HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: 10666281@eng2.eng.monash.edu.au (KEVIN PRATER)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Robot Builders Bonanza
Date: 24 Jul 92 00:57:28 GMT
Organization: Faculty of Engineering, Monash University

Can anyone tell me what the book Robot Builders Bonanza : 99 Inexpensive 
Robotics Projects written by McComb is like? As the only way I can get it 
is through a money up front order form. 

Has it got any projects that interface with the computer? 
Is there any that have many motors or servos driving at once?

How inexpensive are the projects? 


Now another question; If a computer linked robot uses the serial port is it 
possible to drive two motors simultaneously or do you have to use the 
parallel port for these actions. 

Thanks
Kevin Prater
(a beginner)
From: 72417.1514@CompuServe.COM (taylor corey)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Force/Torque Sensors
Date: 21 Jul 92 06:49:27 GMT

There have been several references to ATI as 'ATI (formerly Lord Corp)'.  I
just wanted to set the record straight as I used to work at Lord Corp. on
the force/torque sensor and gripper.  I was also at Lord when they sold the
'Industrial Automation Division' to a group of its own engineers who formed
the company Assurance Technologies Inc. (ATI).  Lord Corp. is a $300 million
dollar company based out of Erie, PA.  There are still in business and going
strong.

ATI has ten employees, the majority are engineers (who used to work at Lord)
and they are now located in Garner, NC, USA.  In 1991, ATI completed a
three quarter million dollar development project on a new f/t sensor.  This
current sensor has serial ouput, and optional parallel and analog output.
The output rate is 2500 Hz.  The sensor uses semiconductor gauges which
provide 20 times overload protection with 35 times stronger output signal
than foil strain gauges.  ATI is currently the largest supplier of
multi-axis force sensors in the world.

ATI also makes high precision tool changers and remote center compliance
devices.  New development on both products has increased their performance
dramatically.
From: cyberman@toz.buffalo.ny.us (Cyberman)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: 6 leged beast
Date: 29 Jul 92 02:07:59 GMT
X-Maildoor: WaflineMail 1.00r


     -=> David Williams spoke of "Re: 6 leged beast" <=-
    To All at 07-27-92  17:41
 >... "Could you continue your petty bickering? I find it most intriguing."

hey I didn't notice that hehehe GREAT tagline I had thier! hehehe

 DW> Simplicity?  On a 6-legged robot?  I don't think it's possible.  A 
 DW> really crude 6-legger would need 6 motors to move the legs around one
 DW> axis (of course, I'm ignoring the two-motor variety, but that sort
 DW> of "walker" robot is pratically the same as a treaded robot)  To make
 DW> a really neat robot, you're going to want to have the legs move with
 DW> two degrees of freedom, implying 12 motors.  I suppose you could use
 DW> RC-type servo motors, but the thing is not going to be really strong
 DW> (unless you want to pay big bucks for the big servos).

    I've some super simple designs in email, but nothing that
    would be as capable as the "2 degree of freedom" design you
    suggest.

 DW> Somehow I think I'm going to get flamed... "what?  I've got eight
 DW> 3" by 4" six-leggers munching on my ankles right now!  All are powered
 DW> by watch batteries, and use a 4-bit processor!  You're an idiot"

Actually I'm not flameing you.  However the designs suggested
that though not nearly as versatile that it is possible to create
a robot that can be controled with 6 legs and 2 motors.  [like a
track vehical] which is really all I needed.  Though not fancy it
should be suitable.

 DW> Seriously, a six-legger that had been stripped down to reduce it's
 DW> complexity seems like it would just not be that much fun to fiddle
 DW> with. On the other hand, I couldn't come up with any mechanism for a
 DW> six  legger with each leg having two degrees of freedom that wouldn't
 DW> cost an arm and a ... leg?  (uuupppphhh!  pun not intended)

perhaps the use of a peizo electric material in long strips to
control "lift" with a spring to counter balance it and a another
to control rotation.  I know the japanese have a plastic material
that acts this way but piezo materail has a very short "stroke"

        Stephen Cyberman@Toz.Buffalo.NY.US
        Scripted at Tue  07-28-1992  17:46:08

... This tagline stolen from Bill Rost via Stephen Phillips
--- Blue Wave/QWK v2.10
From: ss@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Scott Stuart)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Teleoperation
Date: 23 Jul 92 15:32:40 GMT
Reply-To: ss@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Scott Stuart)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh


For a research project, I am considering working on teleoperation of
unmanned devices.  I don't know much about the field, so I would like to
find some refernces to books/magazines/whatever which deal with applying
robotics type techniques to teleoperation problems.

