Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #06556
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: JVernonM@aol.com
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 13:26:59 EDT
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: uCrawler V1.0
In a message dated 10/9/99 11:23:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
jim@kinetic-arts.demon.co.uk writes:
> Total newbie here so this may be either stupid or to obvious to be worth
> mentioning but couldn't you make a set of free moving back legs and
> connect the front left knee to the back right knee to create a 4 legged
> 1 motor walker?
Yup, you sure could. You would lose a certain amount of chaos in the Bicore
interactions, but I know it would walk just fine. I have a 20 year old toy
walker that I've seriously customized. It's leg configuration is very similar
to what you mention. It's was once one of those little furry dogs that would
walk forward and stop to bark, then move forward again. I basically skinned
the little critter and decapitated it. I've since built it into something
very different, and instead of barking, it stops and flaps it's ears up and
down like Dumbo. I'm in the process of solarizing it now. The point is, it
works off of one motor. The entire walking process is mechanical. I'm going
to add a reverser and forward tactile sensor to the circuit, and at that
point, it will be as agile as many of the two motor walkers out there. One
motor, and it walks forward on 4 legs and stops, flaps it's ears and
continues to walk again, and can reverse. More mechanical ingenuity would
benefit these little BEAM critters in many ways. And if you think about it,
in a biological sense, mechanics achieved quite a lot before the advent of
brains.
See ya,
Jim
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/8281/beamart.html
6557 Sat, 9 Oct 1999 15:59:38 -0400 (EDT) [alt-beam] Reversing walkers beam@sgiblab.sgi.com jester96beam@iname.com
> it walks forward on 4 legs and stops, flaps it's ears and
> continues to walk again, and can reverse.
Ok, now I'm confused. What is so great about making a walker reverse if it bumps into something? No, it's not that obvious to me, since when it start going forward again, it would bump into the same thign.
Ian has a schematic of an "almost complete walker" that can reverse. Doe it turn as it reverses or something?
~~~~
How would you make a 2 motor walker turn? I know you change the center of the leg's gate (or something like that) but what would the circuit be like on a master/slave bicore walker to make it turn towards light?
....And to revers and turn if it bumps into something?
Another question - to make a walker solar powered, do you just use a PM1 SE and wire the output wires to the power leads of the walker?
OK, now I'm done.
Chris.
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6558 Sat, 09 Oct 1999 17:26:37 -0300 [alt-beam] Re: Reversing walkers alt-beam@egroups.com michael.hirtle@ns.sympatico.ca (Michael Hirtle) I feel the same as u on this, it would be like the "dumb animal effect"
(me and my friends came up with this when we seen some guy in our class keep running into a door, backing up, and running into it agin multiple times)
jester96beam@iname.com wrote:
> > it walks forward on 4 legs and stops, flaps it's ears and
> > continues to walk again, and can reverse.
>
> Ok, now I'm confused. What is so great about making a walker reverse if it bumps into something? No, it's not that obvious to me, since when it start going forward again, it would bump into the same thign.
>
> Ian has a schematic of an "almost complete walker" that can reverse. Doe it turn as it reverses or something?
>
> ~~~~
>
> How would you make a 2 motor walker turn? I know you change the center of the leg's gate (or something like that) but what would the circuit be like on a master/slave bicore walker to make it turn towards light?
>
> ....And to revers and turn if it bumps into something?
>
> Another question - to make a walker solar powered, do you just use a PM1 SE and wire the output wires to the power leads of the walker?
>
> OK, now I'm done.
>
> Chris.
>
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