comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) part 1/3
Kevin Dowling
Last-modified: Mon Oct 3 13:09:32 1994
This is part 1 of 3 of the comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ) list. This FAQ addresses commonly asked questions relating to
robotics.
____________________________________________________________________________
This FAQ was compiled and written by Kevin Dowling with numerous
contributions by readers of comp.robotics. Acknowledgements are listed
at the end of the FAQ.
This post, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1993 Kevin
Dowling. Distribution through any means other than regular Usenet
channels must be by permission. The removal of this notice is
forbidden.
This FAQ may be referenced as:
Dowling, Kevin (1994) "Robotics: comp.robotics Frequently Asked
Questions" Usenet news.answers. Available via anonymous ftp from
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/
part1, part2 and part3. 70+ pages.
Please send changes, additions, suggestions and questions to:
Kevin Dowling tel: 412.268.8830
Robotics Institute fax: 412.268.5895
Carnegie Mellon University net: ni...@cmu.edu
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
___________________________________________________________________________
This FAQ's purpose is to provide a resource of information,
pointers, and a guide to robotics related questions. If the
Last-modified date above is more than two months old you should obtain
a new copy. See the Where to Find This FAQ Section.
Table of Contents: [use +++ to search quickly]
Part 1
+++Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives
+++Related FAQ's
+++What is Robotics?
+++Where can I find Robotics on the Net?
+++Robotics Related Organizations
+++Robotics Associations of Many Countries
+++Robot Societies
+++Robotics Publications
+++Conferences and Competitions
Part 2
+++Graduate Programs in Robotics
+++What is the State of the Robot Industry?
+++Other Organizations doing robotics
+++Mobile robot companies
+++Manipulator companies
+++Small Inexpensive Robots
+++Architectures for Robots
Part 3
+++Sensors
+++Actuators
+++Imaging for Robotics
+++Wireless Communication
+++Robot Parts: Suppliers and Sources
+++Hero Robots
+++Puma Manipulators
+++Simulators
+++What is NuTank?
+++Real-Time Operating Systems
+++Survey of Robot Development Environments
+++What is the Miniboard?
+++What is the F1 Board?
+++What is the Bot Board?
+++Microcontrollers
+++Books, Online Information and Videos
+++Acknowledgements
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives
If you haven't done so, new users on the net should read
news.announce.newusers. In particular, the following posts are a good
idea:
-A Primer on How to Work With The Usenet Community
-Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Usenet
-Hints on Writing Style for Usenet
This FAQ is currently posted to comp.answers, news.answers and
comp.robotics. All posts to news.answers are archived and are
available via anonymous FTP and e-mail from the following locations:
The World Wide Web:
WorldWideWeb (W3) is the universe of network-accessible information,
an initiative started at CERN, now with many participants. It has a
body of software, and a set of protocols and conventions. W3 uses
hypertext and multimedia techniques to make the web easy for anyone to
roam, browse, and contribute to. Future evolution of W3 is coordinated
by the W3 Organization. The W3 has grown into an extraordinary means
of finding information about organizations, people, companies,
products and many, many other things. Many browsers have been
developed to search the net. One of the most popular is Mosaic.
If you are not using the Web or browsers: Learn! - it is already a
main source of information on the net and it is very easy to use with
the browsing and surfing tools now available. Within the robotics
community it is already providing robotic tools, images, videos,
teleoperation and observation.
The following is a general introduction to the WWW:
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
If you have electronic mail, then it possible (though slow!) to get W3
information by mail. try sending a mail to list...@info.cern.ch with
a line in it saying just HELP to get back instructions. Your mail
system must have a mail gateway onto internet mail, but that is quite
likely. You might have to take the internet address above and ask your
friendly system manager how to convert it into the equivalent mail
address on the system you are using.
Ways to get the FAQ:
HTML:
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a description language for
the Webpages on the net. It provides links and pointers to
other Web pages as well as formatting the documents.
Jason Almeter at Indiana Univ has converted the c.r. FAQ
to html format. Go to the Table of Contents at:
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/robotics/FAQ/copy.html
OSU has a very useful site for the different FAQs:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html
FTP:
FTP is a way of copying file between networked computers. If
you need help in using or getting started with FTP, send
e-mail to mail-...@rtfm.mit.edu with
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq
as the body of the message.
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq
part1, part2, part3
Internet address: 18.181.0.24
ftp://ftp.uu.net/archive/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq
part1.Z, part2.Z [use uncompress]
Internet address: 137.39.1.9
ftp://nic.switch.ch/info_service/Usenet/periodic-postings
[Check info_service/Usenet/00index for filenames]
Internet address: 130.59.1.40
ftp://ftp.cs.cmu.edu/user/nivek/ftp/robotics-faq
part1, part2
128.2.206.173
E-mail:
Send email to mail-...@rtfm.mit.edu containing these lines:
send usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part1
send usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part2
send usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part3
Archives:
You can find a dozen or more sites in the US, Europe and Japan
that store the FAQ and archives for comp.robotics by using the
Internet search programs, Archie, Gopher or Wais.
One location is:
ftp://wilma.cs.brown.edu/pub/comp.robotics/
In addition to the FTP archive maintained at
wilma.cs.brown.edu, there are a couple of other mechanisms
available:
- The comp.robotics archive at wilma is also available as a WAIS
source (called "comp.robotics.src"), and hence it is also
available to WWW browsers, via the appropriate WAIS gateway.
- Moises Lejter maintains a mailing list of individuals who
would rather receive comp.robotics via Email as a daily digest
of all messages posted to comp.robotics in each 24-hour
period. Anyone interested should send email directly to
<m...@cs.brown.edu>. It's a lot of mail though...
____________________________________________________________________________
+++Related FAQ's
There are a number of newsgroups with topics related to robotics.
These include comp.realtime, comp.ai, sci.electronics, sci.virtual
worlds, and for fabricating there is also rec.metalworking.
Most regularly posted FAQ's can be found at rtfm.mit.edu (rtfm is an
acronym for Read The #$%** Manual)
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/<newsgroup>
where <newsgroup> is the name of a given newsgroup.
Internet address: 18.181.0.24
For sci.virtual-worlds:
ftp://milton.u.washington.edu/public/virtual-worlds
cheap-vr
____________________________________________________________________________
+++What is Robotics?
A reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move
material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various
programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks"
Robot Institute of America, 1979
Obviously this was a committee-written definition. It's rather dry and
uninspiring. Better ones might include:
Force through intelligence.
Where AI meet the real world.
Webster says:
An automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed
to humans or a machine in the form of a human.
-Where did the word robot come from?
The word 'robot' was coined by the Czech playwright Karel Capek
(pronounced "chop'ek") from the Czech word for forced labor or serf.
Capek was reportedly several times a candidate for the Nobel prize for
his works and very influential and prolific as a writer and
playwright. Mercifully, he died before the Gestapo got to him for his
anti-Nazi sympathies in 1938.
The use of the word Robot was introduced into his play R.U.R.
(Rossum's Universal Robots) which opened in Prague in January 1921.
The play was an enormous success and productions soon opened
throughout Europe and the US. R.U.R's theme, in part, was the
dehumanization of man in a technological civilization. You may find it
surprising that the robots were not mechanical in nature but were
created through chemical means. In fact, in an essay written in 1935,
Capek strongly fought that this idea was at all possible and, writing
in the third person, said:
"It is with horror, frankly, that he rejects all
responsibility for the idea that metal contraptions could ever
replace human beings, and that by means of wires they could
awaken something like life, love, or rebellion. He would deem
this dark prospect to be either an overestimation of machines,
or a grave offence against life."
[The Author of Robots Defends Himself - Karl Capek, Lidove
noviny, June 9, 1935, translation: Bean Comrada]
There is some evidence that the word robot was actually coined by
Karl's brother Josef, a writer in his own right. In a short letter,
Capek writes that he asked Josef what he should call the artifical
workers in his new play. Karel suggests Labori, which he thinks too
'bookish' and his brother mutters "then call them Robots" and turns
back to his work, and so from a curt response we have the word robot.
R.U.R is found in most libraries. The most common English translation
is that of P. Selver from the 1920's which is not completely faithful
to the original. A more recent and accurate translation is in a
collection of Capek's writings called Towards the Radical Center
published by Catbird Press in North Haven, CT. tel: 203.230.2391
The term 'robotics' refers to the study and use of robots. It coined
by the late Isaac Asimov, the prolific science and science fiction
writer, in a number of his robot stories. First use was back in the
late 30's or early 40's.
-When did robots, as we know them today, come into existence?
The first industrial modern robots were the Unimates developed by
George Devol and Joe Engleberger in the late 50's and early 60's. The
first patents were by Devol for parts transfer machines. Engleberger
formed Unimation and was the first to market robots. As a result,
Engleberger has been called the 'father of robotics.'
Modern industrial arms have increased in capability and performance
through controller and language development, improved mechanisms,
sensing, and drive systems. In the early to mid 80's the robot
industry grew very fast primarily due to large investments by the
automotive industry. The quick leap into the factory of the future
turned into a plunge when the integration and economic viability of
these efforts proved disastrous. The robot industry has only recently
recovered to mid-80's revenue levels. In the mean time there has been
an enormous shakeout in the robot industry. In the US, for example,
only one US company, Adept, remains in the production industrial robot
arm business. Most of the rest went under, consolidated, or were sold
to European and Japanese companies.
In the research community the first automata were probably Grey
Walter's machina (1940's) and the John's Hopkins beast. Teleoperated
or remote controlled devices had been built even earlier with at least
the first radio controlled vehicles built by Nikola Tesla in the
1890's. Tesla is better known as the inventor of the induction motor,
AC power transmission, and numerous other electrical devices. Tesla
had also envisioned smart mechanisms that were as capable as humans.
An excellent biography of Tesla is Margaret Cheney's Tesla, man out of
time, Published by Prentice-Hall, c1981.
SRI's Shakey navigated highly structured indoor environments in the
late 60's and Moravec's Stanford Cart was the first to attempt natural
outdoor scenes in the late 70's. From that time there has been a
proliferation of work in autonomous driving machines that cruise at
highway speeds and navigate outdoor terrains in commercial
applications.
____________________________________________________________________________
+++Where can I find Robotics on the Net?
Robotics Internet Resource Page:
This is an excellent source of pointers to a wide variety of Robotics
related work on the Internet. This includes files, video, images,
teleoperation etc etc. - Use your favorite browser (Mosaic,
MacWeb etc to check it out)
http://piglet.cs.umass.edu:4321/robotics.html
-----
European Robotics Archive:
ROBOTS is a European based archive dedicated to storage of robotics
related information. It can be accessed via Internet at
ftp:ftp.essex.ac.uk/pub/robots.
There is a rudimentary (ie will be upgraded as soon as manpower
allows!) WWW access mode at http://www.essex.ac.uk. The archive may
also be accessed via Gopher.
____________________________________________________________________________
+++Robotics Related Organizations
There are a number of organizations and societies related to
robotics. Some are related specifically to industry, several to
academia and a number of hobbyist groups. In addition, a number of the
groups, such as the ASME or IEEE, are very large organizations and
robotics is one of many sub-disciplines in their respective fields.
Advanced Robot Technology Research Association (Japan)
Kikai-shinko Bldg
3-5-8 Shiba-Kohen, Minato-ku, Tokyo
tel: (03) 434-0532
fax: (03) 434-0217
Has joint research programs with member companies.
Members are 20 or so Japanese companies including:
Ishikawajima-Harima, Oki Electric, Kawasaki Heavy Industry, Kobe
Steel, Komatsu, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Toshiba, JGC, NEC,
Hitachi, Fanuc, Fujitsu, Fuji, Matshushita Research Institute, Mitsui,
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Yaskawa
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, (ASME)
345 E. 47th Street
New York, NY 10017
Mechanical Engineering magazine, like the IEEE's Spectrum, is
an excellent general publication on aspects of mechanical engineering.
There are often publications on robotics and the ASME sponsors a
number of other publications and conferences that are relevant to
robotics. The ASME also has a BBS service, MechEng, with an email
server. send email to <in...@mecheng.fullfeed.com> with 'send info' in
the body.
Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVS)
1735 North Lynn Street
Suite 950
Arlington, VA 22209-2022
tel: 703.524.6646
fax: 703.524.2303
Promoting worldwide advancement of unmanned vehicle systems.
Membership includes subscription to Unmanned Systems magazine, AUVS
News Bulletin, regional seminars, annual symposium and trade show, and
other opportunities. AUVS also sponsors an annual aerial Robotics
Competition. See Conference announcements for more details.
or see:
http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/robotics/other/auvsarc/auvsarc.html
and ftp://usc.edu/pub/nn_robotics/other/auvsarc/
Also auvsarc...@robotics.usc.edu
Student membership: $15/year
Educational Institutions/Libraries $100/year
Individual: $40/year
Corporate memberships also available.
Center for Autonomous and Man-controlled Robotic and Sensing Systems
Charles Jacobus, CAMRSS director
ERIM
PO Box 8618
Ann Arbor, MI 48107
tel: 313.994.1200 X2457
Member companies include: Ball Aerospace, Coulter Electronics, ERIM,
Fairchild, Ford Aerospace, Geospectra, Grumman, Industrial Technology
Institute, KMS Fusion, Michigan State, UofM.
American Insitute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW
Washington, DC 20024
tel: 202.646.7400
tel: 212.247.6500 (Technical Information Service)
Conferences and publications, several cover automation technologies
for servicing on the ground and in space as well as exploration.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Service Center
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854-4150
tel: 201.981.0060
tel: 800.678.IEEE
A large organization with hundreds of publications including journals,
transactions, Spectrum, sponsoring conferences, workshops and meetings.
IEEE membership is $95 regular ($23 students)
For membership in the IEEE Computer Society, add $22.
$20 for IEEE Expert (Intelligent Systems and their Applications)
$12 for Transactions on Neural Networks
$12 for Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
$15 for Transactions on Robotics and Automation
$19 for Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering
$24 for Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine IntelligenceIEEE
The International Society for Optical Engineering, (SPIE)
P.O.Box 10
Bellingham, Washington 98227-0010.
tel: 206.676.3290 (PST)
fax: 206.647.1445
tlx: 46-7053
net: sp...@mom.spie.org
ftp://mom.spie.org/
SPIE has publications, meetings and conferences in the field
of intelligent robots, mobile robots, teleoperation, machine vision,
etc.
SPIE is a nonprofit society dedicated to advancing engineering
and scientific applications of optical, electro-optical, and
optoelectronic instrumentation, systems and technology. Its members
are scientists, engineers, and users interested in the reduction to
practice of these technologies. SPIE provides the means for
communicating new developments and applications to the scientific,
engineering, and user communities through its publications, symposia,
and short courses.
SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering, has started
up four new listservers, covering robotics, fiber optics, optical
computing and processing, and optomechanical engineering/instrument
design. This brings the total to eight (see list below).
SPIE maintains several e-mail Listserver Groups dedicated to various
technical specialties. These groups are a way for colleagues to share
information, solve problems, and discuss issues related to their
interests. While the topics are tied to the various International
Technical Working Groups of SPIE, membership is not required to join a
listserver group.
Currently available e-mail listservers maintained by SPIE:
Listname Group
-------- -----
info-bios BiOS (Biomedical Optics Society)
info-ei Electronic Imaging
info-holo Holography
info-adopt Adaptive Optics
info-fibers Fiber Optics
info-opcom Optical Computing and Processing
info-robo Robotics
info-optomech Optomechanical and Instrument Design
To subscribe to one of these groups, send an e-mail message to
info-optol...@mom.spie.org
and include the words: subscribe info-listname
in the message body area, where listname matches one of the names
listed above. For a complete set of instructions, send a message to
info-optol...@mom.spie.org with the word HELP in the message
body. For an up-to-date list of SPIE listserver groups at any time,
send the word LISTS to the same address.
The Material Handling Institute
8720 Red Oak Blvd, Suite 201
Charlotte, NC 28217
Primary robotics focus is on AGV's.
National Service Robots Association (NSRA)
900 Victors Way
PO Box 3724
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
tel: 313.994.6088
An organization devoted to robots other than on the factory floor.
Robotics Industry Association (RIA)
(same address as NSRA)
Society of Manufacturing Engineers, (SME)
One SME Drive
PO Box 930
Dearborn, MI 48121
tel: 313.271.1500
Utility/Manufacturer Robot Users group (UMRUG)
Contact: Harry T. Roman
MC: 16-H
Public Service Electric and Gas Company
80 Park Plaza
PO Box 570
Newark, NJ 07101
tel: 201.430.6646
______________________________________________________________________________
+++Robotics Associations of Many Countries
Compilied from a list provided by the British Robot Association.
Alphabatized by English spelling of country.
Australian Robot Association Inc
G.P.O. Box 1527
SYDNEY 2001
New South Wales
Australia
Contact: Mr Michael Kassler
tel: +61-2-959-32-39
fax: +61-2-959-46-32
Osterreichisches Forschungszentrum
Seibersdorf GmbH
Hauptabteilung Fertigungstechnik und Automation
A-2444 SEIBERSDORF
Austria
Contact: Mr Erwin Fugger
tel: +43-2254-80-22-13
fax: +43-2254-80-21-18
SOBRACON - Sociedade Brasileira de Comando
Numerico, Automazacao e Computacao Grafica
Rua General Jardim, 645-7 andar, cjto.72
01223 011 - Sao Paulo, SP
Brazil
Contact: Mr. Arnaldo Pereira Ribeiro
tel: +55-11-256-1192 / 258 3320
fax: +55-11-256-94-96
British Robot Association (BRA)
BRA Aston Science Park
Love Lane
Birmingham B7 4BJ
England
tel: +44 (0)21-628 1745
fax: +44 (0)21-628 1746
Meetings, newsletters, information, contacts, sponsor of several
events in the UK. Individual and Student rate is 60 pounds UK.
"Robot" Interindustry Research and Production Association
(MNTK "Robot")
Izmailovskaya sq.,7
MOSCOW - Russia
CIS
Contact: Mr. Vladimir P Stepanov
tel: +7-095-367-85-36
fax: +7-095-367-88-81
China Society of Industrial
Automation & Automated Industries
8, 7F, Tun Hwa N. Rd.
TAIPEI - China
Contact: Mr. Chen, Chen-Chang
tel: +886-2-751-34-68
fax: +886-2-781-77-90
Danish Industrial Robot Association (DIRA)
Teknologiparken
DK-8000 AARHUS C
Denmark
Contact: Mr. John Nielsen
tel: +45-86-14-24-00
fax: +45-86-14-43-55
Robotics Society in Finland
c/o Suomen Automaation Tuki Oy
Asemapaallikonk. 12 C
FIN-00520 HELSINKI
Finland
tel: +358-0-146-1644
fax: +358-0-146-1650
Contact: Mr. Hannu Lehtinen
e-mail: Hannu.L...@vtt.fi
Fachgemeinschaft MHI im VDMA
P.O. Box 71 08 64
D-6000 FRANKFURT (MAIN) 71
Germany
Contact: Mr. Berndt Knoerr
tel: +49-69-66-03-466
fax: +49-69-66-03-459
IPA
Nobelstrasse 12
D-7000 STUTTGART 80
Germany
Contact: Mr Rolf D Schraft
tel:+49-711-970-12-00
fax: +49-711-970-13-99
Association Francaise de Robotique
Industrielle (AFRI)
Tour 66
4, Place Jussieu
F-75252 PARIS CEDEX 05
France
Contact: Mr. Arnauld Laffaille
tel: +33-1-44-27-62-12
fax: +33-1-44-27-62-14
Hungarian Robotics Association
c/o Tungsram T.H. Co.Ltd.
Centre of Robotics and Automation
H-1340 Budapest
IV., Vaci ut 77
Hungary
Contact: Dr. Jozsef K. Tar
tel: +36-1-169-6144
fax: +36-1-169-6144
Government of India
Ministry of Science & Technology
Dept. of Science & Technology
Technology Bhavan
New Mehrauli Road
New Delhi-110 016
India
Contact: Mr. A.N.N. Murthy, Director
tel: +91-11-662-260, 654-793
fax: +91-11-616-2418
SIRI - Associazione Italiana di Robotica
c/o ETAS Periodici
Via Mecenate 91
I-20138 MILANO
Italy
Contact: Mr Daniele Fabrizi
tel: +39-2-580-842-24
fax: +39-2-554-003-88
Japan Industrial Robot Association
c/o Kikaishinko Bldg
3-5-8, Shibakoen, Minato-Ku
TOKYO
Japan
Contact: Mr Kanji Yonemoto
tel: +81-3-3434-2919
fax: +81-3-3578-1404
KIST - Korea Institute of Science and Technology
P.O. Box 131, Cheongryang
Seoul
Korea
Contact: Mr. Chun Sik-lee
tel: +82-2-967-3505, 963-4497
fax: +82-2-969-1763
Meininger Automation bv
P.O. Box 743
NL-2280 AS RIJSWIJK
Netherlands
Contact: Mr Jack B Eijlers
tel: +31-70-340-17-80
fax: +31-70-340-1602
Federation of Norwegian Engineering Industries (TBL)
Box 7072 - H
N-0306 OSLO 3
Norway
Contact: Mr Johan Ulleland
tel: +47-2-46-58-20
fax: +47-2-46-18-38
Polish Federation of Engineering Associations (NOT)
Czackiego Str 3/5
PL-00950 WARSZAWA
Poland
Contact: Mr. Kazimierz Wawrzyniak
tel: +48-22-26-87-31
fax: +48-22-27-29-49
Singapore Industrial Automation Association (SIAA)
151 Chin Swee Road
#03-13 Manhattan House
SINGAPORE 0316
Singapore
Contact: Mr Stephen Teng
tel: +65-734-69-11
fax: +65-235-57-21
MVVZ Robot
Nam. Legionarov 3
CZ-080 01 PRESOV
Slovakia
Contact: Mr Vladimir Cop
tel: +42-91-235-77
fax: +42-91-231-95
"J. Stefan" Institute
Jamova 39
61000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
Contact: Mr Jadran Lenarcic
tel: +38-61-159-199
fax: +38-61-161-029, 273-677
Asociacion Espanola de Robotica
Rambla de Catalunya 70, 3r 2a
E-08007 BARCELONA
Spain
Contact: Mr Luis Basanez
tel: +34-3-215-57-60
fax: +34-3-215-23-07
Swedish Industrial Robot Association (SWIRA)
Box 5506
S-114 85 STOCKHOLM
Sweden
Contact: Mr Thomas Hardenby
tel: +46-8-783-80-00
fax: +46-8-660-33-78
Schweizerische Gesellschaft fur
Automatik, Arbeitsgruppe Robotik
Postgasse 17
CH-3011 BERN
Switzerland
Contact: Mr Charles Giroud
tel: +41-31-21-22-51
fax: +41-31-21-12-50
British Robot Association (BRA)
Aston Science Park, Love Lane
Aston Triangle
BIRMINGHAM B7 4BJ
United Kingdom
Contact: Mr. Donald Pitt
tel: +44-21-628-17-45
fax: +44-21-628-17-46
Robotic Industries Assoc (RIA)
P.O. Box 3724
ANN ARBOR, MI 48106
USA
Contact: Mr. Donald A. Vincent
tel: 1-313-994-6088
fax: 1-313-994-3338
Secretariat of IFR
c/o Sveriges Verkstadsindustrier
Box 5506
S-114 85 STOCKHOLM
Swden
Contact: Mr Lennart Djupmark
Mrs Kerstin Teglof Delgado
tel: +46-8-783-80-00 or
+46-8-783-82-08
fax: +46-8-660-33-78
__________________________________________________________________________
+++Robot Societies
The original computer club in Silicon Valley was the Homebrew computer
club, out of which evolved a major portion of the personal computer
industry. In that spirit, if not the hope for history repeating
itself, a number of robotics societies and clubs have sprung up.
[This list as posted had several typos - if you find additional error
please let me know - nivek]
Atlanta Hobby Robotics Association
P.O. Box 2050
Stone Mountain, GA 30086
tel: 404.972.7082
fax: 404.979.3660,,,11
net: <jgut...@robot4u.atl.ga.us>
bbs: Robots R4U 404.978.7300 - 300-14400 - 8N1 - 24hrs - 7days
Supporting Hobby Robot activity in Atlanta and more. Source of "Robot
Hobby; The Complete Manual, for Individuals and Clubs" See Books Section.
The Robot Group
PO Box 164334
Austin, TX 78716
tel: 512.794.9105
net: <robot...@cs.uteaxs.edu>
gopher://gopher.cs.utexas.edu/Other Interesting Gophers/Robogopher
Connecticut Robotics Society
P.O. Box 127
Canaan CT 06018
tel: 203.824.0542
The Dallas Personal Robotics Group
P.O. Box 1626
Hurst, TX 76053
LA Area Robotics and Automation Group
<la-r...@cad.ucla.edu>
Los Angeles, CA
If you wish to subscribe to the <la-ragroup> mailing list,
please send a message to:
list...@cad.ucla.edu
with a blank Subject: line and the body of the message reading:
subscribe la-ragroup <First Name> <Last Name>
[David Lee e-mail: dl...@cs.ucla.edu]
Portland Area Robotics Society (PARTS)
821 SW 14th
Troutdale, OR 97060
tel: 503.666.5907.
net: mar...@agora.rdrop.com
contact: Marvin Green
The purpose of the Portland Area Robotics Society is to
support and promote the development of personal robotics, and to
facilitate the exchange of information between robot enthusiasts.
P.A.R.T.S will help provide practical and technical assistance to its
members, by promoting experimentation, construction, discussions,
seminars, exhibitions, and contests, in the field of hobby robotics.
Membership to P.A.R.T.S shall be open to all persons, who are
interested in learning more about robotics, and furthering the
objectives of the club. To get the most from P.A.R.T.S, active
participation is wholeheartedly encouraged. After all, you only get
out of it what you put into it. Membership is $20 a year and includes
the PARTS newsletter.
PARTS also has a newsletter that focuses on robotics for the
hobbyist. Each issue contains valuable information on electronics,
microcontrollers, sensors, hardware construction and software for
robotics. You can obtain a set of twelve newsletters for only $9.95.
This includes shipping and handling.
Robot Society of Southern CA
10471 S. Brookhurst
Anaheim, CA 92804
tel: 714.535.8161
Robotics Club of Maryland
Computer Science Dept.
A.V. Williams Bldg. (115)
University of Maryland
College Park, Md. 20742-3255
contact: Stephen Klueter, President
net: <ste...@Glue.umd.edu>
The Robotics Society of America
PO Box 1205
Danville, CA 94526-1205
tel:415.550.0588
fax: 415.550.0411
bbs: 415.648.6427 (supports 14.4Kb)
net: <bsm...@sfrsa.com>
Subscription to SFRSA "Magazine" The normal subscription rate
will be $25 for 12 monthly issues.
Seattle Robotics Society
[Apparently moved or disappeared.]
Triangle Amateur Robotics Club
P.O. Box 17523
Raleigh, NC 27619
tel: 919.782.8703
net: sas...@unx.sas.com (Rodney Radford)
tel: 919.677.8001 x7703
hme: 919.469.9359
Meets first Monday of every month at 7:30pm on NCSU campus (110 Clark Lab)
A related group:
MicroMechanics Information Clearinghouse
Requests to join list are sent to: <mems-r...@isi.edu>
FTP site:
ftp://mems.isi.edu/
directories: /pub/prm, /pub/prospero, /pub/mems, /pub/papers
WWW-URL: http://mems.isi.edu/mems
Robot related performance art:
-----------------------------
Survival Research Laboratories
1458-C San Bruno Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94110
tel/fax: 415.641.8065
contact: SRL director Mark Pauline
net: <ma...@SRL.org>
Survival Research Laboratories is a not-for-profit machine-
performance art group conceived of and founded by Mark Pauline in
November 1978. Since its inception SRL has operated as an
organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the
techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military
away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or
warfare. Since 1979, SRL has staged over 45 mechanized presentations
in the United States and Europe. Each performance consists of a
unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and
special effects devices, employed in developing themes of
socio-political satire. Humans are present only as audience or
operators.
Survival Research Laboratories is now available for email and
time-restricted Gopher and anonymous FTP access from 0000-0600 PST
daily. [NOTE TIME RESTRICTION!]: ftp://srl.org/pub/SRLImageBank and
ftp://srl.org/pub/SRLInfo The directory holds scanned-in photographs
and video images of SRL shows in GIF format; SRLInfo has news. Image
file sizes range from 70 to 250 Kbytes, but our link speed is only
9600 baud; please be patient. Always select BINARY mode before FTP
file transfers. Filenames can be specified in upper or lower case.
Comments or questions to sup...@srl.org.
Joel Plutchak has a WWW mirror site for SRL at:
http://lager.geo.brown.edu:8080/pub/srl/
ftp://lager.geo.brown.edu
There are two SRL tapes carried by Media Magic - a company that has all
sorts of great books, programs, CD-ROMs, laser disks, videos, etc dealing
with computers in science and art. The tapes are:
#v112a The Pleasures Of Unihibited Excess ($30) and
#v112b The Will To Provoke ($25)
Media Magic
P.O. Box 598
Nicasio, CA 94946
tel: 415.662.2426 or orders
tel: 800.882.8284
__________________________________________________________________________
+++Robotics Publications
There are a number of academic journals and trade magazines devoted to
robotics. There are no magazines currently devoted to the hobbyist or
designer of robotic mechanisms. In the 1980's Robotics Engineering
(nee Robotics Age) lasted for 7-8 years but folded. The one difficulty
I noted as a subscriber was that the magazine attempted to address the
hobbyist, the curious and those whose work was devoted to robotics
without successfully catering to all groups.
This list of periodical covers the academic journals, the trade
magazines devoted to both robotics and relevant sub-areas, and the
lone newsletter for hobbyists.
Advanced Robotics (in English)
The International Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan.
ISSN 0169-1864
Editor-in-Chief, Robotics Society of Japan, 6FL. Bunkyo-Shogaku Bldg.,
1-15-4, Hongu, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan.
Subscriptions and orders:
VSP, PO. Box 346, 3700 AH Zeist, The Netherlands.
Bimonthly, DM525 (1993 price).
Automation in Construction
Publisher: Elsevier Science Publisher B. V., Amsterdam.
Desk Editor: Erik de Vries
The Editor of the journal is
Dr. T. Michael Knasel
10324 Lake Avenue
Cleveland, OH 441102-1239.
fax: 216.651.5136.
Autonomous Robots
ISSN 0929-5593
Kluwer Academic Publishers
Journal Dept
PO Box 358, Accord Station
Hingham, MA 02018-0358
tel: 617.871.6600
fax: 617.871.6528
subscription: $50/individual
Vol 1, 1994 (2 issues)
Editor-in-chief
George Bekey <be...@robotics.usc.edu>
Industrial Robot
ISSN 0143-991X
Quarterly, $145/year
MCB University Press Ltd.
62 Toller Lane
Bradford, West Yorkshire
England, BD8 9BY
tel: (44) 274 499821,
fax: (44) 274 547143
--in the US
MCB University Press Ltd.
PO Box 10812
Birmingham, AL 35201-0812
tel: 1-800-633-4931 (1-205-995-1567),
fax: 1-205-995-1588
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
The IEEE has a formidable array of journals, transactions and
magazines. Here are a few that are relevant to robotics work:
IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
IEEE Control Systems Magazine
IEEE Computer Magazine
IEEN Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
Cost: Have to join IEEE and then subscribe. Student rates are
much less expensive than non-student rates.
International Journal of Robotics and Automation
Published 4 times annually. ISSN 0826-8185
ACTA Press, PO Box 354, CH-8053, Zurich, Switzerland or ACTA
Press, PO Box 2481, Anaheim, CA 92814.
Subscriptions: $165 US or 313.50 SFr. ($12 US or 22.80 SFr postage and
handling). A special rate is available to members of IASTED.