Please send mail to ss@dcs.ed.ac.uk, or, if after August 1 1992, to 
stuart@eniac.seas.upenn.edu if you have any suggestions.

thanks very much,
	scott
From: mala@tartarus.uchicago.edu (Mala Viswanath)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Simulator for robot arm
Date: 27 Jul 92 01:22:03 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Chicago


 I would like to know about commercially available software simulators
for a robot arm. Please send mail to

mala@cs.uchicago.edu

Thank You
-Mala
From: pre@cs.nott.ac.uk (Phillip Edwards)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Robot Models
Date: 31 Jul 92 09:51:44 GMT
Organization: Nottingham University

I am trying to determine the state of the art in the field of
robot modelling methods.  I shall present a view that there is
little in the way of practical achievement and hope to be proved
wrong!

There are a number of graphical robot simulation systems about. 
These only use kinematic modelling and are very good as planning
tools, but any generated off-line programs need some tweaking
before they can be used.

The main question I am interested in is how to derive the
kinematic and dynamic parameters for a particular robot.  The
situation as I see it at the moment follows:


Kinematic equations

There have been a number of papers describing methods of
compensating for errors in kinematic parameters, usually based
upon the Denavit-Hartenberg representation.  These are based on
the premise that the robot contoller's nominal kinematic model
differs from the actual kinematic parameters of the robot. 
Positions can be corrected by passing them through the actual
inverse kinematics and then the nominal forward kinematics to
'fool' ther controller into sending the robot to the correct
position.

The main issue associated with this approach is to obtain values
for the actual kinematic parameters.  Researchers have described
various methods of measuring robot positions, but there is little
evidence of actual results.  There is also the problem of getting
very large values for the Denavit-Hartenberg d parameter for
joint axes which are 'not quite parallel' - solutions to this
have only been hinted at.

My own research has shown that the only significant kinematic
parameter errors are offsets in the joint angles due to
inaccurate resolver calibration, and minor misalignments in
spherical wrists.


Dynamic equations

The area of dynamics is even more obscure than that of
kinematics.  Researchers have published ideas and some of the
basic equations, but again there is little evidence of practical
results.  There are two sets of dynamic parameters which are very
difficult to obtain, namely moments of inertia and compliance. 
I would be interested to hear of any methods of determining the
moment of inertia of a robot arm short of dismantling it so as
to determine the mass distribution.

-- 
____________________________________________________________________

Dr Phill Edwards, Lecturer in IT, University of Nottingham, UK
From: mvr@mlb.dmt.csiro.au (Vaughan Roberts)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Correlation devices for measuring velocity
Date: 21 Jul 92 07:21:20 GMT
Organization: CSIRO Division of Manufacturing Technology, Melbourne, Australia

I am interested in getting information on correlation devices which
are used for measuring velocity.  I believe that they have been used for
some time for measuring the velocity of cars by looking at the road surface
at two points a fixed distance apart and performing an correlation between
the two signals to provide an estimate of the time.
I believe there might be product called something like Corrovit available
commercially.  Has anyboby used such a device, or know who makes one?

-- 
Vaughan Roberts				mvr@mlb.dmt.csiro.au
From: asp+@pitt.edu (Anandeep Pannu)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Book still not available?
Keywords: Mobile Robot book
Date: 21 Jul 92 21:48:54 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

Anita had asked who would be interested in her book "Mobile Robots :
Inspirations to Implementation". I would be for one and I would be
interested in more books on the Zen of Mobile Robots so to speak.

I am  Ph D student at the University of Pittsburgh in the Intelligent
Systems Program. This is an interdisciplinary program in AI with a large
CS content and an even larger AI content! Course taken are things like
Knowledge Representation, Planning, Expert Systems, Logic, Theory of
Computation and Design & Analysis of Algos. The electives are pretty
much a free for all and I can choose between Legal Reasoning to 
Cognitive Science to VLSI Design. 

I attended a seminar in "Resource Limited Reasoning" by Martha Pollack
last semester and having been introduced to planning under resource
limitations got interested in Mobile Robots. CMU has a Robotics program
but I want to find out what Robotics is all about, especially how much
fun I can have with them. Anitas book sounds just right for me and I 
would like to hear from all you guys out there. I like making things
that work with some abstract stuff thrown in - things that challenge
my resourcefullness as well as my mind. ( I hope that doesnt sound
too pompous). Let me know your experiences. Also by the way my 
undergraduate degree was in Applied Physics (though that seems 
ages ago !).

