Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #03739
To: "George Rix" rix.g@bmts.com, beam@corp.sgi.com
From: Ian Bernstein ian@beam-online.com
Date: Wed, 26 May 99 00:15:04 -0600
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Mr. Tilden & Co. on Discovery Channel
>An awesome shot of Spyder walking!
>Or trying, anyhow, Mark's hand was preventing that, as Spyder's legs
>couldn't reach the table =)
Because of the weight and since Spyder is quite old he can barley even
move and if I remember correctly he can't even carry his own power source
(uses an external power source)?
Power is a major factor in robots so you always want to use the least
amount of motors. It's kinda sad because you see photos of robots that
can walk, vision systems.... but if you look closely at the photo you'll
see a huge cable coming out the back of the robot connected to tons of
computers and huge power supplies just to make the thing work! There's a
big line between coolness and building something that can actually
survive. A lot of what Mark Tilden is working on is how to make the
walkers simpler rather than more complex. An example is that he built a
frame for a 6 legged walker that only uses 5 motors and has almost as
much flexibility as the 12 motor design. This means batteries will last
twice as long, much simpler and will last much longer.
Just a few thing to keep in mind when building your next BEAM bot, Laterz
*-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-*
Ian Bernstein "aka - Synet" The Master Builder
E-Mail - Ian@beam-online.com
BEAM Online - http://www.beam-online.com
Quote - A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell
the word you thought of first
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