International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR)
MIT Press
28 Carleton Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
Cost: $50/year to individuals
Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems
Three issues per volume, $58.50 per volume (individual)
Kluwer Academic Publishers Group
PO Box 322,
3300 AH Dordrecht,
The Netherlands
--in the US:
PO Box 358
Accord Station,
Hingham, MA 02018-0358
Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan
The table of contents (TOC) are posted to comp.research.japan
and comp.robotics as they are available, although there is
some delay. All of the TOC that we've done for this and other
Japanese CS journals are archived for anonymous FTP at
ftp://cs.arizona.edu/japan/table.contents/robotics.TOC/jrsj.TOC
Journal of Robotic Systems
G. Beni and S. Hackwood, editors
College of Engineering
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521-0425
Publisher:
Interscience Division
Professional, Reference, and Trade Group
John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
605 Third Ave.
New York, NY 10158
Mechatronics (Mechanics, Electronics, Control)
Editors-in-Chief:
Dr. R. W. Daniel
Department of Engineering Science,
University of Oxford,
Parks Road,
Oxford, OX1-3PJ
United Kingdom:
tel: +44-865-273153
fax: +44-865-273153
Professor J. R. Hewit
Engineering Design Institute
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Technology, Loughborough
Leicestershire, LE11 3TU
UNITED KINGDOM
tel: +44-509-222936
fax: +44-509-268103)
Published by Pergamon Press Ltd, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford
OX3 0BW UK. 1993 subscription rates: 193 pounds Sterling (US
$312) Personal subscription rates for those whose library
subscribes at a regular rate are available on request.
Subscription rates for Japan are available on request.
Robot (Japanese)
Industrial Robots and Application Systems
published bimonthly
Japan Industrial Robot Association (JIRA)
Kikai-Shinko Building
3-5-8, Shiba-Kohen,
Mina To-ku
Tokyo, Japan
tel: (03) 3434-2919
fax: (03) 3578-1404
Robot Explorer
'The newsletter of motile systems'
ISSN: 1060-4375
Appropriate Solutions
145 Grove Street
PO Box 458
Peterborough, NH 03458-0458
tel: 603.924.6079
fax: 603.924.9441
net: ap...@world.std.com
$14.95/year in the US, $29.95 to the rest of the world.
Robotica
International Journal of Information, Education and Research
in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
Quarterly publication, US $179 per year!
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building
Shaftesbury Road,
Cambridge CB2 2RU (UK)
in the US:
Cambridge University Press
Journals Department
40 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011-4211
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
-- In Europe --
Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.
Journals Department
PO Box 211, 100 AE Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Editors in Chief:
Prof. F.C.A. Groen
University of Amsterdam
Faculty of Mathematics and CS
Dept. of Computer Systems
Kruislaan 403
1098 SJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
net: <gr...@fwi.uva.nl>
-- In the US and Canada --
Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc.
Journal Information Center
655 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10010
Editor in Chief
Prof. T.C. Henderson
University of Utah
Dept. of Computer Science
3160 Merrill Engineering Bldg.
Salt Lake City, UT 84112 USA
net: <t...@cs.utah.edu>
Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing
Pergamon Press, ISSN 0736-5845
Editorial Office: Dr. Andre Sharon, Associate Editor, dam...@mit.edu
Subscriptions and orders:
Elsevier Science Inc, 660 White Plains Road, Tarrytown,
NY 10591-5153, USA
or Elsevier Science Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane,
Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1GB, UK.
Robotics Today
Published by:
Society of Manufacturing Engineers
One SME Drive
PO Box 930
Dearborn, MI 48121
tel: 313.271.1500
Robotics World
"The end-user's magazine of flexible automation"
Published quarterly
Communication Channels
6255 Barfield Road
Atlanta, GA 30328
tel: 404.256.9800
They also publish the Robotics World Directory $49.95
Useful and relevant trade magazines:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Usually free, mostly ads or industry news. Many articles
written by advertisers. Great sources of product information. Our lab
at CMU receives 50-60 trade magazines and journals per month and while
no one reads all of the articles, pointers are passed on to people
around the lab. This keeps the group abreast of new products and
developments.
Advanced Imaging
445 Broad Hollow Rd.
Melville, NY 11747
tel: 516.845.2700
fax: 516.845.2797
Subscription free to qualified professionals, $50/yr otherwise.
ComputerCraft
CQ Communications
76 N. Broadway
Hicksville, NY 11801
tel: 516.681.2922
fax: 516.681.2926
cost: $18.97/yr
ISSN: 1055-5072
Computer Applications Journal
Circuit Cellar Inc.
4 Park St. Suite 20
Vernon, CT 06066
Subscriptions: P.O. Box 7694
Riverton, NJ 08077
tel: 203.875.2751
cost: $21.95/yr
ISSN: 0896-8985
Excellent for those building hardware, programming
microcontrollers, etc. Also a very good source for companies
who have products in these areas.
Design News
Cahners Publishing Co.
275 Washington Street
Newton, MA. 02158
News and Applications for design engineers.
Cost: Free to qualified recipients; otherwise - ?
EE Times
CMP Publications, Inc.
600 Community Drive
Manhasset, NY 11030
Cost: Free to qualified recipients (in the U.S.); otherwise -
$159/yr (U.S. & Foreign)
Electronic Design
Penton Publishing Inc
1100 Superior Ave
Cleveland, OH 44114-2543
611 Route #46 West
Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604
tel: 201.393.6060
fax: 201.393.0204
cost: $95.00/yr (free if qualified)
ISSN: 0013-4872
Electronics Now (formerly Radio Electronics)
Gernsback Publications Inc
Subscription Dept
Box 55115
Boulder, CO 80321-5115
500-B Bi-County Boulevard
Farmingdale, NY 11735
tel: 516.293.3000
cost: $19.97/yr
ISSN: 0033-7862
Embedded Systems Programming
Miller Freeman
600 Harrison St.
San Francisco, CA 94107
tel: 800.829.5537 (customer service)
tel: 415.905.2200
bbs: 415.905.2689.
$49.95 for 12 issues
Laser Focus World
10 Tara Blvd., Fifth Floor (Editorial Office)
Nashua, NH 03062
tel: 603.891.0123
fax: 603.891.0574
internet: lfw...@pinet.aip.org
Subscription Inquiries: 918.831.9424
Machine Design
Penton Publishing Inc.
1100 Superior Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44114-2543
tel: 216.696.7000
fax: 216.621.8469
Cost: Free to qualified recipients in the U.S.; otherwise -
$100.00/yr in U.S.; $140/yr in Canada; $160/yr - all other
Foreign
Midnight Engineering 'Journal of Personal Product Development'
Published by William E Gates, [No, not him...]
111 E. Drake Road
Suite 7041
Fort Collins, CO 80525
tel: 303.225.1410
fax: 303.225.1075
One-year (6 issues) $24, canada and mexico $29, other foreign
$49 (airmail) Perhaps marginal for this list but focus is on
"resources and insight for the entrepreneurial engineer"
Issues and articles on developing hardware, software,
micro-controllers, product development, marketing, patenting
issues, startups, etc etc. Excellent if you need this info.
Modern Materials Handling
44 Cook Street
Denver, CO 80206-5800
tel: 303.388.4511
Trade magazine covering productivity solutions for
manufacturing, warehousing and distribution. Typically
includes articles on factory automation, etc. Cost: Free to
qualified recipients; otherwise - $75 for US subscribers.
Motion Control
Tower Media Corp.
800 Roosevelt Rd.
Bldg. C, Suite 206
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
Trade magazine for Motion Control applications and Technology.
Cost: Free to qualified recipients in the U.S.; otherwise -
$50/yr in U.S. $90/yr foreign subscriptions.
NASA Tech Briefs
Associated Business Publications Co., Ltd.
41 E. 42nd St.
New York, NY 10017-5391
Contains useful technology transfer information which very
often includes robotics research performed at various NASA
centers. Cost: Free to qualified recipients; otherwise -
$75.00/yr in the U.S., $150.00/yr for Foreign subscriptions
Nuts and Volts
430 Princeland Court
Corona, CA 91719
tel: 800.783.4624
Electronics classifieds and ads. Lots of devices and products
relevant for robot builders. Often features articles on robot
building as well by Karl Lunt.
Sensors
Helmers Publishing
174 Concord Street
PO Box 874
Peterborough, NH 03458-0874
tel: 603.924.9631
Trade magazine devoted to sensing devices. Publishes directory.
Cost: Free to qualified subscribers, $55/yr otherwise
[To add]
GPS World (Global Positioning System related)
RF Design
Sea Technology
Laser Focus
POB (surveying profession)
Broadcast Engineering (TV and radio engineering)
Other sources:
--------------
Thomas Register
Thomas Publishing Company
One Penn Plaza
New York, NY 10117-0139
tel: 212.695.0500
fax: 212.290.7362
About $250 for a 20-odd volume encyclopedia of US industry.
Concentration on heavier industries - but still an amazing source for
information. No company or lab building products should be without
one. Available on CD-ROM for a much higher price.
EEM - The 'Thomas Register' for Electrical engineers.
[Address to add]
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Conferences and Competitions
There are a wide variety and number of conferences related to robotics
and automation. Some are focused on industrial applications, many are
researchy in nature and most are a mixture of both. Proceedings should
be available in most good libraries or by interlibrary loan. The
conference announcements are listed chronologically.
Summary list of conferences:
----------------------------
SPIE Mobile Robots IX
Telemanipulator and Telepresence Technologies
Sensor Fusion [and several other SPIE conferences]
Boston, MA
October 3-4, 1994
AMS'94 Autonomous Mobile Systems
University of Stuttgart, Germany
Oct 13-14 1994
International Dedicated Conference on Robotics, Motion and Machine Vision
Aachen, Germany
October 31-November 4 1994
ICARCV'94 Third International Conference on Automation, Robotics and
Computer Vision.
Singapore
November 8-11 1994
MVA'94: IAPR Workshop on Machine Vision Applications
Kawasaki, Japan
December 13-15, 1994
ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems
Monterey, California
February 5-10, 1995
IJCAI-95
Palais de Congres, Montreal
August 20-25 1995.
Practice and Future of Autonomous Agents
ASI-AA-95, Centro Stefano Franscini Monte Verita, Ticino,
Switzerland
September 23 - October 1, 1995
CVRMed'95 First International Conference on
Computer Vision, Virtual Reality and Robotics in Medicine,
Nice, FRANCE
April 3-5, 1995
Symposium on Autonomous Systems in Mine Countermeasures
U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
April 4-7, 1995
=---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPIE's International Symposium on
Photonic Sensors & Controls for Commercial Applications
Part of SPIE's Photonics East
31 Oct. - 4 Nov. 1994
Hynes Convention Center
Boston, Massachusetts USA
Contents
========
1.0 Abstract and Manuscript Due Dates
2.0 Robotics Related Conferences
3.0 Program Tracks
4.0 General Information
5.0 Submission of Abstracts
6.0 How to Receive More Information
1.0 ABSTRACT AND MANUSCRIPT DUE DATES
=====================================
* Abstract Due Date: 4 April 1994
Late abstract submissions may be considered, subject to
program time availability and chair's approval.
* Manuscript Due Date: 3 October 1994 or 8 August 1994+
+ Proceedings will be available on site. Abstract and
manuscript due dates must be strictly observed.
2.0 ROBOTICS RELATED CONFERENCES
================================
----------------------------------------------------------
Machine Vision and Robotic Applications in Greenhouses and
Livestock Facilities
----------------------------------------------------------
Conference Chair: Peter P. Ling, Rutgers Univ.
---------------------------------------------
Telemanipulator and Telepresence Technologies
---------------------------------------------
Conference Chair: Hari Das, Jet Propulsion Lab.
Program Committee: Bernard D. Adelstein, NASA Ames Research Ctr.;
Robert J. Anderson, Sandia National Labs.; Thomas P. Caudell,
Univ. of New Mexico; Janez Funda, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research
Ctr.; Blake Hannaford, Univ. of Washington; Won Soo Kim, Jet
Propulsion Lab.; James M. Manyika, Oxford Univ. (UK); Thomas B.
Sheridan, Man-Machine Systems Lab./MIT
Cosponsoring organization: IEEE NNC-Virtual Reality Technical
Committee
--------------------------------------------------------
Intelligent Robots and Computer Vision XIII: Algorithms,
Techniques, Active Vision, Materials Handling*
--------------------------------------------------------
Conference Chair: David P. Casasent, Carnegie Mellon Univ.
Cochair: Ernest L. Hall, Univ. of Cincinnati
Program Committee: Mongi A. Abidi, Univ. of Tennessee/Knoxville;
Rolf-Jurgen Ahlers, Rauschenberger Metallwaren GmbH (FRG); Bruce
G. Batchelor, Univ. of Wales College Cardiff (UK); Madan M.
Gupta, Univ. of Saskatchewan (Canada); Ian Horswill, AI Lab./MIT;
Sunanda Mitra, Texas Tech Univ.; Prasanna G. Mulgaonkar, SRI
International; Daniel Raviv, Florida Atlantic Univ.; Ellen M.
Reid, Motorola; Steven K. Rogers, Air Force Institute of
Technology; Juha Roning, Univ. of Oulu (Finland); Scott A.
Starks, Univ. of Texas/El Paso; M. A. Taalebinezhaad, Univ. Laval
(Canada); Hemant D. Tagare, Yale Univ.; Andrew K. C. Wong, Univ.
of Waterloo (Canada)
* Manuscript Due Date: 8 August 1994
Proceedings will be available at the meeting.
------------------
Sensor Fusion VII*
------------------
Conference Chair: Paul S. Schenker, Jet Propulsion Lab.
Program Committee: Terrance E. Boult, Columbia Univ.; Su-Shing
Chen, Univ. of North Carolina/Charlotte; David B. Cooper, Brown
Univ.; Gregory D. Hager, Yale Univ.; Martin Herman, National
Institute of Standards and Technology; Terrance L. Huntsberger,
Univ. of South Carolina; Ren C. Luo, North Carolina State Univ.;
James M. Manyika, Oxford Univ. (UK); Suresh B. Marapane, Univ. of
Tennessee/Knoxville; Gerard T. McKee, Univ. of Reading (UK);
Evangelos E. Milios, York Univ. (Canada); Robin R. Murphy,
Colorado School of Mines; Bobby S. Y. Rao, Univ. of
California/Berkeley; Michael Seibert, Lincoln Lab./MIT; W. Brent
Seales, Univ. of Kentucky; Charles V. Stewart, Rennselaer
Polytechnic Institute; Stelios C. A. Thomopoulos, The
Pennsylvania State Univ.
* Manuscript Due Date: 8 August 1994
Proceedings will be available at the meeting.
----------------
Mobile Robots IX
----------------
Conference Chairs: William J. Wolfe, Univ. of Colorado/Denver;
Wendell H. Chun, Martin Marietta Astronautics Group
Program Committee: Ronald C. Arkin, Georgia Institute of
Technology; David J. Braunegg, MITRE Corp.; David P. Casasent,
Carnegie Mellon Univ.; Douglas W. Gage, Naval Command Control and
Ocean Surveillance Ctr.; Surender K. Kenue, General Motors
Research and Environmental Staff; William Y. Lim, Grumman Corp.;
Bijan G. Mobasseri, Villanova Univ.; David W. Parish, Omnitech
Robotics, Inc.
-------------------
Vision Geometry III
-------------------
Conference Chairs: Robert A. Melter, Long Island Univ.; Angela Y.
Wu, The American Univ.
Program Committee: Ari Gross, CUNY/Queens College and Columbia
Univ.; T. Yung Kong, CUNY/Queens College; Jack Koplowitz,
Clarkson Univ.; David Mount, Univ. of Maryland/College Park; Ivan
Stojmenovic, Univ. of Ottawa (Canada)
3.0 PROGRAM TRACKS
==================
Including those listed above, twenty-two conferences are
scheduled for this symposium. The conferences are organized into
five program tracks:
* Photonic Devices and Materials
* Smart Highways
* Agriculture, Forestry & Biological Processing
* Automated Inspection
* Intelligent Robots & Computer Vision
4.0 GENERAL INFORMATION
=======================
* Advance Technical Program
The comprehensive Advance Technical Program for this symposium
will list conferences, paper titles and authors in order of
presentation, education program schedule including course
descriptions and instructor biographies, and an outline of all
planned special events. Call SPIE at 206/676-3290 (Pacific Time),
or e-mail sp...@mom.spie.org to request that a copy be sent to you
when it becomes available in July 1994.
* Hotel Accommodations
SPIE will be reserving rooms at discounted rates at several
hotels near the Hynes Convention Center for this symposium.
Meeting headquarters hotel will be The Sheraton Boston Hotel and
Towers. In order to book rooms at hotels offering the special
symposium rates, you will need to make these arrangements through
the Boston Housing Bureau. By calling hotels directly, you will
not receive the special symposium rates. Information about how
to make your hotel accommodation reservations will be included in
the Advance Program. Hotel rates are expected to range from $90-
$145.
* Registration
Registration fees for conferences and short courses, a
registration form, technical and general information for SPIE's
Boston Symposium & Exposition: Photonic Sensors and Controls for
Commercial Applications will be available in the Advance Program.
* How to exhibit
Companies interested in exhibiting at this symposium may contact
Sue Davis, Director of Conferences and Exhibits, at 503/663-1284,
or Diane Robinson, Exhibits Manager, at SPIE headquarters, phone
206/676-3290, fax 206/647-1445, e-mail di...@mom.spie.org.
5.0 SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS
===========================
Abstract Due Date: 4 April 1994
* Send abstract via E-mail to
abst...@mom.spie.org (ASCII format);
* or fax one copy to SPIE at 206/647-1445;
* or mail four copies to:
Photonics East
SPIE, P.O. Box 10
Bellingham, WA 98227-0010
Shipping address:
1000 20th St.
Bellingham, WA 98225
Telephone 206/676-3290
Telex 46-7053
Anonymous FTP: mom.spie.org
E-mail: sp...@mom.spie.org
-------------------------
Conditions for Acceptance
-------------------------
* Authors are expected to secure travel and accommodation
funding, independent of SPIE, through their sponsoring
organizations before submitting abstracts.
* Only original material should be submitted.
* Commercial papers, descriptions of papers, with no research
content, and papers where supporting data or a technical
description cannot be given for proprietary reasons will not
be accepted for presentation in this symposium.
* Abstracts should contain enough detail to clearly convey the
approach and the results of the research.
* Government and company clearance to present and publish
should be final at the time of submittal.
* Applicants will be notified of acceptance by 20 June 1994.
Your abstract should include the following:
I. ABSTRACT TITLE
II. AUTHOR LISTING (principal author first)
Full names and affiliations.
III. CORRESPONDENCE FOR EACH AUTHOR
Mailing address, telephone, telefax, e-mail address.
IV. SUBMIT TO: (Conference Title) (Conference Chair)
at Photonic Sensors
V. PRESENTATION
Indicate your preference for "Oral Presentation" or "Poster
Presentation." Placement subject to chairs' discretion.
VI. ABSTRACT TEXT
250 words.
VII. BRIEF BIOGRAPHY (principal author only)
50 to 100 words.
* Paper Review
To assure a high quality conference, all abstracts and
Proceedings papers will be reviewed by the Conference Chairs for
technical merit and content.
* Proceedings of These Meetings
These meetings will result in published Proceedings that can be
ordered through the Advance Program. Manuscripts are required of
all accepted applicants and must be submitted in English by 8
August 1994 or 3 October 1994. Copyright to the manuscript is
expected to be released for publication in the conference
Proceedings. Note: If an author does not attend the meeting and
make a presentation, the chair may opt not to publish the
author's manuscript in the conference proceedings. Proceedings
papers are indexed in leading scientific databases including
INSPEC, Compendex Plus, Physics Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts,
International Aerospace Abstracts, and Index to Scientific and
Technical Proceedings.
* Publishing Policy
Manuscript due dates must be strictly observed. Whether the
Proceedings volume will be published before or after the meeting,
late manuscripts run the risk of not being published. The
objective of this policy is to better serve the conference
participants and the technical community at large. Your
cooperation in supporting this objective will be appreciated by
all.
* Chair/Author Benefits
Chairs/authors/co-authors are accorded a reduced-rate
registration fee. Included with fee payment are a copy of the
Proceedings in which the participant's role or paper appears, a
complimentary one-year nonvoting membership in SPIE (if never
before a member), and other special benefits.
* Poster Presentation
Interactive poster sessions will be scheduled. All conference
chairs encourage authors to contribute papers with technical
content that lends itself well to the poster format. Please
indicate your preference on the abstract.
* Oral Presentation
Each author is generally allowed 15 minutes plus a five-minute
discussion period. SPIE will provide the following media
equipment free of charge: 35 mm carousel slide projectors,
overhead projectors, electric pointers, and video equipment
(please give at least two weeks advance notice).
6.0 HOW TO RECEIVE MORE INFORMATION
===================================
The complete text of the printed announcement and call for papers
for Photonic Sensors & Controls for Commercial Applications is
available via anonymous FTP at:
mom.spie.org meetings/calls/sensors_controls.txt
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcement and Call for Papers
10th Workshop on Autonomous Mobile Systems
AMS'94
On October 13th and 14th 1994 at the University Stuttgart, Germany
In its 10-year anniversary, the workshop on "Autonomous Mobile Systems"
will be organized by the Institute of Parallel and Distributed High
Performance Systems at the Univ. Stuttgart, Germany. Please send an
abstract of 1-2 pages of your paper proposal to the address below.
All papers accepted will be published in the "Informatik aktuell" series
of Springer-Verlag. The workshop languages will be German and English.
Topics:
- Autonomous and Cooperative Systems
- Cooperation and Coordination
- Autonomous System in Road Traffic
- Image Processing for Mobile Systems
- Techniques for Modeling and Simulation
- Programming Techniques and Tools
- Planning for Autonomous Mobile Systems
- Multiple Sensors, Data Fusion, and Data Interpretation
- Applications of Autonomous Mobile Systems
- Use in Manufacturing, Service, Cleaning, Construction Site
Supporting Disabled Persons
- Exploration, Learning, and Self Organization
- Behaviour-based AI (Artificial Life)
Dates and Deadlines:
1. May 1994 Submission of Paper Abstracts
15. May 1994 Notification of Acceptance
1. July 1994 Submission of camera-ready Papers
13.+14. Oct. 1994 Workshop AMS'94
Workshop Committee:
Prof. R. Dillmann (Univ. Karlsruhe) Prof. G. Faerber (TU Muenchen)
Prof. P. Levi (Univ. Stuttgart) Prof. U. Rembold (Univ. Karlsruhe)
Prof. G. Schmidt (TU Muenchen)
Contact:
Prof. Dr. P. Levi
Dr. Th. Braeunl
Applied Computer Science - Computer Vision
Universitaet Stuttgart, IPVR
Breitwiesenstr. 20-22, D-70565 Stuttgart, Germany
Tel.: +49 (711) 781-6390, Fax: +49 (711) 781-6250
email: bra...@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALL FOR PAPERS
INTERNATIONAL DEDICATED CONFERENCE ON ROBOTICS, MOTION AND MACHINE VISION
Aachen, Germany, 31st October to 4th November 1994
This conference is dedicated to practical industry applications and
existing products. This meeting will also be concerned with the
economical viability of applications. Therefore, we strong encourage
papers which deal with cost analysis and performance/cost optimization
considering speed. accuracy, available features and tools, software
cost, hardware cost, engineering time, and maintenance time.
Papers are sought in these and related subjects:
- Calibration of motion devices, vision systems, and
motion-vision systems,(methodology, error estimation,
error minimization, accuracy).
- Accuracy and repeatability of motion devices, vision
systems, and motion-vision systems.
- Criteria for accuracy, repeatability and calibration
versus manufacturing requirements.
- Error compounding effect in motion-vision applications.
- Challenging applications (speed, accuracy, cost, methodology, etc.).
- Failed applications (speed, accuracy, cost, methodology, etc.).
- New methodologies in industrial applications.
- High Speed industrial applications.
- High accuracy industrial applications.
- Subpixel accuracy in industrial applications.
- Under 5 micron accuracy in industrial applications.
- Force and torque sensors integration.
- Application software for a workcell.
- Handling uncertainties in robot motion including
uncertainty representation, propagation, reduction, and error
recovery.
IMPORTANT DATES:
ABSTRACTS DUE: 14TH MARCH, 1994
DRAFT MANUSCRIPTS DUE: 16TH MAY 1994
FINAL PAPERS DUE: 18TH JULY 1994
Please send abstracts to:
ISATA Secretariat
42 Lloyd Park Avenue
Croydon, CR0 5SB, England
Telephone: 081 681 3069
Telefax: 081 686 1490
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADVANCE PROGRAM
AND
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
ICARCV'94
THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
AUTOMATION, ROBOTICS AND COMPUTER VISION
8-11 NOVEMBER 1994
The Third International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Computer
Vision, ICARCV'94, will be held in Singapore on 8-11 November 1994 at the
Shangri-La Hotel,Singapore.The theme of ICARCV'94 is "Intelligent Automation"
The first day of the conference is reserved for tutorials; the next 3 days
are reserved for presentations of the papers.
Registration:
-------------
The conference registration fee includes the proceedings, coffee and
lunches. The registration fee for the conference is S$680 for IEEE or IEE
or ICS or InstMC members and S$730 for non-members.
Participants who register for the conference before the 30th of Sept. will
get a S$30 discount. For any organization sending four or more delegates,
a 15% discount or the registration fee will be given.
Payment for registration should be sent to:
ICARCV'94 Conference Secretariat
c/o The Institution of Enginers, Singapore (IES)
70 Bukit Tinggi road, Singapore 1128
Republic of Singapore
(Note: Please indicate your membership status and number while you
make the payment, also state your correspondece address and
affiliation)
Keynote Speakers:
-----------------
The keynote speakers will be
1) Dr J. Engelberger
Chairman, Transitions Research Corporation, USA
2) Dr O. Faugeras
Research Director, INRIA, France
3) Dr R. Hara
Vice Chairman, Seiko Instruments Inc, Japan
The complete advance program is at
ftp://ntuix.ntu.ac.sg/outgoing/ICARCV94_advance_program
Internet address: 155.69.1.5
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MVA'94: IAPR Workshop on Machine Vision Applications
December 13-15, 1994
Kawasaki, Japan
The International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) announces
the 4th IAPR International Workshop on Machine Vision Applications to
be held in Kawasaki on December 13-15, 1994.
The workshop is sponsored by the IAPR Technical Committees 6, 8, and
10. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together researchers and
practitioners from both academia and industry, and to exchange their
knowledge and stimulate each other through intensive discussions on
the following research topics:
Main Topic: Machine Vision and its Applications
Machine Vision Algorithms
Feature extraction, Range data / 3D shapes, Motion / Image
sequence analysis, Neural network applications, Color image
analysis, AI-based vision, Human interface, and related
technologies.
Special Purpose Architectures
Intelligent sensors, VLSI image processor chips, Massively
parallel processing, Architectures for 3D and/or motion
processing, Image processing systems, Software environment
for image processor, and related technologies.
Industrial Applications
Factory automation, Disaster prevention and rescue, Security
control, Navigation, Mobile robots, Civil and construction
engineering, Agriculture/Forestry/Fishery, Other
applications, and related technologies.
Document, Map and Line Drawing Processing
Document image processing, Drawing recognition, Multimedia
database, Map and engineering drawing database, Map
processing and map-based systems, 3D reconstruction from
maps or drawings, and related technologies.
The workshop will include several invited talks and about 100
papers for oral and poster presentations on the above topics. All
presentations will be in English. Those who wish to present a paper
are requested to submit four copies of a 500-1000 word extended
abstract with at least one main figure by June 15, 1994 to:
Prof. Mikio Takagi
Institute of Industrial Science
University of Tokyo
7-22-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, Japan
FAX: +81-3-3402-6226
The abstract should contain the following in its first page.
1) Title of the paper
2) Author name(s) and his/her(their) affiliation(s)
3) A person's name and address to be contacted,
also, phone and fax numbers, Email address if available
4) Answers to the following questions:
a) What is the original contribution of this work?
b) Why should this contribution be considered important?
Authors of papers that are accepted will be notified by August 1,
1994. Final camera-ready papers are due by October 1, 1994.
Notice: International Technical Exhibition on Image Technology and
Equipment will be held in Tokyo, near the workshop site, on December
7-9, 1994. All participants for the workshop are encouraged to visit
the exhibition.
For further information, please contact:
Prof. Mikio Takagi
Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo
7-22-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, JAPAN
PHONE: +81-3-3479-0289 FAX: +81-3-3402-6226
EMAIL: tak...@tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call for Abstracts & Call for Exhibitors
ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and
Remote Systems
February 5-10, 1995
Monterey, California USA
Sponsored by:
AMERICAN NUCLEAR SOCIETY
Robotics and Remote Systems Division
and the Northern California Section
Cosponsored by
o Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
o Electric Power Research Institute
o The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
o British Nuclear Energy Society
You are invited to submit extended abstracts for review and
consideration for the ANS Sixth Topical Meeting on Robots and Remote
Systems. The theme of this Topical is "Robots in the Environment,"
and emphasis will be placed on robot technology and applications in a
variety of remote environments, including nuclear, environmental
remediation, underwater and space. Sessions are arranged in four
primary interest areas or "tracks" so that no two papers in a track
are presented concurrently. The tracks and topics of interest for
this abstract solicitation are listed below.
APPLICATIONS
Nuclear power and fuel cycle
Environmental Restoration
Waste Management
Remote Manufacturing and Processing
Laboratory Automation
Manipulator Applications
Medical Application
HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS
Hardening and Survivability Technologies
Undersea
Space
Law Enforcement
Emergency Response and HazMat Handling
Military
CONTROL SYSTEMS
Control Systems and Architectures
Virtual Reality Application to Remote Systems
Sensors and Machine Vision
Human Factors and the Human/Machine Interface
Artificial Intelligence and Smart Systems
Remote Viewing and Telepresence
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Autonomous Systems and Mobility
Mechanical Design and Special Tooling
Manipulator R&D
Remote Engineering
The ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems Symposium,
sponsored by the American Nuclear Society, will be held at the Hyatt
Regency Monterey in Monterey, California, just minutes from the
beautiful California central coast.
Updates in the various technology areas will be featured as well as
several new special interest sessions which have proven popular in
recent years. Both oral and poster papers will be presented, and
submissions of your original work are requested. We encourage
papers/presentations from European and Pacific Rim countries.
Technical Sessions
Both oral presentations and poster sessions will be featured for the four-day
conference
Send Abstracts on new and innovative work to:
Program Chairman
Scott A. Couture
ANS 6th Topical on Robotics and
Remote Systems
P.O. Box 10333
Pleasanton, CA 94588
Phone: (510) 423-7970/FAX (510) 423-4606
INSTRUCTIONS FOR ABSTRACT PREPARATION AND MAILING ____________________
Abstracts of new and innovative work are solicited. Submission format is an
extended typed abstract of at least 500-900 words. Please send the original
and three copies to the program chairman.
ABSTRACT DEADLINE - APRIL 1, 1993 - SEND TO:
6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems
Attn: Scott Couture, Technical Program Chair
P.O. Box 10333 Pleasanton, CA 94588
Acceptance Categories:
Papers may be accepted for:
1. Oral presentations for a specified time (20-35 minutes, nominal)
2. Poster presentation with the author expected to be in attendance to explain
his or her paper and to answer questions.
All papers accepted for the ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote
Systems are eligible for publication in the ANS Transactions issue for the
Symposium subject to formal review and acceptance procedures.
Return this information sheet
Sixth Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems
February 5-10, 1995, Monterey, California
___ I am interest edin attending this Topical Meeting. Please send additional
information as it becomes available.
___ I am interested in presenting a paper at this Topical Meeting.
Tentative title of paper:
___ I am interested in presenting a poster session
___ I am interested in Exhibit Space for this Topical Meeting.
Name:
Affiliation:
Address:
City/State/Zip
=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: IJCAI-95
IJCAI-95 will take place at the Palais de Congres, Montreal, August 20-25
1995.
The biennial IJCAI conferences are the major forums for the international
scientific exchange and presentation of AI research. The Conference Technical
Program will include workshops, tutorials, panels and invited talks, as well
as tracks for paper and videotape presentations.
PAPER TRACK: SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDELINES
Topics of Interest
Submissions are invited on substantial, original, and previously unpublished
research in all aspects of AI, including, but not limited to:
* Architectures and languages for AI (e.g. parallel hardware and software for
building AI systems)
* Artistic, entertainment and multimedia applications.
