HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: 194725245@vill.edu (SANKA, KIRAN CHANDRA)
Subject: looking for stepper motor drivers
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1  
Organization: Villanova University
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 00:00:00 GMT

hai guys,
        guess I am new to this net. I am a Mech. Engg. and often I do not
  fully understand the massive exchange of information. 
        To business. In my Undergraduate studies in India, we fabricated
  a 4-dof robot arm. But the electroconics was looked after by ECE dept.
  We used Stepper Motors as the actuators and the students fabricated drivers
  for these guys. Now I wish to build smart machines using stepper motors, but
  being new( 1 yr.) to this country do not know the best place to buy stepper
  motors or their boards. I would appreciate if anyone can send me information
  on this.

       About me, My masters thesis is on the                              
      kinematics of Hyper-redundant cooperating robot arms. 
          I feel that Cooperating and Redundant robot arms are the future
 of Robotics. If any comments or yeah!'s please mail. I hope to hear the
 opinion of my buddie's too.
           thank you.

  My e-mail: 194725245@vuvaxcom.bitnet
     home address: kiran Sanka
                   j-403, sugartownmews
                   devon, pa.  19333

Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: tilden@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Robert Tilden)
Subject: Re: A gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, a pack of wolves...
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 15:20:28 GMT

However, robots will have to share that designation with whales, which also
travel in pods!


Organization: Freshman, CIT general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 15:01:40 -0500 
From: James Ryan Miller <jmce+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Sonar and the 68HC11

    I am curious if anyone has programmed a 6811 to find distances with
one of those polaroid sonar things.  Right now, I have the transducer
and the 6811, but I need to determine what interface circuitry is
needed.  I know you can buy kits from polaroid that has a thing that
does all the decoding and determines distance and stuff, but that is NOT
what I want.  

    Here is how I'm envisioning it ... The 6811 could pulse a trigger
line which has the transducer xmit a "ping".  When the ping was
received, it would pulse a line that the 6811 would time, and calculate
distance.  With the great Input Capture features of the 6811, the
software should be easy, but how much circuitry is needed to have these
two nice digital lines at the computer to actually driving the
transducer.

    Any references, ideas or suggestions are appreciated.

    Thanks,
        Ryan Miller
        jmce+@andrew.cmu.edu
From: bryan@isrc.sandia.gov (Jon R Bryan)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Help needed - Optical Encoders
Date: 22 Jan 93 22:12:33 GMT
Organization: Sandia National Labs, Org. 1600, Albq., NM

ska@hercules.acpub.duke.edu writes:
: Each motor has a built-in "AB quadrature output and zero index channel" 
: type optical encoder.  These encoders output voltages in the range 0.5 to 
: 6 V DC via 4 leads - A, B, I, and ground.
: 
: Now, how can I use the voltages from the encoders to compute joint positions ?

Get the Monolithic Memories "PAL/PLE Device Programmable Logic Array
Handbook."  There are three shaft encoder designs that will explain
quadrature decoding to you (if you can decipher the PALASM code).
-- 
Jon R. Bryan	(505) 844-2015	<=>	bryan@isrc.sandia.gov
Sandia National Laboratories, Intelligent System Sensors and Controls
 
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: tim@iss.nus.sg (Tim Poston)
Subject: Re: A gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, a pack of wolves...
Organization: Institute of Systems Science, NUS, Singapore
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 03:50:45 GMT

jl3j+@andrew.cmu.edu (John Robert Leavitt) writes:
: >Isn't "robot" from the Slavic root for "worker".
: 
: Actually, I believe it is from the Russian word "rabotnik" == worker, in
: which case why not "a soyuz of robots" or "a union of robots."
Adding to my last pedantic post:
if you write "rabotnik" you should write "sayuz".
Same before-stress o changing to a.
Tim
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: fredm@media.mit.edu (Fred G Martin)
Subject: Location of 6.270 texts, *** correction ***
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 16:35:28 GMT

In article <1jp4u9INNb7s@coral.bucknell.edu> rose@bucknell.edu (philip
rose `94) writes: 

>The 6.270 Robot Builder's Guide
>Fred Martin
>  Server: kame.media.mit.edu (18.85.0.45)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>  File  : ~ftp/pub/fredm/README
>  This directory contains "The 6.270 Robot Builder's Guide", the
>  course notes to the 1992 MIT LEGO Robot Design Competition.
>  Contact: Fred Martin at fredm@media-lab.media.mit.edu

Please note that our FTP server has changed to
"cherupakha.media.mit.edu" at Internet address 18.85.0.47.

