tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065920197893964352024-03-13T17:38:18.826-06:00Mr. ROBOT0Mr. Robot0 (Robot Zero) is the blog for Francis X. Govers III, aerospace/defense executive and regular contributor to ROBOT Magazine. Francis is a commercial pilot, digital artist, writer, and photographer. He is the designer of over 20 robots and unmanned air, ground, and sea vehicles.Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-11071848754105895972015-08-06T05:36:00.001-05:002015-08-06T05:36:40.933-05:00Current Event Aug 2015Current Events<br />
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Just to let you know that I've not been goofing off. There has been a lot of activity going on - well, they say that busy hands are happy hands.<br />
<br />
Speaking of hands, I'm volunteering for <a href="http://enablingthefuture.org/" target="_blank">Enabling the Future</a> - a group that donates 3d printed prosthetic hands. I'm just finishing my first "audition" hand to send in for quality control.<br />
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In order to create 3D printed objects, I have to have a 3D printer. I've built a <a href="http://folgertech.com/collections/3d-printer-full-kits/products/folger-tech-kossel-2020-full-3d-printer-kit" target="_blank">Kossel 2020 3D printer</a> by FolgerTech of Milford, NH - just up the road from me here in Nashua. I've added some of my own modifications, plus what I've found on the Interweb. I'm really pleased with both the quality and functionality of my printer. This is not a kit for those who want a "plug and play" experience - there was a lot of fiddling and adjusting to get the quality and consistency out of the printer, but I've got it working. <br />
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My other activity is working with the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) as a Corner Marshall. I've written an article about my flagging activities <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/adventures-f1-corners/29185/" target="_blank">here at GIZMAG</a>. This season I've done about 10 races so far, including the IMSA Northeast Grand Prix (Tudor Racing Series) at Lime Rock Park.Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-91197786212430927642015-06-27T22:25:00.000-05:002015-06-27T22:25:16.261-05:00<br />
<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/author/francis-x-govers-iii/">My GIZMAG Author's Page</a><div>
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I've written quite a few articles for GIZMAG, the online technology magazine. Why don't you follow this <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/author/francis-x-govers-iii/">link </a>and take a look? You'll find flying cars, 3D sensors, 3D printers, and all sorts of other things</div>
Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-66856991640935373802015-06-26T09:43:00.001-05:002015-06-27T22:22:00.678-05:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>BOOKS:<o:p></o:p></b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h2>
<b>INFLUENTIAL SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS</b></h2>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/Qm9va3MvU2NpLUZp/2001_a_space_odyssey_frontcover_large_qDN9VYkdqtDvYPp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/Qm9va3MvU2NpLUZp/2001_a_space_odyssey_frontcover_large_qDN9VYkdqtDvYPp.jpg" height="320" width="201" /></a></div>
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These books have become part of the popular culture, have
influenced thought, or become popular memes in our society, some to the point
of the ideas becoming separate from the book that launched them. Just think of “Open the Pod Bay Doors, Hal”,
or Frankenstein’s monster, or the Three Laws of Robotics. Some have even
introduced new words to our language, like “grok” or “Waldo”. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Lord of the Rings/The
Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who lives in Middle
Earth, and finds a magic ring, which he leaves (50 years later) to his nephew
Frodo Baggins to destroy by throwing it into a live volcano. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: This story is now famous thanks to the movies, but used
to be a geek right of passage. The archetype
of all “swords and sorcery” fantasy since and the inspiration for countless
video games, Dungeons and Dragons, etc. While this fantasy book is not science
fiction, its influence on the entire genre is so great it has to be included. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Frankenstein – Mary
Shelley<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: Don’t think
you know this story if you have not read the book. The monster (properly called Frankenstein’s
Creature) in this book is intelligent, articulate, and longs to be accepted by
other humans who seem to fear him. In the
story, Dr. Victor Frankenstein re-animates a body pieced together from various
corpses. The resulting creature is abandoned
by his creator and suffers a lot of neglect and abuse. The creature gets revenge by murdering
Victor’s brother. The creature demands a
mate be made, which the Doctor complies with, then destroys. The enraged creature murders all of Victor’s
family and leads Frankenstein on a chase across the world, ending in the
Arctic. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: This story has become so much a part of culture that we
take its precepts for granted, that man should not “play God” and bestow life,
a concept that was repeated with later robot stories. Most of our impressions of this story – the
mute creature with the flat head – come from the movies, not from this book. Read the story yourself and learn why this is
a classic. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I, Robot – Isaac
Asimov<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: A series of short stories relating the advancement
of intelligent, thinking robots, mostly told through the character of Susan
Calvin, Robopsychologist. Dr. Asimov
introduces the “Three Laws of Robotics” which are an integral part of all of
his stories. This book is gentle and has
a kind heart as robots are introduced with a sense of wonder. Stories include “Robbie” about a robot
babysitter, and Runaway, about a lost robot on the surface of Mercury. The stories are inventive and original and
will make you think. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: The Three Laws
of Robotics are still being talked about seriously today. The stories are very good and introduce a
number of concepts that are carried forward from “Frankenstein”, believe it or
not. These stories have also just become part of our culture. Has nothing to do with the Will Smith movie,
so skip that.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Stranger in a Strange
Land - Robert Heinlein.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: Valentine Michael Smith, Martian. Occupation: Grok. Valentine Michael Smith is the only survivor
(as a child) of a lost colony on Mars, who encountered and was raised by
Martians. Upon his return to Earth, the
child-like Smith has to learn Earth customs, and tries to teach Martian
philosophy to humans. He ends up
becoming a messiah-like figure with a large following. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: This is a story that had a big effect on the 60’s, with
its story of becoming “one” with the universe and free love. It’s a bit dated now, but this book is quoted
or referenced often, even if the person doing the quoting is unaware of the
fact. At least it lets you take a fresh
look at what being human looks like, and how much we are a product of our
culture. I’ve always believed that the
character of Jubal is actually the author as he saw himself. The first science fiction book to become a
best-seller outside of the genre. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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<b>Starship Troopers –
Robert Heinlein. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: Another book that is nothing like the movie. The interesting parts of this book are not as
much the battle scenes featuring troops in powered armor (called Capsule
Troopers, or Drops) but the philosophic discussions that take place in
flashback to the main character’s civics classes held in high school. In this society, only veterans are allowed to
vote, and the little classroom scenes illustrate the author’s reasons why.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: First of all, this is the seminal Powered Armor
story. The main character, Johnny Rico,
is a kid from South America who fills an everyman role in the story. The political and sociological discussions
are as interesting as the combat scenes and the details of powered armor. This is also just good storytelling and a
good read. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Gray Lensman – E.E.
“Doc” Smith<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: The Lens is
a magical device bestowed by the ancient race of Arisians on the Lensmen (who
are not all human) that denotes absolute reliability and integrity, as well as
psychic powers. Kimball Kennison becomes
a “gray” or unattached Lensman responsible only to his own conscience in
upholding galactic law. Kennison fights the forces of Eddore and Boscone,
working to fight illegal drugs and smuggling on an ever increasing scale.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: The term “Space Opera” was coined to denote this type
of galaxy spanning, interstellar scale wars between space fleets that is
continued today in “Star Wars”. This is
the place where all this started. “Doc”
Smith’s prose is full of “unimaginable” and “ultra beyond ultra” in a war that
eventually ends in whole planets being used as weapons. The good guys are very good, the bad guys
really bad, and there are no gray areas, despite the title. While the
whole “Lensman” series is consistently wonderful, this is my favorite book of
the set. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Foundation and Empire
– Isaac Asimov<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: My favorite book of the Foundation series by Isaac
Asimov for many years was the only book I could get my hands on, so I can say
it stands alone quite well as the second book in the original trilogy and is
definitely the best book of the three.
Harry Seldon invented the science of psychohistory, the mathematical
analysis of events in the future. His
precept was that while a single person’s actions are not predictable, the
actions of great masses of people are.
He predicts the end of the current Galactic Empire and the beginning of
10,000 years of chaos. To forestall this
event, he creates two Foundations “at opposite ends of the galaxy” to fill this
gap. What he did not foresee is the
“Mule”, one of the most interesting characters in science fiction. What happens to the first Foundation when
Seldon’s Plan breaks down?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why?: This is just
solid storytelling and world building on a grand scale--a sort of “rise and
fall of the Roman Empire” set in space.
This is considered to be Asimov’s greatest creation (along with the
robots). <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Rendezvous with Rama
– Arthur C Clarke <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: A giant asteroid is found in orbit around the sun,
whose origin is definitely not natural.
Astronauts are sent to investigate and explore this artifact. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: We read science fiction for a variety of reasons – one
of which is certainly to experience a sense of wonder as we visit places and
times in our imagination. Rama is one of
those places that the journey is far more important than the destination. Don’t expect to get all the answers in this
book, which has won every award available to it. “Hard” science fiction at its finest. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2001: A Space Odyssey
– Arthur C Clarke<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: This description refers to the book, not the
movie. Arthur Clarke co-wrote the movie
with Stanley Kubrick, and then wrote the novel version. The book reveals far
more than the movie about the backstory of HAL, the astronauts, the Monolith Artifacts,
and especially the ending and the Star Child. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: HAL the computer and the future world envisioned in
2001 has become such a part of our culture that we take this for granted, but
here is where a lot of our thoughts about what life should be today, in the 21<sup>st</sup>
Century. When this story came out in
1969, we had only just landed on the moon.