* Automated reasoning (e.g. theorem proving, abduction, automatic
programming, search, context management and truth maintenance systems,
constraint satisfaction, satisfiability checking)
* Cognitive modeling (e.g. user models, memory models)
* Connectionist and PDP models
* Distributed AI, autonomous agents, multi-agent systems and real-time
issues.
* Intelligent teaching systems
* Knowledge Engineering and Principles of AI applications (e.g. for design,
manufacturing control, grand challenge applications)
* Knowledge representation (e.g. logics for knowledge, action, belief and
intention, nonmonotonic formalisms, complexity analysis, languages
and systems for representing knowledge)
* Learning, knowledge acquisition and case-based reasoning
* Logic programming (e.g. semantics, deductive databases, relationships to
AI knowledge representation)
* Natural language (e.g. syntax, semantics, discourse, speech recognition
and understanding, natural language front ends, generation systems,
information extraction and retrieval)
* Philosophical foundations
* Planning and reasoning about action (including the relation between
planning and control)
* Qualitative reasoning and naive physics (e.g. temporal and spatial
reasoning, model-based reasoning, diagnosis)
* Reasoning under uncertainty (including fuzzy logic and fuzzy control)
* Robotic and artificial life systems (e.g. unmanned vehicles,
vision/manipulation systems)
* Social, economic and legal implications
* Vision (e.g. color, shape, stereo, motion, object recognition, active
vision, model-based vision, vision architectures and hardware, biological
modeling).
Timetable
Submissions must be received by 6th January 1995. Submissions received after
that date will be returned unopened. Authors should note that ordinary mail
can sometimes be considerably delayed, especially over the new year period,
and should take this into account when timing their submissions. Notification
of receipt will be mailed to the first author (or designated author) soon
after receipt.
Notification of acceptance or rejection: successful authors will be notified
on or before 20th March 1995. Unsuccessful authors will be notified by 27th
March 1995. Notification will be sent to the first author (or designated
author).
Camera ready copies of the final versions of accepted papers must be received
by the publisher in the USA by 24th April 1995.
Note that at least one author of each accepted paper is required to attend
the conference to present the work.
General
Authors should submit six (6) copies of their papers in hard copy form. All
paper submissions should be to the following address. Electronic or fax
submissions cannot be accepted.
IJCAI-95 Paper Submissions,
American Association for Artificial Intelligence,
445, Burgess Drive,
Menlo Park, CA. 94025, USA.
(telephone (415) 328-3123, email ij...@aaai.org).
Appearance and Length
Papers should be printed on 8.5'' x 11'' or A4 sized paper. They must be a
maximum of 15 pages long, each page having no more than 43 lines, lines being
at most 140mm long and with 12 point type. Title, abstract, figures and
references must be included within this length limit. Papers breaking these
rules will not be considered for presentation at the conference.
Letter quality print is required. (Normally, dot-matrix printout will be
unacceptable unless truly of letter quality. Exceptions will be made for
submissions from countries where high quality printers are not widely
available.)
Title Page
Each copy of the paper must include a title page, separate from the body of
the paper. This should contain:
* Title of the paper
* Full names, postal addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers and email
addresses (where these exist) of all authors. The first postal address
should be one that is suitable for delivery of items by courier service
* An abstract of 100-200 words
* A set of keywords giving the area/subarea of the paper and describing the
topic of the paper. This information, together with the title of the paper,
will be the main information used in allocating reviewers.
* The following declaration:
``This paper has not already been accepted by and is not currently under
review for a journal or another conference. Nor will it be submitted
for such during IJCAI's review period.''
Policy on Multiple Submissions
IJCAI will not accept any paper which, at the time of submission, is
under review for a journal or another conference. Authors are also
expected not to submit their papers elsewhere during IJCAI's review
period. These restrictions apply only to journals and conferences,
not to workshops and similar specialized presentations with a limited
audience.
Review Criteria
Papers will be subject to peer review, but this review will not be
``blind'' (that is, the reviewers will be aware of the names of the
authors). Selection criteria include accuracy and originality of
ideas, clarity and significance of results and the quality of the
presentation. The decision of the Program Committee, taking into
consideration the individual reviews, will be final and cannot be
appealed. Papers selected will be scheduled for presentation and will
be printed in the proceedings. Authors of accepted papers, or their
representatives, are expected to present their papers at the
conference.
Distinguished Paper Awards
The Program Committee will distinguish one or more papers of exceptional
quality for special awards. This decision will in no way depend on whether
the authors choose to enhance their paper with a video presentation.
Other Calls
Calls for tutorial and workshop proposals and video presentations for
IJCAI-95 will be issued shortly.
=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Practice and Future of Autonomous Agents:
ASI-AA-95
23 September - 1st October 1995
Centro Stefano Franscini
Monte Verita, Ticino, Switzerland
(Follow-up meeting of the NATO Advanced Study Institute "The Biology and
Technology of Intelligent Autonomous Agents", which took place Spring 1993
in Trento, Italy).
In Spring 1993 a NATO Advanced Study Institute was organized in Trento,
Italy. At the time know-how in building autonomous agents and pertinent
hardware were not widely available. This situation has changed
significantly since. There are currently many groups involved in active
research in the field working on autonomous agents theoretically and with
actual robot hardware. In the Trento meeting the focus was on spreading
expertise in actual robot building and programming. In the meantime the
field has progressed significantly. In this process a number of important
issues have emerged. They will form the focus of the 1995 meeting:
(a) Design: How can autonomous agents be designed which show
sophisticated kinds of behavior?
(b) Theory: What are the recent developments in the theory of
autonomous agents?
(c) Performance measures: How can the performance of the agents
be quantified?
Among others, the theory of dynamical systems, evolutionary approaches,
and functional analysis will be discussed with respect to the previous
issues. In addition to the state-of-the-art (the "practice"), the idea is
to generate visions for the field (the "future"). Leading researchers
representing the various theoretical orientations will present their
results and lead respective working groups.
Organization
1. Lectures/discussions
2. Working groups/workshops (including project presentations and
demonstrations by participants)
3. In-depth background lectures (philosophy, cognitive science,
evolution)
Target Audience
Advanced graduate students and post-docs/young faculty. Participants will
be expected to contribute actively to the study institute and will be
asked to submit a pertinent proposal with their applications. A maximum
number of 45 participants can be accepted.
Venue
Monte Verita is a conference center (including hotel) near Ascona, a
beautiful sunny town in Ticino, in the southern part of Switzerland. It
is owned by the Swiss government and run by the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology. It is easily reachable either by train from the international
airports of Zurich and Milan.
Director
Rolf Pfeifer, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Program Committee
- Rodney Brooks, MIT, Cambridge, Mass., USA
- Jean-Daniel Nicoud, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Tim Smithers, University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain
- Luc Steels, Free University of Brussels, Belgium
- Takashi Gomi, Applied AI Systems, Ottawa, Canada
(Luc Steels was the organizer of the previous NATO ASI in Trento).
Local organization
Autonomous Agents Research Group, AI Lab, Department of Computer Science,
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Footnote
Since Switzerland is not a NATO member it is not possible to get funding
for a meeting in Switzerland. Funding is available through the Swiss
government which enables us to work on the basis of low rates.
Further information
Please contact: Rolf Pfeifer
AI Lab, Computer Science Department
University of Zurich, Switzerland
E-mail: pfe...@ifi.unizh.ch
Fax: +41-1-363 00 35
Phone: +41-1-257 43 20/31
Updates of this announcement
can be retrieved by
ftp://claude.ifi.unizh.ch/pub/monteverita/ASI-AA-95.txt or by sending an
empty E-mail to <in...@ifi.unizh.ch> with "monte verita" in the subject
line. It can also be accessed by World Wide Web the the URL:
http://josef.ifi.unizh.ch/asi-aa.html
=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First International Conference on
Computer Vision, Virtual Reality and Robotics in Medicine
CVRMed'95
April 3-5, 1995
Nice, FRANCE
OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this first international conference is to present and
publish the most innovative and promising research work in computer
vision, virtual reality and robotics applied to medical problems:
1) to help diagnosis from multidimensional and multimodal images and
2) to assist therapy, especially in video surgery, interventional
radiology, and radiotherapy.
This domain has undergone a tremendous increase over the past few
years and will be a revolution for medicine in the coming decade.
This event follows a successful preliminary AAAI symposium
organized in March 1994 at Stanford by N. Ayache (INRIA),
E. Grimson (MIT), T. Kanade (CMU), R. Kikinis and S. Wells (chair)
(both at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital).
The topics addressed by this conference will include:
Therapy planning, simulation and control:
-----------------------------------------
.virtual and augmented reality applied to therapy control
.virtual patients for surgical training
.telepresence in medicine, telesurgery
.image guided medical robotics
.image guided therapy
.using electronic anatomical atlases
.virtual reality for rehabilitation
Registration problems in medicine:
----------------------------------
.3D localization of patients or surgical tools
.on line tracking of patient or organ motion
.nonrigid matching in medical images
.registration of mono or multimodal medical images
.registration with electronic anatomical atlases
Medical image understanding:
-----------------------------
.differential geometry and multidimensional images
.motion, shape and texture analysis in medical images
.building and using physical deformable models
.segmentation of multidimensional medical images
.spectral analysis in medical images
.detecting measuring pathological evolution
.building electronic anatomical atlases
.statistical analysis of anatomical features
.representation of pictorial anatomical knowledge
PAPER SUBMISSION
------------------
Four copies of complete manuscript should be received by
Friday September 23, 1994, at the address:
Dr. Nicholas AYACHE
CVRMed'95 - INRIA
2004 Route des Lucioles - B.P.93
06902 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex - France
Papers should include:
----------------------
a) A title page including the names and addresses of the authors
(with e-mail), an abstract of up to 200 words, and one or
more categories as listed above or other keywords.
b) A single page clearly answering the following questions:
1. What is the original contribution of this work?
2. Why should this contribution be considered important?
3. What is the most closely related work by others and how
does this work differ?
4. How can other researchers make use of the results of this work?
5. If this work extends or relates closely to some other work you
have published, please state precisely how it differs from
that work?
6. If any part of this work has been submitted to other conferences
or workshops, please state where and how it is different?
c) a paper, limited to 18 double space pages (12 points) including
figures and references, with a maximum of 7000 words.
Language policy:
----------------
Papers will be written in English. The organization will provide a
French translation of the abstracts. Oral communications will be done
in English. However, follow-up questions and discussions may be held
in both languages.
CALENDAR
----------
September 23, 1994: Submission deadline for receiving papers at INRIA
November 1994: Notification to authors
January 2, 1995: Camera ready received at INRIA
April 2, 1995: Pre-registration in Nice
April 3-5, 1995: Conference in Nice
April 6, 1995: Technical tour in Sophia Antipolis
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
-------------------
Full length papers will be reviewed and selected by the program
committee of the conference:
Chairman:
---------
Nicholas AYACHE (INRIA, France)
Members:
--------
Fred BOOKSTEIN (University of Michigan, USA)
Mike BRADY (Oxford University, UK)
Grigore BURDEA (Rutgers University, USA)
Philippe CINQUIN (Grenoble Hospital, France)
Jean-Louis COATRIEUX (INSERM, Rennes, France)
Alan COLCHESTER (Guy's Hospital, London, UK)
James DUNCAN (Yale University, USA)
Henry FUCHS (University of North Carolina, USA)
Guido GERIG (ETH-Z, Zurich, Switzerland)
Erik GRANUM (Aalborg University, Denmark)
Eric GRIMSON (MIT, USA)
Karl-Heinz HOEHNE (University Hospital Eppendorf, Germany)
Thomas HUANG (University of Illinois, USA)
Takeo KANADE (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Ron KIKINIS (Harvard Medical School, USA)
Jean-Claude LATOMBE (Stanford University, USA)
Tomas LOZANO-PEREZ (MIT, USA)
Charles PELIZZARI (University of Chicago, USA)
Richard ROBB (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA)
Paul SUETENS (KULeuven, Belgium)
Richard SZELISKI (DEC, Cambridge, USA)
Russ TAYLOR (IBM, Yorktown Heights, USA)
Demetri TERZOPOULOS (University of Toronto, Canada)
Jean-Philippe THIRION (INRIA, France)
Jun-ichiro TORIWAKI (Nagoya University, Japan)
Alessandro VERRI (University of Genoa, Italy)
Max VIERGEVER (University Hospital Utrecht, The Netherlands)
William WELLS (Harvard Medical School, USA)
SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION
-------------------------
G. MALANDAIN and Epidaure Group (INRIA, France)
PRACTICAL ORGANIZATION
------------------------
The conference will take place at Hotel Meridien in Nice, France, at
a prestigious address: 1, Promenade des Anglais (the heart of the
French Riviera, right in front of the mediterranean sea!) from April
3 to 5, 1995.
The conference will be followed, on April 6, by a technical tour in
Sophia-Antipolis, to visit the computer vision, graphics and robotics
laboratories of INRIA (120 scientists).
The meeting will be composed of a single track of oral presentations
(long and short) with a number of poster sessions.
The proceedings of the conference will be published by Springer-
Verlag in the series "Lecture Notes in Computer Science".
We plan to have a selection of the best papers to appear in a dedicated
book or a special issue of a journal.
LOCAL ORGANIZATION
--------------------
The organizing body for the conference will be INRIA (National
Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control) in Sophia
Antipolis, France.
INFORMATION
-------------
INRIA
Unite de Recherche de Sophia Antipolis
Relations Exterieures
Bureau des colloques
2004, route des lucioles - BP 93
06902 SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS CEDEX
FRANCE
Tel: + 33 - 93 65 78 64
Fax: + 33 - 93 65 79 55
E-mail: Monique....@sophia.inria.fr
=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS (ABSTRACTS)
SYMPOSIUM ON AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS IN MINE COUNTERMEASURES
April 4-7, 1995
U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
With sponsorship from the Office of Naval Research, and with cooperation from
agencies including ARPA, the U.S. Army Counter-Mine Program, the U.S. Marine
Corps Amphibious Warfare Technical Center, and the U.S. Navy Explosive
Ordnance Disposal Technical Center, the Naval Postgraduate School announces a
Technical Symposium to define and explore the present and potential future
prospects for autonomous systems in mine countermeasures applications. Both
military and environmental applications are considered.
This is a major technical symposium on the state-of-the-art and potential for
the use of robotics approaches to deal with the problem of mines, booby traps,
and other obstacles, toxic waste disposal, environmental monitoring and
remediation.
Intended Audience. This symposium is for mine warfare and hazardous materials
disposal specialists in each of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, and
Marine Corps plus the Coast Guard); the Service and DoD Acquisition Community;
personnel from mission-oriented laboratories of each of the Services;
technical specialists from the Department of Energy National Laboratories; the
Environmental Protection Agency; the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the
Intelligence, and the Academic Communities. The symposium draws upon the
research and development activities of the government laboratories, academe,
and industrial laboratories. The symposium should prove beneficial to
industrial suppliers and manufacturers who seek application of dual-use
technology and processes.
General Plan and Format of Symposium. The symposium will be held at the Naval
Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, over a 4-day period. The format
includes a series plenary sessions on systems requirements and concepts
presentations from distinguished speakers and technical sessions that address
the technologies of the major systems elements. The symposium will be
UNCLASSIFIED. A ÒProceedings of the SymposiumÓ will be prepared and furnished
to attendees. A modest registration fee will cover the overhead costs of the
symposium plus session meals and refreshments. The plan is to have a mix of
invited and submitted papers, and panel discussion sessions.
Contributions are requested and will be selected on the basis of a review of
an abstract. ABSTRACTS SHOULD BE 500 WORDS IN LENGTH and should be mailed or
faxed on or before November 1, 1994 to:
Albert M. Bottoms
Visiting Professor of Undersea Warfare (Mine Warfare)
U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (Code UW)
Monterey CA 93943.
Tel: (408) 656-2535
Fax: (408) 656-3679
E-mail: ambo...@nps.navy.mil
Prospective authors will be notified of acceptance by January 15,1994, and
full papers will be due by March 15, 1995.
Point papers or original contributions of technical subject material will be
accepted on the following topics:
A-VEHICLE SYSTEMS: Existing (tethered or semi-autonomous), Bottom
crawlers, Swimming, Amphibious/Land, Air, Space;
B-POWER PLANTS: Off-board, Air Breathing, Electrical, Chemical,
Computation of Energy Budgets;
C-SENSORS: Acoustic, Magnetic, UEP, Optical, Tactile, Nuclear,
Biological, Sensor Fusion and Image Enhancement;
D-MISSION PACKAGES: Destructive, Marking, Classification, Removal,
Systems Integration ;
E-CONTROL: Off- Board Group Navigation, Obstacle Avoidance and
Reporting, Operator Interfaces;
F-OPERATIONS RESEARCH / TACTICS: Campaign Analyses, Tactical Analysis,
Simulation and Trade-Off Methodologyies, Operational Test and Evaluation;
G-ENVIRONMENTS: Surf Zone, Estuarine and Riverine, Physical
Characterization, Chemical Characterization, Biological, Geological;
H-MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY AND DUAL-USE POSSIBILITIES : Dual-Use and
Production Economics, Sources of Manufacturing Technology, Evolutionary
Acquisition.
Product and Technology Displays. Display areas will be provided for
organizations and industrial groups to show video or put up small static
displays and provide literature, reprints of papers, etc.
Planning Horizons: Research Abstracts due in Monterey: November 1, 1994
Prospective Authors Notified: January 15, 1995
Camera Ready Copy due in Monterey: March 15, 1995
Symposium sponsors emphasize that we are deliberately looking beyond the
individuals and organizations that are usually involved on military and Navy
R&D. We are convinced that there are many investigators who are following
paths very relevant to Navy needs who do not know of those needs; nor do
government project people know of all investigators.
Users of Internet will find updated Symposium information in the comp.robotics
newsgroup and on the World Wide Web NPS Symposium Homepage at the following
URL:
ftp://ftp.nps.navy.mil/pub/usw/av_mcm.html
=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to those listed above many other annual conferences are
held. Here are a few of them:
Annual International Conference of IEEE on Robotics and Automation
(ICARA)
Annual Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
Annual Symposium on Industrial Robots
International Symposium of Robotics Research
Autonomous Intelligent Systems
International Conference on Computer Vision
British Machine Vision Conference
IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Conference
IMAC/SICE International Symposium on Robotics, Mechatronics and
Manufacturing Systems.
American Association for Artificial Intellignece (AAAI)
Probably the largest and most prestigious conference
on AI. Now sponsoring a robot competition at the annual AAAI
conference.
Competitions:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are a number of robot gatherings where robot builders can bring
their creations to show and compete with others.
AAAI Robot Competitions:
Each year, starting in 1990, at the annual meeting of the
American Association of Artificial Intelligence. A robotics
competition is sponsored. Rules and locations vary from year
to year. See conference announcements for details.
Aerial Robotics Competition:
The AUVS sponsors an annual aerial Robotics Competition. See
the following for more information:
http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/robotics/other/auvsarc/auvsarc.html or
ftp://usc.edu/pub/nn_robotics/other/auvsarc/
or email to auvsarc...@robotics.usc.edu
Hong-Kong ping pong competitions:
Contact: Robin Bradbeer <EERT...@hk.cphk.cphkvx>
IEEE Micromouse Competitions:
For more information on Micromousing (rules, past mazes and
times, etc.), contact the North American Micromouse
Association (NAMA) at:
MICROMOM
aka. Sue Rosenbaum
1086 Central Ave.
Plainfield, NJ 07061
USA
tel: 908.757.6749
$25 will get you details plus the semi-occasional newsletter.
BEAM robot olympics:
Contact: Mark Tilden <mwti...@math.uwaterloo.ca>
Articles on the BEAM Olympics:
Dewdney, A.K. Photovores: intelligent robots are constructed
from castoffs. Scientific American Sept 1992, v267, n3, p42(1)
Maylon, John. At the Robot Olympics. Whole Earth Review.
Spring 1992, pp 80-84.
Smit, Michael C., and Mark Tilden, Beam Robotics. Algorithm,
Vol. 2, No. 2, March 1991, Pg 15-19
Sumo Robot Competition:
Sumo is a traditional Japanese sport in which two very large
half-naked men try to push each other out of a circle called the
Dohyou. The winner of the game is the guy who has not touched the
ground with his hand or hasn't stepped out of the circle before the
other guy did.
There is a Robot Sumo Tournament in Japan, that is held in December
every year in Tokyo. The rule of the Tournament is same as the real
Sumo except two robots fight rather than naked guys. The task of the
game is quite simple: push the opponent out of the circle.
The regulations are as follows:
1. The area of the base cannot exceed 20cmX20cm before game starts,
It is unlimited in height and can expand after the game starts.
2. The weight cannot exceed 3kg.
3. Use of internal/external combustion engine is prohibited.
4. Intention to harm the opponent or the Dohyou (playground which
includes the circle) is not allowed.
5. Contestants are free to choose control techniques, but they are
divided into 2 categories:
Radio Controlled: Contestants can use ordinary commercial R/C
equipment and remotely guide their robots.
Stand-alone: Robots cannot be controlled externally by
contestants with the exception of pushing a start button when
the contest begins.
To avoid interference with the humans who set the robots on the
Dohyou, the Stand Alone category has a special rule which says that
the game will starts exactly 5 seconds after the official signals the
start. It means that the contestant will push a start button (or
some- thing else) for the robot the same time as the offical's
signal. The robot must keep the start position for 5 seconds, and the
person who pushed the button must leave the Dohyou in that time.
Therefore, the robots in the Stand Alone category must have at a start
button and a means of timing the five seconds.
Progression in the competition consists of three game matches between
randomly selected robots. Last year [1992] 150 robots were in the
Radio Controlled category and 190 were in the Stand Alone category. If
you beat six or seven opponents, you can win the first prize of
1,000,000Yen or US$7,700. The second prize is 500,000Yen or
US$3,850. [edited from a message by Mato Hattori]
---------------------------------------
The Ninth Annual SAE National Robotic Walking Machine Decathlon
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado April 6-9, 1995
Colorado State University
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National Walking Machine Decathlon
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
tel: 303.491.6559
fax: 303.491.1055
net: wa...@LANCE.ColoState.Edu
Web Page - http://www.lance.colostate.edu/~chriso/walking.html
If you do not have access to the WWW and you would like a text copy of
the brochure, send email and I'll mail you a copy. Chris Olson
<chr...@lance.colostate.edu>
Registration deadline: December 31, 1994
Decathalon: The decathlon is a national competition sponsored by SAE to involve
undergraduate engineers in the creative design of machines that walk.
The competition includes preparation and presentation of a paper,
judging of over-all design merits, and the ten walking events. Judges
are representatives >from the robotics industry. Social events, a
keynote speaker, and tours are also provided. A detailed rules and
registration packet is available.
Team Spirit: This competition emphasizes collaboration of engineering
disciplines in a teamwork environment. It encourages students to be
organized, to cooperate, and to share knowledge from their respective
fields, resulting in an experience that closely models the real-world
workplace.
What is a walking machine? A walking machine is a mobile machine
propelled by articulated mechanisms, or "legs." Each leg must have
one or more joints or hinges by which it moves relative to all other
legs or the frame, supporting the machine discontinuously. A leg may
pivot, slip, or slide on the supporting surface during walking motion,
but it cannot roll. Wheeled or tracked vehicles are excluded.
Walking machines have potential applications in space exploration,
undersea missions, mining, radioactive and other dangerous
environments, the military, and mobility for the handicapped.
Judging and Awards Cash prizes will be awarded to the top three teams
based on total points accumulated. All teams will receive recognition
awards.
History: The National Robotic Walking Machine Decathlon was initiated
in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Colorado State University
in 1986. The idea was to create a student design competition at the
cutting edge of technology with an emphasis on design. In eight years
it has gone from a competition in which none of the four machines
present were able to complete the first event, to one where there are
some very capable machines completing all ten events, and in which
there is close competition. The events themselves continue to evolve
to reflect relevant applications of robotics technology. The events
traditionally have included such tasks as stair climbing, maneuvering
through obstacles, and autonomous sensor guidance.
---------------
[Please send updated information and I will update these competitions.
Thanks, nivek]
___________________________________________________________________________
End of part 1
--
aka: Kevin Dowling Carnegie Mellon University
tel: (412) 268-8830 The Robotics Institute
adr: ni...@ri.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213
--
aka: Kevin Dowling Carnegie Mellon University
tel: (412) 268-8830 The Robotics Institute
adr: ni...@ri.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Kevin Dowling
Last-modified: Mon Oct 3 13:06:01 1994
This is part 2 of 3 of the comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ) list. This FAQ addresses commonly asked questions relating to
robotics.
____________________________________________________________________________
This FAQ was compiled and written by Kevin Dowling with numerous
contributions by readers of comp.robotics. Acknowledgements are listed
at the end of the FAQ.
This post, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1994 Kevin
Dowling. Distribution through any means other than regular Usenet
channels must be by permission. The removal of this notice is
forbidden.
This FAQ may be referenced as:
Dowling, Kevin (1993) "Robotics: comp.robotics Frequently Asked
Questions" Usenet news.answers. Available via anonymous ftp from
rtfm.mit.edu in pub/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part1, part2
and part3. 70+ pages.
Please send changes, additions, suggestions and questions to:
Kevin Dowling tel: 412.268.8830
Robotics Institute fax: 412.268.5895
Carnegie Mellon University net: ni...@cmu.edu
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
___________________________________________________________________________
This FAQ's purpose is to provide a resource of information,
pointers, and a guide to robotics related questions. If the expires
date above is more than two months old you should obtain a new copy.
See the section on Where to Find This FAQ.
Table of Contents: [use +++ to search quickly]
Part 2
+++Graduate programs in robotics
+++What is the State of the Robot Industry?
+++Other Organizations doing robotics
+++Mobile robot companies
+++Manipulator companies
+++Small inexpensive robots
+++Architectures for robots
___________________________________________________________________________
+++Graduate Programs in Robotics
Any good four-year school undoubtedly offers robotics courses within
engineering programs. Departments of mechanical and electrical
engineering and computer science are all good candidates for
coursework in Robotics. However, a number of schools have established
track records with a focus on robotics and those are listed here.
The list is not exhaustive and a number of entries are incomplete, but
it's a good starting point for those interested in graduate programs.
---Student Who's Who
An useful additional source of information is the graduate student
guide compiled by Ron Kube <ku...@cs.ualberta.ca>. It is a list of
graduate students, their universities, and areas of research. The list
is updated monthly and can be found at
ftp://ftp.cs.ualberta.ca/pub/kube/whosWho
This list is grouped by countries including the United States,
Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland. Many
European and Asian universities are not represented and should be -
drop me a line if you have information on some that should be
included.
Universities List (Use === to search)
United States
===Boston University
===California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
===Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
===Colorado School of Mines
===Cornell
===Georgia Institute of Technology
===Harvard
===Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
===New York University (NYU)
===North Carolina State Univerisity
===Purdue
===Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
===Stanford University
===University of California at Berkeley
===University of Kansas
===University of Kentucky
===University of Massachusetts
===University of Michigan
===University of Pennsylvania.
===University of Southern California (USC)
===University of Maryland
===The University of Texas at Arlington
===University of Wisconsin-Madison
===University of Utah
===Yale University
Australia
===University of Western Australia
Canada
===McGill University
===University of Alberta
United Kingdom
===Edinburgh University (UK)
===University of Essex (UK)
===University of the West of England at Bristol, U.K.
===Bristol University
===Hull University, UK
===University of Oxford
===Reading University, UK
===Salford University
===University of Surrey
France
===University of Paris
Sweden
===Lulea University of Technology
Switzerland
===Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
UNITED STATES-------
===Boston University
Dept. of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering:
John Baillieul: Control of Mechanical Systems and Mathematical
System Theory.
Pierre Dupont: Robot Kinematics and Dynamics, Friction Compensation
in Robotics.
Ann Stokes: Theoretical Dynamics and Control.
Matt Berkemeier: Legged Robots, Robot Control.
===California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Pasadena, CA
Joel Burdick - serpentine manipulation, control
Richard Murray - control of nonholonomic systems, grasping
Pietro Perona - biological and machine vision
For more detailed information on robotics research at Caltech see
http://robby.caltech.edu/
===Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
The Robotics Institute is a 150 person organization that is
part of the School of Computer Science. RI offers a PhD in Robotics
but students from other programs (engineering and computer science
mostly) do research in the Institute as well. Lots of mobile robot
work, computer integrated manufacturing, rapid prototyping, sensors,
vision, navigation, learning and architectures. Program is a set of
qualifiers and a program of research leading to a thesis and the
degree.
For a look current research in autonomous navigation in the NavLab
group see:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/afs/cs/project/alv/member/www/navlab_home_page.html
Facilities include about a dozen mobile systems with more under
design and construction. Many manipulator systems and lots of
compute cycles/person. Faculty include:
Takeo Kanade - Vision and Autonomous Systems Center
Pradeep Khosla - Advanced Manipulator Laboartory
Matt Mason - Manipulation Laboratory
Tom Mitchell - Learning Robots Lab
Hans Moravec - Mobile Robots Lab
Mel Seigel - Sensors Laboratory (non vision)
Steve Shafer - Calibrated Imaging Laboratory
Red Whittaker - Field Robotics Center
and many others.....
Graduate program contact:
Graduate Admissions Coordinator
The Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
===Colorado School of Mines
Mobile Robotics/Machine Perception Laboratory
Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences
The Colorado School of Mines is a state university,
internationally renowned in the energy, materials, and resource
fields, attracting outstanding students in a broad range of science
and engineering disciplines. The School of Mines is strongly
committed to quality teaching and research. CSM provides an attractive
campus environment, a collegial atmosphere, relatively small size
(3000 students, about 30% in graduate programs), and an ideal location
in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains 13 miles from downtown Denver
and an hour from most ski areas.
The Dept. of Mathematical and Computer Sciences offers BS, MS,
and PhD degrees under the department title. With a faculty of 18
tenured and tenure track members, the department annually receives
roughly a million dollars in grants; 116 undergraduate students and 70
graduate students are currently enrolled in ou r degree programs. The
computer science group within the department has a strong focus in AI
(symbolic and neural nets) and database and parallel processing syst
ems. The Mobile Robotics/Machine Perception Laboratory is a facility
devoted to basic and interdisciplinary research, technology transfer,
and hands-on education in artificial intelligence through robotics.
Research and technology transfer efforts concentrate on the reduction
of human risk in hazardous situations, stewardship of the environment,
and/or improvement of the quality of life throug h better
manufacturing processes. Research in the MR/MP laboratory is supported
by NSF, ARPA, NASA, and local industries.
For more information, please send email to Dr. Robin R.
Murphy, rmu...@mines.colorado.edu. Include a brief summary of your
educational (with GPA) and work experience, what your research
interests are, and GRE scores.
===Cornell
Ithaca, NY
Mechanical Engineering
Sam Landsberger
Jeff Koechling
Bruce Donald
===Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA
Georgia Institute of Technology Robotics Activities
Application study areas:
Servo control and low level coordination
Machine intelligence and high level control
Design, sensors and actuators
Human/machine interface
See also: http://www.gatech.edu/aimosaic/robot-lab/MRLHome.html
Robot applications are in areas such as manufacturing {K. Lee} poultry
processing {W. Daley, G. McMurray, J.C. Thompson} and nuclear waste
inspection and cleanup {R. Arkin, W. Book, S. Dickerson, T. Collins,
A. Henshaw} are underway.
Several robotics researchers are regularly involved in a
student aerial robot design competition in which concurrent
engineering concepts are being used to tailor the characteristics of
the system.{D. Schrage} This competition, held at Georgia Tech and
sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems, has been
won by Georgia Tech entries for two of the three years it has been
held.
--Current research topics and researchers:
Long arm control {W. Book}
Parallel actuation of manipulators {K. Lee}
3DOF direct drive actuator {K. Lee}
Special purpose end-effectors {R. Bohlander, H. Lipkin}
Parallel processing computer architectures for robot sensing and control.