You can send me e-mail or post here on how best I can prepare myself
to do Robotics and have fun while doing it

Anandeep
From: hou@hertz.njit.edu (Edwin Hou fac ece)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: unimation inc.
Date: 22 Jul 92 19:21:03 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.
Originator: hou@hertz.njit.edu

Does anybody have the address and phone # of unimation inc. ?
Thanks.
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: rah@CS.Stanford.EDU (Bob Holmberg)
Subject: Re: Commercially available 6-axis force/torque
Organization: Robotics Department, Stanford University, Ca. USA
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 20:12:51 GMT

  We use several 6-axis wrist force/torque sensors on the Pumas 
in our labs.  They come from a company called Zebra Robotics in 
Menlo Park, CA.  The number is: (415) 328-8884.  

-- 

					Bob
From: johnson@akula.llnl.gov (  Robert Johnson          )
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Robots for Sale?
Date: 24 Jul 92 00:08:53 GMT
Reply-To: johnson@akula.llnl.gov (  Robert Johnson          )
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

I am looking for information/recommendations for
small 6-axis robots (25-30 inch reach, $25-30k) to
be used for research on various related topics including
real-time control with visual guidance.  I am aware
of three systems including the Staubli Puma 260, the
Integrated Motions Zebra-ZERO, and the CRSPlus A250.
The Puma seems the most desirable of the three, but
I would also like to find out about other systems.
I have been told that used reconditioned Puma's can
often be found at reduced prices with warranties,
but that 260s are a lot harder to find than 560s.
Any information on sources of new or used systems
would be greatly appreciated.  Please respond by
E-mail.  Thanks in advance.

----------------------------------
Robert K. Johnson
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
Phone: (510) 422-8375
Email: johnson60@llnl.gov
From: cyberman@toz.buffalo.ny.us (Cyberman)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: 6 leged beast
Date: 23 Jul 92 03:14:41 GMT
X-Maildoor: WaflineMail 1.00r


     -=> Scott Stanford spoke of "Re: 6 leged beast" <=-
To All at 07-20-92  22:20
 >I would like to make a 6 legged robot.  I need to have the
 >ability to ROTATE both clock wise and counter clockwise, go
 >forward and reverse directions.  Any suggestions on the
 >mechanisms and method of movement.  The design is to be very
 >small [for a robot at least] ie 6x6 inches, another restriction
 >is simplicity.  The "brain" is extremly small and cannot really
 >perform sophisticated movements.  [unless thier is no
 >alternative]

 SS> Take a look at some models made by the MOVIT company (you should be
 SS> able to find these in a hobby shop or toy store).  There is a good
 SS> blue 6 legged robot that uses crown and spur gears and pins in tracks.

Hmm someone mentioned those b4.   Guees it would be a good idea.
If thier an address that I can grab a catalog?

        Stephen Cyberman@Toz.Buffalo.NY.US
        Scripted at Wed  07-22-1992  19:02:18

... Misspelled?  Impossible.  My modem is error correcting.
--- Blue Wave/QWK v2.10
From: Charles.Tan@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Charles Tan)
Subject: Information needed..Tactile sensors
Organization: Robotics and Machine Vision, Graduate School of EE/CE/CSE/CS
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 17:02:31 GMT


Recently, CNN Science and Technology showed a prototype of a robot
designed to grab satellites in space. The robot was developed at MIT and
sponsored by NASA. I am interested in finding more information about the
mechanism of the robot, particularly the tactile sensors that form the
inner "skin" of the robot's "hand". If anyone has any information as to
who to contact, or of any publication that might offer information about
the above robot, I would appreciate receiving it via e-mail. Thank you.

Charles
ctan@splinter.coe.northeastern.edu


--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: rungun@parker.rsip.lsu.edu (Ranganathan Ramanathan )
Subject: Miniature force and torque sensors
Keywords: force torque sensors hands
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 14:46:30 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host-[nntpd-13564]: parker.rsip.lsu.edu

Hi Friends,

I am studying the functioning of the human hand by building 
one from sterolithography models of the bones and using cables for tendons 
etc. 

