Thursday, May 23, 2013

miniBlas android version

Blas is an engineering tool for the COSME platform. It allows to periodically read the values of the chosen COSME application variables organized in bags. Each bag contains an update period and a customized list of variables in which we are interested. It is possible to have different bags, each one focused in different parts of your application (e.g. one bag for inputs, another for the pneumatic stuff, etc.)
miniBlas running on an old HTC Hero phone (android 2.3.7)

Blas is an invaluable tool for designers to debug and fine tune their COSME control applications, but as good as it can be in your desktop computer, there was an important piece missing which miniBlas-android comes to fill. This android version allows you to go deep into your application using your android phone/tablet on the go.
<joke>
Now you can really have all the relevant information at your fingertips!!
</joke>

miniBlas-android is being developed by four of our students (Alberto Azuara, Julián Guillén, Iván Pita and Luis Rodríguez) for their subject "Proyecto Software"

Is this app any good? We'll soon know, their exams are in a few weeks time... :-)





Friday, January 25, 2013

Improving the control of a wood drying furnace



Back in 2006, in the pre-COSME days, we were asked by Sarrimad (http://www.sarrimad.com) to develop an application to control their wood drying furnace (the big box on the left of the picture). Javier Silva,  one of our students at that time, used the initial COSME versions we were starting to develop, added some this and that (a lot of this and that, actually) and eventually finished his final year project. His work (COSEMA) was so good that the installation has been running smoothly during these six years.

A few months ago, Sarrimad called us again to upgrade our initial COSEMA control application to help them to optimize their energy consumption.
The task was assigned in this case to Carla Larrea, another student who is finishing now her final year project. During last christmas, the team conducted the almost final system tests at the Sarrimad facilities.
Successfully, by the way ;-)


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

COSME + Raspberry Pi + quadcopter = COSMEcopter



COSMEcopter is a spin-off project which mixes a few different but complementary disciplines, while assuring that everybody is having lots of fun!!


COSMEcopter is a project intended to collaboratively specify, design and build a  a slightly uncommon type of quadcopter.
Why uncommon?. Well, do not forget that our goal is not building a copter, but using it as a testbed for the COSME framework running on a small linux computer.

So, in our case, we are necessarily going to use these two products:
  • COSME  as the middleware platform for the control software
  • a raspberry pi as OBC (on-board computer) and communications hub (via wifi)
Keep listening. We`ll get you informed.
The first electronic components arrived a few weeks ago



A few Raspberry Pis, accelerometers, magnetometers, etc. are waiting...