{R. Bohlander, C. Alford, T. Collins, A. Henshaw}
Laser generated ultrasound to sense structure of materials {C. Ume}
Gallium arsenide based rad-hard electronics. {W. Hunt}
Autonmous vehicles positioning {S. Dickerson}
Collision avoidance techniques {R. Arkin, W. Book}
Flexible arm control {W. Book}
Two arm coordinated motion.{Alford, Vachtsevanos}
Advanced feedback control, learning control, bounded uncertainty
approach, applications to rigid and flexible manipulators, force
control . {N Sadegh, Y Chen, W. Book}
Architectures, Framework for reactive control and hierarchical planning, vision
feedback, fuzzy logic application {Arkin, D. Lawton, G Vachtsevanos}
Human Computer Interaction {M Kelly, H. Lipkin}
===Harvard
Roger Brockett
===Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science both have strong
robotics efforts. Asada, Slotine, Brooks, Raibert and others
are known and respected for their work in direct-drive arm, control
techniques, architectures, running machines etc.
===New York University (NYU)
NYU's Department of Computer Science home page is at:
http://cs.nyu.edu/ Another informative source on NYU's robotics work
is in Rich Wallace's home page at:
http://found.cs.nyu.edu/robust.b/robots/rsw/public-html/index.html
Degrees:
We offer Ph.D. and MS in computer science. Ph.D. students may
work thesis research in robotics. MS students may work on a thesis
(as a substitute for one course). All graduate students are eligible
to enroll in Advaned Laboratory and work on a project in robotics.
Qualified undergraduates may take Independent Study and
The Department of Computer Science offers graduate and
undergraduate courses in robotics, computer vision, AI and neural
computation. There is also a weekly robotics colloquim For admissions
information, contact kar...@cs.nyu.edu
Research (1994):
Micro direct drive robotics (Wallace)
Active Vision (Wallace)
Multimedia (Schwartz, Wallace, Perlin)
3-D target recognition (Hummel)
Grasp Metrics (Mishra, Yap)
Reactive Robotics (Mishra)
Wavelets and Compression (Mallat)
Human Body Animation (Perlin)
Faculty:
Richard S. Wallace (Robotics, Computer Vision, Multimedia)
Ken Perlin (Computer Graphics, Multimedia)
Jacob T. Schwartz (Robotics, Multimedia, Computational Logic)
Bud Mishra (Robotics, Theory of Computation)
Chee Yap (Robotics, Computational Geometry)
Stephane Mallat (Wavelets, Computer Vision)
Robert Hummel (Computer Vision)
===North Carolina State Univerisity
Raleigh, NC
Professor Ren Luo
919.515.5199
===Purdue
Avi Kak: Vision and mobile robots
Antti Koivo: Manipulation
Mirek Skibiniewski: Construction Robotics
===Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
Center for Intelligent Robotic Systems for Space Exploration (CIRSSE)
George Saridis
Arthur Sanderson
Jon Wenn
Appro. 20 PhD and 30 MS students working in the center. Path
planning and multi-arm control are current focus.
===Stanford University
Palo Alto, CA
http://www.stanford.edu/
Mechanical Engineering:
Bernard Roth (kinematics of manipulators)
Mark Cutkosky: destrous manipulation and concurrent manufacturing
Larry Liefer (rehabilitation, user interfaces)
CS Department:
Nils Nilsson
Mike Genesereth
Jean-Claude Latombe (path planning and geometric reasoning)
Leo Guibas (geometric reasoning)
Tom Binford (vision)
Yoav Shoham (agents)
Oussama Khatib
Aerospace Robotics Laboratory:
Bob Cannon (teleoperation, free flyers, space robotics,
flexible manipulators)
===University of California at Berkeley
Faculty in Robotics at UC Berkeley
Dept. of EE&CS:
Prof. J. Canny: motion planning
Prof. R. Fearing: tactile sensing, dextrous manipulation
Prof. J. Malik: computer vision
Prof. S. Sastry: multi-fingered hands, control
Dept. of Optometry/EE&CS:
Prof. L. Stark: telerobotics
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering:
Prof. R. Horowitz: control of robotic manipulators
Prof. H. Kazerooni: man-robotic systems
Prof. M. Tomizuka: control of robotic manipulators
Richard Muller - micro mechanisms
===University of Kansas
Space Technology Center (Telerobotics)
===University of Kentucky
Center for Robotics and Manufacturing Systems
(founded 1990)
===University of Massachusetts
Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics
Computer Science Department
Web - http://piglet.cs.umass.edu:4321/lpr.html
Faculty:
Rod Grupen
Robin Popplestone
The lab is equipped with two General Electric P-50 robots, two GE
A4s, a Zebra Zero, and a Denning mobile platform. In addition, the
P-50s are fitted with a 4-fingered Utah/MIT and a 3-fingered
Stanford/JPL* dexterous hand, respectively. The lab includes
VxWorks distributed VME controllers and an experimental real-time
kernel (Spring kernel). Research conducted at the lab includes:
o controller composition for coordinating multiple robots
o grasp planning
o geometric reasoning for robust assembly & fine motion control
o learning for admittance control & path optimization
o biological models of motor planning
o proprioceptive, tactile, & visual model acquisition
o trajectory planning, coarse reaching
o state-space decomposition
The laboratory also engages in collaborative research with the
Computer Vision (A. Hanson, E. Riseman, directors) and Adaptive
Networks (A. Barto, director) groups within the department.
===University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
Elec. Eng. and CS, relevant to robotics
includes machine vision, systems and control, multiple cooperating
agents (arms and mobile), and application of SOAR to robots (arms and
mobile). (in conjunction with SOAR groups at CMU and elsewhere)
Contacts: Johann Borenstein <johann_b...@um.cc.umich.edu>
Yorem Koren <yorem...@um.cc.umich.edu>
===University of Pennsylvania.
UPenn offers Masters and PhD programs in Robotics and Robotics related
fields of study. These programs are offered through the Departments of
Computer and Information Science, Systems Engineering, and Mechanical
Engineering and Applied Mechanics. The bulk of the robotics research
is conducted in the inter-disciplinary General Robotics and Active
Sensory Perception (GRASP) laboratory. Active areas of research are
Telerobotics, Multiple Arm Control, Robotic Vision, Learning Control,
Multi-agent Robotics and Mechanical Design. Leading Faculty members
are Drs. R. Bajcsy and R.P. Paul.
===University of Southern California (USC)
USC has a new MS Program called: Master of Science in Computer
Science with specialization in Robotics & Automation
Beginning in Fall, 1993, this new MS program seeks to prepare
students for a career in the application of Computer Science to
design, manufacturing, and robotics. It also serves as an
introduction to this area for students who wish to pursue advanced
studies and research leading to a Ph.D. A major goal is to produce
a steady stream of graduates who are qualified to tackle challenging
problems in the development of software for CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided
Design and Manufacturing) and robotics.
There is a strong focus on designing and building within the
program Exposure to the practical aspects (and difficulties) of
robotics and automation is strongly encouraged through laboratory
work, and an optional thesis, conducted in collaboration with
industry and research laboratories.
See also http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/robotics/home.html
For additional information, a complete set of degree requirements,
and application materials, contact our Student Coordinator:
Ms. Amy Yung
Computer Science Department
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781
tel: 213.740.4499
net: <a...@pollux.usc.edu>
Faculty include:
George Bekey : Assembly planning, design for assembly,
neural nets for robot control, autonomous robots.
Ken Goldberg : Motion planning, grasping, machine learning.
Sukhan Lee : Assembly planning, sensor-based manipulation.
Gerard Medioni: Computer vision.
Ramakant Nevatia: Computer vision.
Keith Price: Computer vision.
Aristides Requicha: Geometric modeling, geometric uncertainty,
planning for manufacture and inspection
About twenty other faculty member associated with the Institute for
Robotics and Intelligent Systems and many others associated with
USC's Information Sciences Institute (ISI).
Brochure can be obtained from:
Ken Goldberg, Asst Professor
IRIS, Dept of Computer Science
Powell Hall Room 204
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0273
Internet: gold...@usc.edu
===University of Maryland
Space Systems Laboratory. Facilties include a large neutral bouyancy tank,
and a number of free-flying teleoperators used underwater in the
NBT. Much teleoperations research.
Dave Akin - director
Dave has flown shuttle experiments and his research is in the areas
of teleoperation, control, man-machine interaction and is one of the
very few in the robotics community to fly hardware in space.
===The University of Texas at Arlington
F.L. Lewis
Automation and Robotics Research Institute
University of Texas at Arlington
7300 Jack Newell Blvd S
Ft. Worth, TX 76118
tel: 817.794.5972
fax: 817.794.5952
UT Arlington is located in the heart of the Dallas / Ft. Worth
metroplex. The EE department current has 33 faculty and the CSE
department has 20 faculty. Participating students will also be able
to conduct research at the Automation and Robotics Research Institute
located in Ft. Worth.
===University of Wisconsin-Madison
Mechanical Engineering & Electrical Engineering:
Roland Chin - machine vision, pattern recognition
Neil Duffie - teleoperation, autonomous systems, sensors
Robert Lorenz - actuators and sensors, robot control algorithms
Vladimir Lumelsky - motion planning, real-time sensing and navigation
Computer Science:
Charles Dyer - machine vision
Wisconsin Center for Space Robotics and Automation (WCSAR) -
Interdepartmental NASA center: work is done on various applications
of robotic systems for space.
===University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
Steve Jacobsen
Center for Engineering Design
3176 MEB
Hands, manipulators, biomedical applications, teleoperation. Micro
electro-mechanical systems design.
===Yale University - Vision and Robotics Group
There is a broad spectrum of research activities in vision and
robotics at Yale. The members of this group include faculty from
Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Psychology, Neuroscience,
and the Yale Medical School. Active areas of research include
machine vision, humanand computer object recognition, geometric
reasoning, mobile robotics, sensor-based manipulation, control of
highly dynamic nonlinear systems, planning, and learning. There is
also a wide spectrum of interdisciplinary work integrating robotics
and machine vision.
Faculty:
James S. Duncan: Geometric/physical models for analysing biomedical
images.
Gregory D. Hager: Sensor-based/task-directed decision-making and
planning.
David J. Kriegman: Model-based object recognition, mobile robot
navigation.
Drew McDermott: Planning and scheduling reactive behavior, knowledge
representation, cognitive mapping.
Eric Mjolsness: Neural network approaches to vision and visual
memory.
Pat Sharpe: Computational models of hippocampal spatial learning.
Michael J. Tarr: Behavioral and computational approaches to visual
cognition.
Kenneth Yip: Automated reasoning about complex dynamical systems.
AUSTRALIA--------
===University of Western Australia
Some neat telerobotic work can be found at:
http://telerobot.mech.uwa.edu.au
CANADA------------
===McGill University
Center for Intelligent Machines
McGill University
McConnell Engineering Building, Room 420
3480 University Street
Montreal, Que, Canada H3A 2A7
and the
School of Computer Science
McGill University
McConnell Engineering Building, Room 420
3480 University Street
Montreal, Que, Canada H3A 2A7
There is a web page and ftp archive at http://www.cim.mcgill.ca
The McGill Centre for Intelligent Machines, CIM, was founded
in 1985 to provide researchers in robotics, computer vision, speech
recognition, and systems and control with a context in which to pursue
their common goal: the understanding and creation of systems which
exhibit intelligent behaviour. The three main research foci are
perception, robotics and control theory. The Centre now includes
faculty members and graduate students from five departments:
Electrical, Mechanical, Biomedical, and Mining and Metallurgical
Engineering, and the School of Computer Science.
The center itself does not have a degree program, rather
students enroll in one of the associated departments and gain access
by being supervised a faculty member who is also a CIM member. There
are research programs directly related to computer vision, robot
mechanical systems, walking machines, mobile robotics, etc.
CIM Members: J. Angeles, P.R. Belanger, M. Buehler,
P.E. Caines, L. Daneshmend, R. De Mori, G. Dudek, F. Ferrie,
J. Hollerbach, V. Hayward, D. Levanony, M.D. Levine, A. Malowany,
H. Michalska, J. Owen, E. Papadopoulos, M. Verma, S. Whitesides,
G. Zames, P.J. Zsombor-Murray, S.W. Zucker
===University of Alberta
Edmontom, Alberta
Canada T6H 2H1
Center for Machine Intelligence and Robotics
Robotics Research Laboratory, Department of Computing Science
Ron Kube
UNITED KINGDOM--------------
===Edinburgh University (UK)
Department of Artificial Intelligence
has robot and vision groups within it.
Main interests of the robotics group:
behaviour-based control of robots (both mobiles and arms)
hybrid control -- symbolic planning and behaviour-based actions
learning, both reinforcement and other types
implementations of biological systems
eg cricket ears; vertebrate learning models
active vision
real-time control
long survival times
direct-drive arm control
As well as PhDs by research, the Department offers a one-year,
taught, modular, Masters course in Information Technology for
Knowledge-based Systems where one of the possible specialisations is
in robotics and vision. This course is designed for people without
specific AI background. One module involves the Masters students
building and programming their own robot out of Lego and supplied
electronics. Another module gives hands-on experience with a simple
robot arm.
Contact the Admissions Secretary Judith Gordon <jud...@aifh.ed.ac.uk>
for information about courses.
Principal Researchers:
John Hallam <jo...@aifh.ed.ac.uk> for autonomous mobiles and survival
Bob Fisher <r...@aifh.ed.ac.uk> for most vision
Chris Malcolm <c...@aifh.ed.ac.uk> for assembly robotics and
hybrid systems
Gillian Hayes <g...@aifh.ed.ac.uk> for active vision and
biological control
Postal Address:
Department of Artificial Intelligence,
5, Forrest Hill,
Edinburgh
EH1 2QL
Scotland
===University of Essex (UK)
Brooker Laboratory for Intelligent Embedded Systems (Mobile Robots)
Main interests of the laboratory (email: rob...@essex.ac.uk):
Behavior-Based Architectures (software and hardware)
Active Vision
Collaborative AI (ie multiple agents)
Fuzzy and Neural Systems
Virtual Systems (eg robot simulation and telepresence)
Planning & Learning
Reliable Robots (ie for inaccessible or hazardous environments)
Principal Researchers:
Victor Callaghan <ca...@essex.ac.uk> &
Paul Chernett <ch...@essex.ac.uk>
behavior-based architectures, virtual systems & active vision
Libor Spacek
active vision (& face recognition)
Jim Doran <do...@essex.ac.uk>
Collaborative AI
Chang Wang <cw...@essex.ac.uk>
fuzzy and neural systems
Edward Tsang <edw...@essex.ac.uk> & Sam Steel <s...@essex.ac.uk>
planning & learning
John Standeven <st...@essex.ac.uk> &
Martin Colley <mar...@essex.ac.uk>
reliable robotic systems
In addition to PhDs by research, there is a one-year, taught, Masters
course in Computer Science where it is possible to undertake
robotics, AI or vision.
Contact csd...@essex.ac.uk for further details of courses or
rob...@essex.ac.uk for information on research. In addition some
useful information on the laboratory can be obtained by ftp'ing the
file SXlab.ps.Z from the ROBOTS archive at ftp.essex.ac.uk (in
directory pub/robots)
===University of the West of England at Bristol, U.K.
(used to be Bristol Polytechnic)
Undergraduate
Robotics is taught as part of undergraduate programs in engineering
courses and as part of a real time computing course. The engineering
department has in its teaching labs Puma, Adept, IBM,
Cincinatti-Milacron and Funac robots
Research
There are two main groups, the Intelligent Autonomous Systems group
and Intelligent Flexible Assembly group.
Intelligent Autonomous Systems:
Yichuang Jin, Will Wray: Neural net control of manipulators,
especially stability-based adaptive control. Comparative modelling of
neurocontroller design for robotics.
Lawrence Bull, Owen Holland, Chris Melhuish: Behaviour-based mobile
robots, collective behaviour, reinforcement learning and genetic
algorithms.
Intelligent Flexible Assembly Technology (InFACT/ALASCA Group):
Eureka/FAMOS Projects (EC colaborative project - academic and
Industry) The group has a large gantry based robot designed and built
by the group
-Farid Dialami, Alan Redford: Advanced Large scale flexible assembly
(Peugot cars etc), generic tooling.
-David Eastlake (hardware), Mike Morgan(software): Transputer based
robot control of co-operating manipulators.
Email: <dj_e...@csd.uwe.ac.uk>
===Bristol University
Mr Khodlebandelhoo
Bi arm research
Path planning for redundant robots
Wall climbing robots
===Hull University, UK
Prof Alan Pugh
Garment Manufacturing
Arm/controller design
===University of Oxford
Robotics Research Group
The Robotics Group currently comprises about seventy academics,
postdoctoral research staff, overseas visitors, and graduate
students. A broad range of topics in advanced robotics is studied
in collaboration with industry and government establishments
throughout Europe.
Robot Design and Control
A number of projects are concerned with the design and control of
compliant robot arms.
Parallel Architectures
Real-time sensor-based control of systems such as robot vehicles is
a topic of increasing interest. For low bandwidth sensors such
sonar, the emphasis is on Transputer architectures. For high
bandwidth sensors such as vision, hybrid SIMD/MIMD architectures are
being developed. A rapidly growing effort is concerned with the
design, implementation, and application of neural networks. Digital
and hybrid digital/analog chips have been designed and are being
fabricated. Algorithms and TTL circuits have been constructed for
text-to-speech synthesis.
Vision and Active Vision
The theory and applications of vision accounts for approximately
one-third of the laboratory's effort. Current projects include edge
detection and texture segmentation and the computation of visual
motion by a parallel algorithm that estimates the optic flow field.
Sensors and Sensor Integration
Includes laser rangefinder development in addition to analog and
digital sonar sensors, as well as infrared rangers, have been
developed for the AGV project (below).
Autonomous Guided Vehicles
Work on a research prototype of a fielded industrial AGV cuts across
many of the separate themes of the laboratory's work. The goal of
the initial project is to equip the AGV with sonar, infrared, laser
ranging, trinocular stereo, and model-based vision sensors to enable
it to avoid unexpected obstacles and to locate pallets.
===Reading University, UK
Prof Kevin Warwick
Using neural nets in robotics and novel control algorithms.
===Salford University
Dr D.P.Barnes
Dept. Of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Mobile Robots Research Group.
Autonomous mobile robot system with a behaviour-based architecture are
designed and built with the intent to study the processes of
cooperation with and without communication. Such an approach has led
us up a number of paths with present work in behaviour synthesis and
evolutionary robotics. Expertise in: Robotics, Sensors,
Communication, Connectionist Systems, Genetic Algorithms and Genetic
Programming. Possible studies in PhD and MSc work and courses at
undergraduate level.
Dr D.Caldwell
Dept Of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Multi-Functional Tactile Sensing and Feedback (Tele-taction)
Tele-presence of an operator with a full mobile robot with two
manipulator arms, stereo vision and sound. Tactile sensing
datagloves are used to control the manipulators and video camera is
used to move head (!). Expertise: Manipulators, Sensors,
Tele-presence. Possible studies at PhD and MSc and courses at
undergraduate level.
Advanced Robotics Research Centre
Ultrasonic wrist sensor for collision avoidance
Controller design
Stereo Vision
Dr Francis Nagy
Speech Control of a Puma-560
Control of an 'Inverted Pendulum'
Miniature tactile sensors
===University of Surrey
Mechatronic Systems and Robotics Research Group
contacts:
Prof G A Parker (g.pa...@surrey.ac.uk)
John Pretlove (j.pre...@surrey.ac.uk)
Primary Areas of Research activity:
3D co-ordinate tracking system for robot metrology
Neural networks and expert systems for vision and inspection
Active stereo vision for real-time robot arm guidance
Design of controllable stereo vision systems.
Open architecture Puma controller
Mobile robots
We also offer MSc courses and undergraduate courses in automation,
control, mechanical engineering and CIM.
FRANCE-------------
===University of Paris
INRIA (Nice) just started a Phd program in Robotics.
SWEDEN-------------
===Lulea University of Technology
Department of Robotics and Automation
S-971 87 LULEE
Mosaic: http://www.sm.luth.se/csee/er/sm-roa/
SWITZERLAND--------
===Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
The Institute of Robotics
Postgrad diploma in Mechatronics
The Institute of Robotics at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (ETH) constitutes about 40 members of staff (including
Ph.D. students). The main research theme is Intelligent Interactive
Mechines. That is to say developing intelligent robots that in
cooperation with man solves difficult tasks. The institute takes
its students from the departments of Electrical Engineering,
Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science. Robotics lectures and
project work is offered to undergraduate students. In addition there
is the "Nachdiplom" in mechatronics (somewhere near a M.Sc.) where
robotics is a central theme. For further details on the "Nachdiplom"
see below. Finally there are about 30 Ph.D. students curently
registered working on a variety of themes and projects. Institute
facilities include: several different robot arms including the in
house developed modular robot arm (MODRO), mobile vehicles including
the in house developed modular mobile robot, walking machines,
supercomputing facilities, dedicated vision and signal processing
hardware, etc.
The head of the group is Professor G. Schweitzer.
Address:
Institute of Robotics
ETH-Center, LEO,
8092 Zurich
Switzerland
tel: (01) 256 35 84 (secretary)
fax: (01) 252 02 76.
The "Nachdiplom" in mechatronics runs over two semesters plus
three months project/thesis work. The lectures covers:
robotics, mobile robotics, micro robots, computer based
kinematics and dynamics of multibody systems, control
theory, magnetic bearings, real time software techniques,
information processing with neural networks, computer
vision, and artificial intelligence. The fees are 2400,-
Swiss Franks, founding is available. Contact:
H.-K. Scherrer
Mechatronics postgraduate course
ETH-Centre, LEO B3
8092 Zurich
Switzerland
net: <sche...@ifr.ethz.ch>
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++What is the State of the Robot Industry?
In general, there was a significant slump in the mid to late 1980's in
industrial robotics. However in the early 1990's sales and number have
rebounded to surpass early 1980 numbers and dollars.
From Motion Control Magazine April 1994: Robotics Industries
Association said recently Robot orders jumped 40% through June, 1993
as the industry posted its best opening half-year ever.... Net new
orders received by U.S. based robotics companies totalled 3,640 robots
valued at $306.2 million, the highest unit and dollar figures ever.
From the New York Times, Wednesday September 7th pC1
(paraphrased) In the late 1980's a steep decline in robot orders drove
most US companies out of the business. In the first half of 1994 4,335
robots with a total value of $383.5 million. Fanuc is the leader with
about $360M in sales this year. Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) is second with
sales estimated at $120M. The next several are Japanese: Motoman,
Panasonic, Sony and Nachi.
The only major US producer to have survived is Adept Technology with
about $50M in sales in a $700M market.
Interpreted from a graph in the article:
Net new orders in US:
Year # of robots $US
1984 5800 $480M
1985 6200 $380M
1986 5400 $320M
1987 3800 $300M
1988 4000 $325M
1989 4500 $510M
1990 5000 $510M
1991 4000 $410M
1992 5250 $500M
1993 6800 $630M
1994 4335 (6 mos) $383M (6 mos)
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Other Organizations doing robotics
What companies and government laboratories are doing robotics work?
This list is a small fraction of companies and other organizations
that are actively working in robotics. One way to obtain more
companies is to search through proceedings of conferences and find
member companies of many of the organizations listed in previous FAQ
sections a significant number of companies can be
generated. Industrial robotics is used widely throughout a number of
companies. Most large aerospace companies have groups working in or
looking into robotics. Martin Marietta (Denver), Rockwell
International (Downey, CA), Boeing (Seattle) to name a few. Mitre
Corporation of McLean VA and Houston TX, are also doing quite a bit in
robotics.
Advanced Robotics Research Centre
Salford, UK.
The Advanced Robotics Research Ltd (incorporating the National
Advanced Robotics Research Centre, UK) is a joint UK Government and
UK Industries funded research organisation involved in the research
of enabling technologies for the advanced robotics systems.
Automation and Robotics Research Institue (ARRI)
7300 Jack Newell Blvd. South
Ft. Worth, Texas 76118
tel: 817.794.5900
Mechanical Engineering Lab (MEL)
Tsukuba City, Japan
Kazuo Tanie: Robotics and cybernetics
NASA Centers
------------
There are a number of NASA Centers that are researching and using
robotics for lab prototypes, flight, ground servicing and many other
applications. A nice web site for NASA Robotics is at
http://ranier.oact.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics_page/telerobotics.html
It also has pointers to several NASA Centers
NASA Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL)
Pasadena, CA
Hazardous-environment robots, teloperation, control, space and
planetary missions. Currently responsible for MESUR Pathfinder
rover.
WWW site is at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
Contacts: Tony Bejczy, Chuck Weisbin, Brian Wilcox, Larry Mathies,
Henry Stone, Rajiv Desai.
NASA Ames Research Center (ARC)
Moffett Field, CA
Contact: Butler Hine III <hi...@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov>
Telepresence and virtual user interfaces, vision (optical and parallel
processing), free-flyers, task planning, agents. Ames has recently
fielded a underwater vehicle in the Antarctic. The Teleoperated
Remotely Operated Vehicle (TROV) purpose is to assess the capabilities
of telepresence and virtual environments for performing remote
scientific field work. Lots of interesting things here including
DanteII, TROV and Ranger projects. http://maas-neotek.arc.nasa.gov/
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Contact: Stephen Leake <nbs...@robots.gfsc.nasa.gov>
Since the cancellation of the Flight Telerobotic Servicer
(FTS), the Robotics Lab has been concentrating on work in the
area of automated space craft servicing. The goal is to
replace or supplement Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) with
teleoperated or semiautonomous robotic systems for external
vehicle maintenance. Current project includes a robot to
assist in second Hubble servicing mission.
NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Houston, TX
Contact: Charles Price
More of an operations house but lots of shuttle RMS work. A number
of robot projects including testing of space station manipulator
systems happens at JSC.
NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
Robotics Group
Contact: Bill Jones
Like JSC, KSC is an operations house with responsibility to keep
shuttles flying and integrate payloads. There is a small but
growing robotics group that is emplacing ground support robotics
applications. Recent work includes filter inspector for launch pad
payload areas, shuttle radiator inspector and a mobile system for
thermal protection system tasks.
NASA Langley Research Center, (LaRC)
Hampton, VA
Contact: Jack Pennington - vision, inspection, 3-D sensors
National Laboratories
---------------------
The US National Laboratories are large complexes with a number of
robotics efforts. One current focus is the enormous and costly cleanup
of the weapons complexes throughout the country. Remediation, removal
and cleanup of hazardous materials will require hundreds of billions
of $$$ and many years. Robotics will be a key in much of this.
Sandia National Laboratories,
Albuquerque, NM
Sandia is a DOE National Laboratory with a substantial program in
robotics at its Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center. The Center
has interests in manufacturing, hazardous material handling, site
remediation, and research to support these
applications. Consequently areas of focus include assembly planning,
robotic interfaces, control theory, motion planning, sensor
fusion, sensor development, mobile vehicles, telemanagement, mobile
vehicles, and so on. At the time of writing (2/15/93) the center has
nearly 100 full-time staff with degrees in computer science,
mechanical engineering, mathematics, electrical engineering, as well
as a few in other fields. The mix is about 30% PhD, 40%MS, and 30%
BS. Recent hires have come from Cornell, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU,
Illinois, Penn, ... The center operates over 20 fully equipted labs
including robots from Puma, Adept, GCA, Cincinnati Millacron, and
Schilling. The virtual reality lab includes stereoscopic viewers
from Fake Space, audio, speech recognition and synthesis, and big
boxes from SGI to drive the graphics. In addition to the normal
complement of departmental computing we have use of other compute
resources at Sandia including a 1000 node N-cube, a 1000+node Intel
Paragon, several crays, a CM-200 (16K procs).
Contacts: Randy Brost, Pat Xavier, Sharon Stansfield, Pang
Chen, David Strip, Jim Novak, Ray Harrigan, Pat Eicker, Bob
Anderson.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research
P. O. Box 2008, MS-6364
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6364
tel: 615.241.4959
fax: 615.574.7860
Contact: Dr. Lynne E. Parker, email: Park...@ornl.gov
Research in mobile and manipulator robotics, including
redundant and multiple manipulators, cooperating mobile robots,
parallel vision systems, sensor fusion, laser range finder
research, real-time quantitative reasoning and behavior based
control, and machine learning. Current applications include
robots for nuclear power stations, environmental restoration
and waste management, material handling, and automated
manufacturing.
Researchers: James Baker, Marty Beckerman, Chuck Glover, William
Grimmell, Judd Jones, Reinhold Mann, Ed Oblow, Lynne Parker,
Nageswara Rao, David Reister, Phil Spelt, Michael Unseren.
Redzone Robotics
2425 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-4639
tel: 412.765.3064
fax: 412.364.3069
contact: Dave White <da...@redzone.com>
A spin-off of CMU, Redzone has focused on hazwaste and nuke
manipulator applications but is also developing mobile
applications. Primarily protoypes and not multiple unit
manufacturing at this time.
Southwest Research Institute
San Antonio, TX
Robotics and Automation Department
Some large systems for servicing aircraft (painting, spraying,
deriveting etc)
Germany:
Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Großforschungseinrichtungen (AGF)
(Association of National Research Centers)
Wissenschaftszentrum
Ahrstraße 45
Postfach 20 14 48
53144 Bonn
tel: (02 28) 3 76 74-1
fax: (02 28) 3 76 74-4
http://www.gmd.de/AGF-Anschriften.html
These are sixteen research centers in Germany. One of the
research centers is GMD and they do robotics. GMD is at
http://borneo.gmd.de/AS/janus/pages/janus.htm
______________________________________________________________________________
+++Mobile robot companies
There are a small number of companies targeting the research community
for the mobile robot market. TRC, RWI, and Cybermotion have all sold
and are selling mobile devices for research and real
applications. There are a number of Automatic Guided Vehicle companies
as well and their primary applications are factory operations.
Companies manufacturing Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV) are listed at
the end of this section. Robot lawn mowers too!
Action Machinery Co.
One Vulcan Drive
Helena, AL 35080, USA
tel: 205.663.0814
fax: 205.663.3445
Severe-duty hydraulic robots and manipulators. Payloads from
65kg - 7000kg. Primarily forge, foundry, and casting operations.
Applied AI Machines & Software
Suite 504, Gateway Business Park
340 March Rd, KANATA
Ontario, Canada K2K 2E4
net: <73051...@compuserve.com>
MIT subumption architecture style robots. Ghengis-II walker runs
$8636.00 including a development system and downloading board, but
without LISP.
Bell and Howell
Mailmobile Company
81 Hartwell Avenue
Lexington, MA 02173-3127
tel: 617.674.1110
Mailmobiles were developed by Lear-Siegler in the mid-70's for the
industrial cleaning market. They left this market and
Bell & Howell, the audio-visual company, was refocusing on office
automation products and picked
up this product from Lear-Siegler. There are three models of
Mailmobile, the Packmobile, the Sprint and the Trailmobile. About 3000
systems sold and about 2000 probably in operation. They use a chemical
trail that floureseces under UV light. Payloads up to a couple of
hundred kg. Some systems have been operating for over 15 years.
Branch & Associates Pty Ltd
1153 Tasman Highway
Cambridge, Tasmania 7170
Australia (operating in Europe, Asia and America)
tel: +61-02-485-807
fax: +61-02-485-809
contact: Alex Vail, Division Manager
Since 1979, specialist in autonomous navigation and guidance;
products and technology for applications, research, and teaching.
Conquerer series of fully autonomous AGV's, mapping system,
non-accumulated error, accuracy 1cm, 1 degree, no environmental
modifications, $12K - $25K.
Fander: research and educational mobile robot. $5.5K includes
everything: built-in software demonstrates in real situations numerous
exmaples of roboti mobility technologies for teaching, research and
teaching manual, stand-alone and remote PC modes, real time graphics.
Cybermotion
5457 Jae Valley Road
Roanoke, VA 24014
tel: 703.562.7626
John Holland's company. Mobile K2 bases making use of ingenious
torque-tube synchronous drive system. Security markets and research
platforms, manipulators for base as well. Map building software too.
Cyberworks
31 Ontario Street
Orillia, Ontario
L3V 6H1 Canada
tel: 705.325.6110
fax: 705.325.8566
Primary product are 'building blocks' for mobile robot
development including controllers, sensors, softare and chassis'.
