HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lazzaro@boom.CS.Berkeley.EDU (John Lazzaro)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Help for Technical Report from CMU
Date: 5 Jan 1993 19:51:55 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: boom.cs.berkeley.edu

In article <58285@dime.cs.umass.edu> connolly@piglet.cs.umass.edu (Christopher Ian Connolly) writes:
>
>Let's face it, people simply are not going to comb through tens of
>thousands of technical reports (or at least titles) per year from all
>the organizations that do research in a given field in the hopes of
>finding the very first mention of an idea.
>

I agree, but when the author of the TR ("A") sends author "B" a copy
of the TR and says "please reference my work in future papers," does
"B" has an obligation to abide by these wishes? Moreso than if an
author "C" approaches "B" and says "we thought about this in our lab
years ago, and have documentation to prove it, but we thought it was
not worth publishing in any format; please reference us with an
(unpublished observation) footnote" ?

These things actually happen, I'm not making them up ... its all part
of the slippery slope of intellectual priority (and for patentable
technologies, intellectual property). And with electronic TR's on FTP
sites, the waters muddy even more.
From: mww@eng.cam.ac.uk (Mark Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: A gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, a pack of wolves...
Date: 11 Jan 93 13:11:09 GMT
Organization: Cambridge University Engineering Department, UK

Well, asking around the lab we collected the following
promising candidates:

A "joint" of robots
An "assembly" (my favorite)
A "collision" (Particularly apt for systems with path planners)

(Thats enough collective nouns - Ed)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Wright
Speech, Vision and Robotics Group
Cambridge University Engineering Department
Trumpington Street, Cambridge, England CB2 1PZ
Tel: +44-223-332754 Fax:+44-223-332662
EMail: mww@eng.cam.ac.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: jollie@herky.cs.uiowa.edu (Jeffrey C. Ollie)
Subject: Sources of robot kits
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 22:16:59 GMT
Organization: The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Followup-To: comp.robotics

Does anyone know of a source for cheap robot kits?  The kits should be
in the range of US$25 and include all parts.  Construction should require
no more tools than a soldering iron, screwdiver, and wire cutters.

E-Mail me and I will summarise for the net.

Thanks in advance...

--
Jeffrey C. Ollie
jollie@herky.cs.uiowa.edu
"The Happy User"
From: picardo@alpha.ces.cwru.edu (Leslie Picardo)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Need email address of Luiz R. Lopez
Date: 11 Jan 1993 20:52:22 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: cthulhu.ces.cwru.edu



 I need the email address of Luis R. Lopez who presented a paper
 " Evolving Artificial Insect Brains for Artificial Compound Eye
 Robotics" at the recent Simulation of Adaptive Behavior conference in
 Hawaii. I would like to get a copy of his paper. 


---------------------------------------------------------------
Leslie Picardo
picardo@alpha.ces.cwru.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: stanford@leland.Stanford.EDU (Scott Stanford)
Subject: Re: A gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, a pack of wolves...
Keywords: RUR
Organization: none whatsoever
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 93 21:37:09 GMT

In article <yarg> madden@grip.cis.upenn.edu (Brian Madden) writes:

>       a karel of robots?

Hey, look bud, two wrongs don't make a right.  But three lefts do.

Scott
-- 
Scott Stanford                 |)  Eenie meenie miney moe.
stanford@leland.stanford.edu  /|   Catch a tiger by the toe.
                             ((|,) If he hollers...yeah whatEVER.
"MORE Doctah Peppah!!"        ~|~  He's EATIN' your ass.  Run, you idiot.
From: williams@aifh.ed.ac.uk (Bill Smart)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Reliability of Multiple Robot Systems
Date: 12 Jan 93 22:24:14 GMT
Reply-To: williams@aisb.ed.ac.uk (Bill Smart)
Organization: Dept AI, Edinburgh University, Scotland

In article <HAGERMAN.93Jan11230044@rx7.ece.cmu.edu> hagerman@ece.cmu.edu (John Hagerman) writes:
>[I don't speak for the Erebus project; the following are my opinions.]
>The Erebus project was not intended to explore reliability, so few
>conclusions about reliability should be drawn from it.  That Dante
>failed at a single point of failure should not be surprising, given
>that a fault-tolerant design was not a goal.  Goals must be limited in
>every experimental situation.  The main goal of the Erebus was to test
>robotic technologies in a real environment; reliability was not a big
>concern since people would be there, and so reliability did not need
>to be included as a major goal of the project.