The movie and the book are different but both satisfying experiences –
do both. HAL continues to be a
“touchstone” in artificial intelligence development. Note: the sequel movie, 2010, is very good
but just about incomprehensible without reading the book first. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Zero Stone and
Star Guard – Andre Norton<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synoposis: I’ve grouped these two books together as being indicative
of the talent of Andre Norton, a prolific author who I think does not get
enough credit. The Zero Stone is the
story of a prospector thrown in over his head when he comes in contact with an
alien artifact, a ring worn on the outside of a spacesuit. The story really picks up with he meets
“eet”, a telepathic creature born from a cat. Star Guard is the story of a
young man who does the only thing possible to him as a human, becoming an
interstellar mercenary for hire to other, alien species. The plot is amazing with a lot of twists and
turns – the story is not what you think it is at all, and the ending makes you
want to stand up and cheer for the human spirit. This book would make a great movie. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: There is no one who has a sense of the alien like Andre
Norton – her books are like no other, and really give you a sense of seeing
places no one else has ever been. The
tone of her books are very dark and mysterious, and you always have a sense of
much more going on beneath the surface than you are seeing. Her books are intriguing, and you seldom can
guess her plots in advance. Andre Norton has lots of other very good
books, these are just my favorites.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Dragonriders of Pern
– Anne McCaffery<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: Some of the most beloved books in Science Fiction
(and these are SF, not fantasy, despite having dragons). In the distant star of Rukbat, orbited by the
planet Pern, long lost colonists from the human race are besieged by “Thread”,
dangerous organisms from another planet that passes by every 200 years or so.
To combat this menace, the humans bio-engineer “dragons”, telepathic beasts who
fly, breath fire, and have a native ability to teleport themselves and their
riders. The story begins with Lessa, who
rises from the ashes of her conquered homeland to lead “All the Weyrs of Pern”.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: The story of the
dragon riders and their telepathic flying dragons is captivating, and the world
of Pern so completely imagined that everything seems in place – all of the
motivations and conflicts seem natural and so in the setting that you accept it
as it is. I would not go too far into
this series, it gets a bit strange in the later books. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Ship Who Sang –
Anne McCaffery<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: Helva was born with a perfect brain, and a useless
body. Her medical treatment was to
implant her brain into the body of a spaceship, where she became the living
command center of the ship. To assist her is assigned a “brawn”, a more
standard human who works with the living ship to earn their keep. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: This has always been my very favorite book – not just
of science fiction, but of any fiction.
Helva is such a believable person that you accept her as she is, and
laugh, cry, morn, and rejoice in her tragedies and triumphs. Did I say I love this book? The later attempts at making sequels never
recaptured the magic of the original set of short stories. The author also said that this is her favorite
book she wrote, and that she sees herself in Helva. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Ringworld – Larry
Niven<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: Louis Wu is recruited to help explore a
manufactured world out in deep space by the Pierson’s Puppeteers – a three
legged race of cowardly herd creatures.
They take him to the Ringworld – a ribbon of real estate the size of the
Earth’s orbit. Another example of hard science fiction, taking astronomy,
engineering and mathematics and making an entertaining quest adventure out of
it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: Another work of sheer imagination – a simple concept –
making a habitable ribbon of material replace a planet – and turning it into a
place of wonder and awe. The concepts
come out thick and fast, and this is just an utterly fascinating journey in a
strange place. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Reality Dysfunction
– Peter Hamilton<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: OK, this
book is a stretch to the imagination in every direction possible. The background of this novel is a complex
interstellar society where humanity has divided into two factions – the
“adamists” who embrace physical technology, and the “edenists” who use bitek –
biological technology. Spaceships are
grown from seeds, along with space colonies.
Humans either have sophisticated embedded computers or electronic
versions of telepathy. All of this
futurism is the set dressing for the Reality Disfunction – where the souls of
long-dead humans return to possess the bodies of the living, with horrific
results. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: This set of books are my favorite look into what I
believe will be our future in the next 100 years as we make massive leaps
forward in human/computer integration.
While the books are an absolute slog to get through – we are talking
1200 page books here – the ideas come thick and fast, and each are fascinating
and interesting. Mr. Hamilton is my
favorite contemporary author of hard science fiction. The story does get bogged down in the middle,
as many do, and the ending, frankly, was very unsatisfying and abrupt given the
amazing journey to get there. The hero
(Joshua Calvert) is a bit over the top, and sleeps with almost every female
that walks past him. Still, this is a
wonderful visit to a marvelous, interesting future. His later books are just as good - but he still can't write an ending.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Complete Venus
Equilateral – George O. Smith<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the far flung future –as imagined back in the
1930’s—Venus Equilateral Station is the inter-system relay point for colonies
on Mars, Venus and the outer planets.
The name comes from its position at the Lagrange Point in Venus’
orbit- making an equilateral triangle
with the sun, Venus, and the station. This 1930’s story introduces the infant
science of electronics – all based on vacuum tubes—as a way to solve problems
in the future.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: As an engineer,
it is fun to read a book where engineers are the heroes. It also shows that people in the 30’s were just
as smart as they are today – something that we all need to keep in mind. This is modern technology with a completely
different tool kit.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Time Machine, War
of the Worlds –H.G. Wells<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
H. G. Wells and Jules Verne are the foundations of modern
science fiction, and to some extent science itself. The two most important Wells books are these
– the Time Machine, which takes a very serious look at the future of humanity,
and the War of the Worlds, when Martians attack the Earth using the space
cannon Jules Verne described in his “Earth to the Moon”. The ending of WotW is especially inventive
and interesting given both the literature of the time and its departure from
standard storytelling.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Midnight at the Well
of Souls – Jack Chalker<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: Nathan Brazil is a starship captain making his
living transporting passengers on his small ship. His varied passengers get to come along for
the ride when an emergency signal deposits the group on the Well World, home of
the Well of Souls – an experimental planet from a long dead race who created
hundreds of different ecologies side by side in different hexagons. In this quest story, each character is
transformed by the Well of Souls into a new creature and to get home they must
travel to the center of the Well of Souls itself at Midnight.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: This is lightweight escapist fiction – but that does
not mean it is not really good at the same time. The characters and concepts with be with you
long after you put the book down. What
if mathematics were the only thing holding the universe together? <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Wrinkle In Time –
Madeline L’Engle<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Meg Murray is growing up (quickly) in her lively household
with twin brothers, her scientist parents, and precocious little brother
Charles Wallace, who is much smarter than he lets on. One night they are whisked off during a storm
by Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which on a secret mission to rescue their
missing father, who has been captured by an alien intelligence during one of
his experiments. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: This beloved book has won a number of prizes and awards
for inventive story telling that is still centered on the importance of family.
Meg’s development during the story is the truly interesting part. This is a young adult story that anyone
would enjoy.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Dune – Frank Hebert<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Synopsis: The Science Fiction equivalent to “Lord of the
Rings”, Dune is a dense, deep dive into a future universe where planets are
ruled by great Houses in a feudal system.
Central to the economy of this future is the spice “Melange”, which
grants the user extended life, psychic powers, blue eyes – and addiction. The spice allows space travel and is the
foundation of several major religions.
