Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #10731
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Bruce Robinson
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 01:44:52 -0800
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Steering an Aquabot and giving it a purpose.
Yup. Galileo's thermometer. Sealed & weighted glass spheres in an
enclosed column of water, each one with a slightly different density.
The spheres are marked with the temperature at which they float.
content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable
>
I was almost asleep=
when this =
thought hit me. I have a final tomorrow...I hope this lack of sleep =
doesn't hurt it at all. Okay here goes...
The problem is that =
at =
different temperatures your bot is going to rise and fall to different wate=
r =
depths. Now, I'm surprised that no one has come up with this one yet,=
=
but... suppose you employ a device that would be comparable to a fish's "ai=
r =
bladder" (not certain if I'm using the proper term but you get the idea).&n=
bsp; =
Somewhere near the balanced center of your device you could have say a cyli=
nder =
with a piston attached to a screw gear. A motor could compress the =
cylinder by simply turning the screw, thus reducing the volume of air insid=
e =
your bot, making it sink. Now if you were to reverse the screw and al=
low =
the piston to depressurize you could make your bot rise, because you're all=
owing =
it to have a higher volume of air (or whatever) inside of the bot. Th=
is =
will, more than likely make your bot considerably larger, but think about h=
ow =
small fish can get.
Just a thought. I'm sure you guys can eith=
er =
perfect it, or come up with a MUCH better one.
Dane L. =
Gardner
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce =
Robinson
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2000 12:13 PM
Yup. Galileo's=
=
thermometer. Sealed & weighted glass spheres in an
enclosed column o=
f =
water, each one with a slightly different density.
The spheres are marke=
d =
with the temperature at which they float.
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