Add-ons for the RDS Simulator
The Robotics Developer Studio (RDS) Simulator is a key feature of the package that allows you to get started without buying expensive robots. It is a great tool for use in education. The add-ons outlined below help you to create your own simulation environments and get started on learning about robotics.
Using SimplyCube from VPL
SimplyCube is a development environment for simulation created by SimplySim that is closely integrated with RDS. In their latest blog post, SimplySim shows how to use VPL (Visual Programming Language) to manipulate entities in a simulated environment.
Creative IT Education
The HelloApps web site has a new addition. The Creative IT Education page includes a showcase for the 5-day Creative IT Camp course (held Aug 2 to Aug 6, 2010) and you can see the high school student's various creative solutions for the two given missions.
40 high school students (IT Gifted Youth) attended this camp and they showed wonderful creative solutions using RDS simulation during the camp.
The combination of RDS simulation and SPL are very suitable tools for enhancing creativity and IT skills simultaneously. This showcase could be valuable reference for the Technical Faculty audience. The web page includes all lecture slides on Creative IT program (from 3-hour course to a 5-day course).
Artificial Robotics Editing Environment
The AR package from Artificial Robotics combines the Google SketchUp tool with the RDS Simulator to create a rapid prototyping environment for building simulations. The AR Express package is available for free.