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View all articles for this topic.
Posted by: gareth on Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 03:48 AM EST
In honor of Robot Day on Make: Blog, I've posted my "Rules for Roboticists" from my 2004 book Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building. It's a playful list of operating principles, rules of thumb, and words o' wisdom about bot building. The piece is accompanied by robot scientist "trading cards" illustrated by Mark Frauenfelder for the book.
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Posted by: gareth on Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 03:26 AM EST
[This piece originally appeared in The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Robots]
Remember The Rules, that icky book written by those two insufferable women who nobody would want to date regardless of what relationship principles were or were not being applied? Well, I decided to dream up some rules of my own. No, they’re not things like “Never call a robot after the final assembly. Make it call you.” Or: “The way to a robot’s stomach is through its rear access panel.” These “rules” represent the collective working wisdom of builders who’ve been bolting together bots for decades. The cyberneticist Gregory Bateson used to say: “Always tie your ideas with slipknots.” So these are not hard and fast rules, more like rules of thumb. Just a few things to consider as you build robots.
1. A roboticist is a generalist, a systems thinker.
One of the things that attracts a lot of people (me, for one) to robotics is that it involves the orchestration of many different disciplines. There are, obviously, specialists in the field -- those who work only on AI control architectures, or robot locomotion, or whatever -- but even they must keep the entire machine in mind. Most people who work in the field, and certainly all amateurs, have to have at least basic skills in numerous disciplines. As you get more into robotics, you'll also find yourself spending a lot of time looking at humans and animals trying to figure out how they work. Oddly, trying to construct machine “creatures” gives one an even greater appreciation for the heavenly designs of nature, which brings us to...
2. A roboticist is a “deconstructionist”
As a robot builder, you’ll find yourself obsessively looking at the natural and built worlds and going: “Ah-ha! So that’s how it’s done.” Nothing will be safe as you take apart toys and machines that don’t work anymore (and some that still do), and find yourself playing with your food in a manner unsettling to others (“Cool, there’s the ligament attachments!”). But, for the love of all that’s civilized, leave the family pets alone!
Aside: Rumor has it that BEAM (and Wow Wee Toys) robot inventor Mark Tilden has been known to put all manner of bio-matter (chicken and other animal bones and bits) into his dishwasher so that he can clean them thoroughly for study of their mechanics, and one might even assume, incorporation into disturbing SRL-esque bio-mechs.
3. A roboticist knows how to K.I.S.S. it.
Actually not every robot builder knows this, but they should. K.I.S.S. stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid" and it's a maxim recited (but frequently unheeded) in many design disciplines. Heed it in your robot building. Take time to plan your projects. Don’t just throw technology at a problem ‘cause you can. Use prototyping tech such as LEGO MINDSTORMS, VEX, and breadboarding to test out designs. Then try and figure out what you might not need and toss it. The simpler and more elegant your designs, the more likely your robot is to be stable and robust.
4. A roboticist must learn to think “outside the bot.”
Innovation comes from thinking differently, heading down the road less traveled. Don’t be afraid to take chances, to go in radical directions. Apply what I call Rodney Brooks’ Research Heuristic. Here's how this works: In his book Flesh and Machines, Brooks reveals how he came upon many of his radical ideas regarding robots and AI: He would figure out what was so obvious to all of the other researchers that it wasn't even on their radar, and then he'd put it on his. Essentially, Brooks would look at how everyone else was tackling a given problem, and what assumptions were so implicit to them that these assumptions were no longer being questioned. And he would question them. Don’t listen when people tell you that you can’t do something. Ignore your critics.
Aside: This is completely unrelated to robots, but it neatly illustrates our fourth rule. Many years ago, a friend of mine, a fabric artist, entered a beginner’s fabric weaving contest. She rented a small loom, learned how to weave, and decided to weave a seersucker blouse. Because she was new to weaving, she didn’t know that you “couldn’t” hand-weave seersucker (which is comprised of alternating puckered and smooth stripes). She had a devil of a time doing it, but she thought it was just because she was new to weaving. The judges were stunned. Needless to say, she won the contest, and the grand prize, a gorgeous room-sized Swedish loom that was the size of a small sailing vessel.
5. A roboticist is as much an artist as a scientist.
Find someone who’s done anything truly cutting-edge in science and technology, and chances are, he or she has a bit of an artist’s/poet's soul. Independent engineer and self-proclaimed “high-tech nomad” Steven Roberts is often quoted as saying, “Art without engineering is dreaming. Engineering without art is calculating.”