The Spice is found only on one planet – the desert planet Arrakis, also
called Dune.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why: A superb feat of
the imagination, the author creates an entire universe of characters with
conflicting motivations, deep desires, secret pacts, political backstabbing
(literally), and religious agendas. The theme appears to be – from adversity
can flow strength. As much a political
thriller as science fiction masterpiece and feat of world-building. This is the definition of the word
“Epic”. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<b>Honorable Mentions;</b><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cat’s Cradle / Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: red;">OTHER “MUST READ” BOOKS</span><o:p></o:p></b><br />
<b><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<ul>
<li>A Princess of Mars – Edgar Rice Burroughs. Introduction to the world of Barsoom, ERB’s
imagined version of Mars, filled with red humanoids, green four-armed Tharks,
and danger around every corner. This is
the height of the Pulp Science Fiction novel from the 30’s. The action is fast, the environment strange,
the science loose.</li>
<li>Doc Savage: Man of Bronze – Lester Dent/Kenneth Robeson</li>
<li>Discworld – Wyrd Sisters, Thief of Time, The Fifth Elephant,
Carpe Jugulum, Reaper Man, Feet of Clay</li>
<li>Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card</li>
<li>Childhood’s End – Arthur C Clarke</li>
<li>The Mote in God’s Eye – Larry Niven, Jerry Pornelle</li>
<li>Oath of Fealty – Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle</li>
<li>Fahrenheit 451 – Ray
Bradbury</li>
<li>The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury</li>
<li>Sailor on the Seas of Fate – Michael Moorcock</li>
<li>When Worlds Collide – Edwin Balmer</li>
<li>Flight of the Dragonfly– Robert L. Forward</li>
<li>Mission of Gravity – Hal Clement</li>
<li>The Integral Trees – Larry Niven</li>
<li>The Gods Themselves - Asimov</li>
</ul>
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<li>The Sector General Novels – Major Operation - James White</li>
<li> Honor Harrington
Novels: On Basilisk Station, The Honor of the Queen</li>
<li>The Vorkosigan Novels – Lois Bujold</li>
<li>The Darkover Novels – Stormqueen, The Forbidden Circle</li>
<li>The Compleat Enchanter – L Sprague De Camp</li>
<li>The Bolo Novels – Keith Laumer</li>
<li>The Retief Novels – Keith Laumer</li>
<li>The Stainless Steel Rat – Harry Harrison</li>
<li>Incarnations of Immortality- Piers Anthony</li>
<li>Titan, Wizard – John Varley</li>
<li>Old Man’s War – John Scalzi</li>
<li>Greg Bear – Eon</li>
<li>Mutineer’s Moon / Heirs of Empire – David Weber</li>
<li>Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – Susanna Clarke</li>
<li>Stardust – Neil Gaiman</li>
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Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-57274370306154948812011-09-06T11:02:00.003-05:002011-09-07T09:27:07.376-05:00Airships 101Continuing the series on Airships:<br /><br />Some basic comments on airship technical design. I'll be referring to <a href="http://www.goodyearblimp.com/basics/controls.html">Goodyear's web pages</a> on flying their blimp.<br /><br />The basic components of the airship are the envelope (outer covering), gondola, fins or aerodynamic controls, engines, and the balloonets.<br /><br />Lift for the airship is provided by a combination of static (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyancy">buoyancy</a>) lift provided by the lifting gas - usually helium - and dynamic lift provided by the air moving over the aerodynamic shape of the airship and the thrust provided by the engines. Airships are boyant, like any balloon, by being less dense than the surrounding air. To be specific, the airship weighs less than the amount of air volume it displaces. This difference provides lift. If an airship weighs exactly the same as the air it displaces, then it is neutrally buoyant and will neither rise nor sink. The problem with this is that as you ascend into the atmosphere, the air becomes less dense. Airships are normally trimmed with ballast (added weight) to be slightly heavy at ground level - and to use dynamic lift provided by forward motion to climb.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />Balloonets are smaller gas bags inside the main envelope that contain air rather than lifting gas. The Balloonets perform several critical functions. As the airship rises, the helium inside expands because the outside air pressure is less. The Balloonets release air to maintain the proper internal pressure on the blimp's skin. If the airship rises too high (refered to as its Pressure Altitude) the pressure of the internal helium gets too high for the envelope to contain and the excess pressure must be vented out - in the form of helium gas - to prevent the airship from rupturing. Releasing helium is very bad because now as the airship descends, and the helium is compressed again by the surrounding air pressure, there may not be enough lift to keep the airship from crashing into the ground. Two balloonets are used to trim the airship fore and aft to keep the blimp level. Compressed air in the Goodyear blimp is provided by scoops behind the engine propellers and by electric fans to inflate the balloonets.<br /><br />Some considerations for airship operations:<br />Thermal Control - particularly for airships that operate for long periods of time, the sun heats the envelope and the gas inside during the day, and at night the helium cools. This changes the density of the gas and the lifting power. This is why many blimps are silver or white in color- to minimize the swings in lift caused by thermal expansion. The Balloonets must be large enough to compensate for this change. A typical airship may be 40% balloonet by volume.<br /><br />Helium Permeability: The helium atom is the second smallest atom there is, and it is very good at escaping. Airship skins have to be specially designed to trap the helium inside, and have coatings and coverings to prevent the helium from simply leaking out through the spaces between the atoms. The Goodyear blimp uses neoprene-impregnated polyester fabric. Even so, over a long term, airships will have to be "topped off" with helium from time to time.<br /><br />Ultraviolet Damage: Any fabric exposed to the sun will be damaged by ultraviolet rays. Coatings can be added to minimize this damage, but these also add weight. High altitude airships and balloons also have to contend with atmospheric ozone, which is also damaging.<br /><br />Fuel Consumption: Look at this picture of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zeppelin.jpg">USS Macon</a>. See those black vertical lines on the sides of the airship? Any idea what these are for?<br /><br />Think about an airship flying along- powered by internal combustion engines driving propellers. Those engines are consuming fuel - gasoline - and turning it into hot gases that are driving the engine and then expelled through the exhaust system - in effect, throwing the fuel overboard and making the airship lighter. So on the USS Macon, they used condensers (a type of air conditioning) to capture water vapor out of the air and replace the expended fuel - keeping the airship in balance on long distance trips. Airships can also compensate for the lost weight by putting more air into the balloonets, compressing the air in them and making the balloonets heavier.Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-88324169173941812172011-08-25T07:10:00.002-05:002011-08-25T07:50:19.163-05:00Attack of the Airships!It seems that all of a sudden, everyone has an airship, a blimp or an aerostat (tethered blimp), either manned or unmanned. Two years ago no-one was talking about them, and now fat, boyant, helium filled UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), OPV (Optionally Piloted Vehicles), and MV (Manned Vehicle) lighter-than-air craft fill the skies. I just attended the AUVSI conference in Washington DC, and I saw a lot of blimps and airships.
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<br />A quick note: A blimp is a lighter-than-air craft that is propelled by an engine, has an aerodynamic-shaped (teardrop) body, and maintains its shape via internal pressure, like a balloon. An Airship is the generic name for a powered lighter than air craft. A Zeppelin, or rigid airship, has a metal frame, usually of aluminum, that maintains its shape. The vast majority of airships today are blimps. Zeppelins are heavier, but faster.
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<br />I think that the reason for all this interest in airships is fueled by the need for persistent survellance - the ability to maintain overwatch of a large area for long periods of time, and this need is created by the use of IED's to attack US troop overseas, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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<br />A quick rundown of some new airships:
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<br />SAIC: SAIC has announced that they are producing a <a href="http://www.saic.com/products/aviation/lta/skybus.html">range of airships</a> from 30,000 to 200,000 cubic feet of helium, and a payload from 200 to 4000 lbs. The design is based on the US Navy's <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/zpg-3.htm">ZPG-3W</a> blimp originally designed by <a href="http://www.aero-web.org/database/aircraft/getimage.htm?id=16761">Goodyear</a>, with controls and gondola from the Zeppelin company in Germany. They also included the Zeppelin stern thruster and inverted-Y tail. SAIC is only advertising a max altitude of 15,000 feet, so they are staying well within the operational envelope of conventional blimps.
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<br />LOCKHEED MARTIN: LM has a series of airships in various phases of completion - the <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/HighAltitudeAirship/index.html">High Altitude Airship</a> (HAA) - designed to loiter in the stratosphere for long periods of time. It has solar panels on its topside for power. The shiny mirror-like outer skin makes this one particularly striking. The demonstrator flew on July 27th, and reached 32,000 feet.
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<br />Sky Tug - About two years ago, LM test-flew the <a href="http://www.military-heat.com/91/p791-hybrid-airship-project/">P-791 "hybrid" airship</a> in the skies over Palmdale CA, home of the Skunk Works. This strange craft seemed to be three blimps sewn together to make a large, lifting body aircraft that relied on dynamic (forward flight) lift for part of its load bearing capability. A dynamic lifting airship should be faster, more stable, and be able to carry more weight than a conventional full-buoyancy balloon. Now LM has <a href="http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/avd/2011/03/24/02.xml&headline=Lockheed%20Martin%20To%20Develop%20Cargo%20Airship&channel=comm">announced </a>that it has partnered with a Canadian company, Aviation Capital Enterprises, to develop a commercial, cargo aircraft based on the design. We can only wish them luck. Here is a link to the video on <a href="http://youtu.be/W3n5cUaG5fg">Youtube</a>.
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<br />TO BE CONTINUED....
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<br />Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-14792497535476791522011-08-14T22:27:00.006-05:002011-09-05T10:18:08.110-05:00My Robot Designs - the List!In my official biography, I said that I have designed of over 20 unmanned vehicles over the years. You may wonder, what 20 vehicles am I talking about? I fell that I need to provide a list of all my original designs – time to “put up or shut up”. So here is the official list - to date:
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<br />So in this definition of “vehicle”, we will have anything that can move on its own – on wheels, tracks, or treads, float, swim, or fly. My smallest unmanned ground vehicle weighed just three pounds, while the heaviest a whopping 28,000 lbs (14 tons).
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<br />I’m not going to count some of my robots – my first commercial robot design was a key cutting CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) machine for Southern Steel, designed by myself and an ace machinist named Rusty Lawrence. This machine combined pneumatics and electric stepper motors to cut the notches in jail cell keys. I’ve not had any contact with these people in decades, so don’t ask any more questions about it.
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<br />I also worked on the design of all the robots on the International Space Station. When I started in 1989 on ISS, it had a lot more robots than it has today. We had three main types – the OMSS or Orbital Maneuver Support System—also called the OMV, a sort of “Space Tug” that was designed to go out and retrieve satellites and bring them to the Space Station for <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_19930075270">servicing</a>. This requirement was dropped pretty quickly, but I spent about a year trying to figure out how to command this thing. The next robot was the <a href="http://www.astronautix.com/craft/flivicer.htm">Flight Telerobotic Servicer</a>, or FTS. This was a three-armed robot to repair the outside of the space station so that astronauts did not have to go EVA for smaller repairs or services. This became “<a href="http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp">RoboNaut</a>", the dexterous telerobotic astronaut. My job was to figure out how to run the robot from the ground – with a 10 second round trip latency delay – a real challenge. We met that challenge by suggesting that we add a laser rangefinder or 3D LADAR (laser radar) that allowed the robot to see depth – then we could do what I called “Goal Oriented Programming” – give the robot the goal to reach and let it figure out how to get then. Then the latency was irrelevant. I got to work on the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/mss.html">Canadian Robot Arm </a>that was deployed on the station, and its unique "inch-worm" ability to crawl about the station.
