Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #10203
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: BUDSCOTT@aol.com [mailto:BUDSCOTT@aol.com]
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 13:21:36 -0800
Subject: Re: On making a better RJP...
I recall there being a tutorial on beam net how to make a rjp. What i use
for
my mini rjp is the lid of a large box, above that i place several clamp
lights, some 60w some 40w, whatever i have lyin around. What i have used
before, temp., was a large table, i put the lamps all around it and watched
my bots, all two of them.The cool part of have multiple light sources, is
that they don't always duke it out under one particular lamp. this seems
strange, but once they reach one bright lamp, the tend to find another
source
of light, generally the closest and/or brightest they see. This way they
move
back and forth across the table. i also like to just use one light if i want
them to fight over a light source, hehe! So pretty much any on shiny
surface,
wood cardboard etc. will work, try a card table for instance, if you have a
flat solid surface, not the spongy kind, that would even be portable! cause
frankly they're alot more exciting to watch in the bright sun! The key is to
have the environment that they are in interesting. Sure the robots are fun
to
watch while the move along a lighted desk, but the key is making them solve
small environmental problems, walls and bumps. this makes the rjp better!
Keep on BEAMin!
-Spencer
10204 Mon, 14 Feb 2000 16:54:48 EST [alt-beam] Re: On making a better RJP... beam@sgiblab.sgi.com TurtleTek@aol.com
There is a tutorial on how to make a RJP on Meer's site, If I remember
correctly. It's nothing special and doesn't really give any new ideas, just
the basic instructions that should be intuitive anyway.
When I'm bored and it's too late at night to think very clearly, I like
to clear off my brown table and make a little RJP for my bots to hang out in.
This RJP has large obstacles made from brown shoe boxes. I'd change where the
light (just a 60watt lamp) was every hour or so to keep the bots moving
around. I tried to make a ramp that would lead the bots on top of one of the
shoe boxes (and closer to the light) with some wooden blocks but none of my
bots have an incline-climbing instinct (like one of Beckingham's photovores)
so they didn't really take advantage of that. I also would leave one of the
shoe boxes open so the robots could get inside. Of course, most of them did
their best to avoid the dark cave.
Anyway, if you can take any of that into consideration when building the BEAM
cam RJP, Great! If not, then at least you got an eerie glimpse into what I do
with my overabundant free time. 8)
Oh, one last tip, be sure to put all your bots in...or at least most of them.
That BEAM ant and Symet pair don't really interact. 8)
-Brien the TurtleTek
10205 Mon, 14 Feb 2000 12:10:37 -0500 Beams and robotics net Robocom Technologies
Hi there,
This message will be, probably, interesting for the robotic fans around the
world and I hope this will help you, the only thing I need is your feedback.
So what I want to do, is to give you the tools to express yourself, to give
ideas to the others ...with everything you need on the net:
a dedicated server for the robotic world...
So for the ones who are interested in that project, they will receive an
unlimited space on this server, Emails, Ftp account, chat, forums... for
nothing !
I don't know if it's a good idea or not but I need your feedback on this and
I hope you will help me to create, design this project for the fans as you.
Best regards,
Olivier
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