I am interested in finding the kinds of forces that may be present 
at the joints, and am looking for really small sensors for the 
forces that may be produced between the joints.  I am also interested 
in measuring the angular displacement between the two joints.  Could 
someone out there give me some pointers to some low cost sensors for 
the above application.  I would also welcome answers from people who have
implemented such sensors in their applications.

Thanks in advance
rungun

=============================
rungun@sun-ra.rsip.lsu.edu
csrang@sn01.sncc.lsu.edu
============================
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Climbing robots
From: <MDSQC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Date: Wednesday, 22 Jul 1992 11:29:47 EDT
Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center

Hey guys! (Flame retardant message):


In article <1992Jul20.145557.26830@cs.hw.ac.uk>, guanghua@cs.hw.ac.uk (Guanghua
Zhang) says:
>
Don'tcha love the way it makes the citations so understandable???

>Does anybody know if there are any robots that can
>walk/climb on walls, i.e. something like the spiderman ?
>
I was looking through a book on robotics (may have been a textbook), and
I saw a picture and blurb about a wall climbing robot. I remember this:

"It had two legs and three feet on each leg. The first leg was anchored to
the center of the body, and the second was movable with respect to the body.
The feet were made of electro magnets, capable of supporting the robot..."

beyond that, I don't remember much. The robot was able to climb walls, and
was being designed for nautical purposes (climbing iron coral???). It was
about four or five feet in diameter, and looked a bit clumbsy (but looks can
be decieving). I'll look around for the book, but I put it down, I can't quite
remember where I got it from, and I don't remember the title. But if it happens
to find me, I'll give you a ring (buzz, click, beep, etc.).

>How difficult to design such a robot ?

Hold on a sec. I'll should have it done by lunchtime.   :-)

 -- Sal Desiano


========================================================================
Salvatore "Saviour of Breakfast" Desiano       |
  |                                |           | Just think of this
  V                                V           | over your morning oats,
 From "Saviour",                Or "Desayuno", | If it weren't for me,
 Meaning                          Meaning      | There'd be no toast!
 "Salvation"                     "Breakfast"   |

    My humble abode:
  MDSQC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU           "No gnews is good gnews with Gary gnu."
(My other house is a Cray)

                  The Saviour of Breakfast, Away!
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: tom@robots.ox.ac.uk (Tom Burke)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Radio Links
Date: 23 Jul 92 23:14:18 GMT
Organization: Robotics Research Group, Engineering Science Dept, Oxford, UK.
Originator: tom@casca.robots

I am looking for information about radio links / modems used in robotics.
I wish to communicate between my computer and a mobile robot without using a tether.

Can anyone please suggest some vendors
or give their experiences in this area.

Thanks in advance.

tom 
Newsgroups: comp.mail,comp.mail.misc
From: rbt@tous.oau.org (Robert B. Tate)
Subject: Re: Mail question using Interactive UNIX 3.0
Summary: replace it!
Organization: Tate Enterprises
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 04:30:39 GMT

In article <01fmj9a.esprit@netcom.com> esprit@netcom.com (Alan F. Perry) writes:
>
>I am running Interactive UNIX 3.0 on my machine.  It uses a modified
>version of smail 2.5 (based on strings in smail) and sendmail.  I am trying
>to use the smarthost feature of smail.
>
>When I send mail using internet style addressing, instead of not recogizing
>the hostname and sending it to the smarthost, I get a User unknown message
>from sendmail.  If I turn off sendmail, I get a similar message from
>rmail.
>
>Any clues where I should start looking?
>
>alan
>esprit@netcom.com
>

I also run ISC 3.0 and tried using the supplied mail stuff. I replaced it
ALL with smail 3.1 an have not looked back. I had all sorts for weard
problems with ISC's mail stuff untill I installed smail3.1 an then it all
started working ( and the config files are _much_ simpler than
sendmail!).


-- 
 rbt@tous.OAU.ORG  (Robert B. Tate)       | A little knowledge is a dangerous
 {ucf-cs,peora,tarpit}!tous!rbt           | thing. Any less can kill you.
Xref: sparky comp.mail.uucp:1561 news.answers:2224
From: bkramer@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU (Barry Kramer)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Need - email connection for (518) 678-xxxx
Date: 30 Jul 92 22:25:43 GMT
Reply-To: bkramer@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU (Barry Kramer)
Organization: CSEE Dept. Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA


Greetings.


If anyone knows of a way to access the network for email local to
area code 518, exchange 678 (Palenville NY), please drop me a line
(bkramer@lehi3b15.csee)..... thanks a lot!