Denning Branch International Robotics
1401 Ridge Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15233
tel: (412) 322-4412
fax: (412) 322-2040
email: Soon. Messages to h...@cs.cmu.edu will be forwarded.
Denning-Branch is a merger of Denning Mobile Robotics, once
located in the Boston area, and makers of human-size mobile
robots since 1983, and Branch and Associates, of Hobart,
Australia, designers and builders of smaller mobile robots
since 1979.
Among the first products available is an MRV retrofit kit,
which substitutes a modern Intel 80486 system with more power and a
simpler interface for the 1985 vintage MC 68000 based controller.
Fander
Small (~60x30x30 cm) 80486 based robot for educational
purposes, with infrared and rotating sonar sensors, preprogrammed for
several autonomous navigation tasks, and externally controllable via
serial link. $5.5K
MRV 1&4
Large (~90x90x120 cm) heavy payload capacity synchro drive
robot, with optional sonar ring and laser nav sensors and software.
$13.5K
LaserNav
Robot-mounted scanning infrared laser unit that uses wall
mounted bar-coded retroreflectors or active transponders to navigate
to centimeter precision in 10-meter-scale areas. $8K
RotoSonar
Small-scale revolving sonar head with 4 sonar units and
software. $3K
Sonar Ring
MRV-scale belt of 24 sonar units and driving hardware and
software.
IS Robotics
4353 Park Terrace Drive Suite 6, 22McGrath Hwy
Westlake Village, CA 91361 USA Somerville, MA 02143
tel: 818.597.1900 tel: 617.629.0055
net: <rob...@isx.com> fax: 617.629.0126
T-1: tracked robot approx 50cm x 36cm. $5k
R-2: Wheeled machine. Gripper with 7.5cm opening, 18cm lift, 1kg
lift force. $7K
Ghengis II: Six-legged machine with whisker bump sensors and force
detection on legs. About $2k.
Use the ubiquitous MC68HC11E2 microcontrollers. Robots include IR
and bump sensing for obstacle detection. Pyro sensors and color
camera with pan-tilt are optional.
Kentree
Kilbritten,
Co. Cork, Ireland
tel: +353 23 49791, 49808
fax: +353 23 49801
Teleoperated bomb disposal vehicles in a range of sizes.
mecos Robotics AG
Technopark
Pfingstweidstrasse
CH-8005 Zurich
Switzerland
tel: + 41 1 445 11 35
fax: + 41 1 445 11 34
email: me...@ifr.ethz.ch
Contact: S. J. Vestli
Company formed as a spin off of the Institute of Robotics, ETH
(Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). "mecos Robotics"
specialises in modular and adaptive robot manipulators and
robot vehicles (mobile robots). All "mecos Robotics" systems
uses the same type of controller, a VME based computer. This
system comes with high level development tools, and for
research institutions the systems have the advantage of being
open. The overall goals of all "mecos Robotics" systems are
flexility and modularity.
The mobile robot program from "mecos Robotics" follows this
principle. The physical size and the mechanical configuration
can be altered. The standard configuration has three wheels
with air tyres and independant suspension. One wheel is used
for steering and propulsion (imagine a kids tricycle). The
overall size is 0.7 m (W) * 1.0 m (L) * 0.5 m (H). The price
depends on configuration and starts around the 70.000,- Swiss
Franks mark.
Nomadic Technologies
1060-B Terra Bella Avenue
Mountain View, CA 94043
tel: 415.988.7200 ext. 203
fax: 415.988.7201
net: no...@robots.com
Nomad 200 is an integrated mobile robot system with four
sensing modules including tactile, infrared, ultrasonic, and
2D laser. Integrated software development package for the
host computer includes a graphic interface, robot simulator
and a library of motion planning, motion control and sensory
data interpretation functions. Geared toward teaching and
research in Robotics and AI. The Nomad utilizes a synchronous
steering system (ala Cybermotion and RWI). Speeds up to .5
meters/second and onboard battery power.
Nomad 200 Mobile Base $10,000
Nomad 200 Control System $ 6,000
Sensus 100 Tactile Sensing System $ 1,500
Sensus 200 Fixed Sonar System $ 2,500
Sensus 500 Structured Light Vision System $ 7,000
RF Modem Kit $ 2,000
Digital Compass $ 450
OTO MELARA
Via Valdilocchi 15
19136 La Spezia ITALY
Tel. +39 187 58 2843
Fax +39 187 58 2669
contact: Gian Carlo Caligiani, Robotic Systems Office
OTO MELARA R.2.5.Robotized System
The Robotized R.2.5 (R.2.5.R) Project aims at prototyping a
mobile robot for intervention in hostile environments.
The system is composed by three main units: the transportable
control station, the radio communication set and the mobile robot
based on an armoured, diesel propelled, wheeled platform called
R.2.5. Gorgona, produced by OTO MELARA.
Robot can be remotely controlled via full-duplex radio link. Can be
teleoperated and provides supervised modes as well. Speeds from
30cm/sec to 30km/h. As of May 1994 the locomotion system and
teleoperated system are complete. Additional functionality in the form
of supervised and autonomous operation are planned.
Poulan/Weed Eater
c/o Robotic Solar Mower Dept.
PO Box 91329
Shreveport, LA 71149-1329
tel: 318.687.0100 X3939
[Boiled out of their press release - Gareth Branwyn]
The Robotic Solar Mower is a 12.5 lb. automated solar-powered "lawn
groomer." It uses a wire boundary system to keep it inside the
mowing area. It runs continuously when the sun shines. Its operation
is "virtually noise free." It continues on its constant mowing course,
taking between several hours and several days to complete a
grooming cycle (depending on size of yard, obstacles, etc.). Instead of
cutting 1/3 of the grass blades (as in a conventional mower), it only
trims the tips. It can handle a yard up to 13,500 sq. feet and has a
slope tolerance of 15-20 degress. A pilot program is currently
offering the mower in the US for $2,000.
Real World Interface (RWI) P.O. Box 375
15 Fitzgerald Dr.
Jaffrey, NH 03452
tel: 603.532.6900
fax: 603.532.6901
net: r...@mv.mv.com
RWI Manufactures the B12 and the B21 Mobile Robot Systems.
The B12 Robot System is for research at the university level and is
based on the widely used B12 Synchro Drive Base. Sensors available
include: ultrasonic ranging, infra-red proximity, tactile heading, and
vision.
The B21 Robot System is for mobile autonomous research and
emerging commercial/military applications. It is based on the B21
Synchro Drive Base which has a payload of 200 pounds (90 kg) and
carries 1500 watt hours of battery power. Sensors include: ultrasonic
ranging, infra-red proximity, full body tactile, heading, and vision.
The B21 CPU section mounts 3 networked Linux 486DX2/4's. Console
computer runs X-Windows. Power management allows no-shutdown battery
charge/exchange.
(B12) B12 Base $6,850
B12 Base Tactile $1,500
B12 Enclosures $2,500-$2,950
B12 68000 Computer $1,850
B12 Ultrasonics $1,900
B12 Infra-Reds $1,750
(B21) B21 Base (low IR, tactile sensors) $19,500
B21 Enclosure (high IR, ultrasonic, tactile) $11,500
B21 486DX4 (linux, 16mb ram, 420mb HDD, etc) $2,750+/-
B21 Console Computer $2,495+/-
(Acc) Pan-Tilt Head $1,800
Radio Links (RS-232 & ethernet) $1,295-$5,995
CCD Cameras (color & B&W) $800-$1,500
Frame Grabbers Inquire
Digital Navigation Compass $695
Remotec
114 Union Valley Road
Oak Ridge, TN 37830
tel: 615.483.0228
fax: 615.483.1426
The ANDROS line of teleoperated mobile robots. These were
designed to be useful in the nuclear industry and in other
hazardous applications, and are very rugged. You can hose them
down. Available in a range of sizes, with a variety of
optional attachments, such as video cameras, arms, etc.
TAG Technology
5 Bowlands Mill,
Alnwick, Northumberland, NE661LN, UK
tel: +44 655 604895
fax: +44 665 510624
Frank - a tracked vehicle. Cost $UK 2000 - 5785 depending on
functionality.
TRC
15 Great Pasture Road
Danbury, CT 06810
tel: 203.798.8988
Labmate research platform - $7500, plus additional optional
sensors etc. Other products for hospital markets and floor
cleaning machines. (Helpmate and RoboKent respectively)
Visual Inspection Technologies
27-2 Ironia Road
Flanders, NJ 07836-9124
tel: 201.927.0033
fax: 201.927.3207
VIT specializes in remote visual and ultrasonic testing but sells or
rents a small tracked rover for inspection work. Products include
ROVVER, SPOT, and PIPECAT vertical pipe crawler. VIT also makes
miniature remote pan and tilt devices.
Yamazaki Construction Company, Tokyo Japan.
Intelligent Robot Lab
Kaika Building
2-7-1 Sotokanda
Chiyoda-ku 101 Tokyo
Japan
tel: 81-3-5256-0715
LR1 robot - small research robot, basically a VME cage on
wheels with some ultrasonic sensors and a nice constant force
suspension. Has shown up at IEEE R&A conferences $30K.
RoboSoft SA
, ,
6, allee Paul Cezanne
93360 Neuilly Plaisance
FRANCE
tel: +33 1 4944 3035
fax: +33 1 4944 3297
AGV Companies
-------------
AGV Products
9307-E Monroe Road
Charlotte, NC 28270-1485
tel: 704.845.1110
fax: 704.845.1111
Controls and components for AGV's. Supplier of Schabmuller
motor-in-wheel drives.
Apogee Robotics
2643 Midpoint Drive
Fort Collins, CO 80525
tel: 303.221.1122
fax: 303.221.1774
Standard and custom-designed AGV's
BT Systems
7000 Nineteen Mile Road
Sterling Heights, MI 48314
tel: 313.254.5200
fax: 313.254.5570
Automated Handling Systems (Formerly Volvo Automated Systems)
Caterpillar Industrial
5960 Heisley Road
Mentor, OH 44060
tel: 216.357.2935
fax: 216.357.4410
Manufacturer and distributor of fork lift trucks and guided
vehicles. Cat's SGV's use rotating laser scanner and barcodes
as opposed to traditional wire-guided systems.
Control Engineering Company
Jervis Webb Company
34375 W. Twelve Mile Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48331-5624
tel: 313.553.1220
fax: 313.553.1253
Eaton-Kenway
515 East 100 South
PO Box 45425
Salt Lake City, UT 84145-0425
tel: 801.530.4000
fax: 801.530.4243
AGV's and integrated systems
Elwell-Parker
4205 St. Clair Avenue
Cleveland, OH
tel: 216.881.6200
fax: 216.391.7708
Designs/manufactures rider style, electric, fork and platform
mobile material handling equipment. Line includes AGV's, high
tonnage capacity. Mobile cranes, explosion proof forklifts.
Eskay Corporation
563 West 500 South
Bountiful, UT 84010
tel: 801.295.5315
fax: 801.299.9990
Automated material handling systems including AGVS.
Fata Automation
37050 Industrial Road
Livonia, MI 48150
tel: 313.462.0678
fax: 313.462.0997
Sales and service of AGVs.
FMC Corporation
400 Highpont Drive
Chalfont, PA 18914
tel: 215.822.4300
fax: 215.822.4342
AGVs, Automated Handling Systems, Consulting, Trolley and
Power and Free Converyors, Tow lines, Integrated Systems and
Controls, Roll Handling Equipment.
IDAB Incorporated
1 Enterprise Parkway, Suite 300
PO Box 8157
Hampton, VA 23666
tel: 804.825.2260
fax: 804.825.9307
Automatic handling systems and AGV's
Litton Industrial Automation
2300 Litton Lane
Hebron, KY 41048
tel: 606.334.2033
fax: 606.334.2847
Full service material handling company.
Mannesmann Demag Corporation
29201 Aurora Road
Cleveland, OH 44139-1895
tel: 216.248.2400
fax: 216.248.3086
Overhead cranes, wire rope and chain hoists, AGV systems,
automatic storage and retrieval systems, monorail, aircraft
maintenance equipment.
Mentor AGVS Products
8500 Station Street
PO Box 898
Mentor, OH 44060
tel: 216.255.4051
fax: 216.255.3430
AGV systems and automated transfer cars.
Munck Automation Technology
315 E Street
Hampton, VA 23661
tel: 804.838.6010
fax: 804.826.5651
Manufacturer and integrator of automated material handling
systems. AGVS of many configurations (unitload, forklift,
towing)
The Raymond Corporation
South Canal Street
PO Box 130
Greene, NY 13778
tel: 607.656.2311
fax: 607.656.9005
Material handling equipment.
Roberts Sinto Corporation
3001 West Main Street
PO Box 40760
Lansing, MI 48901-7960
tel: 517.371.2460
fax: 517.372.4930
MGV's (Mechanically guided vehicles)
Professional Materials Handling Co, Inc.
4203 Landmark Drive
Orlando, FL 32817
tel: 305.677.0040
Steinbock fork trucks. Wire guided, use regenerative braking.
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Manipulator companies
Adept Technology
150 Rose Orchard Way
San Jose, CA 95134
tel: 408.432.0888
fax: 408.432.8707
High speed direct-drive and harmonic-drive SCARA style arms. 0.001"
(.025mm) repeatabiliy. Payloads from 4-25kg Can be used in clean room
and food applications as well. Adept sells vision systems and
controllers also.
Antenen Research
PO Box 95
Hamilton, OH 45012
tel: 800.323.9555
tel: 513.887.4700
fax: 513.887.4703
New and used robots for manufacturing, research and
training. Used at savings of 40% - 70%. Also lots of parts and
accessories.
Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Vesteraas, Sweden
ABB Robotics
2487 South Commerce Drive
New Berlin, WI 53151
tel: 414.785.3400
fax: 414.789.9235
Now own Cinncinatti Milacron robotics group, Graco and
Trallfa. Many types of larger industrial robots.
Comau - Italy
Via Rivalta 30
10095 Grugliasco
Torino, Italy
tel: 011 33341
fax: 011 7809156
A variety of industrial manipulators ranging in payloads from 6kg to 125kg. All electric AC drives. One of the novel designs is a 6DOF, 12kg payload robot The SMART-3 6.12 R. It uses a carbon fibre forearm, absolute resolver feedback and 0.15mm repeatability.
CRS Plus,
PO Box 163, Station A
830 Harrington Court
Burlington, Ontario
Canada L7R 3Y2
tel: 416.639.0086
fax: 416.639.4248
Sells several manipulators. 5-DOF around $25K, 6DOF around $33K.
Sell end-effectors as well (electric, vacuum and penumatic)
Wrist can be bought separately. Controllers use RAPL, a VAL-like
language. Fairly open architecture. 3Kg payloads +/- 0.05mm
repeatability.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
24402 Sinacola Court
Farmington Mills, MI 48331
tel: 313.474.6100
fax: 313.474.6101
Kawasaki was the first Japanese mfg to lead in the production
of industrial robots. They licensed the former Unimation line
of robots and now make about a dozen types of electric arms
for welding, painting and assembly.
Kraft Telerobotics
11667 W. 90th Street
Overland Park, KS 66214
tel: 913.894.9022
fax: 913.894.1363
Nice telerobotic arms for underwater work.
Labman Automation Ltd
Stokesley, North Yorkshire. TS9 5JY. UK
net:<labman.demon.co.uk> tel:INT 44 642 710580
Contact: Andrew Whitwell
Tailoring mainly gantry based systems for laboratory applications. Designs
include storage systems, multiple manipulators, special probes, modification
of instruments and laboratory equipment. PC driven stepper drives, linear
drives, dc motors, pneumatics, all sensors, RS232 links, LIMS communication.
Systems include powder feeding, wet chemistry analysis, microtitre plate
handling and many more.
mecos Robotics AG
Technopark Zurich
Pfingstweidstrasse 30
CH-8005 Zurich
Switzerland
tel: + 41 1 445 11 35
fax: + 41 1 445 11 34
net: <me...@ifr.ethz.ch>
Contact: E. Nielsen
Spin-off of the Institute of Robotics, ETH (Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology). Modular and adaptive robot
manipulators and robot vehicles (mobile robots). All mecos
Robotics systems use a VME based computer as controller. The
system comes with high level development tools, and are open
systems. The manipulator's mechanical configuration can be
changed at will (number and type of joints, length of links,
etc.) Manipulators use linear aluminum extrusions with
integral motions for joints. The controller accounts for
configuration changes. With this principle of modularity and
flexibilty hybrid force / position controllers have been
realised on "mecos Robotics" arms. Price depending on
configuration (50.000,- Swiss Franks and upwards). NTSC or PAL
videos available for Sfr. 40 per tape.
Motoman [Hobart/Yaskawa]
3160 MacArthur Boulevard
Northbrook, IL 60062-1917
tel: 708.291.2340
fax: 708.498.2430
Large industrial manipulators for welding, painting, palletizing,
dispensing, etc. Can be floor, ceiling or wall mount units. Payloads
for the 8 robots in the K-series range from 3kg to 100kg and
repeatability of 0.1 to 0.5 mm over that same range. They are vertical
jointed-arm type manipulators. (i.e. 4 bar linkage to reduce arm
intertias). 3 S-series robots are SCARA-type manipulators with
payloads of 50-60kg and varying workspace sizes
Yaskawa also has bought the rights to RobotWorld, Vic Schienman's unique
gantry design robot system. This system allow a number of mobile
modules in the same workspace to zip around at speeds up 80"/sec (3G
accel). RAIL and C can be used in a multilevel programming
environment. 0.002" Accuracy, 0.0005" repeatability. Neat stuff.
Oxford Intelligent Machines (OxIM)
12 Kings Meadow,
Osney Mead Industrial Estate
Oxford, OX2 0DP, UK
tel: +44 (0) 865 204881
fax: +44 (0) 865 204882
contact: Dr. Peter Davey
Incorporated in 1990, OxIM provides a complete design service
in the related fields of industrial sensors and automation. OxIM is
manufacturing and developing robots and advanced industrial equipment.
The MAP-IT vehicle is an open architecture research vehicle for indoor
environments. The top surface, complete with an array of mounting
holes, is available to the user for moutning experimental sensors and
payload. Two direct drive motor-gearbox units provide locomotion. An
extended 3U rack contains a controller card and power converter drive
card. A third spare slot is provided. 400mm diam with payload surface
200mm above ground. Remote base station including power supply, dual
RS232 ports, Full ANSI source code, 2 spare axes of servo control,
bumper system, 10kg payload, 65W power supply. Several options are
also available including PC interface.
Salisbury Robotics, Inc.
20 Pemberton St.
Cambridge, MA 02140
tel: 617.661.8847
net: <j...@ai.mit.edu>
Sells the three-fingered Salisbury hand and force sensing fingertips.
Contact: Ken Salisbury,
Sarcos Research Corporation
390 Wakara Way,
Suite 44, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108
tel: 801.581.0155
Spinoff of University of Utah's Center for Engineering Design (CED).
Teleoperated systems, manipulators. Audio-animatronic work as well.
Beautiful force reflecting work and systems. High performance and
small hydraulic valves and actuators.
Schilling
1632 Da Vinci Court
Davis, CA 95616
tel: 916.753.6718
fax: 916.753.8092
Electro-mechanical engineering and manufacturing company
specializing in telerobotics. Various remote manipulator and
telerobotic manipulator systems.
Seiko Instruments
Torrance, CA
tel: 310.517.7700
Seiko has made a wide variety of pick and place machines and
newer 6DOF manipulators.
Sony Corporation of America
Factory Automation Division
542 Route 303
Orangeburg, NY 10962
tel: 914.365.6000
fax: 914.365.6087
Several SCARA type manipulators including a double armed
manipulator. This model is used for the assembly of 8mm
camcorders!
Robotics Research Corp.
P.O. Box 206
Amelia, OH 45102
tel: 513.831.9570
fax: 513.381.5802
RRC offers a variety of dexterous manipulators which can be
operated individually or in dual-arm mode. Their second
generation, denoted the "i-Series", is lighter and provides
great dexterity. They are currently building
"spaceflight-qualified" manipulators for NASA (GSFC) using
this new generation of their product. They have also been
doing some work developing sensor-based automatic obstacle
detection and avoidance technology which uses a patented
algorithm with arm-mounted sensors. They have also built two
massively-redundant 17-DOF Anthropomorphic systems for Grumman
and JPL to serve as testbeds for researching "man-equivalent"
robots for space applications.
Robotic Systems International (RSI), Ltd.
9865 W. Saanick Rd.
Sydney, BC V8L 3S1
Canada
tel: 604.656.0101
UMI Microbot
[no longer in business in the US]
In the UK:
Oxford Intelligent Machines, UK
tel: 0865 204881
Originally known as the Microbot teachmover. A small cable driven
manipulator for desktop robotics. Excellent teaching tool. Original
design by John Hill (now at SRI) Microbot was bought out by the
British company UMI two years ago. In May, 1991 they moved from
Silicon Valley to Detroit, MI. As of Early 1994, only the UK company was still in business.
USA Robot
PO Box 4018
Portland, ME 04101
tel: 207.761.9039
Maxym production robots for business. Simple accurate 3D
linear motions coupled with power tooling such as routers, air drills
and sanders. Workspaces up to 60cmx147cmx15cm. IBMPC software for
designing parts and production path but takes DXF files as input.
Not a machine like the giant production turning and routing machines
used by large furniture makers but is a nice small machine for small
production shops. Prices range from $14.5K to $19.9K.
Western Space and Marine
111 Santa Barbara St.
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
tel: 805.963.3831
fax: 805.963.3832
Telerobotic manipulators for space and undersea applications.
Zebra Robotics
Jeff Kerr
Menlo Park
tel: 415.328.8884
Small manipulators with integral force control.
Zymark Corp
Hopkinton, MA
Robots for laboratory automation. Zymate
Other companies: (no addresses, yet)
International Submarine Engineering (ISE)
Furukawa
Sumitomo
Chubu
Beckman Biomark
HP ORCA
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Small Inexpensive Robots
One of the most common discussions on the net are related to
finding, building and working on small and low cost robots. There are
a few small robots on the market and a number of construction kits
that robots can be built from such as Lego, FischerTechnik and
Capsula. None of these require large investments. These systems are at
most several hundred $US and can run on a desktop. There are also a
number of kit robots that might include printed-circuit boards and a
few components.
Aleph Technology
Parc Heliopolis
16 rue du Tour de l'eau
BP 295-38407
Saint Martin d'Heres cedex, France
tel: +33 76422999
fax: +33 76444620
Small, turtle robot for education. 17000FF
Angelus Research
6344 Sugar Pine Circle
Angelus Oaks, CA
tel: 909.794.8325.
contat: Don Golding
A small differentially-steered mechanism (no casters!)
utilizing a 68HC11 controller w/ 32K RAM and RS-232 interface. Four
visible collision sensors (range 3-12 inches depending on ambient
light) and two whiskers. On-board battery (Pb- acid and built in
charger) monitors current as well for stall current. Software included
with easy-to-use high-level command set. Operable right out of the
box. A lot of features for a very affordable device. Fully assembled
and tested: $695, wireless version $1195. Intro to Whiskers Curriculum
$95. Controller board available separately for $249. Future
developments include IR obstacle detector, sonar, pyro (people
detector) sensors, and magnetic compass. Video available for $5.
Capsula
Play-Jour International
Room 914, New World Office Building
(East Wing), 24 Salisbury Rd
Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Capsula is a robot construction set. Looks like a series of bubbles
connected together. Some intriguing modules including IR control,
voice commands, motorized clutches etc. Edmund Scientific sells this
as do many toy stores.
The Electronic Gold Mine
PO Box 5408
Scottsdale, AZ 85261
tel: 602.451.7454
Roamer Robot Kit. A simple, hardwired robot kit with all parts
necessary to complete the kit. It sells for $39.95.
FischerTechnik
[Germany]
Fischerwerke
Arthur Fischer GmbH & Co. KG
Weinhalde 14-18
D-72178 Waldachtal
tel: germany + 07443 120
fax: germany + 07443 12222
[USA]
Model Technology
2420 Van Layden Way
Modesto, CA 95356
tel: 209.575.3445
fax: 209.527.6016
[UK]
Economatics Ltd
Epic house, Darnell Road
Attercliffe, Sheffield
United Kingdom
tel: +44 742 56 11 22
fax: +44 742 43 93 04
telex: 5 47 095 ECOMAT G
Like Lego, Fischertechnik is a european-developed construction kit
but much more comprehensive in scope. Electro-mechanical parts
galore including a wide variety of switches, relays, slip rings,
contacts, etc. Many types of building block units as well and
computer interfaces available. More expensive than Lego. Model
Technology, listed above, is one distributor. See also the Robot
Explorer in the publications section.
Here is a listing of some of the kits that they build:
Interface for Macintosh: "Service II" from Boenig and Kallenbach, sold
by Pandasoft Uhlandstrasse 195 D-1000 Berlin 12 Fax: germany (030)
315913-55 for DM 498.- for Mac Plus or better. 8 digital in and
outputs, 2 analoguous inputs. With Hypercard Stack Computing
Experimental and driver software for all Pascal versions, 4th
Dimension and Ragtime (comparable to MSWorks). Works also with the
FischerTechnik Robot and Plotter assembly kit, 80 pages manual in
german?, 3 Diskettes.
There are also computing kits containing interfaces for C64, PC and
Apple II.
-Profi Computing by Fischer Technik:
"High-end" kit, 3 motors, 6 switches, 4 lights, 2 fotocells,
20 plugs patch bay, construction base-support plate, 12 models
explained as there are a robot with a controlled hand, a plotter, a
slot-machine, a credit-card reader and a CD-player (certainly without
audio out), 888 parts in total: DM 376, needs the Service II
interface.
-Training robot by Fischertechnik:
3 rotation axes which may be controlled simultaneously.
Working radius between 12 and 37 cm, fetching height: 6 to 25 cm,
driven by 3 Fischer Technik S-motors, positioning with infrared
photocell, with cabling and manual, needs the Service II interface,
for DM 547.
-Plotter/Scanner by Fischertechnik:
Scanning head not included, "heavy duty" construction,
precision < 0.5 mm on a A4 surface, driven by 2 bipolar stepper
motors, needs the Service II interface. For DM 487.-
-Computing by Fischertechnik:
10 models possible, all explained: antenna rotor, Plotter,
Graphic Tablet, 2-axis robot etc., needs Service II and power supply
for DM 298.-
Johuco, Ltd.
Box 390
Vernon, CT 06066
Muramator and Photovore. These are simple robot control boards that
are hardwired but can be adjusted using potentiometers. They sell
bare PCBs and you can get the parts from Radio Shack or DigiKey. The
PCBs sell for about $25.00.
Khepera Support Team
LAMI - DI - EPFL
INF Ecublens
1015 Lusanne
Switzerland
tel: ++41 21 693.52.65
fax: ++42 21 693.52.63
net: <khe...@di.epfl.ch>
contact: Franscesco Mondada
Web site is at http://lamiwww.epfl.ch/Khepera
A VERY small mobile robot. Motorola 68331 Processor with 256K RAM and
256 or 512K ROM. Serial port. Six 10bit analog inputs. DC motor
powered with incremental encoders. Eight IR proximity and light
sensors. NiCd batteries. Additional capabilities can be added by using
stackable K-extension bus. Software environments: Calm assembler (PC
or MAC), Gnu C compiler (on all machines supported by GNU) and LabView
(PC, Mac or Sun).
Size: 55mm diameter, 30mm high
Weight: 70grams
Cost: 3000 Swiss Francs [About $2K US]
Vision and Gripper modules under development.
Reference:
Mondada et al. Mobile Robot Miniaturisation: A Tool for
Investigation in Control Algorithms. Third International
Symposium on Experimental Robotics, Kyoto, Japan, Oct 28-30,
1993
LEGO
Lego Dacta
555 Taylor Road
PO Box 1600
Enfield, CT 06083-1600
tel: 800.527.8339
fax: 203.763.2466
LEGO Dacta is the educational branch of the LEGO company. Dacta
sells the LEGO Technic product line. These are the geared and
motorized versions for the LEGO system.
Use anonymous ftp to obtain a list of a variety of lego information
and application programs from:
location: earthsea.stanford.edu
directory: /pub/lego
filenames: <see below>
Directory Structure: ~ftp/pub/lego/
CAD/ contains several languages for specifying models
faq/ contains latest faq sheet for alt.toys.lego
games/ Rules for games using lego people and pieces
images/ Pictures and drawings of sets and instructions
sets/ Database listings of lego sets and catalog numbers
upload/ Place your files here!
Lego kits recommended for robotics work include:
1038 Technical Universal Buggy - dual drive vehicle. $60
1032 Technic II w/ motorized transmission - $76
9605 Technic Resource Set - general parts kits - $200
Lego-to-Mac software:
Paradigm Software 617.576.7675
Bots 415.949.2126
MIT has papers on LEGO projects available via FTP from:
site: kame.media.mit.edu.
dir: pub/el-memos
file: memo8.* "LEGO/LOGO: Learning Through and About Design"
M & T Systems
POB 7816
Huntington Beach CA 92615
Contact M&T Systems at:
tel: 714.969.3166
fax: 714.969.3167
net: MT...@aol.com
[Tom Thorton]
The HexWalker(tm) walking robot kit is based on the Insectoid built by
Gary Malolepsy of The Robotics Society of Southern California (RSSC),
and chronicled in the February, March and April 1994 issues of Robot
Builder (the newsletter of RSSC). The Insectoid robot was given
passing mention by Scott Edwards in the June 1994 issue of Nuts and
Volts (How Far Can a Stamp Take You?).
RSSC Club Officers had discussed kitting the walking robot up for
members for several months, but had taken no action. Finally, I built
one for myself. It generated so much attention at meetings that I
decided to kit it out. The HexWalker(tm) robot kit is the result.
As supplied in the kit the Hexwalker(tm) robot detects the world by
means of two feelers. Normal movement for HexWalker(tm) is to walk
forward using the opposing triangle gait. When the robot detects an
obstacle (when a feeler switch closes) it pauses, backs up several
steps, turns left or right, and resumes forward walking. HexWalker(tm)
turns left when the right feeler switch closes, or right when the left
feeler switch closes.
HexWalker(tm) is large enough to work on easily. It measures 8 1/2 inches
(22cm) long (plus feelers), 6 1/2 inches (16cm) wide, and 2 1/2 inches
(6cm) tall. It is strong, able to support its own weight (12 ounces) plus
about an 8 ounce payload.
Modifying the basic robot is encouraged. Ideas for
modification/improvement include: Substitute LED photodetectors for
the feeler/snapswitch sensors. Add a second Stamp to HexWalker(tm)
that performs sensor monitoring functions. Add additional sensors
to HexWalker(tm).
backup sensor to prevent walking into objects when walking backwards.
down sensor to detect "cliffs" and prevent walking off edges.
sonar for long range sensing."
HexWalker(tm) sells for US $125.00.
California residents add 7.75% sales tax.
Shipping throughout North America is US $3.00.
Shipping to all others is US $15.00.
The kit without Basic Stamp (if you have your own controller) is
US $100.00 plus s&h.
The construction manual alone is US $10.00 plus US $1.00 s&h.
Meccano/Erector
[many addresses around the world]
363, avenue de Saint-Exupery
62104 CALAIS CEDEX - FRANCE
Tel. 21.96.63.90
Fax. 21.96.34.35
There are several mechanical construction systems available.
The best source of info I've seen is a list put together by Colin
Hinz:
location: psych.toronto.edu
directory: /ftp/pub/
filenames: meccano
The German model train company, Maerklin makes a Meccano
compatible construction set. They also have a 1007 Robotic Arm kit and
programmable controller as well. ~$300 You may be able to order it
through a local train and hooby shop.
Mondotronics
524 San Anselmo Ave.,
#107
San Anselmo, CA 94960
tel: 415.455.9330
800.374.5764 (orders)
fax: 415.455.9333
800.455.9333 (orders)
net: <in...@mondo.com>
A wide variety of Nickel-Titanium Alloy products. Mondo can supply an
email brochure as well as a Muscle Wire FAQ. Products include:
Muscle Wire Project Book- New 3rd Edition. Presenting everything you
need to successfully design, build, and operate devices with Muscle
Wire - nickel-titanium filaments that actually contract when
electrically powered and lift thousands of times their own weight.
