From: jwmills@moose.cs.indiana.edu (Jonathan Mills)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.robotics,sci.electronics
Subject: Stiquito Status, Improved Kit
Summary: Requests being filled with improved kits at same cost
Keywords: Stiquito, Flexinol(tm), nitinol, robots, legged, locomotion
Date: 13 Oct 92 19:36:40 GMT
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington

Improved Kit
------------

After observing students here build Stiquitos, the kit has been 
modified to include more materials:

      - 540mm Flexinol (tm)        instead of 420mm
      - 3 x 100mm aluminum tubing  instead of 2 x 100mm
      - 5 x 100mm .020" music wire instead of 3 x 100mm

The extra materials should cover mistakes in construction.  All 
kits have the extra material included.  The cost has NOT changed,
it is still $10 per kit. 

As a benefit, if you decide _not_ to build the manual controller,
and you are careful, you can construct:

      - three (3) Stiquitos from two (2) kits 

      - a four-legged walker with two-degree-of-freedom legs 
        from one (1) kit 

      - a Stiquito with a nitinol-actuated pincer or grasper on 
        the front from one (1) kit

      - a Stiquito with a three-segment articulated body from one 
        (1) kit, using  nitinol actuators to bend the body at the 
        joints

You can also construct three Stiquitos from three kits after 
totally ruining one Stiquito.


Construction tips
-----------------

Check your ~Q ("Tilde Quotient") before building Stiquito.  A 
simple exercise that Mark Tilden, BEAM Robot Olympics organizer, 
suggests is to:

      - obtain a paper clip

      - using nothing but your self -- no tools -- bend the
        clip "straight as a sewing pin."  No kinks should
        remain, not even those less than 0.5mm.

      - once you've done this, put a 90-degree bend in the
        wire, again without using tools or measuring devices.

If you can do this, then your ~Q is probably high enough to build 
a working Stiquito the first time.  Mark mentions that it might 
take a couple years to develop a ~Q in the 200s... 

Regardless of your ~Q, _do_ use the recommended tools to build 
Stiquito!

Other tips:

      - make wire bends sharp, especially at the knees

      - do not use plastic cements that are "child safe."  they do
        not contain methyl ethyl ketone, and lead to weak body 
        half joints that pull apart when installing the legs

      - it really is best to let the body halves dry overnight 
        after cementing them.  Also prevents body joints that pull 
        apart when installing the legs.

      - and don't pull the legs outward with a lot of force during 
        installation.  guess why!  (:-)  Bend the legs outward at
        the point where they exit the leg holes on the bottom side
        of the robot.
        
      - leg crimps must be flattened so the wide edge is parallel 
        to the horizontal joint, _not_ the body (see below).  If 
        the leg crimp is parallel to the body (xxx) it makes a 
        nice lever arm that is pulled by the nitinol when it 
        contracts.  

        Result:  the leg won't move, but the crimp will.

           body          body                  body
        -----------   -----------           -----------
            \  |         \   |                 \   |
             \ |          \  |                  \  |
              \|           \ |                   \ |
               X            xxx                   X|
               X                                   X
                                            
             RIGHT         WRONG                WRONG
                       (before actuation)    (after actuation)


Order status
------------

Here is the order status to date for Stiquitos etc.  More requests 
have been received than are listed here.  If you don't see your 
name today you should see it in the next post (by Thursday this 
week).

Videos will be sent starting Monday October 19th.  Titling the 
sections of the video caused the delay.  Seems that the "Video 
Toaster" has perhaps 100 ways to fade a title, but all titles have 
to be typed in by hand.  The e-mail file of titles could not be 
used directly.

The video is 2 hours long, and is filled out with the evolution of 
Stiquitos, footage of Sticky, and details of a two-degree-of-
freedom leg.


Name                     Kit   TR    Video Shipped (or why not)
---------------------    ---   ---   ----- --------------------
Blow        Jon          6     0     0     10/13/92
Ross        Bill         2     0     0     10/13/92
Bauer       Mark         2     0     0     10/13/92
Saksa       Tom          1     0     0     10/13/92
Strauss     Daryll       1     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Desai       Shrinand     1     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Myler       Harley R.    1     0     0     10/13/92
Koolish     Richard M.   1     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Noonburg    Derek B.     2     0     0     10/13/92
Firby       R. James     2     0     0     10/13/92
Astrachan   Owen         2     1     0     10/13/92
Miller      Mark T.      1     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Heagy       Winfield S.  1     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Crane       Robert K.    1     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Thyng       Michael      1     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Polyakov    Vadim        1     1     0     10/13/92
Murphy      Jeffrey      1     1     0     10/13/92
Abburi      Rajasekhar   2     0     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Buckley     Dave         2     0     0     10/13/92
Watters     C.           1     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Grossman    B. L.        1     1     0     10/13/92
Puchol      Carlos M.    2     0     0     10/13/92
Schwartz    Ken          1     1     0     10/13/92
Ikehara     Curtis       1     1     0     10/13/92
Wettergreen David S.     1     0     0     10/13/92
Kaufman     & Van Brink  3     0     0     10/13/92
Hatalski    Mike         5     1     0     10/13/92
Zdunek      J.           1     1     0     10/13/92
Ellis       Nigel        2     0     0     10/13/92
Schooler    Kevin        1     1     0     10/13/92
Yeargus     Jonny        1     1     0     10/13/92
Brown       Peter F.     3     0     0     10/13/92
Kulosa      Greg         4     0     0     10/13/92
Henninger   Dave         1     1     0     10/13/92
Moore       John         1     1     0     10/13/92
Hodge       George D.    2     0     0     10/13/92
Zawicki     Kevin        3     0     0     next batch ships 10/16
Kling       Andy         5     1     0     next batch ships 10/16
Hardwick    Jonathan     5     0     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Farid       Hany         1     1     0     next batch ships 10/16
Wallace     Steve        1     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Yamamoto    Masaki       1     1     0     next batch ships 10/16
Bynum       Bill         1     1     0     next batch ships 10/16
Heinzmann   R. K.        1     1     0     next batch ships 10/16
Knudsen     Jonathan     1     0     0     next batch ships 10/16
Noshpitz    Claude S     2     0     0     next batch ships 10/16
Gini        M.           1     0     0     next batch ships 10/16
Weed        Dennis       1     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Bidstrup    Kai          2     0     0     next batch ships 10/16
Aldrich     J. R.        1     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
Wasserman   Richard      2     1     0     next batch ships 10/16
Scott       George       2     1     1     ship w/video 10/19/92
DeRouin     Ed           2     0     0     next batch ships 10/16
Martin      Mark N.      3     0     0     next batch ships 10/16
Plumpe      David        1     1     0     next batch ships 10/16
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.ai.neural-nets,comp.ai.philosophy,sci.psychology