windows DDK, and talk about programming device drivers for Windows platform. Finally, it moves on to the highest-level programming tasks, including shell extensions, shell scripting, and finally ASP and WSH.
Other topics that will be discussed here are: Writing screen-savers, creating HTML help modules, and compiling DLL files.
This book will focus on topics that are specific to Windows, and avoids general programming topics. For related material the reader is encouraged to look into Wikibooks other works, they will cover general programming, ASM, C, C++, Visual Basic and Visual Basic.NET and other languages and concepts in greater detail. Appropriate links to these books are provided.
The reader is assumed to have a previous knowledge of the programming languages involved. Specifically, prior knowledge in C, C++, and Visual Basic is required for certain sections of this book.

Section 1: Windows Basics

• Windows System Architecture
• User Mode vs Kernel Mode
• C and Win32 API
• <Windows.h>
• Handles and Data Types
• Unicode
• Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL)
• Programming Windows With OSS Tools
• Resource Scripts

Section 2: Win32 API and UI Controls

• Message Loop Architecture
• Interfacing (Mouse, keyboard, and timer messages)
• Window Creation
• User Interface Controls
• GDI and Drawing
• Dialog Boxes
• Input-Output
• File Management
• Memory Subsystem (heaps, virtual memory)
• Multitasking
• Interprocess Communication
• MDI Programs
• Registry API
• Security API
• Winsock

Section 3: Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC)

• Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC)
  • Classes Hierarchy

Section 4: Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), ActiveX and COM

• Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)
• COM and ActiveX
• COM Programming
• DCOM and COM+
• Multi-language programming examples
• OLE Programming

Section 5: Device Driver Programming

• Device Driver Introduction
• The DDK
• Driver Structure
• Driver API
• Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR)
• Virtual Device Drivers (VXD)
• Windows Driver Model (WDM)
• Vista Driver Migration

Section 6: Shell Programming

• Programming Shell Extensions
• Extending IE
• Programming Screen-savers
• Programming Services
• Programming CMD aka Windows Batch Programming
  • Sample FTP script
• Control Panel Applets
• Windows Script Host
• ASP
  • JScript
  • VBScript
  • PerlScript
• Compiled HTML Help and Help API