The kame server will soon be discontinued.  Hopefully we will be able
to install some facility whereby people trying to log in to kame can
discover that they should try cherupakha.

	-Fred

Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: newmont@netcom.com (Michael Skerl)
Subject: Heath HERO parts/surplus availability?
Keywords: Heath HERO robot parts surplus comp.robotics
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 11:02:49 GMT

Does anyone out there know of any outlets for surplus Heath HERO-1 or HERO-2000
robots? I have an old HERO-1 that I would like to add some stuff to. Also, I
would like to get ahold of a used HERO-2000 (working or not).

As an aside, I have finished poring over the miniboard and 1992 6.270 docs and
see many possiblities for both systems! Just to forewarn you, I'll probably be
making quite a bit of traffic about those guys! :-)

Thanks in advance for the help and keep up the good work!

Bill Phillips
newmont@netcom.com

Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: park@netcom.com (Bill Park)
Subject: Re: Sonar and the 68HC11
Followup-To: comp.robotics
Summary: Barsan and Kuc at Yale have a bat-like sonar for mobile robots
Keywords: sonar, bat, mobile robots, navigation, guidance
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 04:21:18 GMT

In article <1993Jan24.183226.10455@netcom.com> nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) 
writes:

>       It's really time for somebody to start developing smarter sonar
> systems for robots. ...
> ...
>       A reasonable way to start would be to use a machine with stereo
> audio inputs and outputs, and try to do bat-type FM sonar, operating
> around 10-20KHz.  
>
>					John Nagle
=================

I just found these references to some recent work at Yale on advanced
bat-like sonar for guiding mobile robots.  Might be worth looking up.

=============
Title: Bat-like sonar for guiding mobile robots
Authors: Kuc, R., and Barshan, B.
Affiliation: Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Yale U., New Haven CT, USA
Journal: IEEE Control Systems Magazine, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 4-12
Publication Date: August, 1992
==============
Title: Bat-like mobile robot for tracking a moving obstacle
Authors: Barshan, B. and Kuc, R.
Affiliation: Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Yale U., New Haven CT, USA
Journal: Proceedings of the SPIE -- The International Society for Optical 
         Engineering, Vol. 1613, p. 46-57.
Date: 1992
Conference Title: Mobile Robots VI
Sponsor: SPIE
Conference Date: 14-15 Nov., 1991
Conference Location: Boston, MA, USA
==============
-- 
Grandpaw Bill's High Technology Consulting & Live Bait, Inc.
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle)
Subject: Re: Tracked mobile robot dead-reckoning
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 18:46:35 GMT

feng@srvr1 (Liqiang Feng, ) writes:

>I am working on the navigation problem for a tracked vehicle. 
  
      You need a heading reference.  A magnetic compass (flux-gate, 
presumably) or a heading gyro should do it.  You can often keep track
of distance travelled by dead-reckoning, but small errors in heading
have large effects after you've travelled any distance, so you need a
heading reference.

      					John Nagle
From: bridget@aifh.ed.ac.uk (Bridget Hallam)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: SPIE mobile robot volumes
Date: 28 Jan 93 09:23:56 GMT
Reply-To: bridget@aifh.ed.ac.uk (Bridget Hallam)
Organization: Dept of AI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland


I'm trying to get our library to obtain the SPIE Mobile Robot
volumes, but for some reason they seem to need the ISBN
numbers before they can order. Please could someone send me
these numbers? It seems that to get the number you need the book, 
and of course if we had the books I wouldn't need to order them ...

