srp@modcomp.UUCP (Steve Pietrowicz) (10/09/90)
I'd like to find out more about "consumer robots". I recently saw an electronics catalog that had three different "robots". One would move until it bumped into something and then would go off in a different direction. Another would change direction when you whistle. The third would follow black lines on white pieces of paper. I'd appreciate any information I could get about this subject. (Magazines, catalogs, equipment sources, etc). What's the best place to get equipment to play around with these things? Through Heathkit? How much will a good "starter system" cost? Thanks for any information you can provide! Steve -- "The Video Toaster will do for video editing what shiny spheres and checkered surfaces did for 3D modeling." -- John Foust -------------- SR Pietrowicz UUCP: ...!uunet!modcomp!srp CIS: 73047,2313
hbg6@citek.mcdphx.mot.com (10/11/90)
In article <457@modcomp.UUCP> srp@modcomp.UUCP (Steve Pietrowicz) writes: >I'd like to find out more about "consumer robots". I recently saw an >electronics catalog that had three different "robots". One would move until >it bumped into something and then would go off in a different direction. > [....] >catalogs, equipment sources, etc). What's the best place to get equipment >to play around with these things? Through Heathkit? How much will a good >"starter system" cost? I guess it all depends on what you want to 'start'. If your interested in experimenting with software for robotic applications, there is a neat little 5 axis arm available which is controlled from a PC parallel port. It's a little flimsy but a good 'first step'. It's available from Circuit Specialists, (800)528-1417. It costs $189.00. I can post more details if asked. (I don't work for Circuit Specialists) If your more interested in hardware ( as I am ), and presuming you don't have a corporate or university budget ( as I do not ), the best avenue I have found is to go completely 'home brew'. With a little insight, imagination, and patients, you can put together a fairly impressive system for mot much money. Ask me about the " 3 axis dec-writer II robot" sometime :-). Good Luck, John ..................................................................... reply to 'from' address; hbg6@citek.mcdphx.mot.com NOT the 'sender' line address! Someday my sysadm will decide this is a 'real' problem. :-) ..................................................................... All opinions expressed are mine and not Motorolas, their loss. .....................................................................
hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) (10/11/90)
In article <457@modcomp.UUCP> srp@modcomp.UUCP (Steve Pietrowicz) writes: }I'd like to find out more about "consumer robots". I recently saw an }electronics catalog that had three different "robots". One would move until }it bumped into something and then would go off in a different direction. }Another would change direction when you whistle. The third would follow }black lines on white pieces of paper. }... What's the best place to get equipment }to play around with these things? ... For toy systems such as you describe, Edmund Scientific is a good place to start. I don't have their catalog handy. It may be the one you saw. Heathkit took their Hero 2000 off the market almost two years ago. I'm not sure of the status of their other robot kits. The Hero 2000 sold for about $6K with all the bells and whistles. Their other kits start at about $2K. For actual consumer robots, i.e.: Robots that perform useful tasks for individuals, I'd start with the National Service Robot Association. Note these systems are not cheap by most people's standards. Figure $10K and up for even minimally useful machines. The NSRA also has some books you may find useful. _The Robot Builder's Bonanza_ and _Build Your Own Working Robot_ are the most obvious titles. The NSRA can be reached at: National Service Robot Association 900 Victors Way P.O. Box 3724 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 (313) 994-6088 -- The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: hollombe@ttidca.tti.com) Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp(+)TTI Illegitimis non 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. (213) 450-9111, x2483 Carborundum Santa Monica, CA 90405 {csun | philabs | psivax}!ttidca!hollombe
mef@foghat.rutgers.edu (Marc E. Fiuczynski) (10/11/90)