6. A roboticist must be methodical and patient (like any scientist).
7. A roboticist knows that neatness counts.
After you’ve built a few robots, you’ll quickly learn that the mechanics and (especially) the electronics can quickly become complicated, even in simple machines. There are usually wires sprouting everywhere, and trying to fit all of the parts inside your robot body, or on your robot platform, can become quite a challenge. You’ll learn that keeping everything neat and tidy will make a huge difference in the end. Use quick connectors when you can (for plugging and unplugging wires), use cable ties to bundle related wires together, and carefully plan (or revise) your design to maximize order and quick deconstruction/reconstruction of subsystems for easier troubleshooting. Color-code.
8. A roboticist must be a master of many trades.
As stated in rule number 1, a roboticist must be able to look at the big picture and know at least a little about a lot. He or she must have a working knowledge of materials sciences, structural and mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer sciences. This may all sound intimidating to an absolute beginner, but knowing something about all of these areas of technology and science can actually be fun and exciting. And don’t let the big words trip you up. In plain English, these boil down to: building stuff (and knowing the right stuff to use), doing basic electronics, and knowing the ins and outs of microcontrollers and their software.
9. A roboticist should know his or her tools, materials, and processes.
You can have all the fancy “book learnin’” in the world, but if you don’t have a good working knowledge of robot building tools, building materials, and real-world construction techniques, you’re not going to be seeing robots scooting around your den anytime soon. The more you tinker, experiment, the more mad skills you’ll acquire -- which leads us to...
10. A roboticist knows that you need to build early and build often.
Modern robot building technologies such as LEGO MINDSTORMS, VEX, iRobot's iCreate, open source microcontrollers, prototyping boards, and other similar innovations (not to mention computer designing, simulation, and programming software) allow robot builders a tremendous amount of freedom to experiment and build on demand. Think of pre-PC writing tech (pens and paper, typewriters) versus a word processor (complete with spell- and grammar-checking, a built-in dictionary, Thesaurus, and so forth) and that gives you some idea of today’s robot tools versus those of a decade ago, even five years ago. Now you can have an idea for a new drive or sensor system, whatever, and have it built and tested within a few hours. If it doesn’t work, you can quickly disassemble and assemble something else. From this rapid prototyping can come truly innovative robot designs.
11. A roboticist should know when to come back later (A.K.A. “The Kenny Rogers Rule”)
When you’re building anything, especially something as complicated as a robot, the build can sometimes get ugly. If you try to force your way through, you can often dig yourself into an even deeper hole. So here's what you do: “Put the soldering iron down. Step away from the steaming robot entrails!” You’ll be amazed at what an hour away, vegging in front of the TV, rolling around on the floor with the cat, or sleeping on your problem will do. It almost never fails. Here’s a corollary: The extent to which you don’t want to drop what you’re doing and take a break (“I know I can fix this, damn it!”), is inversely proportional to the extent to which you need a break. Why is it the Kenny Rogers Rule? Cause “you got to know when to hold, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away...”
["Heroes of the Robolution" trading card illos by Mark Frauenfelder, from Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Robots]
Other Robot Projects on Street Tech
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Posted by: gareth on Monday, February 25, 2008 - 04:29 PM EST
Check out these incredibly cool solarrollers posted to the MAKE Flickr Pool. This one's built in an old wireless phone chassis. Love the use of gears as wheels.
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Posted by: gareth on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 06:43 PM EST
In last year’s Holiday Gadget Guide, I reviewed the wonderful then-new LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT system. It’s a year later and my admiration for this product has only grown. It has been enthusiastically embraced by robot hobbyists and professionals, educators, kids of all ages, R&D departments looking for quick n’ dirty prototyping components — 1,001 uses. It’s also been embraced by publishers, who’ve followed the product with a felled forest worth of books. Three of may favorites are from No Starch Press (disclosure: O’Reilly, the publisher I work for, distributes No Starch titles).
[Read on...]
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Posted by: gareth on Monday, November 05, 2007 - 12:42 AM EST
  
Christopher Conte is a New York artist and prosthesis engineer. Like his early inspiration, HR Giger, he likes smudging the boundaries between flesh and machinery. His site features some of his impressive sculptures and BEAM robots. Seen above are (top to bottom): His "Singer Insect," made from antique instrument and sewing machine parts, the "Steam-Powered Insect," made from cast bronze and stainless steel components, and a "Microbotic Insect," a vibrobot made from watch parts, a pager motor, and piano wire.