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<br />I really got serious about robots after participating in the<a href="http://www.darpagrandchallenge.com/"> DARPA Grand Challenge</a>. I was part of <a href="http://archive.darpa.mil/grandchallenge05/Team_Applicants/CyberRider.html">Team CyberRider</a>, and we had a sand rail – a off-road race car. I designed a race management, goal planning, and terrain avoidance software architecture for CyberRider, along with designing a LADAR simulator/ stimulator that was used to train the car’s autopilot. I had very little to do with the design of the vehicle, which was off the shelf for the most part. One unusual aspect of CyberRider is that all of the actuators, that would normally be powered by hydraulics, had water in their lines – one of our sponsors was a company that made irrigation and water purification plant equipment, and they donated a bunch of water hydraulic pistons for the vehicle. We never worred about hydraulic leaks, and it made cleanup a lot easier.
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<br />1). So my first original design robot was one that I’m really proud of. I called it the ACR – Advanced Combat Robot. This robot had both wheels and legs, and could either roll or walk. It was about 18’ tall, and could be armed – which is to say, it could have two massive robot arms. I also designed a “shield”, a means to defend the robot against Rocket Propelled Grenades, which I need to apply for a patent for, so I won’t say more about it here. The ACR was a modular system that could be reconfigured into a 1) A transport version 2) an armored and armed (weaponized) version, and a 3) Scout reconnaissance version.
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<br />2) BattleBot Light: I was asked by a friend of mine to design a series of "battlebots" - fighting robots - that a high school or junior high school class could assemble, program, and use. I came up with a common set of electronics, motors, switches, and relays that could be re-assembled into three chassis types: spinner, two-wheel drive wedge and four-wheel drive slammer. My particular innovation in this class was to propose that all armor be made of wood and be sacrificial - this made for easy, cheap repairs, protected the robot, and made for a spectacular fight with wood chips flying everywhere. These robots weighed between six and 10 lbs.
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<br />3) Scout Reconnaissance robot: I designed a series of robots to meet a specific set of requirements for perimeter security at large facilities like airports. My design was a multiple robot family that each could dock to the other, creating either a 4x4, 8x8 or 12x12 wheel configuration, depending on the terrain and the duration of the mission. The robots were designed to self-rescue and recover in case that one got stuck or disabled. I also put a lot of thought into "anti-tamper" measures to prevent the robots from being stolen.
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<br />4) As part of the Future Combat Systems, we had to do a lot of experiments and prototypes. One of the things I was worred about was the weight of the FCS MULE vehicle, being designed by Lockheed. I designed several variations of the MULE’s iconic six-wheel articulated suspension system to reduce cost, weight, and power. I build a small 1/10th scale prototype MULE to test some of these ideas, out of components I had lying around. We also used this vehicle for some video testing. This vehicle was to prove that a passive (unpowered) center wheel would still meet all of the MULE’s mobility requirements.
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<br />5) Dump Truck – One of my articles in <a href="http://www.botmag.com/about_robot_magazine.shtml">ROBOT magazine</a> detailed this small robot dump truck that was designed to deliver papers around an office. You loaded the paperwork in the hopper, and it followed a tape line to another office, and when the tape ran out, it turned around, dumped out the report, and returned.
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<br />6) Tube Launched UAV. To meet a requirement for a tube-launched UAV that could be carried on an unmanned ground vehicle, I designed a variation of the oblique-wing design (or Scissor Wing) that folded in a tube and was powered by a ducted fan engine. A small rocket propelled it out of the tube.
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<br />7) ¼ Scale Armed Robotic Vehicle (ARV) – I designed a smaller version of the FCS Armed Robotic vehicle, when it still had tracks. This smaller plywood replica was to be an education and public relations tool, but still have some autonomy – and it carried a .50 caliber paint ball gun powered by CO2.
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<br />8) The Beagle Robot – the Beagle is a small, semi-autonomous robot that was designed to perform scouting mission for armored vehicles, and to be a CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive, Nuclear) sensor platform. We built 4 Beagle prototypes at Elbit Systems, but I’m only counting that as one vehicle. The Beagle could take a lot of different sensors, including the FIDO explosive detection system, air monitoring sensors, and radiation sensors. The Beagle just happens to fit perfectly in a 24" drainage pipe. We designed both tether and radio control interfaces, and you could monitor the video on an Apple iPhone, and pass control of the robot from operator to operator.
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<br />9) ARCHER Hybrid electric vehicle – I collaborated with Reflexx Robotics to finance the construction of a small – 300 lbs – hybrid electric vehicle. Basically a self-driving golf cart, the Archer was to act as a carrier for troop’s gear in Iraq, and to act as a portable power station, recharging batteries and providing communications for a squad of four.
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<br />10) LAVR – Light Armored Robotic Vehicle. This concept I pitched to the USMC, to take their LAV – Light Armored Vehicle – and turn it into an unmanned vehicle. They happened to have hundreds of these six-wheel drive amphibious vehicles sitting around in the desert not being used – I wanted to put them to work as autonomous scout vehicles.
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<br />11) PVIR – Portable Vehicle Immobilization Robot – a response to an Army RFP for a means to stop car bombs. This robot was designed to non-lethally attack and disable approaching car bombs attacking a military base by flipping the car on its side. I’m really proud of this concept. The PVIR was an electric dragster and was to go from 0 to 100 in three seconds.
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<br />12) SUMPTER – the SUMPTER was my name for another try at a logistics support robot for foot patrols – this time for a USMC requirement to support a squad of 8-10. I based my robot on the Mudd-Ox, a eight-wheel drive ATV. As you might guess, this robot was to be a rival to the SMSS by Lockheed. The unusal name is a<a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sumpter"> civil-war era name for a pack horse</a>. The Sumpter was much larger than the Archer and was amphibious.
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<br />13) High Speed Amphibian – I worked with Ken Warnecke and his <a href="http://www.fasttrackamphibian.com/">FastTrack Amphibian</a> company to design a small, high speed amphibious (land and sea) robot that could be used by river patrols and jungle patrols as a scout vehicle. It would lauch from a boat, run at 20-30 mph to the shore and then drive onshore and look around. This is another of those great solutions still looking for the right customer. This robot would have reused much of the Beagle’s hardware architecture.
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<br />14) Cheap Access to Space – I collaborated with Gerry Tyra, an engineer at Lockheed, on a response to the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/bigelow%20prize">Bigelow Prize </a>to put a fair amount of weight into orbit (remember, I used to work at NASA). We designed a much bigger version of my swing-wing or oblique wing UAV design (the tube launched UAV) into a vehicle that would be launched from a large aircraft (C-5 or C-17) and then fly into space. It would re-enter and land as the space shuttle does.
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<br />15) X-Wing Submarine Launched UCAV – DARPA let out a request for proposals for a <a href="http://www.technologyhead.com/2009/01/darpalockheed-martins-submarine.html">submarine launched UAV</a>, and I came up with a “X-wing” shaped aircraft that had two wings that folded up into the fuselage. It worked out that the control surfaces with this configuration meant that the aircraft did not need a tail – unlike my earlier tube-launched UAV designs.
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<br />16) AEODRS – I designed a two-armed robot, with the Archer’s base as a start, to be a candidate for the US Navy’s Advanced Explosive Ordinance Disposal Robotic System (<a href="http://www.shephard.co.uk/news/uvonline/auvsi-joint-service-eod-robot-family-concept-outlined/1663/">AEODRS</a>) contract. My design had two very dexterious robot arms, and I partnered with the DaVinci robot arm guys – you know, the guys who pioneered robotic surgery. The hybrid electric base meant this robot would have had a 48 hour runtime.
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<br />17) EATR – <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energetically_Autonomous_Tactical_Robot">Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot</a> – I was recruited by Dr. Bob Finkelstien, a long-time collaborator from my FCS days – to help with the DARPA EATR project. I raised $100,000, that was matched by DARPA, to help fund the project. We also worked with Jim Albus, who pioneered unmanned vehicles at NIST, and Dr. Bilal Ayyub, at the University of Maryland. I delivered a 6DOF robot arm for this project, and did some artwork on what the final EATR might look like that received widespread publication.
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<br />18) SARC – Small Autonomous Route Clearance – a robot that is designed to find and remove landmines and buried IED’s in Afghanistan. SARC was designed to clear footpaths and smaller areas. I took equal parts of the Archer and an all-terrain vehicle, along with two robot arms- one for digging and one for manipulating. SARC’s true secret was its use of multiple sensors and machine learning capability to perform data fusion. Since SARC actually digs up landmines, it has more ability to learn from its mistakes - right up to the point where it gets blown up. Remember that I was part of the team designing the counter-mine MULE, so this was not my first counter-landmine robot.
