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{ Monthly Archives } November 2007

First Rain Data

Im in the middle of writing the Optical Disdrometer data sorting code, and I have managed to get the first image out of it.  Excel looks the best, but damn, why didnt Microsoft add an “export current chart to image” function.  I had to find some VBA and put it in a macro.
The code needs [...]

Algorithm Comparison

Suprise result here.  Drum roll please….
It turns out that the FMinSearch algorithm was the quickest by about a factor of 2!  Finally got the lsqnonlin function working by messing with the options.  The profiles of the results are shown below:
FMinSearch Profile (2.189s)
FMinUnc Profile (4.355s)
LSqNonLin Profile (3.577s)
mmFSolve Profile (Custom user’s file) (5.814s)

Slight Speed Increase

Speeded up the code slightly (0.2s to be exact) by changing the peak detection routine.  This new one has come from a PDF entitled “Writing Fast Matlab Code” by Pascal Getreuer in 2006.  Below are a local copy of the PDF and the profiles of the slower and faster code.
Writing Fast Matlab Code PDF
Slower Peak [...]

Moving from a square to a circular tank

EDIT: Scratch this, it turns out, it wasn’t that at all. Implemented the ideas below, and it still didnt work. Couldnt figure out why. Had a break, a cup of tea, and noticed that vista was starting to get sluggish. Did a customary restart, restarted Matlab, and boom. Back down to [...]

Few more ideas

Once I’ve finished with the current robot, I would love to get into some sort of UAV design, something like the 4 rotor Helicopter designs ive seen on the internet (see bottom for references).
I’d also like to continue building the EFPD.  Possibly place it on a robot that would run away when someoe got close.  [...]

Next Things to do for the ZBot

Well after a long period where I had no access to my electronic equipment, the time is nearly upon me to get it all back out (just in time for the christmas holidays!). Heres what I need to do:

Go over the IR code and change/rewrite if nessecary
Change the IR diodes to radial types
Hot Melt [...]

Damn Multilateration

Over the past couple of days I have been battling with solving the multilateration equations.  Today I got them working in the guise of a numerical solution using matlabs fminsolve function.  It took a while to figure out how it worked, but when it did, it worked straight away.  The next thing was to throw [...]

Paris Confrence and a few bits

Got back from the Paris IPC9 confrence now and overall it was a pretty good experience.  I felt really nervous though when I was actually giving the presentation.  I thought it went quite badly, but others said it ok; probably being paranoid.
When I got back ive continued with the code, mainly trying to get the [...]

TAR meeting and more…

Had the TAR meeting today, someone called Michiel Postema, was chairing the meeting with Paulson.  Exccentric is not the word.  They said the report was good.  Background was a bit diluted.  Paulson loved the presentation layout.  Practised the presentation again; took about 20 mins but I spent too long describing bits.
Rewrote the generation code, was [...]

Finished the presentation

Finished the presentation, do need to practise it a bit more.  Got paulson to look at it.  Altered some of the content, but likes the look.