While on his site, make sure to take a look at the gas-powered R/C helicopter he outfitted with four model rocket missiles. A pyromaniacal kid's wet dream!
Thanks, Patti!
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Posted by: gareth on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 09:54 AM EST
From CNet News:
Scientists are making progress on neural devices that can translate the thoughts of a paralyzed person into driving action for a prosthetic device.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Wednesday that they've developed an algorithm for a neural prosthetic aid that can link an individual's brain activity to the person's intentions; and then translate that intention into movement.
Of course, other scientists have already done that, and built prototypes for neural brain-to-machine devices that can work for animals or humans. But each team has taken a different approach to the problem, such as developing algorithms for measuring activity in a specific brain region, or measuring them through EEGs vs. optical imaging.
MIT said that it has developed a unified algorithm that can work within the parameters of these different approaches. Lakshminarayan "Ram" Srinivasan, lead author of a paper on the subject, said MIT's new graphical models are applicable no matter what measurement technique is used.
"We don't need to reinvent a new paradigm for each modality or brain region," he said in a statement.
Still, he said, the algorithm isn't perfect, nor the final solution to solving what is a difficult problem. "Translating an algorithm into a fully functioning clinical device will require a great deal of work, but also represents an intriguing road of scientific and engineering development for the years to come," according to MIT.
MIT will publish a paper on the subject in the October edition of the Journal of Neurophysiology.
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Posted by: gareth on Tuesday, October 02, 2007 - 01:24 AM EST
You may have seen my posts on MAKE: Blog about the Tomy i-Sobot, the US$300 mini-humanoid that looks pretty damn full-featured for the dough. The English version of the i-Sobot site went live today. On it, you can see videos of the bot, how its button-sequence programming works (very similar to Robosapien), read some tech specs, etc. Some interesting tidbits, such as the fact that the bot is 6-1/2" tall, has two gyroscopic sensors, the gearboxes on the 12 servomotors have metal gears, and that the run-time on the included NMH batteries is an hour (which probably means less than that in real-world operation). The bot has three CPU chips for general control, voice recognition, and motor control. No other details on these, as far as I know.
This looks like a decent robot that does the lion's share of what other humanoid bots can do that cost three or four times as much. Can't wait to see what sorts of hacks and mods people come up with.
Thanks, Robert!
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Posted by: gareth on Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 01:20 PM EST
...and you will too when you see him rolling on the floor in hysterics (at least I did). Really funny. Impressive movements, body expressions. The rowdy robot in question is a Speecys SPC-101C. You can find out more about "him" at Robots-Dreams.
Thanks, Robert!
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Posted by: gareth on Monday, September 10, 2007 - 12:15 AM EST
One of my favorite BEAM builders, Harold Ilano, has posted a new project on his site. It's an awesome little bugbot he dubbed Mercury (being a light-seeker that wants to be close to the sun). The design is based on a circuit by BEAM whiz Wilf Rigter, using a single 74AC/HC240 chip to create a reversing photovore (the 74*240 is the same chip family that I used -- the HCT -- in my single-motor walker from my robot book).
I love the way Harold always builds on established BEAM circuits. Here, he's made his photovore with two tactile sensors (Wilf's had one), added a dark-detecting behavior (with two dark-activated LED "predator" eyes), and a stop and go behavior (which makes him seem more organic), all with the single 74*240 control chip.
The Mercury is made from scavenged pieces from a Playstation (including the two motors), a Li-Poly 3.6V cell phone battery, and some misc analog components. Looking at the numerous pics and videos on his site, you might get the impression that this was an easy build, but getting that much "behavior" out of so few components involves a bit of electronic origami. Harold says it took weeks of long hours every day to finally get it all working smoothly. Sheesh. Maybe I don't have the patience to become a real BEAM master. No worries. I'm more than happy to sit at the feet of guys like Wilf and Harold, and marvel at what they do (and write glowingly about it in cyberspace).
More pics after the jump...
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Posted by: gareth on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 03:29 PM EST
"Oh, waiter, there's a bolt in my soup." According to a piece on Spiegel Online, a Munich restaurant has gotten rid of a waitstaff (in a country known for its crappy service) and replaced it with an automated food delivery system. Patrons order by computers at their tables and a rail system that works on gravity (the kitchen is above the restaurant) sends meals directly to the tables. No word on what you do when your food is cold, or you get the wrong item, or have other complaints. I'm guessing ejection seats are involved.
[Via Wired Gadgets]
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