It's fair enough to say that fault tolerant design was not a goal of the
design, but surely the system should be fault tolerant enough to
acomplish the design goals.  By saying "people would be there" is surely
a catch-all phrase - if system X did not work, then it's OK since people
would be there to replace it.  This could cover all possibilities - it's
OK that the legs didn't work, people were there to carry it....

>gat@forsight2.jpl.nasa.gov (Erann Gat) writes:
>>
>>That using multiple small robots increases realiability is not a "naive
>>assumption", it is a theoretically and empirically verifiable fact.  It
>>does not matter whether failure modes are independent.  Unless there is
>>100% correlation among failures in multiple units (which is never the case)
>>having more units will increase the overall system reliability.
>
>This is a simplistic statement, which would lead to a hot debate if
>made in comp.risks (where it would be phrased "Four engine airplanes
>are obviously safer than two engine airplanes, so why aren't there
>more of them?").  Two factors this statement ignores are complexity,
>and how to maximize reliability while minimizing cost.  Redundancy is
>a very important technique for creating reliable systems, but "mere
>redundancy" is *not* enough; it is a lot harder than that.  Food for
>thought: multiple robot systems already have the very hard problem of
>constructive interaction; might this complicate reliability even more?

Granted, constructive interaction is a problem right now.  The answer is
to have *no* interaction.  Send X completely independant robots down the
volcano, recoding from each.  It is unlikely that all of them would
encounter the same fault/environmental problem.  When you compare the
unit costs per robot to the over all design costs, I bet that making a
few robots once the design were finalised would make very little change
to the overall costs of the project.

Bill

wsmart@uk.ac.dund.mcs
From: williams@aifh.ed.ac.uk (Bill Smart)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: A gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, a pack of wolves...
Date: 12 Jan 93 15:52:50 GMT
Reply-To: williams@aifh.ed.ac.uk (Bill Smart)
Organization: Dept AI, Edinburgh University, Scotland

> mww@eng.cam.ac.uk (Mark William Wright) writes:
>
> A "joint" of robots
> An "assembly" (my favorite)
> A "collision" (Particularly apt for systems with path planners)

how about a "pile" of robots (apt for 'bots ith electronics as reliable
				as mine were)
:-)


Bill
From: guglielmetti@elia.epfl.ch (Philippe Guglielmetti)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Looking for very high speed manipulators
Date: 5 Jan 93 12:38:39 GMT
Organization: IA-DME-EPFL
X-UserAgent: Nuntius v1.1.1d11
X-XXMessage-ID: <A76F4274FE017B20@iamace9.epfl.ch>
X-XXDate: Tue, 5 Jan 93 13:49:40 GMT

Hello world,
I'm currently working on a PhD thesis about the control of a very fast
parallel robot we developped here at EPFL (Swiss Fed. Institute of
Technology). It's called the Delta and we believe it's one of the fastest
(the very fastest ?) robot for pick & place tasks. A commercial version
of this machine is used in chocolate packaging industry (remember we're
in Switzerland...)...
The Delta is functionally equivalent to a cartesian carrier (3DOF). It
can move a mass of 10g along an half-elliptic trajectory of 50 cm big
axis and 20 cm small axis (10 cm heigth) in about 0.125 s, the load being
accelerated by about 300 m/s2, speed of end-effector reaching 3 m/s
I'd like to have a more precise idea of the performances of other robots,
other designs to add a valuable comparison in my report. If you own, use,
study, have seen fast manipulators, please let me know (by mail or on the
net).
Thanks and Best Wishes to you all for '93.

Ph. Guglielmetti                guglielmetti@elia.epfl.ch
Institut d'Automatique
EPFL
From: baden@sys6626.bison.mb.ca (baden de bari)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: sensorsystems for underwater
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 93 13:57:54 CST
Organization: System 6626 BBS, Winnipeg Manitoba Canada

edorff@iw.uni-hannover.de (Thilo Erdmannsdorff) writes:

> 
> In connection with a study about "Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles" 
> and "Autonomous Underwater Vehicles" we are searching for information about 
> sensorsystems ( sonar etc. ) for such vehicles. We would be very grateful
> about literary references, references about manufactures or other information
> concerning this subject.
> 
> Thanks in advance
> 		 Thilo

 
                I was at SFU (Simon Fraser University) in BC two years 
ago, and I saw them working with ALVIN-like autonomous underwater 
vehicles.  I'm not sure in who to contact, however, I know they are doing 
the work there.
                You may want to check them out.
 