Thanks in advance,
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Bridget Hallam <bridget@aifh.ed.ac.uk>            
Dept of Artificial Intelligence,                _______
5 Forrest Hill,                              | |___|___|
Edinburgh EH1 2QL                            |-|_______|-|
                                                 O   O

         Children know how love is spelt ---  t - i - m - e. 
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: qian@iastate.edu (Qiang Qian)
Subject: electron engraving machine
Keywords: electron engraving 
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 03:16:22 GMT

	Couple months ago, when I visited the Mall of American, I saw a
lady using an electronic engraving machine carving names on plastic or
metal plates for people in the mall.  The machine is about as large as
an electric sewing machine.  I wonder if anyone could kindly tell me
which companies produce things like it.  I am quite interested in
buying a set.
From: bhclose@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Need Pressure Sensor
Date: 22 Jan 93 15:30:27 GMT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

Howdy:
	Does anybody know of a high-quality, high-sensitivity pressure
sensor (micro-scale and for fluids).  I assume it would be some sort of
peizoelectric unit.  For that matter.  Could anybody recommend a decent
catalogue of various and sundry types of sensors, gadgets, etc.???
				Thanks much, 
					Brett
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: kilian@cray.com (Alan Kilian)
Subject: Miniboard CPU shipping ADDRESSES NEEDED!
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 25 Jan 93 16:35:50 CST


Sorry to do this to you all but....

I need the following addresses:

Dennis Griesser

Dan Latenser

                        -Alan "No I don't have any more CPUs" Kilian

-- 
 -Alan Kilian           kilian@cray.com 612.683.5499 (Work) 612.721.3990 (Home)
  "Our friend Dirac has his own philosophy. It is:"
  "There is no God and Dirac is His prophet" - Some Physicist
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: fredm@media.mit.edu (Fred G Martin)
Subject: Re: location of 6.270 texts?
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 17:39:51 GMT

In article <C17Ks3.C5@acsu.buffalo.edu> v078p6g8@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu
(Richard M Wasserman) writes: 

>If someone could point me to the ftp site containing the 6.270 text files
>(whose address seems to have disappeared from my desk :) ) I would
>greatly appreciate it.  

It's on cherupakha.media.mit.edu in directory pub/6270/docs.

Cheers,
Fred
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: shane@cs.sunysb.edu (Shane Bouslough)
Subject: Crazy about legs
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, State U of NY at Stony Brook
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 04:33:05 GMT

I've been thinking a lot about legs recently (don't we all? :-).
If you're going to do a nice leg, say Brooksian, it seems like
you'd need about one miniboard per. If you use 6 legs on your
beastie, that's quite a few miniboards. Is that a good way to go?
Or is something a bit more powerful a better idea?

Miniboards are such a nice "out of the box" solution, but a chain
of them like that sure would suck down the juice.

Questions:

Does anyone have sources for some good leg designs?

Any good text book suggestions (I have the miniboard and 6.270 docs)?

There are lots of lists of Electronics/Motor suppliers around, but
what about other hardware? Aluminum stock for legs, chassis, etc?
Tool suggestions, etc., anything that comes to mind?

Is there an FAQ for this group?

-Shane "I wanna build a critter" Bouslough

--
Shane Bouslough       | #include <stddisc.h>
shane@sbcs.sunysb.edu | "Follow your bliss" - Joseph Campbell
From: bleck@aztec.ai.mit.edu (Olaf Bleck)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Crazy about legs
Date: 27 Jan 93 20:50:15 GMT
Reply-To: bleck@ai.mit.edu
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
NNTP-Posting-Host: aztec.ai.mit.edu

In article <1993Jan27.140858.29306@news.media.mit.edu>, fredm@media.mit.edu (Fred G Martin) writes:
|> In article <1993Jan27.043305.7387@sbcs.sunysb.edu> shane@cs.sunysb.edu
|> (Shane Bouslough) writes: 
|> 
|> >I've been thinking a lot about legs recently (don't we all? :-).
|> >If you're going to do a nice leg, say Brooksian, it seems like
|> >you'd need about one miniboard per. If you use 6 legs on your
|> >beastie, that's quite a few miniboards. Is that a good way to go?
|> >Or is something a bit more powerful a better idea?
|> 
|> In fact, this is just about what is done with Rod Brooks' robots:
|> there is a dedicated CPU per leg.  But, they use very small DIP CPU's
|> (maybe a 24-pin model), and surface mount motor controllers, so the
|> leg processor board is pretty small.  Also, it's kind of shaped like a
|> leg, long and skinny.


Actually, each leg on Attila and Hannibal has a dedicted 8751 on it that runs
three pwm servo loops, does sensor i/o, and communicates with the master
68000.  The only reason we really use this system is to save wiring.  With
20odd sensors per leg,  plus motors and power lines, we'd have needed
something like 40 wires per leg to do everything.  With the local micros, we
just have six (motor power/gnd, digital power/gnd, two wire serial
communications, the Signetics I2C in fact).  The 8751 boards have tiny FET
drivers for the motors--there are two boards piggy-backed, about 1.5 x 2
inches in size.


