android

March 2026: The Robot Edition

Posted on by burf2000

Hello and welcome to another Burf Update. So, as usual, my ability to focus on a single thing has gone Pete Tong. In the last edition, I was set on getting the Platform out there and seeing if it has legs. Instead, I purchased some new toys!

iPAL Humanoid Companion Robot
The first interesting addition to my robot collection is the iPAL robot — slightly taller than a Sanbot, it’s a super cute, child-like robot. It has working arms, though the fingers aren’t powered. It runs Android 7 and they’ve done a solid job with the software — the head tracking is a nice touch and the voice is surprisingly cute. I believe they still sell them, and it even comes with a ROS driver, which I’m looking forward to exploring.

Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV)
This large, monster truck-like robot was an interesting eBay find — clearly someone put serious money into building it. It runs the Herelink system with a CubePilot Cube Black brain, and comes equipped with GPS (Here2), Lidar, and a camera system. From the Android-powered controller you can send it GPS waypoints and off it goes autonomously. It’s a new area of robotics for me and I’m looking forward to spending more time with it.

PiBob Desktop Robot
I also built a desktop robot called PiBob. The aim was to design something fun that was as cheap and simple to build as possible — and it was great fun to make. It’s powered by a Raspberry Pi 3 (had one lying around) and a servo shield, using affordable servos that keep the total build cost under £100 excluding the Pi. It’s still early stages, but I’m hoping to expand it into a larger, moving version.


The Platform
Not much progress on the Platform this month — I’ve been trying to find the headspace to properly define the MVP and the problem it actually solves. The current robot support list, outside of the ROS 2 driver, is fairly limited and a little dated. Once I’ve got clarity on the direction, I can move it forward with more purpose.


Tarot FY680 Heavy Lift Autonomous Drone
I bought this drone a few months back, but have never tried to fly it — out of pure fear. If this thing hits you or falls out of the sky, you’re going to get seriously hurt. It’s 1 meter tip to tip and can lift up to 7 kg. I’ve just completed my FlyerId and OperatorId, so I can now legally fly it, and my first flight was a brave 1 meter off the ground.

Burf Robotics
Not much progress this month — I’ve had a couple of chats with other companies, but I still haven’t actively gone out and marketed it. People have been coming to me, which is encouraging, but I need to change that dynamic.

ROS2
I’m continuously using ROS 2 but need dedicated time to expand my knowledge. This month I’ve been more focused on OLO consultancy work, which has come at the expense of learning. I need to prioritise this.

Brilliant
Continuing daily and at 479 days now. Like ROS 2, I need to push myself out of my comfort zone with it — or decide to drop it.

Hack24
Parked until I have time to properly test it.

Meta Quest Tracking
I spent a little time on this to see if it works with PiBob. The results were underwhelming, so it needs more attention before it’s useful.

InMoov Humanoid Robot
Nothing to report this month — and honestly, writing this blog has made it clear just how much I’ve lost focus. That needs to change.

Plan for 2026
The plan isn’t exactly going to plan — a lot of the goals above haven’t moved forward, but I did redirect my time towards some shiny new things instead.

  • Strengthen Burf Robotics and its offerings
    Target: Gain at least one additional customer. (Progressing)
  • Launch Burf Platform as an MVP
    Target: Deliver an MVP with user management, robot management, and support for a range of robot platforms. (Done)
  • Continue learning ROS2
    Target: Deepen my understanding of Nav2, MoveIt, and integrating AI with ROS2. (Needs more progress)
  • Inmoov Robots
    Target: Focus more on interactive demonstrations rather than building additional robots. I’d still like to develop a mobile InMoov platform. (Needs more progress)
  • Continue Brilliant learning
    (Needs more progress)
  • Build my own robot product
    Target: Not fully committed yet, but PiBob is a proof of concept and a step in that direction. (PiBob POC built)

Let’s be honest — I failed at formalising a plan this month. I’m going to sit with this blog post for a while and figure out what actually matters to me.

New year, new challenges

Posted on by burf2000

So, apologies for the lack of updates.  Work in the O2 Lab has been pretty busy in a fun way.  I also been doing a lot in the robotics area (see my youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/burf2000).

So, as for coding I have been working in Java/Android/Lejos when working on my LEGO robots, a lot of this I have opened sourced on GitHub.

As for non robotic stuff, I have been tasked with learning more about Virtual Reality and learning Unity (Best tool for the job), and I have to be honest, now that I have thrown some proper time at Unity, I really like it!  Virtual Reality is enabled by a tick box.

So I don’t have much to show yet but some cool VR stuff will be coming soon 🙂

 

Screen Shot 2016-01-20 at 09.50.19

Screen Shot 2016-01-20 at 10.41.43

 

 

2 way communication between Lejos and Android : Work in progress

Posted on by burf2000

So, one of the big requirements I need from a programming language for the EV3 is to be able to talk to a mobile device.  With the EV3 being newer, less options seem to be available.