        >>Baden<<
From: hannu.lehtinen@vtt.fi
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Modules of Robotix Corp?
Date: 5 Jan 1993 13:24:18 +0200
Organization: Technical Research Centre of Finland
Distribution: world
Reply-To: hannu.lehtinen@vtt.fi
NNTP-Posting-Host: vttux1.vtt.fi

Item Subject: robotix.dos
I would be pleased to have description of the modular robots of
The Robotix Corporation, Torrence, CA or their (better) address.
        Hannu.Lehtinen@vtt.fi
        VTT Electrical Eng. and Automation Lab.
        Box 34, SF-02151 Espoo, FINLAND
From: gerry@cmu.edu (Gerry Roston)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: How to Explore Mars
Date: 9 Jan 93 04:12:55 GMT
Reply-To: gerry@cmu.edu (Gerry Roston)
Organization: Field Robotics Center, CMU

By today's standards, the Viking landers are large craft.  The
question of using small robots versus large ones is almost a religious
question.  The greatest failing of those proposing small robots is the
naive assumption that using multiple, small robots increases overall
system reliability.  This is not true because one can not assume a
priori that the failure modes are independent.  That is, if the robots
are identical, and one of them fails in a particulr manner, this
implies that the others will also be prone to that particular failure
mode.

From a technical viewpoint, the major drawback to small robots in
telemetry.  To transmit a signal from Mars, you need a moderately
large antenna and a bunch of power, if you want reasonable data rates.
I do not have my references in front of me for doing link
calculations, but from the moon (which is right next door), you need a
.5 m dish on the moon, putting out 20 W of power to a 10 m dish on the
earth to get data rates of between 10k-100k bits per second.  The
problem from mars is much more difficult.  In addition, mars has winds
which will make antenna pointing difficult, thus degrading data
transmission.  To overcome these problems, a larger vehicle is needed.
By larger, I am thinking of a vehicle with a mass of 100-200 kg, as
opposed to a number of micro rover concepts that have a mass of < 10
kg.  These micro rovers would be incapable of meaningful scientific
exploration. 

--
Gerry Roston (gerry@cmu.edu)    | It would be almost unbelievable, if history
Field Robotics Center,          | did not record the tragic fact, that men have
Carnegie Mellon University      | gone to war and cut each other's throats
Pittsburgh, PA, 15213           | because they could not agree as to what was to
(412) 268-3856                  | become of them after their throats were cut...
                                | For some reason, too deep to fathom, men
The opinions expressed are mine | contend more furiously over the road to
and do not reflect the official | heaven, which they cannot see, than over their
position of CMU, FRC, RedZone,  | visible walks on earth.  Walter Stacey
or any other organization.      |
From: klambrec@gmuvax.gmu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: FREE stuff from Motorola
Date: 7 Jan 93 02:21:42 GMT
Organization: George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

Motorola publishes a master selection guide" that they will send you *****
if you call their Publication dept. (1-800-{441-2447)  It's part #SG73/D.

They also have a Tech Support #. 1-800-521-6247

Use these #s, they are free.

Pubs will also ship you any of the tech books Motorola published, but they will
charge you for the priviledge.  You will do better to ask them who your local
distributor is.  If you call your local distributor, they will ship you
databooks free. (usually).

--Jim
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: hagerman@ece.cmu.edu (John Hagerman)
Subject: Re: Help for Technical Report from CMU
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 17:37:58 GMT

In article <58285@dime.cs.umass.edu> connolly@piglet.cs.umass.edu (Christopher Ian Connolly) writes:
>
> I'm ... not keen on using [tech reports] as primary sources.

How about books?  They have the same problems: no peer review, and the
library has to buy them.  In fact, since libraries can have agreements
to regularly obtain tech reports, and since the tech reports I am most
often interested in come from that set of universities, it has been my
experience that the library is more likely to have a tech reports than
books that I want.  So should I stop referring to books?