Were we to do it again, we'd definitely go with the Motorola parts--6811/16's
nand 683xx's, using the SCI bus.  The 6811's have much more flexibility, and
the communications bus is much faster.  Right now every bit is being used in
the I2C bus, and the 8751's are running a full load continuously (plus they
need a bunch of peripheral stuff for all the i/o).

6811 boards can be made pretty small too, at least as small as the 8751
boards we have (using surface mount parts).  Anita Flynn's "Squirt" robot has
a 6811 board on it that is just barely larger than the 6811.
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: sinha@qucis.queensu.ca (Pramath Raj Sinha)
Subject: Faults and Failures in Robot Joints
Organization: Computing & Information Science, Queen's University at Kingston
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 16:06:21 GMT

I am beginning work on a new project for which I need to compile a
list of most commonly occuring and most damaging faults/failures in
robotic joints. If you have had problems with faults or failures in
the bearings, transmissions, actuators or whatever else in the joints
of robots that you have used, I would like to hear about it. Of
course, any pointers to written materials or work done in this area
will also be appreciated. 

Thanks,

Pramath Sinha
Robotics and Perception Laboratory
Queen's University
sinha@qucis.queensu.ca
From: zaybekin@bucknell.edu ()
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: ;robot position sensor; Invisible fences
Date: 26 Jan 1993 18:20:57 GMT
Organization: Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: client10.cs.bucknell.edu
Keywords: 
	We are looking for sensors to sense a wall.  What we've worked on so far

is an invisible fence. We have a wire taped in a square about one meter by one
meter.  We are using a 25 turn coil sense the wire.  Anyone who has information
on this kind of sensor or any helpful ideas please help.
	
Armen Zaybekian


Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: gerke@fuhainf2.fernuni-hagen.de (Michael Gerke)
Subject: Re: Spatial Mapping in Robotics: Citations Wanted
Organization: FernUniversitaet Hagen
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 13:09:25 GMT

John Nagle (nagle@netcom.com) wrote:
: wbb@duke.cs.duke.edu (William) writes:
: >	I am interested in using multi-media, graphics techniques
: >	in relation to automatic theorem-proving, in a similar
: >	fashion to the way natural language is used as an inter-	
: >	face to diagnostic systems.  The application I have in
: >	mind is a system where a map could be given as input,
: >	a request could be made for a route between two points,
: >	and a route could be derived using the map, certain
: >	constraints and a user model.  The output might be a map as
: >	well.  The degree of sophistication required by a user model
: >	and flexible route generation would require the map to be 
: >	translated into some sortof intermediate form, perhaps similar 
: >	to prolog clauses.  
:      
:        Assuming you really mean spatial maps, not topological ones,
: see "Robot Motion Planning", by Jean-Claude Latombe (Kluwer, 1991, ISBN
: 0-7923-9129-2).

: 					John Nagle
From: 2575brooksr@vms.csd.mu.edu (Ryan K. Brooks)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: 6811 emulator first hack
Date: 27 Jan 93 23:57:09 GMT
Reply-To: 2575brooksr@vms.csd.mu.edu
Distribution: comp
Organization: Marquette University - Computer Services
NNTP-Posting-Host: vmsa.csd.mu.edu

In article <TED.93Jan26140815@lole.nmsu.edu>, ted@nmsu.edu (Ted Dunning) writes:
>
>
>failing to hear about another version of a 6811 emulator, i wrote one
>last night (and part of sunday night).  it is still rough, has no user
>interface, doesn't do multiply, doesn't count cycles for all
>instructions, doesn't let you modify memory or registers and doesn't
>support the semantics of the $1000 locations at all.
>
>what it does do right now is let you load a file in s19 format and
>single step it.  adding the missing features should be relatively
>trivial.  i am sure that there are some (several?) instructions that
>don't work correctly, and that there are probably other problems as
>well.   it should also be absolutely trivial to port to any machine
>that supports ansii c and 32 bit integers.  ansii c and 16 bit ints
>should be an easy port.  there is a relatively large (2000 line) case
>statement that might give some compilers fits.
>
>this software is not ready for prime time, but i would like to find
>somebody who is willing to trade early access for testing and possible
>mods. 
>
>
>any takers?


