Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #10654
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Richard Caudle rwcaudle@hpamonon.com
Date: Tuesday, February 22, 2000 8:13 AM
Subject: Re: Steering an Aquabot and giving it a purpose.
>> As for the steering method, the obvious choice
>> seems to be Wilf's Power Smart Head. Hook a very efficient gearmotor to
>the
>> rudder and place the eyes on the front of the bot similar to a hammerhead
>> shark.
>
>Hello you AquaBEAMers!
>
>I've had a design for what I call and Icthybot for some time, but have yet
>to get it built. My version is a manta ray style bot that is battery
>powered (solar recharge, 'natch!) with a gearmotor for each 'wing'. Kinda
>built like my Wigglebots, but with wings. Mantas have the wide set eyes
>like hammerheads, but it seems like it would be easier from a control
>standpoint to do the ray instead of the more 'fishy' type fish robot.
There
>is also a better platform for placing solar cells (horizontal instead of
>vertical, like fishes). My ultimate goal is to make a fishybot, but I need
>to get my feet wet (no pun intended) with something a bit simpler first.
>
>As far as purpose goes, where I work there is a large gravel pit (quarry)
>that has filled in with water. According to topographic maps, the quarry
is
>over 400 feet deep. I'd like to explore this with a school of Icthybots.
>The plan is to make them with a slight positive bouyancy so that when the
>battery runs down that it will float to the top so that it can charge
during
>the day, only to return to it's job at night. The only thing that I
haven't
>figured out is how to prevent them from being ingested by larger fish.
>There is a quarry in the county where I live that is filled with crystal
>clear water. I've seen divers in the water being followed by fish that
were
>every bit as big as the divers! That one's only 100 or so feet deep! I'd
>hate to spend the time making a robot that gets eaten!
>
>Something to think about.
>
>Richard
>
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