Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #05795



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: arno.jansen@superconsult.nl
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 09:10:44 +0200
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Edge detectors


Okay, now the reply Bram gave makes perfectly sense. On the discoverychannel
I saw a 2 second fragment of a walker of M.W.T., quite a bumpy ride. But a
12 motor/6 legged walker, (using Basic Stamp ?? or has that nothing to do
with BEAM anymore?) should be able to determine wether his foot is up or
down.

If the bot is somehow able to combine the input it gets from all feet, it
could detect wether it's moving upward or downward, but then again, where
are mercury tilt switches for then :-)

I got so many ideas after reading the Conrad Catalogue. It has all kinds of
sensors, gas, rain/moist, light, heat, sonar, radar, presure, light, etc.
Must be a great thing to combine in a bot, but it will probably loose much
of it's BEAM-appearance I think.

I was just typing what was thinking, maybe it helps someone ;) who knows.

Best,
Arno


So, as I understand this, the pressure sensor tells you when the leg is
touching a surface. You predict when the leg OUGHT to be touching a
surface (perhaps by timing, or by a leg-position sensor), and if the
pressure sensors says the leg is NOT touching, you know you're about to
step in a hole, or off a cliff.

Not a bad idea at all. The pressure sensor can be a foot, instead of an
extra contact that can get caught on stuff. I don't recall seeing quite
that method on the net (but there is a lot out there I haven't found
yet).

> P.S. Or was I stupid to think I was the only
> one thinking of this problem???

Nope.

Regards,
Bruce

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