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<br />19) Anti-IED UGV. I never came up with a satisfactory name for this robot. It was designed from a set of requirements from JIEDDO and from interviews with other robot scientists for a vehicle specifically designed for route clearance for mounted troops. This robot – slightly smaller than an HUMVEE, would be towed behind a HUMVEE and deployed as necessary. It used a custom designed suspension that I created, that was part WWII half-track and part Mars Rover Rocker Boogie suspension. I wanted it to have the same mobility as the MULE, but be a lot cheaper to build. The front section had the tool interface from a Bobcat tractor, so it had access to all of the custom Bobcat tools – bulldozer blades, diggers, mowers, etc. Then it had a big robot arm, and advanced EO/IR sensors. I created a variation that was optionally manned, with two jump seats. In a pinch it could also be used for casualty evacuation. Its main role was to push either a mine roller to find landmines and IED’s, or to use ground-penetrating radar to find buried explosives.
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<br />20) TailSitter UAV. As part of my research into the active deployment of unmanned ground vehicles, it was apparent that the ultimate desire was to have some sort of built-in overwatch capability to plan farther ahead than the vehicle could see. We needed a UAV that could be launched and recovered from onboard a ground vehicle. The requirements were for a compact vehicle that could launch, fly at high speed, and be recovered on a moving vehicle. I decided on a tail sitter configuration with a X-shaped wing planform with four equal sized wings that act as either rudders or wings based on their orientaton. This aircraft had the advantage of flying at any roll attitude, removing the need for a two-axis EO/IR gymbal – it only needed one axis. The final configuration had two engines, ducted fans to protect the props from vegetation, and a side looking EO/IR package.
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<br />21) Beagle Pup. As part of the Beagle Program, we were trying to overcome some of the common problems that robot have deployed in the field. A big problem is short radio range. As one soldier told me, “There is no FCC in Iraq” – the radio spectrum is often unusable, or has only short line-of-sight range. We took a small robot platform from the Machine Labs, who built the Beagle chassis for me, and added a radio relay, to create the Pup, a smaller robot that could be deployed along with the Beagle or Archer to extend their radio range. The Pup was self-propelled (could drive by itself) so that it could self-retrieve after the mission – this was much easier than having a static radio relay that had to be retrieved with the robot arm on the bigger Beagle or Archer – in practice that took a long time, where as driving the Pup back was very fast. I was particularly pleased when I found a video-audio-wireless LAN combination board that weighed just 8 ounces for the Pup.
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<br />22) Polymorphic Robot: I wanted to design a robot that had the utmost versatility and mobility - to climb stairs, look over obstacles, power over rocks, and also to fit into small places. The Polymorphic robot had a version of legs that had tracks on the ends in a triangle arrangement. it could stand up like a two-legged walking robot, or squat down very small and fit through an 18"x18" hole. It included a robot arm and at full extension was over 6 feet tall.
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<br />Well, that is 22 so far. I did not include other people's designs that I worked on - the Lockheed MULE and it three versions, the BAE Armed Robotic Vehicle and its two versions, and the ACTV Unmanned Surface Vehicle, to name a few - that would put the number of unmanned vehicles that I've worked on over 30, and I'd include the International Space Station in that number, since we designed it to operate unmanned in its early construction phase. I've also done years and years of work on UAV's, UAV sensors and UAV control systems.
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<br />I told my son, Corbin, that I would someday design a 60-foot-tall giant robot, and I've struggled with figuring out what to do with it. Construction comes to mind, as does firefighting and heavy rescue. I made some early swipes at what such a robot would look like and be able to do, so I'm not done yet. I'm hoping that the next stage of my career includes designing manned and unmanned aircraft, which is my true love. Wish me luck.Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-76194390679848660132011-08-08T18:22:00.003-05:002011-08-08T19:30:37.082-05:00Now entering BOOK MODEI've finally decided to get off the fence and write a book about robots. The working title is "Don't Fear the Robots: The Myth of the Robot Apocalypse". This means that at some time I will have to learn to spell "Apocalypse".
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<br />You are familiar with the Robot Apocalypse of course- you've seen it in movies and read about in books. The story goes that robots become intelligent and decide that they can run the world better than we can and (for our own good) either destroy or enslave humanity. So that includes even the original story "RUR" that gave us the word "Robot", the Terminator Movies, the Matrix, and even the recent fiction book, imaginatively titled "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Robopocalypse-Novel-Daniel-H-Wilson/dp/0385533853/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312846052&sr=8-1">Robopocalypse</a>". You can check out "<a href="http://www.armedrobots.com/">Armed Robots.com</a>" which keeps track of this subject.
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<br />I'm here to say its all bunk. <a name='more'></a>
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<br />We are no closer to artificial intelligence now than we were 50 years ago. That may be a bit much of a statement - we have better computers, but the software still lags far behind. Just look at the effort required to have the IBM computer "Watson" play "Jeopardy". I think its a bunch of nonsense and that the Robot Apocalypse will never happen - and I'm going to write a book to prove it.
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<br />I've got my outline and I'm lining up interviews with leading robotics and artificial intelligence experts. I'll be posting snippets here from time to time to keep people interested. This should be a fun trip and I invite you along.
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<br />To remind you a bit about where I have been on this subject, you can read my posts on "EATR" or do a google search on "EATR - the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot" -- which, by the way, Scientific American lauded as one of the "100 Great Ideas".
<br />Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-83065907910623339382011-08-08T18:19:00.001-05:002011-08-08T18:20:41.195-05:00TARDEC
<br /><h1>Robotics Technology May Keep Soldiers Far from Harm</h1><div style="overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">
<br />Read more: <a style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153);" href="http://www.asdnews.com/news/37274/Robotics_Technology_May_Keep_Soldiers_Far_from_Harm.htm#ixzz1UTyavbhp">http://www.asdnews.com/news/37274/Robotics_Technology_May_Keep_Soldiers_Far_from_Harm.htm#ixzz1UTyavbhp</a>
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<br />Interesting article on the challenges of operating a robot remotely (like from the next continent) using the internet and a secure web site. As you would expect, latency is the issue. Interesting article.
<br /></div>Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-23155100565731928352011-08-08T08:38:00.004-05:002011-08-08T18:22:13.311-05:00A Quick UpdateOK, I've not been keeping my Blog updated. Well, its time to get back into the game, so expect to see a lot of updates over the next few weeks. I've been really busy doing some really interesting stuff. What kinds of stuff? I've been designing telemetry systems for race cars, with GPS and IMU sensors to track cars in real time. That job is over, but I'm really proud of the results we got. I'm now back looking for a new job and a new home, and faced once again with trying to figure out what I do when I grow up. At 50 that's both a lot tougher and a lot easier than at 17. Tougher in that I have dependents, a house, two cars, etc. that are affected, and easier in that I have a lot of tools to work with.
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<br />We also had a very sad time in our house this week, as our Cat, Aaron, passed away. He usually would sit right behind this computer as I would work at home, and would keep you company and snuggle with you if your were feeling low. He kept stealing my pillow at night and I would wake up with the cat purring happily on my pillow and my head on the mattress. I will miss him greatly. We have another cat, China, who is doing well and we are trying to keep her occupied.
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<br />So what do I do next? It all depends on what is open. I look back on what I've done, which includes designing over 20 robots, being responsible for 6 full unmanned ground vehicles (from start to finish), helping design the International Space Station and contributed to the Space Shuttle, and working on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. I guess that my first love has always been aviation, and I'd like to find a place where I can put all of my talents and interests to bear.
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<br />Wish me luck!
