Welcome to another Burf update, apologies that this one is massively delayed but this time I have some valid excuses.

The END (well, not really)

After having a rather long think, well for me anyway, I have decided to go back to work full time. There are a number of reasons for this, the main being that I was spending my time off doing my MBA course / Governor stuff instead of robotics which was meant to be the main reason I went part-time. Work has been brilliant and is giving me the time for my MBA and flexibility for the Governor stuff. As for robotics, I just need to be more efficient with my non-working time. To aid this I have culled off a few projects.

So what happened, and what’s the plan (hmm I really need a plan)

Caddy Van

So the plan for this is to convert it into a vehicle to aid me in taking the kids camping. In June I took my 3 boys camping in the Jeep, however, due to me buying myself a stupidly sized tent, it was a real squeeze. As my father has decided he wants the Jeep (finally), I will get 2 rear seats fitted to the van professionally and there still be plenty of room for camping. This is a real positive for the kids, yes it’s not robotics (yet) but it’s cool for the kids who loved their camping trip.

Mobility Scooter

So I did a field test with it outside being controlled via the PS2 controller and it worked well. I am now pondering what to do next

Yamaha EC-03 Electric moped

Except for trying the eBay lithium battery, I see very little use for this so I have put it up for sale and people seem interested. If I was not building an electric motorbike, I would keep it.

The Electric Motorbike Project

The motor did arrive, did work, and was awesome however I have just not had the chance to video it due to June and July being ramped with social events (birthdays, holidays, parties).

Autonomous Car: Deep Learning & Computer Vision for Beginners

I am still making progress with this, it’s slow but I have some examples to read the road and turn the steering wheel. I need to reserve a day at the weekend to get back to this. I have set up a test laptop to run all of this. I do plan to mount this in the van.

CTO / Digital MBA course.

Bloody good course which I am enjoying, I am 25% through and completed 2 modules. Learning a lot of useful stuff and the course is constantly being updated.

Maths

Nothing was done, again I need to work harder to get this done (again)

Getting Fit

So this has gone up the priority list, not only am I running a bit, but I have also joined a gym which I am smashing! I need this back in my life!

InMoov Humanoid Robot

Same as May, I have not even really thought about it. I do need to, I want to make it look better and be able to take it to demo. I must put an action against this one.

TGB Trigger MK1

SOLD (slightly sad). As you can see some projects including this have been culled. This was such an awesome thing and had a queue of people wanting to buy it. I had barely done anything to it, the MOT and insurance were due soon

The Plan (v3 or was it v4)

As mentioned June and July have been rammed with other things, good things, fun things but not techie things. This is expected as it’s summertime, however, once that’s over I assume that my focus will come back to robotics in a big way. I hope I can start to be more focused on a single project now that I have reduced the projects

Let’s have a look at the list, but mix it up a little and categorise it:

Education

• Goal 1: Progress with my MBA
• Goal 2: Continue with self-driving courses
• Goal 3: Spend some time at Khan Academy on Algebra and Geometry

Projects

• Goal 1: Work on the electric motorbike project
• Goal 2: Finish the Inmoov robot and fix the issues listed above so that the robot can be demonstrated to people. “Revisit this and get it reliable and demo it”
• Goal 3: Decide what to do with Burf.co Search Engine, it’s getting a chunk of traffic but what’s the point/plan?

Life

• Goal 1: Get Fit and less fat! 85-90KG
• Goal 2: Setup the Van for camping but load it with some tech etc (for the kids)
• Goal 3: Carry on being a Governor

I feel the list above is more understandable and manageable. There should be no reason why most of these goals are not achievable with the right focus and mindset.

Wish me luck 🙂