8/30/2009

Robot Video: MotoMan dual Robot Arm

I've been fascinated for some time with two-armed robot systems. I found this video on the MotoMan dual-armed robot system, showing assembly of a chair.



It's interesting to watch the dual end-effectors (hands) -- each arm has two hands, that are mounted in different orientations.

Anyway, it is fascinating to watch the smooth motion of this robot. That is a lot of joints all going at once, and keeping track of all that geometry has to be a chore.
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8/07/2009

Congratulations Jay and Kay

I want to congratulate my dear friends, Jay and Connie Kay Blanchard and congratulate them on thier wedding we attended last week. Jay, Kay, and I went to high school together, where all three of us worked on the high school newspaper, about 30 years ago. Recently, Jay and Connie Kay got together over planning a class reunion, and started phoning, and talking, and dating long distance over the 200 miles that separated them. Its a classic love story and I'm delighted to see my two friends together with each other. Jay and I have been best friends since junior high school, and have each influenced the other; Jay introduced me to DCI (Drum Corps International) and I got him hooked on Robots. Today, Jay is building a full-scale replica of the B-9 Robot from Lost in Space, and my kids (and I) are big DCI fans (go Cavaliers!).
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8/01/2009

LA Times Moral Tale of EATR

The Los Angeles Times ran a thoughtful article about our recent experience with the Internet, news, and the EATR project under the title "Robot Developers Learn Perils of New Media", on just how our peaceful, leaf-muching robot turned into an Internet flesh-eating zombie.
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