Raspberry Pi Roundup - 23rd September 2016

Mini-bike

Eric Unnervik, a master’s student at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, has developed a miniature motorbike that drives itself! Onto the bike he has strapped a Raspberry Pi (3, I think), a Navio2 add-on board and some sensors. These control the balance and direction of the bike and the destination is programmed via a smartphone interface. The bike can travel at 60 km/hr (37 mph) without falling over – which is quite astonishing when you consider the weight of the Pi and add-on board.

“Our goal is that, in a race between an autonomous motorcycle and one ridden by a human, our machine wins!” said Unnervik

You can see it in action in the (French language) video below.

Take that, parking enforcement officer!

In many San Francisco neighbourhoods, you are required to move your car every two hours to satisfy a parking restriction. However, in reality, you only need to move your car every two hours after it has been seen by an enforcement officer. John Naulty decided to use a Pi to detect when an enforcement officer was present. He uses the camera module and OpenCV to detect motion. The Pi then uploads the photograph to a website running Tensorflow which determines whether the movement is an enforcement vehicle or not and sends him a text if it is 75% sure. Naulty then has two hours to move his car from that point. Sneaky, eh? You can read a few quotes from Naulty and watch a video of him over at TechCrunch.

Bedroom clock

Andy Felong has converted an old 1942 Crosley Radio into a Raspberry Pi Zero-powered media centre and then used an attached display to display the time and outside temperature (using the Weather Underground API). Read how he did it here.

Enviro pHAT

The MagPi have published their review of Pimoroni’s Enviro pHAT. The add-on board, which features a barometer/temperature sensor, a light/colour sensor and an accelerometer as well as several analog inputs, is given a very positive review. Read it here. The pHAT is available from The Pi Hut for £16.