Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #08962
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Senior kyled@scruznet.com
Date: Monday, 10 January 2000 11:15
Subject: Re: Pressure Sensors
>Bruce Robinson wrote:
>> Senior wrote:
>> > A lot of that money went into aesthetics. They had to have all
>> > those plastic parts custom made.
>>
>> On a typical BEAM budget, the body shell would be pretty pricey. But on
>> their budget, it would be a trivial amount. Don't forget who's making
>> this -- they have access to the kind of equipment to make those parts.
>>
>> > And they probably didn't walk down to their nearest machine shop
>> > and hand-machine the mechanics! Since they had the money, they
>> > probaly had all the parts professionally made (Costly!).
>>
>> True, but they own the machines AND employ the professionals that run
>> them.
>>
>> Fact is, a great deal of that money went into labour: pure worker-hours.
>> And the project has been going on for a couple of decades. So don't get
>> TOO cocky about thinking you could do it faster with that kind of
>> budget. You and about 100 clones, maybe :)
>
>Hehehe allright... The work they've done is great. No other robots
>really match up. It just seems to me that they spent so much money and
>work and only came up with static balance. But which is better? Static
>balance or dynamic imbalance? Which is harder? Apparently, for us,
>static balance is harder (But not soo hard). For bots, it's easier. So
>it seems to me that they just took the easy route. Maybe it's better
>though. Just not as exciting, like those bots that jump around (But
>can't stop!), that were on a few shows and someone posted a link to pix
>a while back. I guess I'll try my hand at building a smaller version and
>see how well I do.
>
>On another note, I didn't realize how heavy those guys are! That's
>impressive that it walks so elegantly with that much weight! Maybe they
>just spent a good sized chunk of their funding on some nice motors? ;)
>
>-Kyle
>
Home