A few months ago, I was introduced to the Arduino. The Arduino is a great little prototyping platform, but it has a limited number of I/O pins in the standard Duemilanove flavor. Well, I got my hands on an Arduino Mega tonight, the big brother of the Arduino Duemilanove, so I decided to make something with it. What I came up with is a little game called GameChuck.

GameChuck works by lighting an LED that corresponds to a button a Wii Nunchuck. The player, with a Wii Nunchuck in hand, must press that corresponding button within two seconds. (Here, the four corners of the joystick are considered buttons.) If the player fails to do this, he looses the game. The player also looses the game if the wrong button is pressed. To make the game even more challenging, the time window to hit the right button decreases over time. The goal is simply to get the highest score.

BeoHawk, a new quad-rotor helicopter that is being developed at USC's iLab, has taken its first flight. This flight was a major milestone for Aerial Robotics Team's goal of competing in the AUVSI International Aerial Robotics Competition. This year's competition focuses on retrieving a USB flash drive in high security office building. The robot will have to avoid security guards, security cameras, laser trip wires, and weight-sensitive floors while stealing the flash drive. The competition will be held at the University of Puerto Rico this coming August. Visit USC Robotics Society's website to learn more about this project.

Another view of the BeoHawk: USC ART Quad-Rotor Helicopter

YouTube clips: First RC Flight & Blowing Flash Drive Test