- John
--
hagerman@ece.cmu.edu
From: gerry@cmu.edu (Gerry Roston)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: How to Explore Mars
Date: 9 Jan 93 04:22:11 GMT
Reply-To: gerry@cmu.edu (Gerry Roston)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Field Robotics Center, CMU

The Erebus project was probably the single most ambitious robotic
undertaking ever attempted.  To have accomplished what the Erebus team
did was a minor miracle itself.  The failure of the Erebus project
says little to nothing about the one big robot versus multiple robot
scenario.  Had the project been less ambitious, i.e., had there been
more time available, the problems that beset the mission would never
have occured.  It's well and good for people sitting in their snug
offices running robotic simulations to make snide comments, but they
should actually try to develop a real system and see what happens.

Although I do not agree with all of the design decisions made by the
Erebus team, they achieved a goal that mo other organization in the
world would even dream of, and I am damned proud to be a part of this
organization.  This mission has brought robotics into the homes of
people around the world and has shown what robotic technologies are
capable of.  Even though this project did not achieve its stated
scientific goals, the mere fact that a viable, working system was
delivered, basically on time and within budget, will help future
generations of robotic researchers by providing a bench mark of what
can be done within our field.

--
Gerry Roston (gerry@cmu.edu)    | It would be almost unbelievable, if history
Field Robotics Center,          | did not record the tragic fact, that men have
Carnegie Mellon University      | gone to war and cut each other's throats
Pittsburgh, PA, 15213           | because they could not agree as to what was to
(412) 268-3856                  | become of them after their throats were cut...
                                | For some reason, too deep to fathom, men
The opinions expressed are mine | contend more furiously over the road to
and do not reflect the official | heaven, which they cannot see, than over their
position of CMU, FRC, RedZone,  | visible walks on earth.  Walter Stacey
or any other organization.      | 
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: reznik@robios.me.wisc.edu (Dan S Reznik)
Subject: Re: A gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, a pack of wolves...
Organization: U. Wisconsin-Madison, Robotics Laboratory
Date: 12 Jan 93 12:22:46
In-reply-to: williams@aifh.ed.ac.uk's message of 12 Jan 93 15:52:50 GMT

i suggest

	A 'BOTALLION

dan reznik
robotics lab
uw-madison
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: ac94691@dunix.drake.edu (The Dark Kitty)
Subject: My robot project.
Organization: Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, USA
Distribution: comp.robotics
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 10:32:39 GMT

I just thought I'd share my current project with anyone interested.

I'm what you might call a technology recycler.  I hate throwing old
stuff away and prefer using it in new, hopefully unexpected ways.

Currently I am constructing a robot:

The platform is an old wheelchair stripped of everything but frame
and wheels.  To this will be bolted plywood platforms to strengthen the
structure and to support electronics and motors.

The motors are two 20v dc units used for read/write head control in
Digital Equipment RL02 14inch removable platter drives.

The brains to control the on/off forward/reverse motor control are
coming from a Franklin Ace 1200.  The motor control circuitry is out
of one of the Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar volumes.

It's first sensor will be a wire whisker connected physically to a
pot (feedback to original position will be via springs) which will be
connected to one of the 1 bit a/d game inputs on the franklin mother
board.  Actually there will be several wire whiskers. (easier to
correct as afterthought).

I know it sounds like junk, but it has one virtue:  it's costing me
nothing.  =-)  And it should be sufficient for chasing the cat or
frightening small children.  ;-D

Just thought I'd let you all know.

Anthony Clifton
From: klambrec@gmuvax.gmu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: One last word on bow & arrow
Date: 6 Jan 93 21:07:27 -0500
Organization: George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

For those of you who are still interested:

There was a paper published in the American Journal of Physics  by Weiland C. 
Marlow  sometime around 1980 titled something like "The Dynamics of the
Recursive Crossbow".  The paper discussed ar great length the physics and motion
of a crossbow and bolt. This information should be easy to transfer to a
normal bow & arrow.

I haven't read the paper, so don't ask me questions about the exact content.
I happened to mention the problem to someone who used to work with Marlow
and was told that the study had been done.

