usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (USENET News Administration) (05/02/88)
I met Mark Pauline of Survival Research Labs last year, and started working with him recently to add a microcontroller to one of his latest machines. It is basically a backhoe-turned- giant-arm. We found out about a show to be happening in NYC on May 17 a few weeks ago, and we've been doing some intense development since. We're using some HP optical sensing encoders, paired with digital decoders to do the position sensing for the joints on the arm. An 8031 will be controlling the hydraulics and monitoring the sensors. The 8031 will be connected to a PC for testing initial control sequences, and then later these sequences will be burned into EPROM along with the programs. Pauline will be able to select which sequence he wants from a radio remote control. He wants to be able to include more action into his shows by making his machines less dependant on manual operation. If you're near the performance space, you'd better be on your toes ... his machines truley will have minds of their own. I don't have access to alt.cyberpunk, but you may see me post to rec.music.misc or the nm-list (new music mail list out of florida), or you can reach me at: ames!amdahl!bnrmtv!rees Rick Rees