Topics include: Basic lever action, ratchets and latches, model
railroad crossing, AC power circuit, solar power circuit, paper
airplane launcher, life-like butterfly, rubber tube "flexi",
proportional control, radio control interface, programmable multiple
wire controller & serial port interface, PC parallel port interface
and much more. Boris the six-legged motorless miniature walking
machine.
BORIS - A miniature motorless six-legged walking machine
SPECIFICATIONS
Length: 13.5 cm
Height: 4.5 cm
Weight: 30 grams
Power & Drive:
- Eight 100 um dia. Muscle Wires (50 centimeters total).
- 6 volts, 500 milliamp max.
- Full software control via PC parallel printer port.
MUSCLE WIRES PROJECT BOOK 3-133 $17.95
MUSCLE WIRES PROJECT BOOK & DELUXE KIT
Includes meter each of Flexinol
050, 100 and 150, plus crimps and instructions. Enough to build all
the projects in the Project Book including Boris the motorless walking
machine. An ideal starter package for engineers, students and
experimenters of all ages.
Project Book & Deluxe Kit 3-168 $59.95
MUSCLE WIRES RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT PACKAGE
A complete package designed for corporate and laboratory Research
and Development work with shape memory alloys. Includes to following:
* Muscle Wires Project Book
* Five meters each of Flexinol 050, 100 and 150
* One meter of Flexinol 250
* Crimps & instructions
Muscle Wires R & D Package 3-102 $249.00
A wide variety of NiTiNol lengths and diameters are also available.
Send email to in...@mondo.com.
OWI (Movit robots)
tel: 310.638.4732
fax: 310.638.8347
Available from:
Kelvin Electronics 800.645.9212
Pitsco 800.835.0686
Edmund Scientific 609.573.6260 (See Robot Parts Section)
These are small toy-like robots that reflexively respond to obstacles,
sounds or light depending on the model. They're cute and show what can
be done with a relatively small amount of hardware. The top of the
line model is the Wao II which has two 'feelers' for bump sensors and
can be programmed with an on board key-pad or via a host computer. It
sells for $89.95. Most of the other robot kits sell for between $35
and $55. The kits usually only require mechanical hardware assembly
(no soldering required.) Edmund also has a Robotic Technology
Curriculum with lessons and tests featuring the Movit
robots. Curriculum is $65 from Edmund Scientific.
QuikShut (?)
Circuit Specialists Inc
PO Box 3047
Scottsdale, AZ 85271-3047
tel: 800.528.1417
tel: 602.464.2485
Sold by Circuit Specialists for $259. Appears to be a nice low cost
5 axis arm for education. IBM (or compatible) interface, kit
including all components and board, power supply kit, software
package, logic probe and experiments and instructions. If anyone has
information as to who actually makes this please send me email.
Rug Warrior
A K Peters
289 Linden Street
Wellesley, MA 02181
tel: 617.235.2210
fax: 617.235.2404
net: kpe...@geom.umn.edu
A companion kit for the book, Mobile Robots: Inspiration to
Implementation. See Books section of FAQ. The Rug Warrior circuit
board is designed to support the construction of small, yet
sophisticated mobile robots. The board provides all the processing,
memory, and sensor circuitry needed for a custom designed
robot. $289.00. Does not include chassis, skirt and motors.
Rug Warrior offers the following features: Motorola MC68HC11
microcontroller, LCD display (32 alphanumeric characters), 32K of
battery backed RAM, RS-232 serial port, Collision detection from any
of 6 directions, Photoresistor light sensors, Infrared obstacle
detection, Microphone for sound detection, Piezoelectric buzzer
generates tones of arbitrary frequency, Motor driver chip allows
control of two DC motors, Dual shaft encoders allow
velocity/position control, Four user controllable LEDs, Optional
pyroelectric (heat) sensor, Expansion capabilities for more sensors
and actuators.
The kit consists of a circuit board with the logic and interface
components already soldered on and tested, plus all the sensors and
other circuitry needed to build the robot board as described in our
book "Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implimentation."
The kit includes Interactive C (IC) on a disk for either Mac or PC.
Self test routines are also provided for each of the standard
sensors and actuators. In the near future A. K. Peters plans to
offer a complete robot kit including chassis, skirt, and motors.
Stiquito
A small nitinol-based mobile robot is available from Indiana
University in a technical report and as a kit. Send your request for
the report with payment to:
Computer Science Department
215 Lindley Hall
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
To receive the technical report only:
Send $5.00 PRE-PAID and add ATTN: TR363A
To receive the technical report and a complete kit:
Send $15.00 PRE-PAID and add ATTN: TR 363A Squito Kit
Tomy Armatron
Sold by Radio Shack in the US, the Armatron was a popular small
plastic manipulator and later a mobile version was sold. A number
of articles appeared in the hobbyist press regarding linking the
Armatrons to computers. The mobile version is still being sold in
Japan and is called the "GO ROBO ARM" You might be able to pick one
up at a flea market or garage sale. Buy it - they are neat clever
devices and fun.
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Architectures for Robots
A robot 'architecture' primarily refers to the software and hardware
framework for controlling the robot. A VME board running C code to
turn motors doesn't really constitute an architecture by itself. The
development of code modules and the communication between them begins
to define the architecture.
Robotic systems are complex and tend to be difficult to develop. They
integrate multiple sensors with effectors, have many degrees of
freedom and must reconcile hard real-time systems with systems which
cannot meet real-time deadlines [Jones93]. System developers have
typically relied upon robotic architectures to guide the construction
of robotic devices and for providing computational services (e.g.,
communications, processing, etc.) to subsystems and components. These
architectures, however, have tended thus far to be task and domain
specific and have lacked suitability to a broad range of applications.
For example, an architecture well suited for direct teleoperation
tends not to be amenable for supervisory control or for autonomous
use.
One recent trend in robotic architectures has been a focus on
behavior-based or reactive systems. Behavior based refers to the fact
that these systems exhibit various behaviors, some of which are
emergent [Man92]. These systems are characterized by tight coupling
between sensors and actuators, minimal computation, and a
task-achieving "behavior" problem decomposition.
The other leading architectural trend is typified by a mixture of
asynchronous and synchronous control and data flow. Asychronous
processes are characterized as loosely coupled and event-driven
without strict execution deadlines. Synchronous processes, in
contrast, are tightly coupled, utilize a common clock and demand hard
real-time execution.
Subsumption/reactive references
-------------------------------
Arkin, R.C., "Integrating Behavioral, Perceptual, and World Knowledge
in Reactive Navigation", Robotics & Autonomous Systems, 1990
Brooks, R.A., "A Robust Layered Control System for a Mobile Robot",
IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, March 1986.
Brooks, R.A., "A Robot that Walks; Emergent Behaviors from a Carefully
Evolved Network", Neural Comutation 1(2) (Summer 1989)
Connell, J.H., "A Colony Architecture for an Artificial Creature", MIT
Ph. D. Thesis in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1989.
Erann Gat, et al, "Behavior Control for Robotic Exploration of
Planetary Surfaces" To be published in IEEE R&A. FTPable.
site: robotics.jpl.nasa.gov
location: pub/gat
filename: bc4pe.rtf
Insect-based control schemes
----------------------------
Randall D. Beer, Roy E. Ritzmann, and Thomas McKenna, editors, Biological
Neural Networks in Invertebrate Neuroethology and Robotics, Academic Press,
1993.
Hillel J. Chiel, et al, "Robustness of a Distributed Neural Network
Controller for Locomotion in a Hexapod Robot," IEEE Transactions on
Robotics and Automation, 8(3):293-303, June, 1992.
Joseph Ayers and Jill Crisman, "Biologically-Based Control of
Omnidirectional Leg Coordination," Proceedings of the 1992 IEEE/RSJ
International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 574-581.
Asynchronous/synchronous (i.e., "traditional", "top-down", etc.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Amidi, O., "Integrated Mobile Robot Control", CMU-RI-TR-90-17,
Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 1990.
Albus, J.S., McCain, H.G., and Lumia, R., "NASA/NBS Stanford Reference
Model for Telerobot Control System Architecture (NASREM)" NIST
Technical Note 1235, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, July 1987.
Butler, P.L., and Jones, J.P., "A Modular Control Architecture for
Real-Time Synchronous and Asynchronous Systems", Proceedings of SPIE
Applications of Artificial Intelligence 1993, Orlando, FL, 1993.
Fong, T.W., "A Computational Architecture for Semi-autonomous Robotic
Vehicles", AIAA Computing in Aerospace conference, AIAA 93-4508, 1993.
Lin, L., Simmons, R., and Fedor, C., "Experience with a Task Control
Architecture for Mobile Robots", CMU-RI-TR 89-29, Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University, December 1989.
Schneider, S.A., Ullman, M.A., and Chen, V.W., "ControlShell: A
Real-time Software Framework", Real-Time Innovations, Inc., Sunnyvale,
CA 1992.
D. B. Stewart, "Real-Time Software Design and Analysis of Reconfigurable
Multi-Sensor Based Systems", Ph.D. Dissertation, Dept. of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.
D. B. Stewart, M. W. Gertz, and P. K. Khosla, "Software Assembly for
Real-Time Applications Based on a Distributed Shared Memory Model",
in Proc. of the 1994 Complex Systems Engineering Synthesis and
Assessment Technology Workshop (CSESAW '94), Silver Spring, MD,
pp. 217-224, July 1994.
______________________________________________________________________________
Kevin Dowling
Last-modified: Mon Oct 3 13:06:06 1994
This is part 3 of 3 of the comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list.
This FAQ addresses commonly asked questions relating to robotics.
Part 3 [use the +++ to assist in searching]
+++Sensors
+++Actuators
+++Imaging for Robotics
+++Wireless Communication
+++Robot Parts: Suppliers and Sources
+++Hero Robots
+++Puma Manipulators
+++Simulators
+++What is NuTank?
+++Real-Time Operating Systems
+++Survey of Robot Development Environments
+++What is the Miniboard?
+++What is the F1 Board?
+++What is the Bot Board?
+++Microcontrollers
+++Books, Online Information and Videos
+++Acknowledgements
____________________________________________________________________________
This post, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1994 Kevin
Dowling. Distribution through any means other than regular Usenet
channels must be by permission. The removal of this notice is
forbidden.
Changes, additions, comments, suggestions and questions to:
Kevin Dowling tel: 412.268.8830
Robotics Institute fax: 412.268.5895
Carnegie Mellon University net: ni...@ri.cmu.edu
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
___________________________________________________________________________
+++Sensors
This list covers only the most frequently requested types of
robot sensors. These include point-range sensors, cameras, and
acoustic devices. See Sensors magazine <in periodical section of this
FAQ> directory for a large and comprehensive list. This list covers
the following: [use === to search]
===Cameras
===Inertial measurement devices and gyros
===Rangefinding devices
===Force/torque sensors, accelerometers, tactile
===Sonar sensors
===Position determination devices
===Pan/tilt mechanisms
===Shape memory devices
===Measuring linear motion
===Interfacing sensors
===Cameras
There are a large number of cameras on the market and even
many consumer products such as the smaller camcorders are inexpensive
and suitable for some imaging applications. I'll try to list some
different and unusual ones here.
Note that although some of these cameras are very small many
of them are appended to a large box of electronics via a cable that
supplies power and transmits video. For mobile applications DC power
inputs may be an issue as well. I've also included servo-lens products
as well in this section.
Cohu
5755 Kearny Villa Road
San Diego, CA 92123
tel: 619.277.6700 X225
fax: 619.277.0221
Cohu makes a number of solid state cameras including board
level and remote head devices. The 1100 series is designed for OEM
use. It outputs standard RS-170 with 768x494 CCD resolution.
10cmx4.5cmx1.6cm w/o lens. Other units include the 550 series
Intensified Monochrome CCD Camera for low-light applications. The 4110
has digital output (eliminates pixel jitter), The 6X00 series are
small monochrome remote head cameras and the 8000 series cameras are
color remote head devices. A variety of ouputs are available
includeing NTSC, RGB, PAL/Y-C. A high resolution unit, the 8410
series, provides 1134x486 pixels (850 horz TV lines)
Elmo Mfg Corp
70 New Hyde Park Rd.
New Hyde Park, NY 11040
tel: 516.775.3200
800.974.ELMO
fax: 516.775.3297
Micro-sized cameras including a 12mm color unit, the UN411E.
The ME441E is a remote head B&W ccd camera for machine vision
applications. 17mm, 14g. Wide variety of features including
electronics shuttering, field/frame modes, interlace and non-interlace
etc.
NEC America
1555 Walnut Hill Lane
Irving, TX 75038
tel: 800.323.6656
The TI-324A is a small high-res B/W CCD camera designed for
machine vision and robotics applications. A variety of other B/W and
Color CCD cameras are also made.
Fortunel Systems, Inc.
103 Ivywood Lane
Cary, NC 27511
Tel: 919-851-9100
Fax: 919-859-9800
Internet: fort...@vnet.net
Servolens is a video-based computer-controlled motorized lens designed
for active vision. It is connected to the computer through a standard
RS232 serial port. Each axis (field of view, focusing distance, iris
opening) is independently controlled and fully calibrated (encoder
feedback). The following auto functions are supported: auto-iris,
auto-focus and auto-zoom (keeps apparent size of object constant). Two
models are available, based on zoom factor: x6 and x10. A C++ class
library in source code format is also available to control the lens
on DOS and UNIX platforms.
Marshall Electronics
Culver City, CA
Contact: Steve Kraig
tel: 310.390.6608
World's smallest low-cost digital camera on a single chip;
under $10 for volume users. It is the first commercially available
image sensor to have a built-in A/D converter. The Digital Video
Camera Chip, VVL1070 delivers a digitized B&W image through
processor-compatible serial and parallel ports. The IC uses a
proprietary CMOS sensor technology developed by VLSI Vision Ltd.,
which also is developing a whole series of single-chip EIA cameras
that will be shortly introduced to the American market.
The chip features a 160 x 160 pixel array. Pixel size is 10.5 x 10.5
microns. All circuitry to drive and sense the array is packaged in a
single Optical Quad Flatpak. The digital converter provides an 8-bit
digital output for serial or parallel interface. Other features
include an analog output with sync pulses, wide-range electronic
exposure control for use with a variety of low-cost fixed-aperture
lenses and automatic black level circuitry. Power consumption is less
than 100mw.
An Engineering Level Evaluation Kit is available to reduce development
costs and allow designers to rapidly develop a prototype using their
own defined interface circuitry. The kit includes a fully operational
PCB using an LCC with glass lid mounted in an anodized aluminum
enclosure with both a "C" mount 12mm lens and a wide-angle 4.3mm
fixed-focus lens.
Sony Component Products
15 Essex Road,
Paramus, NJ 07652
tel: 201.368.5188
fax: 201.368.3514
Sony XC/999/999P is a nice small color CCD camera the size of
a microphone. CCD resolution is 768Hx493V. The 999 is NTSC and the
999P is the PAL format. XC-75 has small camera head and separate
electronics.
Supercircuits
13015 Debarr Drive
Austin, Texas 78729
tel: 512.335.9777
fax: 512.335.1925
Electronic timers and beepers, miniature cameras and transmitters.
Toshiba America
Information and Imaging Technologies Group
1010 Johnson Drive
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-6900
tel: 800.253.5429
fax: 708.541.1927
Toshiba IK-M40A high resolution microminiature color camera.
Camera head is 39mm long, 17mm diameter and weighs 16g. 1/2" CCD w/
410,000 pixels, high sensitivity (5 lux at F1.6) and electronic
shutter. RGB output standard. uses cables up to 30m. Several lenses
available. About $2K.
Toshiba also makes a very small C-mount Lens color CCD camera,
the IK-C40A. It is only slight larger than a 30mm cube.
CCTV Corporation
315 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
tel: 800.221.2240
fax: 212.463.9758
CCTV makes a number of small CCD surveillance cameras. Some as
small as a pack of cigarettes that sell for less than $300.
Texas Instruments
TI makes a $35 CCD Imager, the TC-211, with 192x165 resolution.
Following article is on a design for a camera using this chip over a
parallel port from a PC. Telescope Making, Issue 46, Winter 91/92
Newark Electronics sells the TC211-M for around US$50.00 See TI's
Array Image Sensor Products data manual for more details.
Wintriss Engineering Corp
6342 Ferris Square
San Diego, CA 92121
tel: 619.550.7300
tel: 800.733.8089
Wintriss makes a 2048 pixel line scan camera that can be used
for object imaging, velocity measurement and positioning with multiple
cameras. Can be used to determine spped and trajectory of objects in
flight. This has been used in archery applications. RS485 interface
with 8Mb/sec serial data rate. Can be linked directly with Wintriss
DSP boards for post-processing and communications. Price $1250.
Xillix Technologies Corporation
Suite 200
2339 Colombia Street
Vancouver B.C. V5Y 3Y3
tel: 604.875.6161
fax: 604.872.3356
Specializing in High-res CCD cameras. Product line includes a
12-bit 1317x1035 pixel resolution. Target market has been medical
imaging. Full computer control and compatible with a number of image
capture and display boards.
DAK Industries
8200 Remnet Ave
Canoga Park, CA 91304
tel: 800.325.0800 (ordering)
tel: 800.888.9818 (technical)
fax: 818.888.2837
DAK sells all kinds of gadgets for the home and business. One
device is a security camera that is smaller than a credit card (length
and width) and 38mm deep. B/W 251,904 pixels, 60 degree lens and
built-in microphone. Has built-in IR transmitters for seeing in total
darkness. $199 for camera, 20m cable, AC adapter and stands. Other
packages include monitors and two-camera switcher for $299 total.
Extra cable is $29.90
===Inertial measurement devices and gyros
This includes such devices as accelerometers such as
accelerometers, gyros, and inertial devices used for measuring
orientation or acceleration of moving vehicles. Accelerometers are
devices for measuring the rate of change in velocity and can provide
estimations of distance or be used to detect high forces.
There are several gyros mainly for radio controlled helicopters. These
are rate gyros, used to sense the rate of turn about a particular axis
(usually vertical, for tail rotor control), and are designed to
connect between an R/C receiver and a servo.
These gyros work by modifying the PWM signal that the rx produces,
before it gets to the servo. The sensing is usually done by a linear
hall effect device, which senses the position of a magnet on the
bottom of the flywheel assembly. The gyros have both sensitivity and
gain controls, and some can be switched on and off remotely. They have
been used for sensing rotation about an axis for a VR headset, with
some success. The big advantage is they are relatively cheap, the big
disadvantage is high drift rate.
Andrew Corporation
10500 W. 153rd Street
Orland Park, IL 60462
tel: 708.349.5957
fax: 708.349.5294
Fiber-optic gyro. 77mm diameter by 88mm high. Analog out
porportional to rotation rate. Also digital version available. Rate
+/- 100 degrees/sec. Stable over -40C to +85C. Power 8-13.5VDC at
250mA. Bias drift 0.005 deg/sec (18 deg/hr). 0.63kg $1100.00 for
digital version, $950 for analog.
BEI - Systron Donner
2700 Systron Drive,
Concord, CA 94518-1399
tel: 510.682.6161
fax: 510.671.6590
GyroChip - a very small solid state angular rate sensor. Based
a quartz tuning fork device - all support electronics are included.
Max range available: +/-10 deg/sec to +/-1000 deg/sec. Input +/- 5VDC
Output scale +/- 2.5VDC. Systron Donner also makes a variety of linear
accelerometers and inertial measurement products.
Solid state six axis inertial sensor. It provides analog
signals for 3 axis acceleration and 3 axis rate. The package is
7.5cmx7.5cmx8cm, weighs ~600grams and takes +-15V unreg in (7W). Bias drift
is on the order of 0.005 deg/sec short term (0.1deg/sec long term).
Cost is $12,000 for one or $10,000 for 2-9 (a good single axis
rate gyro usually costs $6K+). Various acceleration and rate range
combinations are available (up to +- 20g). Delivery is about 6wks.
A new Gyrochip two is available as well. Specs aren't quite as good
but it is cheaper.
Gyration Inc.
Saratoga CA
tel: 408.255.3016
fax: 408.255.9075
Sells small vertical and directional gyros for ~$500. These
are standard gimballed gyros, but the drift specs probaly aren't as
good as aircraft-quality gyros. Now also sell innovative computer
pointers and devices termed 'Gyroengines' that provide quadrature
outputs from heading devices. Gyroengines are $3.5K
Honeywell
11601 Roosevelt Blvd
St. Petersburg, FL 33716
tel: 813.579.6604
fax: 813.579.6696
Honeywll manufactures the modular azimuth and postioning
system (MAPS) and utilizes ring-laser gyros. (RLG). The RLG uses two
beams of laser light rotating in opposite directions along a path
within a sealed and enclosed cavity. As the unit changes heading, the
distances the beams travel differ. This difference is can be measured
and is directly related to heading. When combined with linear
accelerometers the unit provides position and orientation. MAPS has an
RS-422 interface, is approx 22x27x38cm and is 20kg. 100W power draw.
[Rad hard and rated for howitzer gunfire!]
Humphrey
[Need Address]
Wide variety of gyro and accelerometer devices.
KVH Industries
110 Enterprise Center
Middletown, RI 02840
tel: 401.847.3327
Nice small well-designed units that provide heading data. About $1K
w/ RS232 adapter.
Lucas NovaSensor
1055 Mission Court
Fremont, CA 94539
tel: 510.490.9100
Lucas makes a 1"x1"x0.5" accelerometer for about $200. Good noise
immunity but fragile.
Murata Erie North America
2200 Lake Park Drive
Smyrna, GA 30080
tel: 800.831.9172
fax: 404.436.3030
Gyrostar piezoelectric vibrating gyroscope. Uses equilateral
triangular prism with PE elements attached to faces of prism. High
precision compared to other vibration gyroscopes. Measures augular
velocity with good linearity. Max augular vel +/- 90 deg/sec, No
hysteresis, 58x25x25mm, 45g, output is DC voltage porportional to
angular rate. 22.2mV/deg/sec scale factor.
Gerhard Weiss has provided some results of experiments with the unit:
location: ag_vp_file_server.informatik.uni-kl.de [131.246.192.2]
directory: /Public/Gerd/Public/
filename: Gyrostar.ps
Pewatron AG
Hertistr. 27
CH-8304 Wallisellen
Swiss
Tel: +41 1 830 29 44
Fax: +41 1 830 51 57
Two-axis Inclinometer. Weight: 2.3gr, voltage: 5V, current:
20mA, dimension: 12 x 12 x 7 mm, Output: 2 analog output. Sine and
cosine for 360 degree, voltage swing: +/- 0.4V, Price: about $100
Summitt Instruments
Ohio
tel: 216.659.3312
Three-axis accelerometer. A tiny cube just under 2.5cm on a
side. Approx $1K
Sundance Model Products
2427 W. Adrian St.
Newbury Park, CA 91320
tel: 805.498.8857
Lists a solid state gyro for model helicopters. The SSG/1 is
38mm x 38mm x 13mm and weighs 43g. Completely solid state with no
motor or moving parts. Claims to draw 10% of the power of a gyro with
moving parts. No drift specs.
Electrolytic tilt sensors or clinometers (not using anything so
nasty as mercury, but a conductive fluid whose resistance across
various electrodes provides an analog signal proportional to tilt
angle). They're not too expensive, although they do tend to have
long settling times (up to a few seconds). A couple of US sources:
The Fredericks Company
tel: 215.947.2500
fax: 215.947.7464
Applied Geomechanics
tel: 408.462.2801
fax: 408.462.4418
The smallest, cheapest model is 5x5x2 cm and about $250. It
has a 5-terminal electrolytic cell that can measure tilt in two axes
to +-20 degrees (optional +-45 degrees). The characteristic "slosh"
frequency is about 10 Hz, and it exhibits sub-second settling times
and a resolution of 0.01 degrees. The output is two analog signals (X
and Y, or Roll and Pitch, if you prefer). It runs off of a 9-volt
battery.
====Rangefinding devices
-Principles
There are four basic techniques for distance measurement using electro
magetic radiation.
These are
1 Pulse Timing
2 Phase Comparison
3 Doppler Methods
4 Interferometry
All are used in practice for distance measurement depending on the
particular application.
Pulse timing, as the name suggests, involves measuring the round time
for a signal to be transmitted to a reflective surface and return.
This is the principle used in Radar, DME for aircraft, LORAN,
Satellite Altimetry, Airborne RADAR Altimetry, Lunar Laser Ranging
etc. Some of the newer EDM instruments used by surveyor are also using
pulse timing and accuracies of +/- 5mm are possible. Most of the
military range finders also use pulse timing. The GPS system uses
pulse timing for coarse distance measurement. Very Long Base
Interferometry (VLBI) is also a pulse timing technique where signals
>from pulsars are timed from two or more radio telescopes and the
difference in times of arrival are converted to intercontinental
distances with a precision of a few centimetres.
Phase difference involves the use of a carrier wave which may be
modulated at different wavelengths. By measuring the difference in
phase between the transmitted signal and the received signal after it
has been reflected from the other end of the target, the distance can be
determined as an integer number (unknown) of wavelengths plus a
fraction of a wavelength which is known from the phase comparison. By
using a range of modulation frequencies the ambiguity can be
resolved. There are many applications of this technique. A wide range
of carrier frequencies are used ranging from visible through infra red
to microwave and right down to VLF. Typical instruments used by
surveyors have accuracies of +/-(1to2 mm +1to3 parts per million) and
use infra red as the carrier. Precise positioning using GPS can be
achieved by phase comparison of the carrier wave signals of the
various satellites. Accuracies in position of better than 1 part per
million can be achieved.
Doppler techniques were used in the earlier satellite positioning
systems. The received frequency of a low orbit satellite is compared
with the actual transmitted signal as a function of time. The rate of
change of frequency gives the slant range between the satellite and
the observer while the instant when the two freqencies are the same
gives the point of closest approach. By knowing the orbital parameters
of the satellite which are transmitted, the observers position can be
determined.
Interferometric methods are the same as those used in the original
Michelson Interferometer. It is used for metrology, high precision
distance measurement over short distances (up to 60 metres) and in the
definition of the metre.
There are a variety of laser rangefinding devices that have
been built and used over the past 8 years or so for robotics. The 3D
devices are still large, power hungry and heavy but give very nice
images suitable for fast map building and navigation work. Expect to
pay over $50K for these time-of-flight devices. Most AM Lidars measure
phase shift between outgoing and reflected beams. A mirror system
rasters the beam forming a video-camera-like image. Some devices
supply the reflectance image as well as range which is nice for
corresponding the two. Comprehensive references include:
Electronic Distance Measurement by JM Rueger, Springer-Verlag
P. Besl, ``Active, Optical Range Imaging Sensors'', Machine Vision and
Applications, v. 1, p. 127-152, 1988.
A longer version of Besl's paper appears in ``Advances in Machine
Vision: Architectures and Applications'', J. Sanz (ed.),
Springer-Verlag, 1988.
Other good surveys are Ray Jarvis' article in IEEE TPAMI v5n2 and
Nitzan's article in IEEE PAMI v10n2.
A good report on the characterization of a particular scanner is:
Experimental Characterization of the Perceptron Laser Rangefinder, In
So Kweon, Regis Hoffman, and Eric Krotkov. Carnegie Mellon University
Technical Report, CMU-RI-TR-91-1. 1991.
M. Hebert and E. Krotkov. 3-D Measurements from Imaging Laser Radars:
How Good Are They? Int. Journal of Image and Vision Computing,
10(3):170-178, April 1992
A number of laboratory works have also demonstrated FM or chirp
systems which can be highly accurate (e.g. high resolution elevation
maps of coins) but these are very specialized and I don`t know of
commercial devices currently.
-COMMERCIAL DEVICES
ERIM (Environmental Research Institute of Michigan)
ERIM has built a number of custom AM laser rangefinders
including those used in the ALV (Autonomous Land Vehicle) program. CMU
and Martin Marietta have both used this systems in extensive work.
Basic system was a 128x64 2fps 20m (ambiguity interval) system.
Erwin Sick GmbH.
UK:
Erwin Sick
Optic-Electronic Ltd.
Waldrich House
39 Hedley Road
St. Albans
Herfordshire AL1 5BN
tel: 0727/831121
fax: 0727/856767
PLS-100: This device measures distance by TOF from 4 cm up to 80 m,
guaranteed range of 4 m (at a black lether target), is eye-safe (IEC
Class 1), takes a 180 degree scan in 20 ms, total 25 scans a second,
angle resolution 0.5 degree (361 scan points in a scan). This device
is build in a industrial IP65 case. And it is rather cheap (6.900,- DM
+ VAT, in Germany).
Intelligent Solutions Inc.
One Endicott Avenue
Marblehead, MA 01945
tel: 617.639.8144
fax: 617.639.8144
net: i...@world.std.com
contact: Jim Maddox
Intelligent Solutions Inc. was formed in Nov. of 1993 by four of the
former engineers of Denning Mobile Robotics. They are focusing on building
smart sensors and their first product is the EZNav Position Sensor.
EZNav is a precision optical position sensor that can be used
on moving platforms such as automated guided vehicles, robots, or
material handling equipment. EZNav uses an eye safe scanning laser
with a 360 degree field of view to measure the azimuth angle to wall
mounted reference reflectors. This angle data can be used to
triangulate the position and heading relative to the known target
locations. EZNav is unique in its ability to use passive reflectors
as well as coded electronic targets. Current work includes adding
the triangulation calculations to the EZNav sensor and a new
Ultrasonic based position sensor.
Specs:
Target Range 30m passive up to 180m active
Abs. Accuracy +/- 0.03 degrees RMS
Scan Rate 12 per second
Data Rate 9.6k baud RS 232
Power 24 volts at 300 ma
Size 30cm Dia x 35cm High
Weight 4.5kg
An EZNav sensor with 10 passive targets costs $6,600. There
is a ten percent discount for educational uses.
Odetics
1515 South Manchester Ave
Anaheim, CA 92802-2907
tel: 714.758.0300
Odetics has made a number of smaller laser scanners. That is, smaller
than their larger ERIM and Perceptron brethren. I have not heard any
independent reviews of the product however.
Perceptron
23855 Research Drive
Farmington Hills, MI 48335-2643
tel: 313.478.7710
tel: 800.333.7753
fax: 313.478.7059
A spin-off of ERIM, Perceptron has also built a number of
AM laser rangefinders. CMU and Caterpillar have used these for map
building and obstacle avoidance work in rough terrain navigation.
LASAR product - provides range and reflectance. Programmable
field of view (15 to 60 deg) Vertical viewing angle from 3 to 72
degrees. Depth of field from 2 to 40 meters. Up to 1024 x 2048 pixels
per image (programmable) and 360,000 pixels/second data acquisition.
VME and PC-compatible interface cards available. Windows software
provides starting point for custom applications. Less than $50K with a
variety of performance and interface options.
Riegl Laser Measurement Systems
[company HQ is Dr. Johannes Riegl GmbH, 85 km, NW of Vienna, Austria]
Riegl USA
4419 Parkbreeze Court
Orlando, FL 32808
tel: 407294.2799
fax: 407.294.3215
Laser range finders, laser speed sensors, laser distance
meters, motor scanners, laser radar systems. Pulsed laser devices. One
of the neatest is the Laser Scout, which gives range, azimuth and
inclination to the target and can be used with GPS to give position
coordinates of the device you are pointing at. $10K. Accuracy up to
+/- 10cm (depending on model)
Laser Radar Scanner (LRS 90-3) is a 1D scanner with 36 deg
field of view and a +/- 3cm accuracy. 2-80m distance, $10K. There are
several other distance models as well.
Schwarz Electro-Optics
3404 N. Orange Blossom Trail
Orlando, FL 32804
tel: 407.298.1802
fax: 407.297.1794
Schwarz makes some very nice point range laser ranging devices. These
devices are slightly bigger than a soda can. About $6-12K. CMU
experience for use in simulated unmanned air vehicle platform worked
well. Their MARS (marine angle range system) is a rotating laser
device that reflects off targets in the environment. Max range up to
1000meters using corner prisms. Accuracy +/- 1m. Erebus (Dante)
Scanner used Schwarz device as base.
