Digital Dave

The team that I am on is kicking some major ass with this particular project.  I thought I’d share some progress.

The red ring on the can denotes that it is the top end of the can. Taking multiple shots of the field-of-view was beyond the requirements of this particular project. Since our team was the first to mess with this robotic arm, we didn’t have any prior code base to work from.

This first video is our simple case. Simple in that we don’t need to do any manipulation to set the can upright.

Here, the top of the can is facing the arm. Since the arm can only rotate it’s gripper 180 degrees, it needs to do an initial move so that it can proceed with setting the can upright.

I really wish I had more time to devote to this project, but I have so many other things that need my time. I’m not happy with the vision processing. I’m happy that it works, but I want it to be faster. While there are a few ways, I don’t have the time to devote to implementing a new strategy. We finished up the C0 testing today, and have a few more things to do before our final presentation. Oh, and we get to give another presentation on Test Driven Development. They have me to thank for that one, but I’m sure they’ll like it.

Note: In respect to the other members on my team,  I will not pass over the source code to this project or release it as open source.  There are code samples on the companies website that you will find helpful.

So I have been incredibly busy recently.  Not only with school projects, but with this daunting challenge of finding a job.  The process is not only time consuming, but mentally draining (much more so if it’s a programming related interview, for obvious reasons).  The build-up toward an interview, and the come-down after the interview wears me out, and in the past few weeks I had 4 companies interviewing me, sometimes on the same day.

One of the companies spoke with me for nearly 2 hours and I just realized I wasn’t going to be able to fit the position.  They really needed an experienced candidate, not an entry-level candidate.  Or, they needed a super-genius-magical-abnormal-code-monkey entry level candidate, that, I am not.  So I turned down their second interview request.

Another company ran me through the grinder in two on-site interviews to end up telling me that they are not in a position to hire anybody right now.  Ok, fair enough, the economy sucks and I couldn’t imagine that consulting isn’t getting hit hard by it.

A small company in southern cal interviewed me a couple times, and really liked me, but decided to go with somebody else.  This one was a bummer, but I understand the crutch that small businesses have.   I’m sure I left a great impression on them, and we’ll see if something can happen in the future.

The final company in the Kansas City region interviewed me a couple of times, and offered me a position.

Now, part of me feels like I’m crazy.

But the other part feels like I really had little choice.   Financially, it wouldn’t have made any sense for me to take it, and for Megan to move up there, jobless, in an area that is not hiring in her discipline.  We would essentially reverse positions, I would have a job, and she wouldn’t.  The job didn’t pay very much more than hers.  I applied to a different position with the company back in August, so it’s not like I knowingly applied this month and got the interview.  A lot has changed in these 3 months.

So I’m just going to go on with my plan to move out to California.  I’ve applied to a lot of places in California, with little bites.  So far in Kansas, I’ve interviewed with everybody I applied to, and have been approached by companies.  Obviously, having your feet on the ground helps.  Luckily, I have the luxury of having someone to fall back on if things don’t work out.

So I have been blitzed with interviews for the past few weeks.  The ups and downs (nerves) from all of this is definitely tiring.  I’m excited to get back to work.  I’m definitely NOT looking forward to turning down offers.  There’s quite a bit of cool things that I’ve been discussing with local companies, and so far I haven’t ran into anybody with an ego I couldn’t deal with.  Though, I have dealt with Marines, so that probably has something to do with that.

It’s been unfortunate that I haven’t got anything from the California region, even when I offer to pay my interviewing expenses.  It really looks like I need to get my boots on the ground to have any hope.  I’ll likely stick around the midwest for a few years, continue doing some independent things, and then use the experience I gain here to hopefully get more bites in the future.