Daleketta and the Robot Cake Trolley

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I recently met a bright and friendly group of trainee engineers in BBC North Lab at MediaCity, Salford. They kindly showed me a couple of things they'd done in their '10% time', which allows them to work on things that are vaguely relevant but not directly related to their current projects.

One of them - Daleketta - got a lot of coverage recently  in the National Press after a BBC North Lab Open Day.  She's also featured in a BBC R&D story about Women in Technology.

Daleketta is a mobile r/c 13" model Dalek , purchased from the BBC shop and modified for wifi control. An experimental Set Top Box transmits programme details live, and Daleketta stirs into action in sync with the relevant moments of Dr Who episodes as they are transmitted.

The micro controller is an mbed, but there's room within the Dalek for a BeagleBone or Raspberry Pi. I feel another project coming on.

I also saw their robot cake trolley. It's in an early prototyping stage, but looks as if it will be fun. The biggest obstacle for it to negotiate will probably be Health and Safety :)

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