<br />Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-74448256800407494192010-08-04T13:34:00.001-05:002010-08-04T13:36:52.194-05:00New this month in ROBOTI have two new articles in the current edition of ROBOT magazine, now on bookstands everywhere. For the younger crowd, there is an article on "SO you want to be a Robot Designer", with advice for what to study and what skills are necessary to work professionally in the Robot business. The other article is called "Everything is turning 3D" about putting stereo vision on a robot (3D glasses not included).Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-12292576873698766642010-08-04T13:26:00.002-05:002010-08-04T13:34:20.110-05:00Here come the Mummies!One thing I'm famous for, at least inside my family, is the number of my hobbies. The robot thing that I do now as a profession started as one of my extra activities. I will say in my own defense that all of my hobbies have one thing in common - learning something new. I'm always looking for something new to learn and some new skill. My current favorite extra project is learning to play the electric guitar. I bought a used Fender <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Stratocaster</span> and I've been enjoying learning to make music on it. The side effect of this is that I'm listening to music again for the first time in years - I had gotten away completely from listening to music other then when I was helping clean house. A recent video special on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">HD</span> channel on Sirius exposed me to a group called "Here Come the Mummies". And yes, the group dresses as mummies on stage. They play "funky" music - think Tower of Power or <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Parliament</span>, if you are that old.<br /><br />Here is a link:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.bing.com/music/songs/search?q=here+come+the+mummies&FORM=DTPMUA&qpvt=here+come+the+mummies">Here come the Mummies:</a><br /><br />Now rumor has it that this is a group of studio musicians who have contracts with various other record companies and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">conceal</span> their identities so that they can play together legally. What ever the reason, the music is great and you need to give them a listen.Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-74150176162221136762010-04-15T13:28:00.003-05:002010-04-15T13:37:22.647-05:00What I'm working on now...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7iA2jk2zeZnvsCAfCokamM3vuqPi2Yeoo1kg6G0XUKZJrMRZD3S9dXVOHrXvy2pWZD3cTRn6qeqGDnvI0D1qKk0Bq0fhkUu-4L4dGmh4xCS5f8ijswxWYyeyT7rwvpWDYqtDXgDfZAYC/s1600/gpma1135-main.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460434489775816434" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 238px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7iA2jk2zeZnvsCAfCokamM3vuqPi2Yeoo1kg6G0XUKZJrMRZD3S9dXVOHrXvy2pWZD3cTRn6qeqGDnvI0D1qKk0Bq0fhkUu-4L4dGmh4xCS5f8ijswxWYyeyT7rwvpWDYqtDXgDfZAYC/s320/gpma1135-main.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Right now at home, my personal project is to create a vertical take off and landing, horizontal flying UAV (Unmanned Aeriel Vehicle). I'm starting with an unusual model airplane called a "VFO", or Vertical Flying Object, by Electrifly <a href="http://www.electrifly.com/parkflyers/gpma1135.html">http://www.electrifly.com/parkflyers/gpma1135.html</a></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>This is a "tail sitter" aircraft that takes off in the vertical position, sitting on its tail, and then pitches over and flys conventionally like a regular airplane. Right now I have the model all assembled and it can hover and fly about. I had to stop testing because I blew out my cheap lithium battery charger (from one of my RC helicopters) and need to get another.</div><div> </div><div>I'm expecting to put a Aurdino-based autopilot and GPS on the aircraft and have it take off and land autonomously. It will also get a wireless camera. </div><div> </div><div>There are lots of good video of the VFO on Youtube - just search "Youtube VFO". I'll keep you posted on my progress.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div>Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-55304789958206519262009-10-16T15:26:00.004-05:002011-08-08T21:24:09.750-05:00Review - Hasbro Interactive R2D2<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhh2gM_ULyjWbMIkWnUj8u1OYnoSb2ZHVU2nBafQm6WZmULGXy2KBj1imOSpzf80tlikh5xXuzrTd_YS1CjhhZzELfUcYSjWOAT4Jrz_LekAlFST9bNR_GocmFtqf3MpaQvRQ3jfYLCM_C/s1600-h/rd2d2-fxg.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393301176597547122" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 243px; height: 320px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhh2gM_ULyjWbMIkWnUj8u1OYnoSb2ZHVU2nBafQm6WZmULGXy2KBj1imOSpzf80tlikh5xXuzrTd_YS1CjhhZzELfUcYSjWOAT4Jrz_LekAlFST9bNR_GocmFtqf3MpaQvRQ3jfYLCM_C/s320/rd2d2-fxg.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<br /><div>I've really lost count of how many robots I've got in my collection, but it is somewhere over 20. One of my kid's favorites is the interactive R2D2 made by Hasbro. We got one of the last ones at the Sharper Image -- we bought their floor model. Our R2D2 is about 18" tall and stays in the "three legged" stance that allows it to drive around. There are motors in the outside legs, and a ball caster in the center leg. R2 drives around carpet just fine, and the best part is that he makes all the right beeps, boops, and whistles of his movie prop progenetor. </div>
<br /><div>The interactive part of this robot is all voice command - there is no hand controller or infrared remote for this robot. It really helps if the area is quiet, and you get within about a foot or so of the droid before speaking. It was interesting that my kids particularly liked that the robot did not always respond, or sometimes would just shake his dome in a "no" guesture. Rather than discouraging them from talking to the robot, it became a game to try and get the robot to respond.</div>
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<br /><div>My personal favorite feature is right on the front -- there is a separate button that disable the drive system, so that you can sit R2D2 on a table and talk to him without him driving off. The button lights up red for disabled and blue for go. </div>
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<br /><div>The interactive features include several that are quite innovative. The robot has a small IR sensor that can detect humans, and some sort of IRPD (Infrared proximity detector) to avoid obstacles. The R2D2 can drive around and even play hide and seek, using the IR sensor to find humans. </div>
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<br /><div>We got very good battery life from our R2, and it has held up well to my admittidely older children playing with it (OK, they are 22 and 20 now. We've had R2 for a while), and having given many demonstrations to high school students.</div>
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<br /><div>The Interactive R2D2 even has some "easter eggs", or undocumented features, that you can either try to figure out on your own, or you can look them up on the web.</div>
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<br /><div>We have really enjoyed having a real, moving, talking R2D2 as part of our robot collection. </div>Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-25464331826946273802009-09-12T21:55:00.002-05:002009-09-12T22:00:52.568-05:00Coverage of TARDEC robot rodeoThere are some good articles written on the Robot Rodeo that I recently participated in at Fort Hood Texas, that include photos of some of our robots.<br /><br />You can look at<br /><br /><a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-10339238-42.html?tag=mncol;title">CNET</a> (first and third pictures)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-09/saddle-us-armys-robotics-rodeo">Popular Science</a><br /><br />Also see Dr. Robin Murphy's post on <a href="http://rescuerobotics.blogspot.com/2009/09/robotics-rodeo-at-ft-hood.html?showComment=1252810522144#c5345622264592265214">Rescue Robotics</a>Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-3035884431572610302009-08-30T22:16:00.003-05:002009-08-30T22:20:49.942-05:00Robot Video: MotoMan dual Robot ArmI'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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UBFo8cgLBM"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1UBFo8cgLBM&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1UBFo8cgLBM&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></a><br /><br />It's interesting to watch the dual end-effectors (hands) -- each arm has two hands, that are mounted in different orientations.<br /><br />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.Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-17268608699385978942009-08-07T21:04:00.002-05:002009-08-07T21:15:18.706-05:00Congratulations Jay and KayI 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 (<a href="http://www.dci.org/">Drum Corps International</a>) and I got him hooked on Robots. Today, Jay is building a full-scale replica of the <a href="http://www.b9robotbuildersclub.com/">B-9 Robot</a> from Lost in Space, and my kids (and I) are big DCI fans (go Cavaliers!).Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-72439191585225602602009-08-01T19:30:00.002-05:002009-08-01T19:44:09.420-05:00LA Times Moral Tale of EATRThe Los Angeles Times ran a thoughtful article about our recent experience with the Internet, news, and the EATR project under the title "<a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-robot-eatr30-2009jul30,0,4619720.story">Robot Developers Learn Perils of New Media</a>", on just how our peaceful, leaf-muching robot turned into an Internet flesh-eating zombie.Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-59718898282189106862009-07-27T08:04:00.002-05:002009-07-27T08:12:26.312-05:00Personal AppearancesI'll be making two important public appearances in the next few weeks. I'll be addressing the <a href="http://www.intelligent-vehicle.com/">IVTT</a> (Intelligent Vehicle Technology Transfer) workshop on Intellidrive - Vehicle Infrastructure Integration this week (July 30) in Washington DC. This is held at the Holiday Inn in Gaithersburg MD, next door to NIST. My presentation will be on "Network Centric Operations".<br /><br />I'll also be making a presentation entitiled "Reducing Operator Workload" at the <a href="http://symposium.auvsi.org/">AUVSI</a> (Association of Unmanned Vehicles Systems International) conference in Washington on August 10th. My company will have a robot exhibit at this conference with our UGV's, UAV's and USV's. (ground, air, and sea vehicles).Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-37814819330327230022009-07-27T07:43:00.004-05:002009-07-27T07:53:44.308-05:00Its MAGIC! Another robot challengeOK, we liked the DARPA Grand Challenge, and its successor the Urban Challenge. And the X-Prize was very exciting, dramatic, and had a wonderful outcome. The Lunar Google X-Prize is a little daunting, and not for the timid, and will require LOTS of fundraising. What else is there to go after for inventors and robotics tinkerers? Now there is a new contest in town, and you have to like the name. Its <a href="http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/events/5687/page/5748/">MAGIC - Multi-Autonomous Ground robotic International Challenge</a>. It's jointly sponsored by the US RDECOM (a research section of the Army) and DSTO, the Australian equivalent of DARPA. The objective is for a team of three robots to perform a task of mapping and searching an urban terrain. And they have to work together as a team. This sounds quite interesting, and I'll be keeping an eye on this. Sounds like a wonderful excuse to go to Australia.Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-83417123902253468502009-07-19T09:05:00.012-05:002009-07-26T19:45:47.611-05:00The Truth about EATR<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipL-BRNAokEm82mI_UnIIuMJWRIUFDIEQPAabX-_PTDIuTkwcvetbtekMe-rMBrQVVAlToy5kSbty9Z-f3CaUDL8ynYlA4wzb1b-DiCBDPISuZ_xlDe1g-tMobTvYvwVXpWw2w_0cj7p4X/s1600-h/render4.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362236985244157314" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left; width: 320px; height: 240px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipL-BRNAokEm82mI_UnIIuMJWRIUFDIEQPAabX-_PTDIuTkwcvetbtekMe-rMBrQVVAlToy5kSbty9Z-f3CaUDL8ynYlA4wzb1b-DiCBDPISuZ_xlDe1g-tMobTvYvwVXpWw2w_0cj7p4X/s320/render4.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5uVn_TKd-bAZ6tOabYQY-0z9EBc_gjB1gYQFbXJxal3jmeOzW67gff06ofV4Bf-66__758EHdtUFffaF50Y2ebW6jWbFpHQwMPPZtIDkRFLZw1APodBTmF6ygZVDqRImFO6CopyJNknP/s1600-h/eater5a.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360370832080454962" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; width: 320px; cursor: pointer; height: 240px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5uVn_TKd-bAZ6tOabYQY-0z9EBc_gjB1gYQFbXJxal3jmeOzW67gff06ofV4Bf-66__758EHdtUFffaF50Y2ebW6jWbFpHQwMPPZtIDkRFLZw1APodBTmF6ygZVDqRImFO6CopyJNknP/s320/eater5a.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />It is always gratifying when something I'm involved in gets a wide reception around the Internet. In the case of EATR (see post, below) there has been a lot of speculation and just wild rumors about what we are trying to do with the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot. For example<br /><br /><a href="http://www.botjunkie.com/2009/02/02/eatr-robot-runs-on-soylent-green/">Bot Junkie: Robot runs on Soylent Green</a><br /><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/09/eatr_beta/">The Register: Robot to consume all life on earth as fuel</a><br /><a href="http://www.scificool.com/darpa-funds-flesh-eating-eatr-robot/">DARPA Funds Flesh Eating Robot</a><br /><br />Which stories basically took the concept of a robot that finds its own food, and then wildly speculated on what that food might be, because in the press releases we just said "biomass" without specifying what that might include.<br /><br />I'm one of the principles involved in EATR, as my company is one of the commercial investors in this project.<br /><br />THE TRUTH ABOUT EATR<br /><br />EATR was always conceived as identifying, selecting, and consuming vegetable matter (leaves, twigs, branches, grass) as its energy source. In particular, the easiest vegetable matter to grab from the robot's perspective, is what is already lying on the ground - dead leaves, dropped branches, etc. That material is gathered up and then ground into small bits that can be easily dropped into the burner. EATR IS A VEGETARIAN.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />So EATR is far more like a robot cow or horse, grazing for its food to convert to energy.<br /><br />And frankly, we don't have any means at all of converting protein into energy, so any sort of animal material would be useless.<br /><br />As noted in the press release, there are four parts of EATR:<br />the computer system with the sensors,<br />a large robot arm,<br />an external combustion engine (in this case, the Cyclone power unit)<br />the mobility platform (i.e. a car or mobile vehicle like a golf cart)<br /><br />In the first phase of EATR, all of the components are stationary and mounted on a platform. We will be "teaching" the system to recognize potential food, and be able to pick it up and place it in a container. That alone is a very difficult prospect. In this stationary state, we will be placing different materials near the robot and using various sensors to identify and classify the material, and then use 3D sensors to show the robot where the material is and how to pick it up. Right now we are using small tree branches about 1/2 inch in diameter.<br /><br />The material will go into a chipper that will render it down into sawdust. What will work best is dry leaves, twigs, and small branches--in other words, dead vegetable matter.<br /><br />The team chose a steam-type engine (actually an external combustion engine) since that was the simplest and most direct way to make energy out of found material. We can just burn the material and use the heat to make electricity, which is our aim.<br /><br />So the main food source of EATR, what we will get the best energy from, will be dead plant material that has dried out. Animal biomass would not be usable at all. </span></div><div><span class="fullpost"></span> </div><div><span class="fullpost">We are also planning for EATR to have a helper. It carries one or more smaller "marsupial" robots in a garage in the back of the vehicle (see image). We are thinking that these smaller robots (like the Elbit Beagle Robot pictured) can assist the larger "mother" vehicle to gather material into a heap that would be easier to pick up. The small "joey" robots would be battery powered and recharged by the larger EATR main vehicle. This would help deal with small scale objects like dead leaves that may not be efficiently picked up by the large robot arm by itself.<br /><br />For our next phase, if we get to do one. is to create a more sustainable fuel source. NASA refers to what we do as <a href="http://isru.msfc.nasa.gov/">"In-Situ Resource Utilization" or ISRU.</a> They are studying using processes to extract fuel, air, and water from local materials on the Moon, and Mars. It is obviously a tremendous advantage if you don't have to carry all of your supplies with you everywhere you go. Here on Earth, the EATR team is considering some sort of bio-mass fuel creation, either using alge to make some sort of oil or bio-diesel, or something to do with either methane or ammonia, both of which can be used in internal combustion engines. It probably would not hurt to suppliment the energy budget with some solar electricity.<br /><br />What do you do with an EATR? We've come up with a list of ideas, which include long border patrols, pipeline inspection, long term climate studies, wildlife research, mobile observation posts, and forest management. Any project that needs long duration missions away from civilization would be a possible application.<br /><br />Frankly, I'm as interested in other technological spinoffs as the possiblility of making fuel. Just solving the object recognition and manipulation tasks would have immediate benifits for tasks like humanitarian landmine removal, or creating a robot that could tend plants. EATR represents an serious advance in autonomous robotics, and has tangible benifits to the military and society in general. I'm proud to be a part of the project, and particularly delighted to be working with the calibre of talent that is involved.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Also, by the way, I created most of the artwork that you are seeing in the press on EATR, including all of the pictures on this blog. Dr. Jim Albus created the original robot design, and I created the drawings. The "Tree eating robot" cartoon was my idea.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></div><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-12194752233404629622009-07-14T21:06:00.003-05:002009-07-14T21:31:46.795-05:00Latest Thoughts...What I'm reading now<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Old-Mans-War-John-Scalzi/dp/0765348276/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247623730&sr=1-1">Old Man's War</a> by John Scalzi. A new take on "Starship Troopers" where you can trade in your old body for a new model, provided you volunteer for military service in return. Some fascinating thoughts on the nature of consciousness and a truly different look at the future. Somewhat reminds me of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reality-Dysfunction-Nights-Dawn/dp/0316021806/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247623862&sr=1-1">Reality Disfunction</a> novels of Peter Hamilton, which are wildly inventive. Good book with several sequels.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Droidmaker-George-Lucas-Digital-Revolution/dp/0937404675/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247624021&sr=1-1">DroidMaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution </a>by Michael Rubin. Actually not about robots at all, but rather how George Lucas created entire new industries by accident in his quest to make digital filmmaking a reality. Discusses the birth of ILM (Industrial Light and Magic), LucasArts Games, and Pixar Films. <br /><br />What I'm listening to now:<br /><br /><a href="http://tomsmithonline.com/">Tom Smith: The World's Fastest Filke</a>r. I have to blame Gerry Tyra, a buddy from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, for getting hooked on Filk, which is a science-fiction fan's version of folk music. Tom Smith is funny, gritty, thoughtful, and witty, as well as having a fast turn of verse ("It may not make sense but at least it will rhyme", he says). His biggest hit, Rocket Ride, has become my personal anthem. Also good is "Superman Sex Life Boogie", "Rich Fantasy Lives", and "Creatures of the Night". He just seems to get better, and some of his latest stuff, like "Lars Needs Women", and "Dead Again" is really good. Trust me. You'll find something to like.<br /><br />I apologize that this annoying "Read More" flag shows up when I don't want it to. I had to try and cut down some of the longer posts so you can browse the blog easily, but it even shows up in the short ones. I'll get some help on this. Sorry!Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-75949850163362240182009-07-11T21:09:00.006-05:002009-07-19T09:24:38.342-05:00Video of the Week - Self Driving BMWMy video of the week is from one of my favorite TV shows. I really only have time to watch one or two shows a week. Anyone who knows me can tell you that my favorite show now on is Mythbusters. That makes sense, the hosts, Jamie, Adam and Grant, are robot builders and fellow contributors to Robot Magazine. My "fav" second show is Top Gear, which is on BBC America here in the US. This is a very off-the-wall, very British show about cars.<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BSrcUZ77Rsk&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BSrcUZ77Rsk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Fast cars.<br /><br />In this video, Jeremy Clarkson meets a self-driving <a href="http://www.bmw.com/com/en/index.html">BMW 3-series</a>. I've always found this video amusing because shortly before I saw it, I was at an intelligent vehicle conference, and had lunch with a couple of engineers from BMW, who flat out told me that BMW had no interest in autonomous vehicles, since they were "all about the driving".<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Now in their defense, I understand that this car is from their testing division, and is particularly designed to drive the exact same lap over and over so that the BMW engineers can gather data -- its not intended to be any sort of technology for a product. The other amazing fact is that this car is driving blind. BMW is using a form of extremely high precision GPS mapping to keep the car on the track. It has no obstacle detection or avoidance capability at all. This is fine for controlled conditions and closed tracks, and admittedly gets the job done for testing. It would not do to mix this car in with other traffic. Anyway, it makes me laugh, and I get to talk about <a href="http://www.topgear.com/us/">Top Gear</a>. Did you see the time they put all these rockets on a Mini Cooper.....<br /><br />I do have other shows that I like that are no longer on. I'm a huge fan of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbirds_%28TV_series%29">Thunderbirds</a>, and of the japanese anime series<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Harlock"> Captain Harlock</a>.<br /><br /></span>Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-49038650915716186912009-07-09T20:45:00.005-05:002009-07-09T21:16:48.217-05:00THE CASE FOR SELF DRIVING CARS<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNdrmlVg2l0-GYyuzKElIt4zPJLct_SYVRJgQXrhg9kS9KKpZz3-oJ8qgu3Yj2AVXa_3jT2uYrwl0B8OYkLvrWeVxORvVWAdgmNjr6vywYhHjQIUtiZY8H-gVmkWBsDYwiwOTgFsarViU6/s1600-h/RoninUGV.