HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: piggy@hilbert.cc.utas.edu.au (La Monte Yarroll)
Subject: Re: Table top Hovercraft know how wanted.
Organization: University of Tasmania, Australia.
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 23:17:50 GMT

yee@edison.seas.ucla.edu (John Yee) writes:

>Hello robot builders, have you any experience making small, say 6" diameter
>maximum, hovercraft?  If so, please post/email your experiences.

I built a 12" hovercraft for operation on extremely smooth surfaces.

Rather than a fan, I used compressed CO^2.  I used the oxidant
regulars from two mini tourches (the butane/nitrous oxide tourches
that Radio Shack used to sell).  The CO^2 cartriges were of the type
used in selzer bottles.

The base of the hovercraft was a piece of plexiglas, about 1/8" thick,
cut into a circle and carefully polished.

I drilled a small hole in the center, just large enough to fit the
fine tip of the tourch.  I made a shallow indentation on the bottom of
the base about 1" diameter around the hole in the center.

Setting the regulators at a very low setting, the device would move
freely accross a level lab table for several minutes.  Setting higher
pressures would allow movement accross slightly rougher surfaces (like
a clean floor), though the CO^2 tends to turn into dry ice at higher
pressures.

This device was bulit as an entry in a mousetrap-propelled vehicle
race.  The mousetrap pushed a rod backwards against a wall for the
initial thrust.  The device worked well in tests on a large sheet of
linoleum, but irregularities in the floor of the contest arena caused
the device to spin in a circle.
--
La Monte H. Yarroll	Home:		piggy@baqaqi.chi.il.us
   Work:		piggy@hilbert.maths.utas.edu.au
   AKA:			piggy@gargoyle.uchicago.edu
   Once upon a time:	postmaster@clout.chi.il.us
From: jmce+@andrew.cmu.edu (James Ryan Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Emergent Bahaviors
Date: 16 Nov 92 15:47:57 GMT
Organization: Freshman, CIT general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

There is a really interesting book "Intellegence as Adaptive Behavior"
by Randall Beer.   It is one of Academic Press's Perspectives in
Artificial Intelligence series of books.  In it he simulates the nervous
system of a cockroach with a computer neural net.

            Ryan Miller
            jmce+@andrew.cmu.edu
From: irie@husc11.harvard.edu (Robert E. Irie)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Thanks, Miniboard folks.(Sorry Alan)
Date: 20 Nov 92 00:56:27 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc11.IRIE.92Nov19165627
Organization: Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services, Cambridge, MA
In-reply-to: somesh@watson.ibm.com's message of Wed, 18 Nov 1992 19:27:18 GMT

Hmm speaking of alan, has everyone received there 68hc11's from him?
I still havent, and havent heard from him in a while.

Robert

--
File: AW esome .sig            REVIEW/SEE/ADMIRE              Escape: Reality
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Robert E. Irie                                         irie@husc.harvard.edu
Senior ES Major, Harvard College                       irie@husc.bitnet
Harvard Robotics Laboratory                            irie@hrl.harvard.edu
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Type mail or use rn commands          Line     Column    8M, 20Mhz CPU Wanted
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle)
Subject: Re: Modeling Slip, Mobile Robotics, Kinematics, Simulation
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 03:58:03 GMT

esrbu@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr I M Hunter) writes:
>So, no one's performed a simulation of a mobile robot at kinematics level
>then? I think not. I have a number of papers regarding kinematic modeling
>of wheeled robots, however, I would dearly enjoy discussions concerned with
>modeling possible errors:

>        Has anyone attempted to model the effects of slip: What happens to
>an omnidirectional robot when wheels are misaligned or differ in size? 

      The animation community leads in this area.  See Zeltzer's paper in
"Making them Move", (Morgan Kauffman, 1991), and especially watch
the car sequence in the accompanying video.

      Vehicle dynamics is rather well understood.  The basic work
was done about two decades ago at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory
(now CALSPAN).  There's a great story about how the person who did
that work, annoyed by people questioning whether he could really
predict vehicle dynamics in extreme situations, teamed up with an
auto thrill show to design a never-before-done stunt, a 360 degree 
roll in the air.  Worked the first time.  Appeared in a James Bond
movie.

					John Nagle
					John Nagle
From: cgd@eden.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Chris G. Demetriou)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Routing software
Date: 20 Nov 92 19:20:24
Organization: Kernel Hackers 'r' Us
NNTP-Posting-Host: eden.cs.berkeley.edu
In-reply-to: James Ryan Miller's message of Fri, 20 Nov 1992 18:56:55 -0500 

In article <gf3Lh7q00Uh_0830Uo@andrew.cmu.edu> James Ryan Miller <jmce+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
       I would really like to hear what software other people use to route
   pc boards with.  I am particularly interrested in PD stuff, but would
   also like to know what the good commercial products are.  

Me too!

I could definitely use some PD circuit design/layout software to run
under X...

i'm sure such beasts are findable, but it's a pretty large haystack... 8-)

Chris
--
Chris G. Demetriou                                    cgd@cs.berkeley.edu

"Sometimes it is better to have twenty million instructions by
        Friday than twenty million instructions per second." -- Wes Clark
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
From: somesh@watson.ibm.com ()
Subject: Thanks, Miniboard folks.
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 18:55:11 GMT
Reply-To: somesh@watson.ibm.com
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM, T. J. Watson Research Center
Keywords: Minboard

I just got my minboard parts.

Like me, a lot of you must have appreciated the hard work that three
people put into this neat little board.

On behalf of the USENET community, I would like to thank
 
  a) FRED MARTIN
     A great design and a good manual

  b) GREG RATCLIFF
     Great PCB's.

  c) DARREN SENN 
     He did a great job of putting together the kit of parts. 


Thanks again.

Somesh (Soon to be a proud owner of a miniboard, to be assembled this weekend)

-- 
Somesh Rao                               
Experimental Systems Development Center  914-784-6965 [T/L 863-6965]
T.J Watson Research Center               External:somesh@watson.ibm.com
P.O Box 704, (H0-B27)                    Internal: somesh@shakti.watson.ibm.com
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598               vnet    : somesh at yktvmh

#include <std_disclaimer.h>
The views represented here are mine and not those of my employer.
Newsgroups: comp.robotics