Kirobo The Robot Sets Off For The International Space Station

 

On Sunday morning the world’s first talking humanoid astronaut left Japan and headed off for the International Space Station.

The robot, named Kirobo, weighs only 1 kilogram and stands 34 centmeters from head-to-toe. Kirobo is travelling to the ISS along with five tons of supplies for the crew and will be joined by the Japanese astronaut Koich Wakata later this year.

The robot was designed by Tomotka Takahashi of the University of Tokyo’s Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), Robo Garage of Kyoto University and the ad firm Dentsu.

The plan is for Kirobo and Wakata to conduct the first ever space-based communication experimentsbetween a robot and a human.

An Emotional Welcome

Kirobo has been designed with functions that will make conversations more natural. The robot has voice recognition capabilites and telecommunications functions. It has the ability to process natural language and can respond to different facial expressions.

Kirobo and Wakata are already well acquainted with one another, so the robot should display emotion when the two reunite in space later this year.

The creators of Kirobo also want to explore whether machines such as this can be a source of emotional support for people who are isolated over a long period of time. Because Japan’s aging population are living increasingly isolated lives, researchers feel that robots could be a solution, interacting and showing emotion to those in need.

“I wish for this robot to function as a mediator between a person and machine, or a person and the Internet, and sometimes even between people,” creator Takahashi said.

Kirobo has described the mission into space as: “One small step for me, a giant leap for robots.”

[Image via huffingtonpost]

SOURCE: http://www.digitaltrends.com/international/kirobo-worlds-first-talking-robot-astronaut-heads-for-iss/

Reading last row data from Mysql database using LabVIEW

 

I have used LabVIEW 2011, database connectivity toolkit to develop the database program. In LabVIEW database connectivity toolkit there is not straight vi to access the last record from the database.

to get the last record,

1. Add one extra column named ID with the parameter of int & auto increment.

2. Like I shown in the above diagram code your program. you will get the maximum value of your ColumnID.

3. then you can add another select.vi with where ID=column ID that you got from the previous select.vi

4. You will get the last record.

Using MySQL with the Database Connectivity Toolkit on Windows

Solution:
There are several ways to connect to a MySQL database from LabVIEW using the Database Connectivity Toolkit. This article outlines how to use the ODBC tools provided by Mysql.com. This article also assumes that you either have a MySQL database installed and running on your current computer or another computer accessible through the network (see Remote Access from your webhost)

1. Download the ODBC server MSI from mysql.com.
2. Install the server on your PC
3. Navigate to Start»Settings»Control Panel»Administrative Tools»Data Sources (ODBC)
4. Click the Drivers tab and ensure that MySQL is listed
5. Go back to the User DSN tab, click Add, and select MySQL
   
   
   
6. A new window will popup allowing you to enter in your connection information to your MySQL server. The default port number is 3306. You can enter localhost as the server name if you have it installed on the computer you're currently working on.
   
7. In LabVIEW, put a DB Tools Open Connection VI on the block diagram and wire a TRUE constant into the prompt input.
8. Run the VI
9. A prompt will come up titled Data Link Properties. On the Provider tab, leave the setting to the default, which is Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers.
   
10. Select the Connection tab, and from the Use data source name drop down list select the server connection you've just created.
    

At this point, your application will error out, but that's because you did not do anything with the connection. In your application, be sure to use a DB Tools Close Connection VI at the end of your program or database access. You can specify the path to your DSN file by creating a control wired to the source terminal on the DB Open Tools VI and setting the prompt value to false.
For further help, see the Database Connectivity User's Manual.
Related Links:
MySQL Connector ODBC
Product Manuals: LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit Manuals (June 2008)
NI Developer Community: How to Make a Parameterized Query into a Stored Procedure Routine with MySQL Databases