Nick Bild

Orlando

Freelance Technical Writer at Hackster.io

I'm a professional polyglot software engineer and maker with over 15 years of experience. R&D, creativity, and building the next big thing are my specialties.

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Articles

Laser-Focused on Robot Accuracy

4 days ago | hackster.io | Nick Bild

No doubt you have heard the jokes about how expensive boating is, like the one that quips “boat” is actually an acronym that stands for Break Out Another Thousand. But that is nothing compared to robotics, where costs are amplified by an order of magnitude or more. Because of these hefty expenses, organizations with industrial robots have to work hard to stretch the useful lives of their systems.
Driver’s Ed for Linux

4 days ago | hackster.io | Nick Bild

Frustrated by a lack of support for Linux, crescentrose wrote a custom device driver for a USB dock with flashy RGB LEDs.A long-standing joke in the Linux community is that this year is finally the year of Linux on the desktop. As a long-time user of Linux, I find it easy to fall for this prediction year after year because of how far the user-friendliness of the interface has come. But alas, when you look just beneath that shiny veneer, Linux is still a complex beast.
A Bright Idea in Imaging

5 days ago | hackster.io | Nick Bild

Both our eyes and image sensors are capable of distinguishing between red, green, and blue wavelengths of light, but that is where the similarities end. Human eyes have specialized types of cells that are able to recognize each of these colors, but image sensors have only silicon. And silicon is not picky — it absorbs all wavelengths of visible light. So, in order to zero in on each color individually, a separate pixel is needed for each.
LENS Enables Energy-Efficient Robot Navigation

1 week ago | hackster.io | Nick Bild

Some people believe that the future will be filled with humanoid robots that do our household chores for us, while others think that swarms of smaller robots will be scurrying around city streets to do everything from maintenance to package delivery. Whatever the future may hold for robots, one thing is certain β they will need effective navigation systems to find their way around.
The LEGO of Haptic Interfaces

1 week ago | hackster.io | Nick Bild

Digits, a modular haptic interface from EPFL, uses compressed air to shape-shift and provide force feedback while adapting to any task. If we are ever going to really be fully immersed in a virtual experience, it is going to take a lot more than just realistic visuals. No matter how impressive the graphics capabilities of a virtual reality (VR) headset are, the experience is going to fall flat the moment one reaches for a digital object and feels nothing.
Feel the Force

1 week ago | hackster.io | Nick Bild

So you have completed the obligatory first steps in learning about robotics with a line follower and a bump-and-go build — now what comes next? After these initial projects, many hobbyists will be ready to start teaching their robots to interact with the world around them in more meaningful ways. That could mean taking some more baby steps with an ultrasonic sensor or inertial measurement unit, but eventually these robots will need the sense of touch.
Wheel in the Sky Keeps on Turning

1 week ago | hackster.io | Nick Bild

Traveling by air is the fastest way to get around. There is no need to take indirect paths, and there are no forests, hills, or other obstacles standing in the way to slow you down. For this reason, aerial drones can go where no other robots can, and they can get there faster. That is, until they exhaust their energy supplies. Staying up in the air requires a lot of power, yet drones must limit the weight of the batteries they carry to stay airborne.
Building Shelf-Aware Robots

1 week ago | hackster.io | Nick Bild

Whether it is for educational purposes, future job prospects, or just for fun, a lot of people are very interested in learning more about robotics. It is not an especially easy field to jump into, however. The hardware is often very expensive, and expertise in a wide array of topics ranging from mechanical engineering and computer science to electrical engineering is necessary to get very far.
A Hive-Minded Approach to Construction

1 week ago | hackster.io | Nick Bild

Planning is so overrated! UPenn engineers are teaching robot swarms to build complex structures using only simple rules, much like ants. I love it when a plan comes together. Not everyone is so fond of planning, however. A group of engineers at the University of Pennsylvania thinks it is high time we — or robots, anyway — started winging it.
3D-Printed Device Turns Motion Into Power

1 week ago | hackster.io | Nick Bild

With the rapid advances that have been seen in areas like processing and sensing, and the simultaneous miniaturization of these technologies in recent years, it can be hard to understand why wearable electronic devices have not really taken off in the way that many expected. After all, wearables offer a friction-free way to monitor our health, improve communication, simplify human-machine interactions, provide new forms of entertainment, and much more.