Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #07362



To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: Jacob Booth j.booth@mary.acu.edu.au
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 16:52:23 +1100
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: directional can of worms


At 04:46 PM 11/4/99 +1000, you wrote:
>
>
>At 12:39 PM 11/4/99 +1000, you wrote:
>>
>>
>>Wowza!
>>
>>I really like your sound BEAM thought experiments Jacob! What was the
>>output
>>from the Polaroid range finder unit?
>
>too much thinking and not enough building though :(
>
>The output... in Db for example? (I don't know off the top of my head) but
>if you mean the tone or whatever, it was more of a beefy click. (Closest
>I'll ever get to hearing 40khz I guess).
>

Maybe not enough thinking this time... Just realised, you probably meant
what is the signal output from the unit to whatever it is meant to
control... hmmm maybe that is more like it. To be honest, I cannot exactly
remeber. I will look it up. I think it was along the lines of... a _pulse
line that let you know it was sending a pulse, and a _distance pulse which
by it's duration could be used to measure the distance. I am sure there was
much more to it (I was only a shoulder looker overer on the project over 5
years ago!).

Cheers
Jacob

------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacob Booth BIS, MCP Web http://www.its.mary.acu.edu.au/
IT Services Email j.booth@mary.acu.edu.au
Phone (02) 97392235 Fax (02) 97392924
Australian Catholic University - MSM Campus Strathfield NSW



7363 Wed, 03 Nov 1999 23:06:39 PST [alt-beam] Re: Stray thought... beam@sgiblab.sgi.com "Jim Cook" > >I've been thinking about a bot that would move by hanging from a string
>or
> >wire strung between two points. I know the obvious lack of mobility
>would
> >keep it from being terribly useful, but I'm still trying to work it out.
> >Maybe an exercise in mechanics?
> >


I had the same thought...But I was thinking mount a SE in a box-like frame
with a reverser. it gets to point A it reverses back to point B.

______________________________________________________



7364 Thu, 4 Nov 1999 15:10:33 +0800 [alt-beam] Cleaner Robots "BEAM" "Jason Chang"
Hi all :)


I've been trying to build some robots to clean up my room, and for this,
I'm using recycled RC cars. the control circuits are fine, basically i'm
using 2 head circuits back to back,(one head for left control, another for
right control) and it follows a preset path of IR beacons. The whole bot
works fine on the whole, but i realised something. the power supply to the
bot may not be sufficient. :P Any Ideas on a suitable power source?

I've thought of placing some recharging stations all around. But would that
mean that the robots would not seek out the IR Beacons but the power
source instead?
any ideas on how to overcome this?



rdgs

Zulu



7365 Wed, 3 Nov 1999 23:37:02 -0800 (PST) [alt-beam] Re: Tildens Window Cleaning Robots beam@sgiblab.sgi.com "J. Parks" > I have always been confused about one claim that Tilden makes about the
> machine. He says that it is (and this is a paraphrase) always "trying to
> get to the sun on the other side of the glass". Since there isn't anything
> other than how the device is suspended (i.e. the point of suspension being
> closer to the glass than the rest of the robot so that it "leans") I don't
> see how it could "try" to go anywhere perpendicular to the window.

I remember that also. Wasn't it an example of a "horse and blinders"
system? Wasn't the bot 'tricked' into washing? Build it to seek the light,
but put a big window in front of it. As it swings around in a vain attempt
to get to the light, it ends up washing the widow.
-Jake

Home