Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #00363
To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: Bob Shannon bshannon@tiac.net
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 21:22:36 -0800
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: question
Hyndman wrote:
> Almost all processor Bots Have custom made PCB's(I have never heard of a free form
> circuitry processor bot).
HAve you read about Terry Newton's solarized CPU based robots? They are
free form.
I've made many very small CPU based robots. Some have fewer components
than a BEAM
walker, and are made on perf-board. I've never made a custom PCB for
any of them.
> PCB's jack up the price of building a processor bot from
> scratch. You must have patience, I have seen BEAM slowly advance over the time I have
> been interested in it. BEAM tech wasn't invented to sell robotics kits at a competitive
> retail level. Remember processor based robots have had a lot of time to become as
> sophisticated as they are now, they have a 30 yr head start. Also, this is NEW technology,
> and that is almost always expensive. Wonder why p100 processors cost very much less
> than the p II 450's?
> Devin
Actually, small robots without CPU's are NOT a new technology. BEAM is
simply a popularized form of retro-robotics, a return to the original
principles of robotics that still apply today to CPU based designs.
P100 processors are less expensive than PII 450's because of Intel's
marketing department my friend, and little else. How much do you think
it costs to build a single processor chip?
Think about this, a CPU based robot needs to be programmed (at least
once) and this has a cost associated with it. But a BEAM design must be
engineered for its behavior. This is actually a much MORE expensive
effort!
As an example, write a program for a simple CPU based robot, then try to
duplicate this behavior with BEAM technology. Notice how much longer it
takes to get the same behavior as the CPU based design.
Now, change the behavior of the CPU based robot, and alter the circuits
of the BEAM design to match. Again, altering the BEAM design takes far
longer, and also demands changes to the hardware. Clearly the BEAM
design is more expensive to produce and maintain.
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