In article <457@modcomp.UUCP> srp@modcomp.UUCP (Steve Pietrowicz) writes: }I'd like to find out more about "consumer robots". I recently saw an }electronics catalog that had three different "robots". One would move until }it bumped into something and then would go off in a different direction. }Another would change direction when you whistle. The third would follow }black lines on white pieces of paper. }... What's the best place to get equipment }to play around with these things? ... Here is something that may interest you. It is a just some stuff that I collected over the past few months. Enjoy: \*----------------------------------------------------------------------*/ The ubiquitous MOVIT series of "Educational Electronic Robot Kits" is now available from a new vendor: American Design Components 815 Fairview Avenue P.O. Box 220 Fairview, New Jersey 07022 (800) 776-3700 / (201) 941-5000 in N.J. Compared to most of the equipment previously discussed in this group, these are definite ToyBots. On the other hand, for those with small budgets and an urge to tinker, these kits may be a good place to start. Should prove good substitutes for an automated plant when trying to explain to small children "What Daddy Really Does". Prices range from $42.95 to $129.95. Intelligence level ranges from sub-moron to total idiot. Name Price Description ---- ----- ----------- Robotic Arm 49.95 Looks fairly lightweight. Grab/release, raise/lower, pivot side-to-side. Hand- held control. Medusa 42.00 Four-legged plastic dome w. sound sensor. Mr. Bootsman 49.95 6 insect-like legs, two-speed movement. Hand-held control. Navius 69.95 Two motor-controlled wheels, guided by marks on a "programming disk" S-Cargo 59.95 Mororized. Start/stop/turn via sound sensor. Avoider 59.95 Description says 3 legs (although photo shows 3 per side). Detects obstacles via infra-red sensor, turns, and continues. Line Tracer 49.95 Follows black line drawn on white paper. Circular 99.95 Drive and electronics form the "axle" for two large "wheels". Hand-held control. WAO 129.95 Progammable (128x4 RAM!) motorized line-drawing robot. Connector port can be used with optional AppleII/IBM PC/Commodore C-64 to "communicate" (presumably download/control). -------------------------------------------------------- Frank McKenney, President | {uunet,rti}!talos!mckenney McKenney Associates | mckenney@talos.pm.com 3464 Northview Place | guest account - access Richmond, Virginia 23225 | provided as a courtesy by USA (804) 320-4887 | Philip Morris USA -------------------------------------------------------- In article <1990Jul30.004821.27254@talos.pm.com> mckenney@talos.UUCP (Frank McKenney) writes: >The ubiquitous MOVIT series of "Educational Electronic Robot >Kits" is now available from a new vendor: >Compared to most of the equipment previously discussed in this >group, these are definite ToyBots. On the other hand, for those >with small budgets and an urge to tinker, these kits may be a >good place to start. At Hopkins we are working on "neural" analog VLSI chips. It occured to us that these "Toybots" would make cheap, simple platforms for testing student project chips. Various senses can be added ("whiskers", "ears" (perhaps using Carver Mead's electronic ear chip), "eyes" (using focal system on chip surface for things like the See/Hear Chip)). Anyway, we have obtained a couple of them, and although we haven't mounted any of the chips on them yet, they provide an interesting diversion around the lab :-) -Thomas Edwards Ah yes, the MOVIT. Here's a fun project a friend and I did last year: The MOVIT robot has a powerful (:-) 4 bit controller which we promptly disconnected from the motors and removed. We then interfaced a 6809 to the motors and wrote a LOGO-like interpreter in Concurrent Euclid. The robot could perform all of our LOGO commands, with one nifty twist. We wrote an ON-KEY-DO command which would map key strokes on to LOGO procedures. A keyboard monitoring task would watch for these keys and inform the interpreting task, which would push what it was doing on to a stack and jump to the requested procedure. For instance, ON 'T' DO TWIST_AND_MOVE TO SQUARE (SIDE) REPEAT 4 FORWARD SIDE RIGHT 90 END REPEAT END TO TWIST_AND_MOVE RIGHT 20 FORWARD 20 REVERSE 20 LEFT 20 END Now if we ran SQUARE 100, and hit 'T' a bunch of times, the interpreter would nest all of the TWIST_AND_MOVE procedures, causing the robot to do a little jig. Eventually it would finish everything up and sit where it began. The system was clever enough to know that if it was interrupted in the middle of a FORWARD 100, by an ON-KEY-DO, it would finish it up when it returned. Anthony T. Green green@ai.toronto.edu \*----------------------------------------------------------------------*/ -- Marc Fiuczynski mef@remus.rutgers.edu