The new SRV-1 looks cool!

I recently went on the surveyor website to check the new robot they were making, and it really looks cool and powerful! Next gift? I'd love that, but first I need a new laptop...

Anyway, the new SRV-1 robot is a lot more powerful than the previous one: it is powered by an Analog Devices Blackfin BF537 processor (500MHz vs the old 60MHz ARM7), an awesome 1.3 megapixel camera, and WLAN 802.11b/g!!

It looks like an awesome development platform, for a not too high price. Onboard, you can program it in C, or change the firmware, but the great thing is that is supports any kind of PC-based environment, from Microsoft Robotics studio and RoboRealm to Webots! And since the communication is fast enough with WiFi, the computer can definitely access camera data fast enough to allow you to program accurate vision algorithms, and advanced AI which run on you PC, or even onboard. I think it's a very good platform for MSRS, and I would probably use it mostly with MSRS, and it has a great potential. And it's also internet controlled, so that you could access it from anywhere in the world, like our SYR! Pretty cool, huh?

Good work, surveyor!