I have started work on some Lejos samples to demo 2 way communication via sockets to an Android device.  The current work in progress can be found on Github https://github.com/burf2000/LejosToAndroid 

Watch this space!

New version of Virtual Worlds Submitted for Android

Posted on by burf2000

Just a small update, the following features, bugs have been fixed.

  • Added feature to turn VR mode off
  • Added feature so you no longer need a game controller
  • Fixed issue with be able to place objects in other peoples worlds
  • Fixed a few crashes!

Please check out

Virtual Worlds

Lets release pre-alpha software! Yeah

Posted on by burf2000

So, tonight I decided just to punt out Virtual Worlds.  Probably a silly move but nothing has been happening lately with it due to work stuff, a 3 week long cough, 2 birthdays, Christmas and home life!

I will soon know how bad it is!

I managed to do some useful bug fixes, tested it on a couple of controllers etc.  More will come soon!

What does it have?

  • Main world has little huts which is your door way to the other worlds
  • It has some built in help to tell you what buttons do what.
  • It has some nice new textures but sadly very limiting at the moment
  • You can see other players in the game, pretty poor graphics but that will be fixed very soon
  • You can create your own little minecraft type world 🙂 though very basic!

Whats next?

  • Once I see it in the Google Store, I will test it works 🙂 (releases always seem to cause some odd bug)
  • I need to add some more textures ASAP
  • A way for people to report bugs
  • A way for people to talk to each other!

Google Play Link

Virtual Worlds update 0.1

Posted on by burf2000

So, Virtual Worlds, hmm I had planned to release that by the end of the month however a few things have come up!  Man Flu has not helped me code, the snot just goes everywhere!

I have also had a few other things on!

Excuses over, where are we?

  • Started getting a better set of textures together thanks to Gary
  • Made a very rough simple player model which maybe be replaced by a OBJ file
  • Fixed lots of bugs
  • Created a control screen showing controls etc
  • Improved the navigation throughout the app
  • Implemented some speaking help notifications
  • Got Google Cloud Messaging working however not sure why I need it now.
  • Moved to Live server!

Left to do by 1st December

  • Improve player object
  • Finish texture pack off
  • Make scalable zone object
  • Fix any controller issues
  • Allow user interaction maybe using GCM
  • Allow players to fly in zones if they own them to help build them
  • TEST

Wish me luck!

Virtual Worlds : Progress so far

Posted on by burf2000

What? a? Virtual Worlds? What a sh*t name?  Your probably right but its just better than Android 3D mmo thingy!

Progress so far?  I would of liked to give it more time but some times I am not in the mood, sometimes I can’t get out of the mood which also leads to lack of sleep!  Last night I had beer! (not a usual thing sadly)

What can you do so far?

  • Register, login
  • Navigate the main world, which will allow you to enter player zones and create your own zones.
  • You can see other players (as cubes) move about
  • Once in your own zone, you can place cubes to make structures (see below) this has been vastly improved.
  • You can climb your structures to make bigger structures (I had to make a stair case to to make the archway)
  • You can enter delete mode in your zone and delete things with ease
  • Started adding back in the voice engine, sound effects etc
  • There are now system text messages to show you important information
  • Players and zones have text above them showing their username

device-2014-11-15-231021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whats next

So to get it to the point where I can alpha test it I would like to do the follow

  • Create a 3D model for players as they are currently cubes
  • Make a 3D object for a zone, this should grow as the zone gets more popular / better in some way
  • Find a wider range of textures snow, grass, wood, etc
  • Create a control help screen to list gamepad controls
  • Make all commands voice activated (may get dropped)
  • Allow you to send messages to users (may be text or voice)
  • Create some sort of reason to play the game, prices, score boards etc.
  • Implement GCM (push notifications)

The aim is to have a demo zone thats setup for xmas when I release alpha:)

Off to bed!

Android OpenGL ES 2.0 : VBO’s for the win

Posted on by burf2000

I am currently working on an Android Virtual Reality framework, project, well not sure what it is.  I have been trying to get different types of objects to render, use different types of devices for control / movement and I did manage to release one game that uses it (I made this in a 12 hour GameJam).

Can’t Get Out

I have been looking at ways to improve performance, before any changes I could only render 1000 cubes at 1 FPS! Ar BALLS

I followed this post on StackOverFlow and that got me to about 5 FPS!

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24825896/android-opengl-2-0-low-fps

I then read about using Vertex Buffer Objects (VBO’s) and followed this tutorial!

http://www.learnopengles.com/android-lesson-seven-an-introduction-to-vertex-buffer-objects-vbos/

People, this is the way to go, I did not use Stride but I still got 64,000 cubes at 30fps!  Now that’s an improvement!

The sad thing is, this tutorial is from a book I own that I have still not read 🙁  Next missing, read the flipping book!

OpenGL ES 2 for Android: A Quick-Start Guide