Origin Instruments
854 Greenview Drive
Grand Praire, TX 750750-2438
tel: 214.606.8740
fax: 214.606.8741
The Dynasight sensor is a 3-D optical radar that provides real-time
3-D measurements of passive targets with sub-millimeter resolution.
Automatic search and track is provided, eye-safe operation and no
adjustments or alignment required. Original application was head
tracking of computer users but end- effector tracking is also viable.
Operatin range depends on target size 0.1-1.5m for 7mm target, 0.3-4m
for 25mm target and 1 to 6m for 75mm targets. RS-232 interface.
Accuracies 1mm cross range and 4mm down range, resolutions 0.1mm cross
range and 0.4mm down range.
A number of labs have built light stripe devices using projected light
LCD shutters and laser line projectors determine distance through
geometry (as opposed to directly measuring distance through
time-of-flight means) One common need is that of generating the laser
line.
LaserMax
Rochester, NY
tel: 716.272.5420
Manufactures semiconductor laser diode packages and cylindrical
lenses. Packages and small and rugged.
Hammamatsu Corp.
New Jersey
tel: 908.231.0960
fax: 908.231.1539
Hamamatsu S4282 Light Modulation Photo IC The size of a normal
transistor (approx 1/4" square). It has 4 leads, Vcc, Gnd, Vout,
LED. All you do is attach an IR LED to the LED lead to give you an
instant IR proximity detector (the photo diode detector is built into
the part). Two can be aimed at each other and they won't interfere
since they'll be out of phase. They have another model with a lens
over the photo diode that is claimed could be used up to 30 feet!
Hammamatsu also sells a number of photo sensors like color sensors,
position sensitive detectors, pyroelectric sensors.
S4282-11 short range $7.75 single unit
S4282-72 long range $19.00 single unit
[from articles by Prabal K Dutta <pkd...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
and Shane Bouslough <sh...@sbcs.sunysb.edu>]
ESP Technologies
21 LeParc Drive
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
tel: 609.275.0356
fax: 609.275.0356
$15K LED based IR ranging system. 15cm diameter rotating scanning
device with collimated LED light beam that uses phase differences to
calculate distance. Range 0.6 to 6m. 2.5cm resolution, 15cm accuracy.
1Khz update rate
IBEO Lasertechnik
Ingenieurburo fur
Elektronik + Optik
Fahrenkron 125
D 2000 Hamburg 71
tel: 040 645 87 - 01
fax: 040 645 87 - 101
2D and 3D laser scanners. 8frame/sec, 220 degree view, 4600
points/sec. Accuracy +/- 20mm (1 sigma) from 0.5 - 500? 24W power.
System specs can be configured for variety of applications.
===Force/torque sensors, accelerometers, tactile
Force measurement provides indications of magnitude and direction of
forces for use in manipulation or locomotion. A variety of control
schemes have been implemented in force controlled systems to allow
smooth and accurate control in situations that would otherwise be
precluded without such devices. A number of load cells and
acceleration measuring devices are described here:
Analog Devices
tel: 617.937.1426
Analog Devices have the ADXL50 accelerometer which comes in a 10-pin
TO-5 can. It is primarily used with air-bags and has a 1994 projected
price of $5 in quantities. In the Electronic Design August 8, 1991
issue it quoted the current price as $21.75 for 1000 off quantities.
Assurance Technologies (ATI)
(formerly Lord Industrial Automation)
503D Highway 70 East
Garner, North Carolina 27529
tel: 919.772.0115
fax: 919.772.8259
Largest supplier of multi-axis force sensors. Use silicon rather than
foil strain gages for lower strain levels and increased life. F/T
sensor ratings from +/- 15lbs to +/- 150lbs (+/- 15 in-lbs to +/- 600
in-lbs) weights are 0.4 and 2.2 lbs for the 4 available sensors.
Serial or parallel digital interface or analog interface. ATI also
makes robotic tool-changers and an RCC device for assembly operations.
An ATI sensor is also incorporated in the Hughes SMARTee end-effector.
Bonneville Scientific
1849 W. No. Temple, Bldg E.
Salt Lake City, UT 84116
tel: 801.359.0402
fax: 801.359.0416
Array sensor system that uses PVDF ultrasonic
emmitter/detector attached to an elastomer material. Time-of-flight of
the pulse as it bounces off of other side of the material is
porportional to distance through the elastomer. The distance is
porportional the pressure on the pad. Bonneville claims it can be made
thin enough for a skin and they have pictures of it being used on a
robot finger picking up a washer which can be recognized on their
output graphics. Example product:
Model 300 - 16x16 tactile sensor system - $5K
TOF resolution - 12.5 ns
Sheet thickness resolution - 6 microns
Pressure resolution - 0.5 psi (3.4 kPa)
Force resolution - 1g
Rubber linearity - 5-15% deviation
Overload - > 1000PSI (7000kPa)
Spatial resolution - 1.8mm
Scan rate on 16x16 pad - 240 Hz
An evaluation kit is available SE-1 Evaluation Kit - $99.00 includes
SE-1 sensor and electronics. SE-1 Sensor is $42 in single quantity.
California Cybernetics
10322 Sherman Grove
Sunland, CA 91040
tel: 818.353.5991
fax: 818.951.3889
Six DOF F-T devices. Up to 1000Hz sampling rate, reportedly easy to
interface.
Cybernet
1919 Green Road
Suite B-101
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
tel: 313.668.2567
fax: 313.668.8780
net: <heidi_...@um.cc.umich.edu>
PER-force - A 6dof compact force-reflecting controller. Can be used
for teleoperationor interactive graphics applications.
Force Imaging
3424 Touhy Avenue
Chicago, IL 60645-2717
tel: 708.674.7665
tel: 800.348.3240
fax: 708.674.6355
Uniforce Force Sensors. They function similiar to a variable
resistor in an electrical circuit. As a force is exerted on the
sensor, the two layers of pressure sensitive material compress
together and cause a change in resistance which corresponds to a
change in pressure. As force increases, resistance decreases.
A Uniforce experimenters kit is available for $550 and
includes PC-AT card, cables, software, manual and nine Uniforce
sensors in three force ranges. They have ISA boards, PCMCIA version
and a PPIO version as well. Sensors available in ranges from 0-500g to
0-400kg. Uniforce sensors can be provided in a wide variety of shapes,
sizes and force ranges. Software is also available to display force
values in real-time.
Hughes STX
4400 Forbes Blvd
Lanham, MD 20706
tel: 301.794.5016
fax: 301.306.0963
A 6-dof end-effector with automatic load sensing and compensation.
Control modes include position control (cartesian with user spec-ed
poses and frames), impedence and force control modes. Programmable
behaviors (sliding, hinge, move-to-touch, guarded move, follow etc),
open architecture (VxWorks, VME, user-linakable libraries) and a lot
more. Interfaces available included RS-232, ethernet, RS-422 and SCSI.
Pretty amazing end-effector!
Interlink Electronics
1110 Mark Ave.
Carpinteria, CA 93013
tel: 805.484.8855
805.484.1331 (product support)
fax: 805.484.8989
Force Sensing resistors made from polymer thick films. Very
thin. Response is approx. 1/R to force. Article in March 1993 issue
of Electronics Now/Radio Electronics.
JR3
22 Harter Avenue
Woodland, CA 95695
tel: 916.661.3677
6-DOF force-torque sensors. Strain gage technology. Newer packages
have all electronics built into the sensor. Make some high-force
devices as well. CMU's Ambler used JR3's on all the feet with good
success. Complete force torque data at 8Khz, signal digitization
within sensor body, low noise susceptibility, synch serial at 2MHz,
inexpensive cabling.
Merritt Systems, Inc.
P.O. Box 2103
Merritt Island, FL 32954-2103
Contact: Dr. Dan Wegerif
tel: 407.452.7828
MSI is involved in the development of "Whole-Arm Sensor
Technology" under 2 NASA Phase II SBIR's. Their proximity sensing
technology is based on IR arrays which they call "SensorCells". It
allows the use of IR, acoustic and capacitive (under-development)
sensors in the same sensor skin.
Need addresses for:
Ercon
MA
Conductive rubber and conductive inks. You build a semi-rigid
circuit board with inter-digitated fingers to apply to one side of the
rubber. The rubber has a rough surface that under increasing load
allows more rubber to contact. They can make rubber with all sorts of
conductive properties.
===Sonar sensors
The time it takes for an acoustic pulse to propagate through
air or water, reflect from the environment and return to a detector is
porportional to the distance.
Acoustic time-of-flight devices have been around for awhile
now. The ubiquitous Polaroid device is cheap and easily integrated and
has has found wide use in robotic devices. Other companies have
developed nice complete turnkey sonar devices though and Polaroid is
no longer the only choice.
Polaroid
119 Windsor St,
Cambridge, MA 02139
tel: 617.577.4681
fax: 617.577.3213
tel: 800.225.1000 ordering
tel: 800.225.1618 technical assistance
Polaroid Ultrasonic Components Group offers two ultrasonic ranging kits:
Specs:
Distance range: 0.26 to 10.7 meters
Resolution: Nominal +- 3mm to 3m, +-1% over entire range
Sonar acceptance angle: approx. 20 degrees
Power Requirement: 6VDC, 2.5 Amps (1 ms pulse), 150mA quiescent
Weight: Transducer, 8.2gm, Ranging module, 18.4 gm
Designer's Kit:
1 transducer, 1 ranging module, electronics display accurate
to 1/10th meter. Cost is $169
OEM kit:
2 transducers, 2 ranging modules. $99.
NEW Piezotransducer kit
2.5cm-1500cm +/- 1%, RS-232 port and analog output, extra real
estate, $299
This section describes a simple addition to the drive circuitry, the
Polaroid ranging system can detect objects as close as 10cm.
The board has two extra signals: BLNK and BINH. Asserting BLNK
(driving it HIGH) resets the ECHO RS-latch, and asserting BINH
shortens the internal blanking interval (which is 2.38 ms by default).
Thus, the solution would seem to lie in asserting BINH after a
reasonable amount of time (< 2.38 ms after asserting INIT) to detect
objects closer than 1.3 feet. This doesn't work very well because
BINH is very susceptable to noise, and attaching a driver to it wreaks
havoc possibly because of the anomalous current sink during the
transmit phase. This can be fixed by asserting BLNK during the
blanking period (ie the new blanking period) while negating BINH and
asserting BIHN after the blanking period while negating BLNK. This
can be done easily with a one-shot or some other timing device (eg
computer timer, etc).
A computer timer can be used. The timer goes HIGH tblank ms after INIT
is asserted, where tblank=0.15*dist and dist is the threshold distance
in inches). The timer output goes to BINH and the inverted timer
output goes to BLNK. The timer output should be inverted with an
LS/TTL inverter to delay the negation of BLNK, otherwise the RS latch
may do weird things.
[From Richard LeGrand]
Siemans - nice complete sensor package, 5 degree cone angle
Massa - components
Texas Instruments
Type SN28827 Sonar Ranging Module
See TI Applications Notes D2780
Under $50, needs only 5VDC
Not sure if these units are still manufactured but they are often in
surplus catalogs.
===Position determination
How do I measure the postion of my arm/mobile robot/thing?
In many applications there is a need to accurately measure the
position of an end-effector (hand or gripper) or find coordinate
locations on objects, or track motion, or give a time and position
history of a moving object. Virtual reality applications have really
needed this kind of device to provide realtime adjustments to views
that are projected to VR users. See sci.virtual-worlds for discussions
on this topic. Robotics people have needed this to provide accurate
assessments of manipulator motions and mobile robot positions.
Required measurement ranges can be as small as a tabletop and can
extend for kilometers.
Useful papers to solve for transforms from positioning devices for
multiple reference frames:
Roger Tsai and Rainer Lenz,
June 1989 IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation
C. C. Wang,
April 1992 IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation)
Commercial Devices:
-------------------
Polhemus, Acension and Shooting Star provide 6DOF devices that are
geared to local tracking of a small wired RF or EM style beacon.
Distances are limited to a couple of meters and accuracies to sub-cm range:
Polhemus Inc.
tel: 802.655.3139
fax: 802.655.1439
Burlington, VT
3Space, Isotrak, FasTrak:
Electromagnetic devices for sensing xyz and rotations remotely.
Limited to 1m or so radius. Sensitive to metallic objects in vicinity.
Approx $3k
Ascension Technology Corporation
PO Box 527
Burlington VT 05402 USA
tel: 802.860.6440
fax: 802.860.6439
net: as...@world.std.com
Sales: Jack Scully
Technical Support: Steven Work
Product is Flock of Birds. A 6d0f measuring device.
Ftp site is here: ftp://ftp.std.com/ftp/vendors/Ascension/
gen_lit.txt - Contains general literature on 6D motion tracking
system. Accuracy Specifications, comments from prominent
users, list of 3rd party software vendors, FAQ on
tracking system, etc. Ascii text.
tecpaper.wp6 - Technical Description of our Flock of Birds (TM) 6D
tracking system. In Binary WordPerfect 6.0 format.
userware.zip - Latest version of our User Software, including source
code. Enjoy. pkzipped binary file.
manual.wp6 - Latest version of our User Manual. In Binary
WordPerfect 6.0 format.
readme.txt - more info on files located in Ascension's FTP
directory. Ascii text.
Sensitivity to metal is on the order 5 to 10 times less than
Polhemus tracker. Range and specifications are much better as well.
The Ascension Flock of Birds tracker is DC pulsed, where the Polhemus
is AC magnetic field. The AC field set up standing waves in metal
(conduction and ferris) which magnify the distortion effect.
Charts provided by Acension:
KEY PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS OF ASCENSION & POLHEMUS TRACKING DEVICES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parameter Ascension Polhemus Polhemus
Flock of Birds Isotrak II Fastrak
Measurement Rate
(Measurements/sec)
1 Receiver 144 60 120
2 Receivers 144 30 60
@ Max Number of Rcvrs 144 30 30
Maximum Number of Receivers 30 2 32
Number of Transmitters to 1 1 4
Support Max Number of Receivers
Maximum Data Output Rate 312K 115K 115K
(Baud or Bytes)
Lag Increase with Multiple No Yes Yes
Receivers**
Range - Standard Transmitter 3' 5'* 10'*
- Extended Transmitter 8' N/A N/A
Accuracy Degradation Due to:
Conductive Metals Low High High
Stainless Steel None High High
(300 series)
CRT Interference Rejection Yes No Yes
LCD Noise Susceptability No Yes Yes
Unit Cost (1 Receiver) $2,695 $2,875 $5,750
* Note 1: Polhemus specifies range at maximum transmitter-sensor
separation distances. At these ranges, outputs will contain significant
amounts of noise, which may render their measurements worthless. We
will provide you with a number of references who have independently
assessed actual range performance of both Ascension and Polhemus trackers.
** Note 2: For a complete discussion of latency in competitive motion
trackers, contact Ascension.
Specifications:
Technical
Translation range: plus or minus 3'(8' optional) in any direction
Angular range: plus of minuw 180 degrees Azimuth & Roll
plus or minus 90 degrees Elevation
Translation accuracy: 0.1" RMS
Translation resolution: 0.03"
Angular accuracy 0.5 degrees RMS
Angular resolution 0.1 degrees RMS @ 12"
Update rate: Up to 144 measurements/second
Outputs: X,Y,Z positional coordinates and orientation
angles or rotation matrix
Interface: RS-232C with selectable baud rates to 115,200; or
RS-422/485 with selectable baud rates to 310,000
Format: Binary
Modes: Point or stream
Physical
Transmitter: 3.75-inch cube (internally mounted in Enclosure or
externally mounted with 10' cable) or extended range
transmitter option: 12-inch cube externally mounte with
20' cable
Receiver: 1.0" x 1.0" x 0.8" cube (or optional 3-button mouse)
with 10' or 25' cable
Enclosure: 9.5" x 11.5" x 2.6"
Power: User provided or optional external plug-in: US/European
version
Environment: Large metallic objects in operating volume may degrade
performance
Shooting Star Technology
1921 Holdom Avenue
Burnaby, B.C.
Canada V5B 3W4
tel: 604.298.8574
fax: 604.298.8580
ADL-1 6DOF tracker. Gives position/orientation measurements up
to 240 times/second, with low latency (0.35 to 1.88 milliseconds.)
---Hand motions
Mattel marketed the PowerGlove for use in gaming (Nintendo). It
tracked finger motions through small bend sensors. The Mattel
PowerGlove was developed by:
Abrams-Gentile Entertainment, Inc.,
244 West 54th Street,
9th Floor, New York, NY 10019
tel: 212.757.0700.
The sensors themselves are simple resistors varying from about 200K to
500K ohms depending on the amount of flex.
--The following can be used to track in rooms or warehouse sized
environments. Accuracies in the cm or better range.
Denning Branch International Robotics
1401 Ridge Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15233
tel: (412) 322-4412
fax: (412) 322-2040
email: Soon. Messages to h...@cs.cmu.edu will be forwarded.
Denning-Branch is a merger of Denning Mobile Robotics, once
located in the Boston area, and makers of human-size mobile
robots since 1983, and Branch and Associates, of Hobart,
Australia, designers and builders of smaller mobile robots
since 1979.
LaserNav
Robot-mounted scanning infrared laser unit that uses wall
mounted bar-coded retroreflectors or active transponders to navigate
to centimeter precision in 10-meter-scale areas. $8K
Guidance Control Systems
44 Hidcote Road, Leicester
011 44 455 822 441 ext 3808
fax 011 44 455 824 551
Contact: Malcolm Roberts
GCS's core group developed the rotating scanner and passive
target system. Featured in several papers out of Oxford. Caterpillar
has North American rights for materials handling applications. Uses
passive targets with barcodes. Targets have unique ID's and surveyed
positions. Rotating laser gives angles between targets. Target
positions combined with angles gives vehicle position and heading. 2Hz
scan rate but clever use of dead reckoned information and kalman
filtering can give very impressive results.
MacLeod Technologies
315 Littleton Rd.
Chelmsford, MA 01824
tel: 508.250.4949
Update speed: 20 hz
position accuracy: +/-0.05inches (1.27 mm)
direction accuracy: +/- 0.05 degrees
3 D reference points cover 1 acre
1D, 2D or 3D feedback
Cost: About $5K for positioning system
They claim to be able to get this kind of accuracy even while
the robot is moving at several meters/sec.
Selspot Systems Ltd
1233 Chicago Road
Troy, MI 48083
tel: 313.583.6940
fax: 313.583.1746
In Sweden:
tel: +46-31-878110
fax: +46-31-278992
Two camera system registers 3D position of IR LED's at very
high rates. Selspots Robot Check System can provide non-contact 3D
measurement and analysis of robot motion at 500 Hz rate. System has
been used for over 20 years. Used in motion studies for people,
animals and robots.
Qualisys AB
Ogardesvagen 4
S-433 30 Partille
Sweden
MacReflex system uses CCD-based cameras for non-contacting
measurement of robots. Two camera system is typical. Uses small
passive targets and IR LED's colocated with the cameras lens. Video
processor calculates centroid of markers and displays in
real-time. Information is used to provide data and analysis of
position, velocity, acceleration, angles, angle velocity and
acceleration and position vs. time. Specs: Noise level 1:200000,
Resolution 1:70000, Relative accuracy: 1:30000, and absolute accuracy
1:10000. Accuracy is defined as standard deviation of difference
between measured and true positions/longest diagonal in measurement
volume.
Qualisys
41C New London Turnpike
Glastonbury, CT 06033
tel: 203.657.3585
fax: 203.657.3595
Selspot is marketed by:
Innovision Systems
30521 Schoenherr, Ste 104
Warren, MI 48093
tel: 313.751.0600
fax: 313.573.9845
Coordinate Measuring Machines are now widely used for process control,
statistical monitoring, entering 3D from a physical part into a CAD
system and many other uses. CMM's tend to be large and expensive.
Supraporte Inc
5145-I Avenida Encinas, Carlsbad, CA 92008
Portable 6-axis measuring system. Model 2000
now available with battery power pack.
Very accurate. Very expensive.
Faro
125 Technology Park
Lake Mary, FL 32746-6204
tel: 800.736.6063
tel: 407.333.9911
fax: 407.333.4181
Metrecom: 6DOF articulated pointer, like a portable CMM.
Endpoint accuracies are around .005" -> .025", depending on model.
Counterbalnaced design. Three models from 1.8m to 2.4m reach and
accuracies ranging from +/- .635mm to .127mm and prices from $14.4K to
$51.4K respectively.
For the really high end:
Cheasapeake Laser Systems
222 Gale Lane
Kennett Square, PA 19348
tel: 215.444.2300
fax: 215.444.2323
Laser metrology systems. CMS-3000 is a servo controlled
tracking laser interferometer measureing tool. The tracker follows a
retroreflective target whil providing real-time coordinate information
of the retro center location. Position of the target is provided in
XYZ coordinates via linear distance and two high accuracy angular
encoders. CMS-3000 can provide measurements over a large volume. 30m
radial, > 110 degrees elevation, > 270 horizontal. Down to 0.6 micron
resolution, 2 parts in 10^5 accuracy for range. (1m/sec tracking) up
to 6m/sec tracking at 5 micron resolution. Lightweight and cost
effective versus CMM's and offers speed and accuracy advantages over
theodolites and photogrammetry equipment. System can be leased by
hour/week/month. About $180K to buy.
===Pan/Tilt devices
A common robotic need. Most pan-tilts sold today by companies
such as Pelco and Vicon are for CCTV applications for continuous
scanning or remote operation. At most these will have potentiometers
for feedback. A number of undersea companies make pan-tilt devices as
well that are rugged and nicely packaged, but these tend to be heavier
and more expensive than their terrestrial counterparts.
CameraMan
CameraMan is a pan/tilt device built to support any camcorder
and has a wireless interface to an external remote control. 360 deg
pan and 50 deg of tilt. The unit is made by ParkerVision and sold
through Columbia AudioVideo (and probably other suppliers)
CCTV Corporation
315 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
tel: 800.221.2240
fax: 212.463.9758
Standard CCTV pan-tilt devices like those from Vicon and
others. Inexpensive but no computer control. $557 - $1400
Directed Perception
1451 Capuchino Avenue,
Burlingame, CA 94010
tel: 415.342.9399
Small computer controlled pan-tilt unit Model PTU-46-17.5
Weighs 1kg and can support ~1.5kg camera payload.
Very nice specs: 330 deg/sec slew, 3.06 arcmin accuracy,
on-the-fly position and speed changes. 11-40VDC unregulated power input,
RS-232 interface. Can use RS-485 using RJ-11 to provide control of
multiple PT units.
Cost: $1935 Includes PT unit, controller, cable and power supply.
$1800 w/o power supply.
Emco Intertest Inc
27-1 Ironia Road
Flanders, NJ 07836
tel: 201.927.2900
fax: 201.927.8004
MicroPan PTX-400 very small P/T designed for remote viewing
with micro-CCD cameras. Weight 115g. Height under 7cm.
Fujinon
10 High Point Drive
Wayne, NJ 07470
tel: 201.633.5600
fax: 201.633.5216
Fujinon CPT-10. 300 deg pan, =/- 95deg tilt. 15 deg/sec speed.
2kg. Payload 4kg. Analog input control.
Photosea
6377 Nancy Ridge Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
tel: 619.452.8903
Underwater pan-tilts including Cobra, very small design.
Remote Ocean Systems
5111-L Santa Fe Street
San Diego, CA 92109
tel: 619.483.3902
fax: 619.483.2407
Underwater P/T systems, expensive but very nicely packaged. PT-5 is
a new subminature P/T device that can accomodate a small CCD color
camera and mini wet&dry lights. The P/T is 13.5cm high and 10cm wide.
Uses small brushless motors with harmonic drives. Radiation tolerant
and corrosion resistant. 360 scan on both axes.
RSI Research
Sidney, BC
tel: 604.656.0101
Underwater pan-tilts
Telemetrics
Hawthorne, NJ
tel: 201.423.0347
Computer controlled P/T devices - fairly large though.
TeleRobotics International, Inc.
7325 Oak Ridge Hwy Suite 104
Knoxville, TN 37931
tel: 615.690.5600
fax: 615.690.2913
An all-electronic pan/tilt/zoom resampler. That is, they put a box
behind a camera with a fish-eye lens. The box has digital inputs for
pan, tilt, zoom, rotation. The box resamples the video signal and
produces an output as though the image were acquired by a camera with
those parameters. Used as an alternative to pan/tilt devices.
Zebra Kinesis
(spin-off of Zebra Robotics)
Jeff Kerr
tel: 415.328.8884
Small Pan/tilt head.
===Shape memory materials:
Nickel-titanium alloys were first discovered by the Naval Ordinance
Laboratory decades ago and the material was termed NiTinOL. These
materials have the intriguing property that they provide actuation
through cycling of current through the materials. It undergoes a
'phase change' exhibited as force and motion in the wire.
Mondotronics
524 San Anselmo Ave.,
#107
San Anselmo, CA 94960
tel: 415.455.9330
tel: 800.374.5764
fax: 415.455.9333
net: <mo...@holonet.net>
A number of muscle wire (nitinol) projects including a small walking
machine. Book and sample kit with 1m each of 50,100 and 150 um wire -
enough to build all 14 projects in book.
Memry Technologies
57 Commerce Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804
tel: 203.740.7311
fax: 203.775.2359
Memry sell a Mitsubishi developed polyurethane based Shape Memory
Polymer. The material undergoes property changes in hardness,
flexibility, elastic modulus and vapor permeability under temperature
change. Medical applications is one focus for this material.
===Measuring Linear Motion
There are very few devices to directly give absolute position
for linear motions. Often rack and pinion drives are combined with
geared rotary encoders to give absolute position. Here are some
manufacturers of Magneorestrictive sensors for measuring absolute
linear position. Accuracy is usually around 0.05% of full scale.
Gemco Magnetek
1080 N. Crooks Road
Clawson, MI 48017-1097
tel: 313.435.0700
fax: 313.435.8120
Balluff
PO Box 937
8125 Holton Drive
Florence, KY 41042
tel: 800.543.8390
fax: 606.727.4823
MTS Systems Corporation (Temposonics)
Sensors Division
Box 13218
Research Triangle Park, NC 27708
tel: 919.677.0100
fax: 919.677.0200
Norstat
PO Box 377
Hibernia, NJ 07842
tel: 201.586.2500
fax: 201.586.1590
===Interfacing sensors
Atmos Technology,Inc
1060 Lincoln Av,
San Jose Ca 95125
tel: 408.292.8066
fax: 408.292.8241
The AT1000A is a single chip sensor interface circuit that has
been used in pressure, acceleration, temperature and humidity
applications. 20 PIN SOIC Package, 12-Bit A/D Converter, 64 Bits
EEPROM memory. Programmable pulsed current source via EEPROM memory.
Three channel A/D: Iout1,Iout2, and Vdiff.
____________________________________________________________________________
+++Actuators
[New section - much to add]
How do I get a motor under computer control? What kind of
motor should I use? What are the differences between actuator types?
What other types of actuation are there?
Types of motors:
Synchronous
Stepper
AC servo
Brushless DC servo
Brushed DC servo
RC-Servos
---------
R/C servos for model airplanes, cars and other vehicles are light,
rugged, cheap and fairly easy to interface. For prices etc see one of
the many Radio Control magazines on the market.
Three wire connector for RC-servos:
Pin 1 = White = Signal
Pin 2 = Red = +5
Pin 3 = Black = Signal and Power Ground
[Tang = pin 1]
Signal is a variable width pulse ranging from 1-2ms in duration and
repeating every 12-20 ms. The output shaft rotates to a position
porportional to the input pulse width. Input pulse width is compared
to an internal timer pulse. The timer period is controlled by a pot
coupled to the servo's output shaft. The difference between the two
pulse widths is an error signal. The servo attempts to reduce or
eliminate the error signal by driving the output shaft in the
appropriate direction. When the error signal is within about
5micro-seconds the drivers are turned off to preventing oscillation or
'hunting'.
The following narticle is an excellent source on servo facts and a
PIC-based circuit to control R/C Servos. (See the Microcontrollers
Section for more info on the PIC)
The Juggler's Delight: PIC-based Controller for up to
eight servos by Scott Edward. The Computer Applications Journal,
October 1994 p14 [A kit is available as well for the circuit,
including PC board, IC's etc]
Commercial controller for RC servos:
Pontech
401 E 17th St Suite B
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
tel: 714.642.8458
Pontech has a SV100 Servo Motor Controller which is based on the PIC
16C84 microcontroller. It accepts RS232 serial data signal from a
host computer and poutput PWM to control up to four RC servo motors.
Multiple boards can be parallel together to allow more servos. They
also sell FUTABA FP-S148 servos. boards: $49.95, servos: $16.95, +
$5.00 shipping and handling
Muscle-like Actuators
----------------------
See Shape Memory section in Sensors area above.
Bridgestone Corporation
3-2-25 Nishikubo,
Musashino City, Tokyo 180.
tel: 0422 54 5820
Rubber-based device that bends under applied pneumatic
pressure. For a rotation unit typical rotation angles are 360,120,90
degrees for linear unit the contraction rate cannot exceed 20%.
Research into shape memory alloys, polymer gels and micromechanism
devices is ongoing. Library browsing is a must to get recent
information on these areas.
____________________________________________________________________________
+++Imaging for Robotics
[This is a new and incomplete section - need more information here]
There are a wide variety of frame grabbers, computer vision systems
and image processing tools available. For VME, Multibus, PC Bus, even
SBUS and STD, there are a number of options for getting images into
your computer.
Data Cube
Data Translation
100 Locke Drive
Marlboro, MA 01752
tel: (508) 481-3700
tel: (800) 525-8528
fax: (508) 481-8627
ImageNation Corporation
P.O. Box 276
Beaverton, OR 97075
tel: (503) 641-7408
tel: (800) 366-9131
fax: (503) 643-2458
Cortex I Video Frame Grabber features half-slot card, real
time imaging with display output, 8 bit, RS-170, CCIR formats
available, Binary, TIFF file formats, EISA & STD bus products
available, single 512 x 484 or four 256 x 242 images
Mandex Technology, Inc.
1191 Chicago Road
Troy, MI 48083
tel: 810.585.1165
fax: 810.585.3745
contact: M. Gupte
SMART EYE I: DSP-based real-time image processing system
designed specifically for mobile and fixed base robotics
systems. Stand-alone image processing system on a single board. Low
power consumption, small form factor, and low weight. The single
board system includes: four monochrome camera inputs, video digitizer
(gain and offset software adjustable), input look-up table, two frame
grabbers, additional two video buffers, color mappable image display
buffer, color mappable graphics overlay buffer, RGB display driver,
serial communications port, and application program RAM and
EPROM. Program code can be burned into EPROM. Wide variety of language
and development platform support. Additional hardware expansion to
provide addtional I/O capabilities.
____________________________________________________________________________
+++Wireless Communication
Tethers for supplying power and communication are sometimes
impractical and at best an annoyance. Digital communication via RF
and IR links is becoming cheaper and a number of companies are
providing off-the-shelf solutions. For basic serial line communication
a wide variety of radio modems are available that use fixed
frequencies or spread spectrum techniques. In many cases they are also
transparent. That is, you plug them directly into serial ports on the
robot and off-board computing directly. Higher bandwidths such as
Ethernet or high speed synchronous serial require different hardware.
However, with high speed serial communication you may even be able to
SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocal) or PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol)
instead of using a LAN-based device.
This area of communication is changing very quickly and new
products and companies are appearing every day.
See also a nice list at:
ftp://csd4.csd.uwm.edu/pub/Portables/Wireless/wireless-modems
or gopher://csd4.csd.uwm.edu
[Maintained by David Kent <dk...@world.std.com>]
Comrad Wireless Data Link
Contact: Mike Pedigo 317.290.9107
Modems. Two channels: 1200-38,400 baud, 100m range, 20m range through
two walls. Easy to set up.
Pacific Crest Corporation
1190 Miraloma ay, Suite W
Sunnyvale, CA 94086-4607
tel: 408.730.5789
tel: 800.795.1001
fax: 408.730.5640
DDR-96 and RDDR-96 Radio modems. To 9600 baud. 2W. Point-to-point
communcations. Uses standard RS-232 9pin DB style connectors. Can also
be used in packet switching networks. Forward error correction
techniques and PLL synchronization. The RDDR is a ruggedized version.
