Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #07366

www.robotik.org

LAST DATE : April 1999 -Bourges-France

NEXT DATE : May 2000 France

LOCATION  : France

EVENTS: 6 robotic mobile competitions:

250 competitors from the largest Universities in the world competing
in

a mobile robotic challenge  (Canada, Korea, Japan, Russia, Switzerland,

USA, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Belgium...France).

6 thematic days of scientific conferences: Industries, Research and

Technology.

During six days, it will be an opportunity for researchers,

industrialists and the public to meet one another, to discuss themes

such as, the robotic, energy, and the space conquests.

CLASSES: AUTONOMOUS

* UNIFORM CATEGORY (monotype)

* OPEN CATEGORY

* WALKING MACHINE and  SPIDERS CATEGORY

* FOOTBALL  CATEGORY

AWARDS: Names engraved on trophies. Certificate for all participants

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INFO:              
Idée Naturelle productions

                   
34 rue de Penthièvre

                   
75008 Paris  FRANCE

                   
Tel: +33 (1) 43593905

                   
Fax: +33 (1) 46550833

                   
Email: robotik@robotik.org

WEB:    http://www.robotik.org/">http://www.robotik.org/">http://www.robotik.org/

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France, ROBOT WORLD CONTEST, Introduction:

The object of the challenge is to build a robot, which is capable of

carrying out a series of different movements within a minimum amount
of

time. The challenge will take place on May 2000 , as part of the "

International Festival of Science and Technology ", with the Minister

for Higher Education and Research and Pr. J.G. Fontaine ENSI de

Bourges, presiding the scientific comitee.

The challenge is restricted to students and, in order to participate,

teams must be nominated by their colleges or universities.

4 classes ; Monotype class for bac + 2 (french bac)  with the uniform

plateform robot (see on web) and Open class,walking and football for

laboratory and engineer school.

Teams - which will be made up of five members -minimum 3- will arrive

with their robots already, assembled.  These must then be adapted
to

the circuit, which will be revealed at the start of the challenge.
Each

team may include one teacher and one past-pupil of the school or

institute, which it is representing.

The challenge will take place non-stop over 24 hours in front of an

audience.  The atmosphere will be very exciting and competitive

General Specifications:

To ensure that the robot's design is original.

The robot must be able to move independently and recognise five red

French billiards balls placed along the course.  The balls must
be

brought back to the finishing area.

The track will be laid out in a 14 x 16-m square.

The outer most axis of the track will be 66 cm from the edge of the

circuit.

The minimum radius of curvature on the track will be 100 cm, including

the walls and edges of the stage. The track will be painted either

black or white and will be made of 3-mm thick playwood fixed to the

ground.

Different prizes will be awarded for different skills.  It is
planned

to have a number of categories, as follows:

*  speed category

*  design and innovation category

*  audience and spectator

*  industry category

We hope to see you at the next Interntional Science and Technology

Festival, which will take place on May 2000.

More information:  web ; www.robotik.org   Email ; robotik@robotik.org

 


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7367 Thu, 04 Nov 1999 04:28:50 -0700 [alt-beam] Re: Tildens Window Cleaning Robots beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Jean auBois At 11:37 PM 11/3/99 -0800, J. Parks wrote:
> > 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".
>
>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

but this is, if you'll pardon me for being so blunt, silly. The motion of
the cleaner is up & down, side to side -- kind of a demented and oversized
yo-yo. The sun (or whatever light source there is) simply isn't located in
those places -- if you've ever seen the photograph of the window cleaner
when it was up in his apartment in Canada, you'd know what I mean. That
the device is POWERED by the sun is quite evident; that it is trying to
"get to the light" is hype.

The device itself is interesting (along with the notion that there'd be
others down below to push the fallen dust & dead flies into receptacles)
but as is so often is the case, the explanation that goes along with it
sounds like a story made up too hurriedly and on the spot and just keeps
getting repeated ad nauseam (i.e., yet another myth).

Oh yeah -- it isn't "washing" the window": it is more like "sweeping" it
which would be great for dust and cobwebs but wouldn't work so well for fly
specks and other deposited "stickum" stuff.

JaB



7368 Thu, 4 Nov 1999 11:46:37 +0000 Re: Tildens Window Cleaning Robots beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Jean auBois [mailto:aubois@trail.com]
At 11:37 PM 11/3/99 -0800, J. Parks wrote:
> > 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".
>
>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

but this is, if you'll pardon me for being so blunt, silly. The motion
of
the cleaner is up & down, side to side -- kind of a demented and
oversized
yo-yo. The sun (or whatever light source there is) simply isn't located
in
those places -- if you've ever seen the photograph of the window cleaner

when it was up in his apartment in Canada, you'd know what I mean. That

the device is POWERED by the sun is quite evident; that it is trying to
"get to the light" is hype.

The device itself is interesting (along with the notion that there'd be
others down below to push the fallen dust & dead flies into receptacles)

but as is so often is the case, the explanation that goes along with it
sounds like a story made up too hurriedly and on the spot and just keeps

getting repeated ad nauseam (i.e., yet another myth).

Oh yeah -- it isn't "washing" the window": it is more like "sweeping" it

which would be great for dust and cobwebs but wouldn't work so well for
fly
specks and other deposited "stickum" stuff.

JaB



7369 Thu, 04 Nov 1999 11:56:34 -0500 [alt-beam] Re: Tildens Window Cleaning Robots beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Ed Spike I have seen his first window cleaner back in 1990. It is driven with a
solar engine which winds up like a Yo-Yo. Once wound up a catch
releases the circular system to unwind. The small brushes at the end of
the entention arm is rotated as it wipes the window surface. The
desending system wipes the window at the width which is twice the radius
of the entention arm.
33

Elmo wrote:
>
> Hi all
>
> I was reading an old issue of New Scientist (July 1988) which had an
> article on Beam called "Brainless Wonders". In it Mark mentions that he
> has some robots that "Clean his windows". Has anyone ever seen or heard
> anything about these robots? I am curious as to how they work and more
> importantly, How he gets the to traverse or stick to the glass?
>
> Elmo



7370 Thu, 04 Nov 1999 11:05:44 -0700 (MST) [alt-beam] On the Beam ?? beam@sgiblab.sgi.com harsh@lanl.gov


Has anyone actually seen the show "On the Beam"?

I talked with KNME, the PBS station in Albuquerque, NM.
and they (the programming dept.) know nothing about it.
I exchanged e-mails
with Mark T. and he doesn't remember who was actually filming it
and he visited the studio only once, and didn't keep any
notes. I sort of remember someone for the list who lives in
Florida saying they saw it in thier PBS schedule; if so
did it show and what station was it?

Thanks for any info,
Jim