If there is enough interest (ie beyond myself), I would like to port
this to the Amiga and give it a nice GUI.  Any thoughts?


 ----------------------------
 Ryan K. Brooks                Chip of the Month Club: TMS320C40
 2575BrooksR@vms.csd.mu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: d2bohre@dtek.chalmers.se (Henrik Bohre)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Tracked mobile robot dead-reckoning
Keywords: mobile robots
Date: 26 Jan 93 11:25:17 GMT
Organization: Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg Sweden


feng@srvr1 (Liqiang Feng, ) writes:

>I am working on the navigation problem for a tracked vehicle. The dead-reckonin
g 
>based on drive motor encoders does not work really well because of the slippage
 and 
>skid when the robot turns. I do not have much experience working with tracked v
ehicles. 
>Are there any good solutions to this problem? Have anyone used those absolute 
>velocity sensor or accelerometers to measure the absolute motion of the vehicle
 
>directly? Any good or bad experience with them? Has anyone used some cheap gyro
s, 
>such as those used in model planes, to measure the orientation of a robot? Any 
>experience or reference with them? Thanks a lot. 

>My E-mail address: feng@engin.umich.edu

>L. Feng

How is your mobile platform constituted?
o The turtle style - Two wheels with a motor each, steered by differentiating
the speed of the weels.
o The car style - One (or more) steerable wheels.
o Others?
o What kind of precision do you need (dm, inch, cm)?

I don't have any great solution to this problem, but I guess it's hard to get
high precision without any feedback from external sensors. I'd be interested
to know if you get some response from people who knows more about this.

Greetings Henrik

  @>-+--
Organization: Senior, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 17:28:53 -0500 
From: Matthew Daniel Arnold <ma29+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Kraft Arm


I just happened to come across a Kraft Ocean Systems GRIPS Manipulator...
Great!.. one problem.. 
it has been stripped of its wrist yaw actuator and parallel jaw gripper
assembly's.  I thought I'd post here to see if anyone would know the
whereabouts of similar Kraft models that have been otherwise damaged
(i.e. still have an operational wrist and gripper assembly) that someone
would be willing to part with.

Thanks in advance!

Matt
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: at687002@longs.lance.colostate.edu (alex tsariounov)
Subject: Re: Need Pressure Sensor
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 22:44:42 GMT
Organization:  Colorado State University, Fort Collins 
Keywords:  pressure sensor


In article <1993Jan22.093027.46632@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> bhclose@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
 >Howdy:
 >	Does anybody know of a high-quality, high-sensitivity pressure
 >sensor (micro-scale and for fluids).  I assume it would be some sort of
 >peizoelectric unit.  For that matter.  Could anybody recommend a decent
 >catalogue of various and sundry types of sensors, gadgets, etc.???
 >				Thanks much, 
 >					Brett
 

Try  Keller PSI at 503 Vista Bella, Suite 11, Oceanside, CA 92057
     1-800-328-3665

They offer various pressure sensors, straingage and peizoelectrics, with ASIC
signal conditioning chips.  Pretty reasonable prices.

alex.
From: gt@prosun.first.gmd.de (Gerd Truschinski)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: location of 6.270 texts?
Date: 22 Jan 93 13:13:23 GMT
Organization: GMD Berlin (FIRST)

In article <C17Ks3.C5@acsu.buffalo.edu>, v078p6g8@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Richard M Wasserman) writes:
|> If someone could point me to the ftp site containing the 6.270 text files
|> (whose address seems to have disappeared from my desk :) ) I would
|> greatly appreciate it.  Thanks,
|> 			Rich Wasserman

Thats what I found.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anonymous FTP server:   cher.media.mit.edu (18.85.0.47)
This file:              ~ftp/pub/6270/README
Last updated:           Thu Jul 30 1992
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

This directory contains information about the MIT LEGO Robot Design
Competition.



--
Gerd Truschinski         | INTERNET:    gt@first.gmd.de
c/o GMD-First  Berlin    | 
O-1199 Berlin-Adlershof  | TEL:         +49 30 6704 2662
Rudower Chausee 5 (13.7) | FAX:         +49 30 6704 5088
Organization: Center for Machine Translation, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA