#NEWS
03/22/15
After a long period in which we were very busy with university exams and with various projects, finally we found the time to update the news on our website.
Let's start by saying that in latest months we worked on some projects that we will present at Ferrara Drone Show on the 28th and 29th of March.
We have developed an electronic system to precisely control the release, by the drone, of special ovules containing numerous eggs of an insect used in the treatment against the European corn borer.
In addition, we have developed a safety system with parachutes for drones. This device was developed to save the drone and, mainly, the people who are nearby considering all the possible problems that can happen during the flight. In fact, the system works automatically and independently from the rest of the drone, with the purpose of expelling the parachute when it detects a problem or when the pilot is the same to request it.
In this video you can see two tests done in which the parachute is ejected simulating a damage to a motor and via a radio command.
In latest months we also worked with SpringLab for the development of a wearable safety system for motorcyclists. The project is going well, but for obvious reasons we can't tell you much.
A news worthy of note is the fact that now we have doubled our 3D printers. In fact, a few weeks ago we built another Prusa i3.
Moreover, about 3D printers, we have started a collaboration with our friends of Lumi Industries, a StartUp which is at H-Farm that develops DLP printers that can achieve a level of accuracy far greater than our FDM. Despite that their printers do not cost much more than the most common printers with filament.
P.S.
This year we won't celebrate the Arduino Day, considering that we haven't been able to get their T-shirt as gift yet, it's the least we can do.
#NEWS
10/06/14
After a long period of exhibitions which made us turn to half the peninsula, it is time for Vicenza Thunders to take a long break to develop new projects, not before, however, of the 25th of October when you can find us in Torri di Quartesolo at the Linux day. This could be the last event that we'll participate at (or maybe no!). In doubt, come to visit us anyway!
Fixed this appointment, we would like to sum up about the most awaited event by all the European makers which brought us to our capital: the Maker Faire Rome, which was held at the Auditorium Parco Della Musica this year, unlike last year. The Maker Faire brought to Rome a huge amount of exhibitors and visitors to try to make Europe know the latest innovations in the field of crafts and to make public understand how maker movement could revolutionize the economy.
From our point of view (and also of many other exhibitors), however, this event wasn't exactly what we expected. In fact, we noticed that, in general, compared to the last year, the organization was much more superficial and coarse.
First things first: as soon as we arrived in Rome, we immediately rushed to the Auditorium Parco della Musica because we had set up our booth before 7pm, but we were stunned when we saw the conditions of the space devoted to us and to other twenty makers (Photo). The tent I, reserved to robots and drones, still had to end up being mounted well, besides being flooded and without electricity (it's not a news that water and electricity do not really get along). Moreover, there were many water leaks from the ceiling, which inevitably fell over the booths. This thing should be avoided in an exhibition of this caliber, which shows mainly electronic products that may be damaged by water.
In the following days the situation did not improve very much: the carpet and the tent luckily dried, cause of the very sultry climate, but at this point the tent became a real oven because it was not planned any way to make the air circulate. So we exhibitors had to lift the sides of the tent.
In addition to this, in the space in front of our booth, the floor was badly mounted and there was a sinking which made visitors stumble and that caused shock on the tables of exhibitors, not allowing us to use our 3D printer.
Surely in an innovation fair you would expect that the WiFi has worked, no? Exactly: the answer is no! Only during the last day it worked for a bit, while on the other days, in our area, you could not even login.
As icing on the cake, we noticed that some booths didn't have the nameplate indicating the name of the project (including ours because nothing went well for us). Luckily our Riccardo in the afternoon of the first day of exposure, found these nameplates in a corner of the tent (Photo).
Let's talk about organization: in the tent of robots and drones, there were some robots (including ours) and some drones: the rest of the booths were dedicated to other projects, very interesting, but not linked to the topic of the tent (photography, hand-made masks of superheroes, gadgets lights etc.). This contributed to confuse visitors, who perhaps wanted to see what are commonly called drones, such as the multicopters. In addition to this, often people could not orient themselves and asked where to find some booths. Many visitors made us notice this fact and they told us that they had the feeling of not having visited all the fair.
We also noticed that there was no real route to follow to make people visit all the booths, but they gave more visibility to the sponsors putting aside makers, last year was not like that, maybe also because the place was best suited to host an event like this. Everybody could notice, in fact, that in the amphitheater and in the booths near the entrance, visitors were many more than in our area in the garden upstairs. In particular, this inequality of treatment hugely disappointed us because we are two university students of engineering and we have invested a lot in this trip to Rome. It seemed almost a lack of respect for all our works and sacrifices (and also those of other makers).
The thing that has demoralized us more, however, was the theft of the medal that we won at the RoboCup Jr 2012 (Photo). For us it had such a great value because it reminded us of how, after a hard work, we could win and become champions of Italy. Since our "great friends" of ITIS A. Rossi lost the cup that was given us with the medals, now to witness that event only remain another medal and a few photos.
Despite everything we have known many people with interesting products, we have received many ideas for new projects and at least one satisfaction has come: we won the contest organized by Codemotion, which has rewarded us with its gadgets, an interview on its YouTube channel and the official Maker Faire pennant (Photo).
Said that, we hope that our misadventures at Maker Faire will be useful to the organizers to figure out what went wrong and to improve the event for the next edition. To prove this, we wrote directly to the organizers who said they will consider our suggestions.
#NEWS
09/15/14
MTV Digital Days ended on Saturday: it was such a beautiful event (in a fantastic location!) and we're very happy to have participated! We're very thankful to MTV Italia and to the organizers of the MTV Digital Days, especially Federica and Domenico, for the great opportunity that they gave us!
On Sunday September 21 at 10pm on the "MTV Music" channel will go on the air a special program presented by Noemi and maybe there will be an interview to us. (Video)
On the same Sunday, we'll be in Camisano Vicentino where we'll show our projects during the event Fiesta Mondo. We suggest to all the people who live in the province of Vicenza and who have followed us only on internet until now, not to miss the opportunity to meet us, it doesn't happen often that we participate at events in our area.
After spending two consecutive weekends between Turin and Camisano Vicentino, the third one to recharge the batteries because the next week, from the 3rd to the 5th of October, we'll be in Rome for the most awaited event by all European Makers: the Maker Faire! Like last year, this year we were selected to participate at this fair which doesn't need any introduction, so we expect even more people than last year (more than 30,000) at this event. Don't miss it!
Our marathon of events will end with the Linux Day on the 25th of October, in fact, even this year we were invited to this event dedicated to open source. Last year we participated at the event organized by the LUG of Dueville, while this year we'll be at the event organized by the LUG of Vicenza and which will be in Torri di Quartesolo. So if you live near there you really can't miss what will probably be the last event of 2014 that we will participate at and, who knows, maybe even the last event ever?
#NEWS
08/11/14
We wait for you at the MTV Digital Days that will be on the 12th and on the 13th of September at the Palace of Venaria (Turin) and where we will be guests in the Innovation Village.
Since entrance is free, you have no excuse not to come and visit us in the huge spaces of Citroniera Juvariana in the Palace of Venaria on Friday and on Saturday from 3 pm to 7 pm.
We are very thankful to the organizers for inviting us to such an interesting and important event!
