back together again

And then we put it back together again...

Hammering out dents

Hammering out dents and repairing innards ... And making roboteq modular while we're at it.

What the Battlebot needs:

1. Non-corroding gas hose - we almost got disqualified for this when we showed up last time. - on order
2. Driving practice - on order
3. More gradual turning response - on order
4. Bang out dents and re-level the bot - IN PROGRESS
5. Tire repair - DONE
6. More driving practice - on order
7. A cool new name - on order

Battlebot repair

Worked on repairing tires. We drilled holes for cotter pins through the shaft. We are supplementing the set screw with a cotter pin to prevent slippage. This seems to become an issue in battle.



What the Battlebot needs:

1. Non-corroding gas hose - we almost got disqualified for this when we showed up last time. - on order
2. Driving practice - on order
3. More gradual turning response - on order
4. Bang out dents and re-level the bot - working on it
5. Tire repair - working on it
6. More driving practice - on order
7. A cool new name - on order


In other news: I disassembled our decommissioned supercomputer...

Kids with guns... and robots

1. Behold - wholesome educational stuff:




2. Crack open the battlebot to figure out how it should be retooled:




What the Battlebot needs:

1. Non-corroding gas hose - we almost got disqualified for this when we showed up last time.
2. Driving practice
3. More gradual turning response
4. Bang out dents and re-level the bot
5. Tire repair
6. More driving practice
7. A cool new name

Wish list:

1. Quick release mechanism
2. Weight reduction to make room for:
3. ...defense against flipping or a defensive flipper
4. ...defense against catching on the floor or walls
5. Define how long we can run gas continuously without running out or burning up
6. Micro-controller for drive processing with gyros
- this could allow for a rotation mode
- recall that smashing people with our face was our most effective weapon last time


3. Rovio by Joystick

Scott got Rovio running by Joystick via ROS. Neat. Golf cart should be no problem.

3D Scanning & Rovio

Robot day:

1. Daniel creates a 3D scan of a golf club with a laser and webcam






2. Scott investigates ROS (and application to Rovio)

3. Justin brings back the Rovio




4. Meanwhile the kids rode bikes, drove the golf cart, and watched movies

Neural Interfaces, DARPA, and ROS

Dataczar attended the Neural Interfaces Conference and among all of the very interesting eye and tongue I/O devices, direct neural implant I/O, and memory augmenters (for mice), etc, DARPA presented the 2009 Revolutionizing Prosthetics program. This program has established MODULAR OPEN STANDARDS for prosthetics control. They also made an arm that mimics human sensory and actuation characteristics with direct closed loop control to the brain. That's all well and good. But modular open standards for such devices from the organization that invented the Internet means there will now be a clear path to the interoperability of these devices.

Should this become widely used, an adapter can be added to the Robot Operating System (ROS) and allow arbitrary control of devices from neural I/O. That's exciting because an interface, say, that monitors tongue movements in a paralyzed person for control of a computer mouse can be easily adapted to any other device of arbitrary complexity (like say a Jeep).

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the paralyzed monkey that had his limbs reanimated by a tinkering scientist.

Here's a nice lady controlling an iPhone with her tongue.



Here's a guy explaining how Utah's electrode array gets the data in and out of the brain.

Robogames Wrap-up

We're back now with our gold medal and beat-up robot. Now for another year of procrastination and at least a month break from robots. In retrospect our robot had a very clear vulnerability: once it was flipped it was like a turtle on its back. Most of the other robots had that vulnerability, and it would have been fun to get in the ring with a few more robots with spinners. But we'll have to do that another time.

Next we'll refocus on finishing Zippy (the golf cart) and investigating this new "ROS" Robot Operating System that seems to be replacing Player.