BLK
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
From: clewis@bwdlh118.bnr.ca (Chris Lewis)
Subject: Re: "file" directives in the UUCP maps???
Organization: Bell Northern Research
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 17:40:29 GMT

In article <1992Jul30.020100.640@uunet.uu.net> ziegast@godzilla.UU.NET (Eric W. Ziegast) writes:
|phil@eecs.nwu.edu (William LeFebvre) writes:
||> I have noticed that quite a few of the maps now posted in comp.mail.maps
||> contain as the first line "file {...}" with the file name contained in
||> the curly braces.  This is the first line in the file AFTER extraction 
||> with sh.
||> 
||> Why are they there?

|Many people do something silimilar to the following when
|rebuildiung UUCP alias tables:

|	cat uumap/u.* | some filters | pathalias | ...etc...

|If there's an error, pathalias would say something like:

|	"line 56437: syntax error"

|It's very hard to track down.  If one uses the "file" line at the top of
|all of their files, they would more likely see:

|	"u.usa.va.2", line 74: syntax error

Another approach is to have the prefilter into pathalias do it.  In
shell, it's something like this:

	for i in uumap/u.*
	do
	    echo "file {`basename $i}`"
	    cat $i
	done | pathalias ....

But this is rather inefficient.  Especially if the maps (or worse, some of the maps)
are compressed:

	for i in uumap/u.*
	do
	    echo "file {`basename $i .Z`}"
	    case $i in
		*.Z)
		    zcat $i
		    ;;
		*)
		    cat $i
		    ;;
	    esac
	done | pathalias ....

The new version of unpackmaps (unpackmaps 4.0b) inserts the file directive
automatically - in a considerably more efficient manner than the fragment above -
it's all implemented in C, with a built-in decompress).  But now that the UUCP
project is doing this themselves, you can turn this "feature" off - or not -
it doesn't hurt or cost anything in terms of performance.  Is still convenient
for making sure that local map overrides get reported properly even if you
forget to put the file directive in.

There are other reasons for upgrading to pathalias 10 than just the "file"
directive.  Pathalias 9 has a tendency to go into infinite CPU loops
with certain combinations of maps and initial "root" point.

|It's much easier to track down the error when you know what file it's
|in.

Sure is.  This is why I suggested the "file" directive to Peter Honeyman
several years ago - it's just taken til now for the UUCP map project
to get around to using it.
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: FSUUCP 1.2R4 problem with newsgroup distribution
From: cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu (The Squire, Phish)
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 02:47:30 GMT
Organization: Fantasy, Incorporated: Reality None of Our Business.

mattox@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov (Darrel Mattox) recently informed us:
>
>How do I control the distribution of news articles to remote sites
>that are created at my site?

[libdir]/news/sys should have remote site information in it.

-- 
If you insist upon living in a  | cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu | Fubar Systems BBS
dream, you may be taken as mad. |                          | (805) 54-FUBAR
  I like my dream.              | Because all you of       | 3/12/24, MNP5, 8N1
Then you *are* mad!             | Earth are IDIOTS!!       | FSBBS 2/FSUUCP 1.3
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
From: warlock@ecst.csuchico.edu (John Kennedy)
Subject: Map entry -- why so slow?
Organization: California State University, Chico
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 20:36:58 GMT

  Anyone know the average time it takes for rutgers to process a map entry?
I sent them one, believing that to be the only thing required for it to show
up in the uumaps.  Should I be disciplined with a squat, heavy stick?  (:

! From warlock Sat Jul 18 17:49:11 1992
! To: uucpmap@noc.rutgers.edu
! Subject: UUCP map entry
! 
! #N	charnel
! #S	HP 9000/370; 4.3 BSD Reno UNIX
! #O	California State University, Chico
! #C	John Kennedy
! #E	warlock@ecst.csuchico.edu
! #T	+1 916 898 4635
! #P	CSU chico, Dept. of Computer Science, Chico CA, 95929-0410
! #L	40 30 N / 121 50 W city
! #R	AKA charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu [132.241.1.55] on the internet
! #U	logrus
! #W	warlock@ecst.csuchico.edu (John Kennedy); Sat Jul 18 17:25:37 PDT 1992
! #
! charnel	ecst.csuchico.edu
! charnel	logrus(WEEKLY)

-- 
John Kennedy/KC6RCK/warlock@ecst.csuchico.edu  "IBM, You BM, We All BM for IBM!"