Hope this helps,
--Jim
From: 2575brooksr@vms.csd.mu.edu (Ryan K. Brooks)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Cheap color sensor
Date: 9 Jan 1993 03:27:25 GMT
Organization: Marquette University - Computer Services
Reply-To: 2575brooksr@vms.csd.mu.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: vmsa.csd.mu.edu

In article <1993Jan8.194916.8558@black.clarku.edu>, kbasye@black.clarku.edu (Ken Basye) writes:
>
>I've been wondering lately about how one might build a very simple and
>cheap color sensor.  I have in mind something that would be fairly
>reliable in providing 3 or perhaps even 4 bits of discrimination and
>which would be fairly reliable given good input, e.g., having a
>well-lit piece of colored construction paper put in front.
>
>A photoresistor alone might seem to be enough, given that different
>pieces of paper will reflect different amounts of light.  So as a
>control, imagine that the sheets have been chosen so that a single
>photoresistor gets close to the same reading for each sheet, yet they
>are easily distinguished by color.
>
>My first thought was to use three photoresistors with R, G and B
>filters (just cellophane, perhaps).  Or perhaps there are tuned
>versions that would give the same effect.  Better yet, a single
>tunable photoresistor could be used with 3 consecutive readings.  
>Are there cheap ways to measure dominant frequency directly?  Etc...
>
>kbasye@black.clarku.edu     
>Ken Basye
>Dept. of Math and CS
>Clark University
>950 Main St.
>Worcester, MA  01610
>
Here's a couple ideas:

	I dug up a catalog that I get from Marlin Jones & Associates
(Phone #407-848-8236), they have a "Photo Electric Color Detector"
Part 3278-OP.  The catalog describes it as a surplus item with four
colored "filters" in front of solar cells.  Looks small. $5.00.  
(this place has a good selection of well-priced hobby elect. stuff).

	Also, (it'll be hard to get a reference on this :-), but, in
middle school, I did a science project (STOP laughing!) with a photocell
hooked up to a Commodore 64's 8-bit A/D converter.  I had a small stand
with the photocell and an light source that I would place different
colored pieces of paper under.  Significantly different amounts of light
would be detected by the CdS cell for different colors, even those with
apparently similar overall brightness.  Probably due to the non-linear
response of the CdS cell to different wavelengths and the odd spectrum
coming out of a light bulb.


>
 ----------------------------
 Ryan K. Brooks                Chip of the Month Club: TMS320C40
 2575BrooksR@vms.csd.mu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.robotics,sci.electronics
From: jhuang@sci.ccny.cuny.edu (Jian Huang)
Subject: How does this auto tracking work?
Reply-To: jhuang@sci.ccny.cuny.edu (Jian Huang)
Organization: City College of New York - Science Computing Facility
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 21:17:26 GMT

 Recently I saw a demo of CameraMan pan-tilt unit. One best
feature is auto-tracking function. The camera can follow
the person who holds a wireless mic/controller. It even
tracks you when you walk behind a partition. How does it
work? Any information will be welcome.

-- 
JIAN HUANG                   
jhuang@sci.ccny.cuny.edu    
jhuang@ccnysci.uucp       
jhuang@ccnysci.bitnet
From: demers@cs.ucsd.edu (David DeMers)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: 7 dof robots?
Date: 9 Jan 93 22:41:31 GMT
Organization: =CSE Dept., U.C. San Diego

I'm familiar with the K-1207 from Robotics Research.
Are there other 7 dof robots available?  I'm interested
in obtaining one with k-1207 - like D-H parameters;
that is, all revolute, elbow manipulator, approximately
separable wrist.
Actually, I'd be interested in a 4R spatial positioning
robot too... so if you've got one with a broken wrist :-)...

I'd like to get something pretty cheaply (can't afford a
K-1207), but "cheap" depends on the status of some
outstanding grant proposals...

We're going to want to build our own controller.
In fact, we might just go ahead and try to build the arm,
but we're all theorists here, so that's liable to be
a big mistake...
It doesn't need to be exceptionally precise nor carry a
big payload - just some force-torque sensors.  We will
be experimenting with vision and tactile feedback control.

This is all at pre-planning stages, just trying to
see what's out there.

-- 
Dave DeMers			 ddemers@UCSD   demers@cs.ucsd.edu
Computer Science & Engineering	C-014		demers%cs@ucsd.bitnet
UC San Diego					...!ucsd!cs!demers
La Jolla, CA 92093-0114	(619) 534-0688, or -8187, FAX: (619) 534-7029