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNdrmlVg2l0-GYyuzKElIt4zPJLct_SYVRJgQXrhg9kS9KKpZz3-oJ8qgu3Yj2AVXa_3jT2uYrwl0B8OYkLvrWeVxORvVWAdgmNjr6vywYhHjQIUtiZY8H-gVmkWBsDYwiwOTgFsarViU6/s320/RoninUGV.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356649720945287762" /></a><br />I'm starting a new series here on self-driving cars, or if you prefer, autonomous automobiles (or robo-cars - what do you think they should be called?)<br /><br />I've had many people tell me that they just were not interesting in a car that drives itself. What fun would that be?<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />My answer is quite a lot! From a selfish perspective, I live in Texas. This means I drive a lot on long highways, especially since my relatives are some distance away, and my children are in college out of town. I also spent two years commuting once a week 200 miles away, and a year commuting 120 miles a day (60 to and from work). That is a lot of time in a car. I would much rather be reading, sleeping, playing a game, or composing my blog that driving my car on these long trips. How would you like to push the 'autopilot' button on your dash and fold your seat back and let the car take you the next few hours on the superhighway? <br /><br />That's my reason, but there are lots of others. The most pointed one is the simple fact that each year over 27,000 people are killed on US highways. Every year. A greater number of people are injured or maimed, resulting in long-term hospital care. Annual drain on the US economy is in the billions. Now imagine a car that will not crash. It won't fall asleep, won't run red lights, and can't drive drunk. What is that worth? <br /><br />Speaking of which, the widespread use of autonomous automobiles could eliminate drunk driving as a hazard, a crime, or a problem. If your too soused to drive, the car takes you home. You don't even have to remember where home is.<br /><br />Another point is that self-driving cars could eliminate driver's licenses, age limits, and handicaps. Are you blind? The car can drive. Too old? No longer a problem. Too young? the car drives itself, is a license required? As we are all going to get old and infirm some day, the allure of keeping your personal transportation, safely, is tempting.<br /><br />Now how about saving the environment. Every day your car sits in a parking lot, doing nothing. I drive to work and park my car. My wife goes in the opposite direction and does the same. If we had a self driving car, it could take me to work, then return home and pick up my wife, and take her to work. Then it could return home and wait for us to get off. No parking lot issues at work, and the whole family only needs one car. <br /><br />Rental cars would also take in a whole new meaning. In the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EX-Driver">anime "Ex-Driver",</a> the animators explore a world of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVOnHqxiDQk&feature=related">autonomous cars</a>. You need a car, you call on your cell phone to a rental agency. Minutes later a car shows up (following the GPS in your phone) by itself and picks you up. You type in where you want to go and sit back. When the car gets to your destination, it waits for the next call in the area and drives itself to get someone else. Seeing a movie? Make a reservation for the right time and the car is there waiting for you when you get out. No parking.<br /><br />So that's just a start. In later posts, we can talk about how this can come about, what the roadmap is to the fully self-driving car, and how changes to the infrastructure, cars, and drivers can be brought about smoothly and incrementally. <br /><br />For more information, I'm a member of the IVTT (Intelligent Vehicle Technology Transfer) organization. <a href="http://www.intelligent-vehicle.com/">See their website</a> for more information.<br /></span>Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-78247472063402514322009-06-18T10:59:00.004-05:002009-07-09T20:39:25.647-05:00Terminator Anxiety? How to stop worring about Robots Taking Over the WorldDo you worry about robots taking over the world? Are you concerned that the Terminator movies are prophetic and that the robot apocalypse is just around the corner.<br /><br />Not going to happen.<br /><br />Why? Because robots are increadably stupid and they don't have any mechanisms to become smarter. Basically, current artificial intelligence is not. Intelligent that is -- we are no closer to replicating the thought processes in even the smallest ant than we were in 1968 when Arthur C. Clarke conceived of HAL.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />As part of my job I get to work with, see, play with, and go to conferences to talk about the smartest, most capable robots and AI systems in the world. I also have a lot of exeperience with supercomputers. I've built AI systems and spent years as an AI researcher. And I'm convinced that we are all wet when it comes to computers and robots behaving intelligently. We are no only not on the right road to building a self-aware computer, we have not even found the right concepts to discuss it.<br /><br />You may have seen a lot of new articles <a href="http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/SoundsTrue2012.php">like this one</a>, that say that soon computers will be built that surpass the human brain in compute power.<br /><br />That is complete and utter BS.<br /><br />While it may be possible to equal a brain's worth of number crunching, we are nowhere near creating a system that equals the brain's total bandwidth and memory capacity - because we are using the wrong materials. Let's look at a computer. We store information in a computer in binary code - 1's and 0's, on or off states. It takes millions of those ones and zeros to just encode a picture, and that's just the visual information.<br /><br />Our brains, on the other hand, are completely analog systems. A single channel, rather than being on or off, can convey a complete range of values with millions of possibilities. (NOTE: some neurlogical SME will jump in at this point and say, "Wait! Neurons are either on or off" -- that's the wrong way to say it. Neurons either transmit or don't (true) but when they transmit, they provide a range of data, not just a single value.) So rather than having a memory cell that has a single bit of data that is either on or off, we have a single value that has a whole range - and can be a color, a smell, a sound, a touch, a muscle memory, a texture, a weight, and so on. So the total BANDWIDTH of the neural system is enormous. So while the computer can process the data - you can't get that much data in or out as fast as a brain.<br /><br />To avoid getting too long on this post, let me summarize in a simple statement.<br /><br />Untill we grow our computers from analog components<br />and teach them rather than program them<br />and a robot can learn to identify and manipulate objects just like a baby<br />we are not doing Artificial Intelligence<br /><br />and you have nothing to worry about.<br /></span>Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606592019789396435.post-43533762407909131682009-06-15T21:28:00.005-05:002009-07-09T20:32:27.740-05:00ADVICE FOR ROBOT CAREERSI guess I need to create a FAQ section for this blog, as this is another of the questions I get a lot of when I'm out giving talks.<br /><br />How do you prepare for a career in Robotics?<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Like many fields, Robotics is multi-disiplinary. We cover a lot of ground. On my current robot development team I have a manager, a business development guy (with a banking background), a mechanical engineer, two software engineers, and a systems engineer. Later we will probably need a technical writer.<br /><br />The real secret, especially at my level, are presentation skills. We spend a lot of time making presentations, to customers, to other departments, and to management. I probably do four to six a week. In my experience, the designers who do well are the ones with the best communications skills -- you must be able to talk in front of a group, to organize your thoughts, and to communicate what you want to do to others. If you can't do that, leading any sort of team is very difficult. While many robot designers are "one man bands", that really limits the type of projects you can do, and certainly you would have problems at any major company.<br /><br />The next secret is to take advantage of contests. I owe a great deal to taking part in the D<a href="http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp">ARPA Grand Challenge</a>, a race of full-sized self-driving cars. There are a great many robot contests, from LEGO's to the full <a href="http://www.auvsi.org/competitions/">AUVSI contests </a>for college teams. At whatever level, these are great learning experiences. I have been involved in <a href="http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/">BEST </a>(Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) and think they have a good, well rounded program that really provides a taste of being a real robot maker. I'm sure FIRST and the other high school programs are excellent, but I've only been involved in BEST.<br /><br />For high school study, of course you must take all the math and english you can lay your hands on. As Sinbad says, "MATH IS POWER" and that is certainly the truth. Out here in the "real world" we generally look up all the formulas in the book and do all the tough math in computers. You will not generally encounter tough math problems unless you get into UAV design and start doing CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). I struggled all through math class but retained enough to be functional. We really use a lot of trigonometry, so learn those sines and cosines. If you also struggle in math, don't let this disuade you.<br /><br />Two other courses that I have never regreted taking in high school were typing and drafting. I don't know if they still call it drafting -- its probably CAD or something like that, but I learned with a pencil, a triangle, and a T-Square -- yes, back in the Cave Man Days. These have to be very high up on my list - typing is critical for stuff like making this blog, and drafting, or mechanical drawing, is a tremendous skill in translating your thoughts onto paper and is the only way to talk to machinsts and fabricators.<br /><br />The other skills in robots include lots of computer programming. I have a strong background in computer simulation, which I think is a good background for any engineer. Of course, simulations are just a type of computer game (we used to say that the only difference between a computer game and a simulation is who pays the bill). As a design tool, we use simulation all the time, and it is very valuable. I also rely alot on computer graphics, so if you find a good computer graphics or especially computer animation course, take it.<br /><br />From there some sort of introduction to electronics would round out the education. We use a lot of microcontrollers, which are a different sort of animal from other types of computers. There are some very good self-teaching courses for these, and I'd suggest getting either the <a href="http://www.parallax.com/Store/Robots/RollingRobots/tabid/128/CategoryID/3/List/0/Level/a/ProductID/296/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName%2cProductName">Parallax BOE</a> kit or the <a href="http://www.oobug.com/">OOBUG </a>to learn how to deal with PICS (Programmable Integrated Circuits).<br /><br />Well, I know that was a lot, but let me encourage those of you who are thinking about a career in robotics -- this is the way of the future and in the next few years this career field is going to explode in popularity.<br /></span>Mr Robot0http://www.blogger.com/profile/10939741333788181146noreply@blogger.com0