Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #05422



To: "'beam@sgiblab.sgi.com'" beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: "Van Zoelen, Bram AA SSI-TSEA-352" Bram.A.A.vanZoelen@is.shell.com
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 13:20:18 +0200
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Hoverbot & balancing acts ( was: LEGO lawnmower)




> ----------
> From: John A. deVries II[SMTP:zozzles@lanl.gov]
> Reply To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
> Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 1999 6:54 PM
> To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
> Subject: Hoverbot & balancing acts ( was: RE: LEGO lawnmower)
>
> At 12:34 AM 07/21/1999 , Van Zoelen, Bram AA SSI-TSEA-352 wrote:
>
> >> Does this robot really require wheels?
> >>
> > You can also let it hover and the propellor can cut the grass in one
> go.
> > Bram
>
> Well, you could if you had enough energy (i.e. external power source,
> gas-powered, or -very- light batteries, etc.) I don't think that it could
> be made to work given typical BEAM technology (i.e. solar powered, biggish
> capacitors, or batteries that weigh a lot.)
>
> An interesting question comes up: given a sufficient energy source, let's
> say that one was designing a ground-effect style machine (i.e. a
> hovercraft
> & not a helicopter). How does one usually control which direction the
> craft is going? Would one gimbal the 'engine' or would one have
> controllable louvers or what?
>
>
__ <--Motor
____________/ \_________
|\ |\ \ \
| \ | \-/| \
| 0 \ \ ||| \
| 0 \ \||/ \
\ 0 \ _______________________\
\ | |
\ | | <-- Sigar box
\ | |
\|________________________|

As a child i made a hoovercraft out of a sigarbox
A motor on top of the box and the propellor in the box.
The box was with its open side at the ground. At the back
side i had made several holes where air flow will come out
and push the box forward. It worked nicely.

If you make at the topside a L-shaped pipe like this

L-shape-----\
pipe \
---\ \
| | Pagermotor with axe
| | _ driving the collar
Collar |--| |--|||| ______
| | + | |
+--------|0|| |0|-| |--| |------+
| | | |______| |
| |_| | |
| ========== |
Propellor

The L-shaped pipe is glued in a ballbearing or bus bearing
so it can pivot around freely. Attach to this pipe a collar
or a disk shaped and let the axe of a pagermotor drive this
disk. The motor with the propellor will provode lift and a
part of the air will vent via the pipe and provide thrust
in this manner. By pivotting the pipe you can change
direction.

PS. I am not responsible for the results what so ever. I just
cooked up this in an instant. :0)


> A similar question: an old problem in control theory is the "balancing
> rod". In its most simple form, you've got a cart that can only move (back
> or forth) along a line. Attached by a hinge is a rod that you want to
> keep
> pointing upwards. If no control is applied, the rod will fall. The
> problem is to move the cart forwards or backwards to keep the rod upright.
>
This has been done several times with the use of a plotter device. [flatbed
type]
I've seen a webside somewhere while searching for bipeds some time ago. The
rod was standing freely on the plotters head. I will try to dig up the URL
again.

> Given a potentiometer (variable resistance) connected to the hinge, how
> would it be possible to construct a nervous net controller for such a
> cart?
> Is it really just another version of a "head"? Would you need something
> like a Unicore controller? Is some yet-unknown nervous net controller
> feasible? Would there be some angle/velocity sensing system that would be
> more appropriate for nervous net use?
>
> Just more food for thought...
>
>
> Zoz
>
> p.s. more complicated problems include a rod-on-top-of-a-rod and a rod
> that
> is gimbaled by a ball-and-socket joint so that it could fall in a
> two-dimensional manner.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Do you have a BEAM question?
> Try one of the following sites -- they really help!
>
> BEAM Mailing List Archive http://www.egroups.com/list/alt-beam
> Advanced BEAM Mailing List http://www.egroups.com/list/spinalcolumn
> BEAM Heretics http://www.serve.com/heretics/
> BEAM Robotics Tek FAQ
> http://people.ne.mediaone.net/bushbo/beam/FAQ.html
> BEAM Mailing List Archive http://www.egroups.com/list/alt-beam/
> BEAM Online http://www.beam-online.com/
> Chiu-Yuan's BEAM Page http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/6897/
>
>
> Vriendelijke groeten/Kind Regards
> Bram van Zoelen
> SSI-TSEA-352 NT administration RDNL
> Phone +31 (0)70 3038018 Leidschendam
>
> ' This messages is made out off 100% re-cycled bytes '
>
>



5423 Mon, 26 Jul 1999 15:00:38 -0700 [alt-beam] Re: Solar cell v. doubler "'beam@sgiblab.sgi.com'" Wilf Rigter
content-type: text/plain

And here is the last installment of the doubler circuits which uses a
74HC4053 analog mux to generate a voltage at the Vee pin 6 equal but
opposite voltage to the Vcc at pin 16 Input voltage can range from 1.8V to
6.5V so V+ to V- ranges from 3.6V to 13V. Input and output capacitors are
added to suit. Two drawings are included the top shows the internal circuit
details and the bottom is the typical blackbox schematic. Note that two of
the analog (form c) gates are connected as a classic CMOS oscillator and the
third (form c) analog gate is used as a synchronous rectifier. Efficiency is
good at modest currents ie <20ma and the circuit was primarily designed as a
transparent model (teaching aid) for the charge pump circuit.

enjoy

Wilf Rigter mailto:wilf.rigter@powertech.bc.ca
tel: (604)590-7493
fax: (604)590-3411
<>



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