Cost is about $1100 and $1230 respectively. FCC license required.
Video:
For regular frame rate video over relatively short distances
it's hard to beat the price and availability of several consumer
products in the $100 range. Check local stores or place like the
Sharper Image (Gemini Rabbit is one of the companies making these
units) Microwave systems require line-of-site communication,
licensing, and are expensive.
Ethernet:
There are some related articles in the Feb/93 Byte Magazine.
Proxim Inc.
295 North Barnardo Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94043
tel: 415.960.1630
fax: 415.964.5181
A product announcement for wireless LAN board on p.68 in May/92 Byte Magazine
Price: $495
Range: 800 ft.
Data Rate: 242 Kbps
Channels: 3
Telesystems SLW
85 Scarsdale Road, Suite 201
Don Mills, Ontario, Canada
ARLAN radio LAN
We've used ARLAN with CMU's Ambler work. It's an ethernet
bridge and it smart about routing traffic across the repeater. The 620
is about $5K. Can be used without a license in the US. (spread
spectrum) 6 miles range.
Motorola Radio-Telephone Systems Group, Arlington Heights, ILL
tel: 708.632.5000
AltairNet: 18GHz-based system design for wireless, indoors
networking. The boxes are fairly large, about the size of a shoebox,
and are relocatable but not portable. Problem is that is that they
really aren't for mobile applications. The reception area has holes
like swiss cheese. Not a problem with some fine adjustment in
stationary applications but a big problem for mobile devices.
NCR sells the WaveLAN, which has about a 1Mbit/sec data rate. Not
exactly "ethernet", but interfaceable to most networks using MS-DOS
boxes as routers.
Tetherlink in California is experimenting with a 2Mbit/sec cellular
system that is designed for roving portables. [Need address]
O'Neil and GRE America provide bidirectional 19.2Kps RS-232 links that
you can run a terminal emulator or SLIP over, range about 100 ft.
[need addresses]
Hamtronics, Inc.
65-D Moul Rd.
Hilton, NY 14468-9535
tel: 716.392.9430
fax: 716.392.9420
1200 and 9600 baud units/modules for a few hundred dollars.
Comrad, Communications Research and Development Corporation
7210 Georgetown Road, Suite 300
Indianapolis, IN 46268
tel: 317.290.9107
fax: 317.291.3093
Comrad CCL901-DP 900 MHz Wireless Data Link. 500 meter range
can be extended through additional transponders. RS232 - 38Kbaud.
Battery pack available for portable applications. Two transceiver
units, software, power adapter, serial cables for $449.95.
Cylink
310 N. Mary Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
tel: 408.735.5800
fax: 408.735.6643
AirLink - series of highspeed synch or async modems to
256kb/s. Interfaces include V.11, RS-232, EIA-530. Spread spectrum
device operating in 902-928Mhz range.
Micrilor Inc
17 Lakeside Park,
Wakefield, MA 01880
tel: 617.246.0130
fax: 617.246.0157
RS-232, T1221 and R1221 transmitters. 902-928MHz, no FCC
license required. Data rates to 64k-baud. >100m range. Power 35mA@3VDC,
Antenna is 60cm RG174 coax. Price: $550 ea.
Monicor Electronics
Fort Lauderdale, FL
tel: 305.979.1907
fax: 305.979.2611
System 310 two-card OEM set for use in palmtops and handheld
computing. System 310 board set transmits at 1mW to 2W for a range of
3 to 3km range. Priced at $660 in quantity. Model IC-15-48 - rugged
RS232 4800 baud modem. Can network a number of these portables. $1630.
A number of articles have also been posted about the modification of
inexpensive walkie-talkies for wireless communication. Typical
bandwidths are limited to about 1200 baud. This may be sufficient for
simple command-level control of a mobile mechanism. See Archives.
____________________________________________________________________________
+++Robot Parts: Suppliers and Sources
Many inquiries on comp.robotics are of the form: Where can I find X?
where X might be motors, gears, fasteners, connectors etc. The
following companies carry a wide selection of electronics and
mechanical parts. With the possible exception of computing these
companies should have all you need to build robot mechanisms.
Also see the file regularly posted to sci.electronics and a number of
the radio newsgroups:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/sci.electronics/My_List_of_Mail_Order_Electronics_Companies
All Electronics Corp.
P.O. Box 567
Van Nuys, CA 91408
tel: 800.826.5432
Electronics parts.
Allied Devices
2365 Milburn Avenue,
PO Box 502
Bladwin, NY 11510
tel: 516.223.9100
fax: 516.223.9172
Standard precision mechanical components
American Science and Surplus
3605 Howard St.
Skokie, IL 60076
tel: 708.982.0870
fax: 800.934.0722
C&H Sales
2176 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
tel: 818.796.2628
tel: 800.325.9465
Surplus parts. Motors etc.
Digi-Key Corp.
701 Brooks Avenue South
P.O. Box 677
Thief River Falls, MN 56701-0677
tel: 800.344.4539
Distributor of electronics components and semiconductors.
Edmund Scientific
101 E. Gloucester Pike
Barrington, NJ 08007-1380
tel: 609.573.6250 order
tel: 609.573.6260 customer service
Lots of optics, science and educational items. A little pricey
but nice selection. Edmund also has a Robotic Technology Curriculum
with lessons and tests featuring the Movit robots. Curriculum is $65.
Electronic Goldmine
PO Box 5408
Scottsdale, AZ 85261
tel: 602.451.7454
Fascinating Electronics
P.O. Box 126
Beaverton, OR 97075
tel: 503.292.5233
Experimenter's kits and other electronics.
Graymark
Box 5020
Santa Ana, CA 92704
tel: 800.854.7393
Robot and electonics kits, tools and instruments.
Herbach and Rademan Co.
18 Canal St.
P.O. Box 122
Bristol, PA 19007-0122
tel: 800.848.8001 (orders)
tel: 215.788.5583 (office)
fax: 215.788.9577 (fax)
Electro-mechanical "surplus" parts, equipment and insturments.
JDR Microdevices
tel: 408.559.1200
fax: 800.538.5005
Surplus and lots of electronic components including cameras and
some sensors. Some recent components have included:
TV transmitter (part # RK-TV6, $19.95 US) transmits composite video +
audio to any television set withing 600' on one of channels 2 - 6.
Runs on 12VDC.
Microwave doppler radar sensor. Claims to detect a person or animal up
to 12' away (part number RK-MD3, $19.95 w/o case. Claims to come with
complete circuit theory and instructions.
Marlin P. Jones
tel: 407.848.8236
McMaster-Carr Supply Company
PO box 440
New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0440
tel: 908.329.3200
fax: 908.329.3772
An amazing catalog of hundreds of thousands of parts. Lots of
mechanical things but not much for electronics or computing.
MECI
tel: 800.344.4465
Mendelson Electronics Co., Inc
tel: 800.422.3525
Newark Electronics
500 N. Pulaski St.
Chicago, IL 60624-1019
tel: 312.784.5100 (check locally)
Major distributor of electronics components and equipment (1200+
pages) with branches throughout the US.
Nordex
50 Newton Road
Danbury, CT 06810-6216
tel: 203.792.9050
Gears, cams, universals etc.
PIC Design
PO Box 1004
Benson Road
Middlebury, CT 06762-1004
tel: 800.243.6125 (except CT)
tel: 203.758.8272
Bearings, clutches, brakes, couplings, tools, belts, pulleys, gears
etc.
Pure Unobtainium
13109 Old Creedmoor Road,
Raleigh, NC 27613-7421
tel: 919.676.4525
net: 74065,13...@compuserve.com
All kinds of unusual and hard-to-find parts. I2C8 bus parts, stepper
motor drivers, microcontrollers, digital power drivers, isolators,
muxes, switching regulators, IR remote control, etc etc. No credit
cards.
Radio Shack
Electronic parts and kits. Local retail stores in just about every
city)
SECS, Inc.
520 Homestead Avenue
Mt. Vernon, NY 10550
tel: 914.667.5600
Gears and gear assemblies, belt drives, couplings, bearings, small
parts.
Seitz
Box 1398
Torrington, CT 06790
tel: 203.243.5115
Drive components, gears etc.
Servo Systems
115 Main Road
PO Box 97
Montville, NJ 07045-9299
tel: 201.335.1007
fax: 201.335.1661
Surplus pieces and prices, motors, actuators, geardrives,
controllers, robots, encoders, transducers, amplifiers.
Small Parts Inc.
6891 NE Third Ave
PO Box 381966
Miami, FL 33238-1966
tel: 305.557.8222
fax: 305.751.6217
Lots of neat small supplies including: materials, metal stock,
fasteners, tools etc. This company is the "misc parts" supplier to
the "U.S. FIRST" competetion where corporations and HS Students form
partnerships to build competing robots like Dr Flowers' ME class at
MIT.
Stock Drive Products
2101 Jericho Turnpike
Bobx 5416
New Hyde Park, NY 11042-5416
tel: 516.328.3300
fax: 516.326.8827
Great set of handbooks of thousands of components.
Winfred M. Berg
499 Ocean Ave.,
East Rockaway, LI, NY 11518
tel: 516.599.5010
Precision Mechanical Components
Any technical library should have catalogs from the larger
distributors. These include McMaster-Carr, Grainger, Allied, Newark,
etc.
____________________________________________________________________________
+++Hero Robots
Heath/Heathkit/Zenith [OUT OF BUSINESS]
Benton Harbor, MI
order: 800.253.0570
tech: 616.982.3980
Heros are no longer being made but Heath (Zenith) still offers some
replacement parts. They had about 8 years of sales: 4,000 Hero Jr's,
3,000 Hero 2000's, 14,000 assembled Hero 1's. Ones with less
capability didn't do as well but higher priced ones did ok in the
market. Service and maintainability are a problem due to the sheer
number of bolts, pulleys, boards, sensors, cables etc. Used ones can
be picked up cheap - but caveat emptor.
There is also a mailing group for hero owners managed by Dave Goodwin:
<Hero-owne...@smcvax.smcvt.edu>
Send the following command in the message body:
Subscribe Hero-owners
You may also want to include a HELP command line to get the commands
and their syntax. Note that the subject on the message is irrelevant.
Of course, to post a message to the group, just send it to hero-owners
at the same host.
The Mailserv software can handle files as well, but none are currently
available. Hopefully, list subscribers will start to provide any
nifty code they write for the archive.
Finally, the list of subscribers is available from the Mailserv. See
the help file for how to get it. Questions or problems should be
addressed to Goo...@smcvax.smcvt.edu, not at the waldo address.
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Puma Manipulators
Pumas are probably the most common robot in university laboratories
and one of the most common assembly robots. Designed by Vic Schienman
and financed by GM at MIT in the mid-70's, the Puma (Programmable
Universal Machine for Assembly) was produced for many years by
Unimation (later purchased by Westinghouse and sold at a loss later to
Staubli, a Swiss company) Found in many university labs as well.
Staubli Automation
211 Overlook Drive
Sewickly, PA 15143
tel: 412.741.1740
Staubli Unimation Ltd
Unit G, Stafford Park 18
Telford, Shropshire, TF3 3Ax
UK
PUMA singularities:
The PUMA has three singularities: the ``alignment'' singularity (wrist
is as close to the axis of joint 1 as it can get), the ``elbow''
singularity (elbow is fully extended or folded up; the latter is not
possible because of joint limits), and the wrist singularity (the axes
of joints 4 and 6 are aligned).
The angles corresponding to these depend on the Denavit-Hartenburg
(DH) parameter assignment. For the PUMA, the definitions given in [1]
are perhaps the most commonly used Using these, and letting A2, A3,
D3, and D4 denote the translational DH offsets, the singularities
occur when the following are true:
Alignment: D4*sin(ang2+ang3) + A2*cos(ang2) - A3*cos(ang2+ang3) == 0
Elbow: sin(ang3 - atan2(A3,D4)) == 0
Wrist: sin(ang5) == 0
Typical offset values for the PUMA 560 are
A2 = 431.80
D3 = 149.09
A3 = 20.32
D4 = 433.070
[information provided by John Lloyd <ll...@curly.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>]
Puma Gear Ratios
----------------
Joint # Gear Ratio
-------- -----------
1 0.01597
2 0.00931
3 0.01884
4 0.01428
5 0.01391
6 0.01303
------------------------------------
Tech Report and Matlab Toolbox [Peter Corke]
A technical report is available which provides details of the
Unimation Puma servo system, including details of interfacing via the
arm-interface board, digital board firmware, and analog board/motor
dynamics. (54 pages) It can be found at
ftp://asgard.mlb.dmt.csiro.au/pub/pic/mtm226.ps.Z
A Robotics Toolbox for MATLAB which provides functions for homogeneous
transformations, quaternions, forward and inverse kinematics,
trajectories, forward and inverse dynamics, and graphical animation.
The Toolbox uses a very general method of describing the kinematics
and dynamics of any serial-link manipulators. Descriptors for the
Unimate Puma 560 and the Stanford arm are included. Location -
ftp://ftp.mathworks.com/pub/contrib/misc/robot
That directory contains an extensive manual, doc.ps (72 pages), as
well as all the M-files.
------------------------------------
Trident Robotics and Research, Inc.
2516 Matterhorn Drive
Wexford, PA 15090-7962
(412) 934-8348
email: <robo...@cmu.edu>
A board for replacing the PUMA LSI/11 controller with the CPU of your
choice: The board is basically an I/O board with D/A's, A/D's, encoder
counters and some digital I/O lines and is available to connect to
several bus architectures including VMEbus, IBM-PC bus, Multibus and
IndustryPack bus. (with others under consideration) It comes as a
two-board set: A PUMA board and a bus interface board. This allows
several buses to be supported and keeps the analog electronics away
from the noise of the bus. (It also makes switching buses cheap, if
the need ever arises.) Since it is primarily an I/O board set, it can
be used in applications other than controlling a PUMA.
The user's manuals are available by anonymous ftp:
ftp://ftp.cs.cmu.edu/usr/anon/user/deadslug/trc4um.ps and trd0002.ps
This is a PostScript file that can be printed or viewed (to conserve
paper) and describes the remote board that mounts inside the Unimate
controller, replacing the VAL computer. The file trd0001.ps shows
the board arrangement diagrammatically.
------------------------------------
Useful Puma references:
[1] Richard Paul, Brian Shimano, and Gordon Mayer, ``Kinematic Control
Equations for Simple Manipulators''. IEEE Transactions on Systems,
Man, and Cybernetics, Vol SMC-11, No. 6, June 1981.
[2] B Armstrong, O Khatib, and J. Burdick
The Explicit Dynamic Model and Inertial Parameters of the PUMA 560 Arm
Proceedings IEEE Int. Conference on Robotics and Automation, April 1986
San Francisco, CA pp510-518
[3] P.I. Corke and B. Armstrong-Helouvry
A search for consensus among model parameters reported for
the Puma 560 Robot
Proc. IEEE Conf. Robotics and Automation, 1994 pp. 1608-1613
It is also available via anonyous ftp from
ftp://asgard.mlb.dmt.csiro.au/pub/pic/icra94.ps.gz
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Simulators
Simulation allows researchers, designers and users to construct robots
and task environments for a fraction of the cost and time of real
systems. They differ significantly from traditional CAD tools in that
they allow study of geometries, kinematics, dynamics and motion
planning. This list is NOT a comparative analysis of the different
systems but rather a list of systems that are available.
Commercial Simulators
---------------------
Auto Simulations, Inc.
655 Medical Drive
Bountiful, UT 84010
tel: 801.298.1398
contact: Teresa Francis, ext 330
Products: AutoMod II
Platforms: ?
Cost: ?
CADSI
PO Box 203
Oakdale, IA 52319
tel: 800.383.1322
tel: 319.337.8968
DADS - kinematics and dynamics package. Have ProEngineer to CADSI
interface. Supports rigid and flexible body analysis. Animation and
interfaces to FEA/FEM and CAD programs.
Deneb Robotics, Inc.
3285 Lapeer Road West
PO Box 214687
tel: 313.377.6900
Product: IGRIP
Platforms: SPARCs, SGI
Cost: US$50-$60,000.
Allows offline programming, dynamics capability etc.
Mechanical Dynamics Inc.
2301 Commonwealth Blvd
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
tel: 313.944.3800
ADAMS dynamics package
Silma/Cimstation
1601 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road
Cupertino, California 95014
tel: 408.725.8908
Product: CimStation
Platforms: SGI-4D, SUN SparcStation, Apollo, Intergraph,
Computervision, HP, IBM Risc6000 and DEC.
Cost: Base system around $55K (commercial license)
They also have a University Partnership
Program to enable universities to purchase CimStation
for around $20K US and $25K International.
Features:
Silma offers application solutions for Spot Welding, Arc Welding,
Painting, Stamping and Assembly, as well as Robot Calibration Tools.
Also, SILMA has direct CAD interfaces to Computervision CADDS,
Parametric Technology Corporation Pro/ENGINEER, IBM CATIA ans MCS
ANVIL5000. We also support VDAFS and SET in addition to IGES. Finally,
in addition to CimStation Robotics, we also offer SILMA(R) CimStation
Inspection - used to create, simulate and edit DMIS programs for
coordinate measuring machines- (CMMs) and SILMA(R) CimStation NC
Verification- used to simulate and verify NC part programs.
Provides: Basic CAD Tools: 2D and 3D solid & wireframe, IGES
interface, Robot Modelling: generate the required governing equations
(iterative or closed form) automatically for "many" classes of robots
Path Generation Kinematic Simulation with Collision Detection Dynamic
Simulation (CimStation only at this point) I/O Operations
John Craig, who wrote the book, Introduction to Robotics is head of
Silma's R&D. Silma has a programming environment called SIL complete
with its own PASCAL-like iterative language with graphics and robotics
extensions. CimStation is built out of this language. This allows you
to add your own functionality. E.g. your own path planner. You can
also write C-code, compile it, and add it to the system.
Comutek
1223 Peoples Avenue
Troy, NY 12180
tel: 518.276.2817
fax: 518.276.XXXX
contact: Vinay Joshi
Products: Work-Out
Cost: Around $25000.
Robot Simulations Ltd.
Lynnwood Busines Centre
Lynnwood Terrace
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE4 6UL
England
tel: +44 (0)91 272 3673
fax: +44 (0)91 272 0121
US contact:
John Lapham
Applications Engineer
International Business Link
17105 San Carlos Blvd. Suite A6151
Ft. Myers Beach, FL 33931
tel: 813.466.0488
fax: 813.466.7270
e-mail: lap...@gate.net
Robot Simulations (RSL) develops and markets the world's first
microcomputer based industrial robot simulation software named
Workspace. The package has been selling since 1989. The package uses
3d graphics to simulate robots and their associated machinery in a
workcell, and is capable of offline programming industrial and
educational robots in many different robot languages. It runs on a PC
and is $5K to educational institutions. $26K for industrial version.
Workspace 3 robot simulation: Kinematic modeller
Discrete event simulation Interactive creation of new mechanimsm
Library of standard robots
Advanced robot languages Dynamics simulator
Variables Forces and torques calculated
Subroutines Graphical representation of results
Loop structures
Sophisticated motion commands Text editor
Accurate representation of mechanisms Integral editor for track and
Calculation of cycle times teachpoint files
Collision detection
Solid 3-d rendering
Integrated CAD system Fast shaded animations in 256 colours
Constructive solid geometry
Library of standard 3d primitives Computer Aided Learning
Extruded polylines Simple authoring of training exercises
Spheres
Cones Calibration
Cylinders In-built robot and fixture
Boxes calibration system
Surfaces
Solids of rotation User Manuals
DXF and IGES import facilities Tutorial exercises
Example robots and workcells
The system is in use throughout Europe and the Far East in both Industry and
Education with several hundred seats. Sales in the USA are relatively recent.
Further details can be obtained from myself, Or from the Robot Industry
Association in the USA, or from our USA representative:
Tecnomatix Technologies/Robcad
39750 Grand River Avenue
Suite A-3
Novi, MI 48375
tel: 313.471.6140
fax: 313.471.6147
Platforms: HP, Silicon Graphics, IBM and Sun
Tecnomatix makes several packages for simulation including ones for
Spot welding, Arc welding, Painting, Teleoperation (Martel), CMM and
Drilling. They also have an open systems environment, ROSE, that
allows user customization and interface design. ROBCAD itself allows
robot modeling (library of 100 robots is supplied), collision free
path generation, importation of IGES, VDAFS and SET files and direct
interface with Catia and ComputerVision.
[GMF - the entry that used to be here, no longer supports OLPW-200,
instead they are a Robcad reseller]
Simulators on the net
---------------------
Ars Magna:
The ARS MAGNA robot simulator provides an abstract world in which a
planner controls a mobile robot. The simulator also includes a simple
graphical user-interface which uses the CLX interface to the X window
system. Version 1.0 of the ARS MAGNA simulator is documented in Yale
Technical Report YALEU/DCS/RR #928, "ARS MAGNA: The Abstract Robot
Simulator". This report is available in the distribution as a
Postscript(tm) file, as well as from:
Paula Murano
Yale University
Department of Computer Science
P.O. Box 2158 Yale Station
New Haven, CT 06520-2158
net: <mur...@cs.yale.edu>
Comments to Sean Engelson: <enge...@cs.yale.edu>
ARS MAGNA is available by anonymous ftp:
location: ftp.cs.yale.edu
directory: pub/nisp
filenames: *
Flakey:
A mobile robot simulator and controller. Contact: Kurt
Konolige of SRI <kono...@ai.sri.com> A Preliminary version of a
mobile robot simulator and controller. All written in C, but you need
Motif to run the graphics.
This is essentially the same software run on Flakey, (robot at SRI
used for research in AI), behaviors using fuzzy control (there's lots
more on Flakey in terms of sensor interpretation and higher-level
control, but I haven't ported that from LISP to C yet). There are
three example behaviors implemented, showing dumb obstacle avoidance
and goal achievement. There's not much documentation yet, but I will
get some out over the next few months.
The intent is to make the simulator/controller suitable for a course
in mobile robotics, and to have eventually a cheap physical platform
that will imitate the simulator (or vice versa).
Available by anonymous ftp from:
ftp://ftp.ai.sri.com/pub/konolige/
filename: erratic-ver1.tar.Z
Uncompress, untar and check the README file for installation.
A collection of five tech reports on Flakey's fuzzy controller is also
available at:
ftp://ocean.ai.sri.com/pub/saffiott
filename: flakey_papers_93.tar.Z
------------------------
Simderella 2.0
Version 2.0 of simderella is here. Major adaptations:
- now features Imakefiles;
- compiles & runs on Solaris and DEC Alpha;
- some C bugs squashed;
- bemmel can grab robot with mouse;
- major improvements to documentation (i.e., an introductory
article describing the package).
- includes a stand-alone version of bemmel for drawing
geometrical objects, with viewoint rotation. Figures
can be dumped to xfig for later inclusion in your papers.
Simderella is a robot simulator consisting of three programs:
connel: the controller
simmel: the simulator
bemmel: the X-windows oriented graphics back-end
Simmel is the part which actually simulates the robot. It performs a
few matrix multiplications, based on the Denavit Hartenberg method,
calculates velocities with the Newton-Euler scheme, and communicates
with the other two programs.
Bemmel only displays the robot. It is a fast general-purpose
display method which places separate objects in space depending on
the homogeneous matrices it receives from simmel.
Connel is the controller, which must be designed by the user
(in the distributed version, connel is a simple inverse kinematics
routine. I didn't include my neural networks.)
The three programs use Unix sockets for communication. This means
that
1. you need sockets
2. all the programs can run on different machines
Since data communication is high-level (meaning, in this case, that
I do not send doubles, integers, and so on, but encode them first),
running the programs on different architectures is no problem. In
fact, it was thus designed that connel can, at the same time,
control a real robot _and_ the simulated one.
Simderella likes to sleep; that is, when nothing happens, no
processor time will be used.
The software is available as a compressed tar file from:
site: galba.mbfys.kun.nl [IP 131.174.82.73]
directory: pub/neuro-software/pd
filename: simderella.1.0.tar.Z
Extract the simulator from the tar file by typing at the Unix
command line:
zcat simderella.2.0.tar.gz | tar xf -
or use your favourite extracting commands. In the simderella/
directory, type
xmkmf
make Makefiles
make depend
make
The sub-directories are recursively visited and executables are
compiled and linked.
Supported architectures: Sun (SunOS and Solaris), SGI, DEC Alpha,
HP700, 386 et al running Linux)
If you're impatient, execute the thing as follows:
cd bemmel; Zoscar & cd ..
cd simmel; source env; simmel1 ns & cd ..
cd connel; connel s
all on one machine. Then type commands like
fix-target 50 50 50
inverse 50 50 50
or move the mouse pointer in the bemmel window and press an `l' or
`r' or `u' or `d' or ....
[CMU ised Simderella recently to facilitate software development
and testing of the Shuttle servicing robot before the hardware and
mechanics are available to test the various parts of the controller.
it has also been linked to TCA calls and worked very well - nivek]
Public Domain SGI based simulator:
This is a Silicon Graphics based delux robot simulator with
lots of nice graphics Stuff. It was written by Andrew Conway and
Craig Dillon as undergraduates for an electrical engineering project
at the University of Melbourne. Not much in installation
instructions. There is a latex manual with usage instructions and
the mathematics. Warning: It is 4.3Mbytes compressed, and the
US-Australia link is quite slow.
Disclaimer: I [Andrew] haven't used this software for
years. If it malfunctions, don't sue me or Craig, we don't guarantee
it.
ftp://krang.vis.citri.edu.au/pub/robot
MODULSH:
The complete programe is divided into three menus: Main,
Drawing and Robot Menus. features such as selecting elements or the
complete screen, rotating, translating, zooming, enlarging or
reducing the scale and passing to the two dimensional drawing window
from the three dimensional one are available.
The Drawing Menu also offers many other possibilities like
drawing three dimensional circles, ellipses, arcs, elliptical arcs,
cylinders, cones, prisms, ellipsoids, toroids, etc. In addition to
these, it is also possible to obtain hidden line drawing and to
change the point numbers of the circular drawing elements. Whereas
in Robots Menu, operations like selecting modules from the
sub-menus, containing graphics, which concern body, wrist, hand
systems and work spaces of robots, finding direct and inverse
kinematics solution of these systems, point by point simulation of
the robot motions, changing Denavit-Hartenberg parameters and joint
freedom extremums from the menus can be performed.
site: WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil and OAK.Oakland.Edu
directory: pd1:<msdos.education>
filenames: MODULSH1.ZIP Design and animation of robots, 1 of 2
MODULSH2.ZIP Design and animation of robots, 2 of 2
Author:
Dr. Hikmet Kocabas
Istanbul Technical University
MKKOCABS%TRITU....@FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR
MKKO...@TRITU.BITNET
Robotica
Contact: Mark W. Spong
Coordinated Science Lab
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1308 W. Main St.
Urbana, IL 61801
tel: 217.333.4281
fax: 217.244.1653
net: sp...@lagrange.csl.uiuc.edu
http://uxh.cso.uiuc.edu/~gedept/ge/directory/faculty/Spong.html
Robotica is a trademark of The Board of Trustees of the University of
Illinois
Robotica is a collection of useful robotics problem solving functions
encapsulated in a Mathematica package. Utilizing Mathematica's
computational features allows results to be generated in purely
symbolic form.
Robotica requires inputing the form of a table of Denavit-Hartenberg
parameters describing the robot to be analyzed. Once the table has
been entered, Robotica can generate the forward kinematics for the
robot. The A and T matrices as well as the velocity Jacobian, J, are
generated. Of course, it is possible to display and save to an
external file all of the data generated. If the dynamics equations of
the robot are also to be generated, the input must include the
dynamics description data.
Once the forward kinematics are produced, Euler-Lagrange dynamics
equations can be calculated. The inertia matrix, Coriolis and
centrifugal terms, Christoffel symbols and gravity vectors are all
available to the user once the dynamics routines have run.
Utilizing the forward kinematics results, Robotica can calculate the
manipulability ellipsoids when supplied with a range of joint variable
values. It is possible to generate and save a list of manipulability
measures as well as display the ellipsoids with the robot on the
screen.
In addition, Robotica has the capbability of reading external
simulation (e.g., SIMNON) output files and displaying the motion of
the robot when sbjected to the sequence of joint variables described
in the file. This requires that the robot has been input as a table of
Denavit-Hartenburg parameters, and that the foward-kinematics routines
have been executed.
Robotics contains several functions that can be used to draw the robot
in a specific configuration, or show the robot moving through a range
of joint parameter values. Most of the graphics output can be animated
if the Animation.m package is loaded The animations can be saved and
later restored and viewed again.
To simplify interactation with Robotica, an X-Windows based interface
has been designed. This interface insulates the user from the
inconvenient textual interface Mathematica provides.
Requirements: Mathematica 2.0 or better. X-windows requires 2.1 or
better.
The University has requested that all users of Robotica sign and
return a license agreement. This is mainly to keep a record of
Robotica users for future upgrades, etc. The license agreement states
that you may freely use and modify Robotica as you wish but that you
may not sell it.
You can obtain a postscript copy of this license agreement via
anonymous ftp://ftp.csl.uiuc.edu/pub/robotica. Please print out the
license agreement, sign and date it, and FAX it to me [Mark Spong]
It is important that you also include your email address on the
license agreement. As soon as I receive your FAX I will send you the
Robotica package and the X-windows GUI.
Also in the directory /pub/robotica is a postscript file containing
the Robotica users manual which you may freely copy and distribute.
Any comments that you have after using Robotica would be greatly
appreciated. In addition, any questions you have or bugs you find
can be reported to me and we will do our best to address them.
_____________________________________________________________________________
++What is NuTank?
NuTank stands for NeuralTank. It is a program to simulate complex
networks and interactions. In this program one is given the shell of a
2 dimensional robotic tank. The tank has various I/O devices like
wheels, whiskers, optical sensors, smell, fuel level, sound and such.
These I/O sensors are connected to Neurons. The player/designer uses
more Neurons to interconnect the I/O devices. One can have any level
of complexity desired (640k memory limited) and do subsumptive
designs. More complex design take slightly more fuel, so life is not
free. All movement costs fuel too. One can also tag neuron
connections as "adaptable" that adapt their weights in accordance with
the target neuron. This allows neurons to learn.
The Neuron editor can handle 3 dimensional arrays of neurons as single
entities with very flexible interconnect patterns. One can also design
a Glyph or drawing to represent the robot and/or obstacle. (or bug,
worm, whatever) One can then design a scenario with walls, rocks, fat
(fuel) sources (that can be smelled) and many other such things.
Robot tanks are then introduced into the Scenario and allowed to interact
or battle it out. The last one alive wins, or maybe one just watches
the motion of the robots for fun. While the scenario is running it
can be stopped, edited, zoom'd, and can track on any robot. One can
designate a neuron group as the probe group and get a display of the
neural activity of that group. This helps debug designs.
The entire program is mouse and graphically based. It uses DOS and VGA
and is written in TurboC++
There will also be the ability to download designs to another computer
and source code will be available for the core neural simulator. This
will allow one to design neural systems and download them to real
robots. This feature may be in the Beta release, around August 94.
The design tools can handle three dimensional networks so will work
with video camera inputs and such.
Eventually I expect to do a port to UNIX and multi thread the program.
I also expect to do a Mac port and maybe NT or OS/2
The theory that I eventually want to test has to do with the self
oscillating nature of combined subsumptive and standard neural
nets. One can also work on flock and pack behavior.
I have a paper I've written called Artificial Cognition that discusses
a theory of the combination of regular neural nets and subsumptive
networks. In the shareware file it is called Paper.ps and will need
to be printed on a PostScript printer. You may get copies of it by
sending $5 to Keene Educational Software.
Getting NuTank:
NuTank now has a shareware version. It is about 300k bytes compressed.
The file is nutank.exe and is a PKZip executable for dos machines.
It must be put in a directory called C:\nutank
To unpack nutank firts put nutank.exe in C:
C:
mkdir nutank
cd nutank
..\nutank.exe -d
After it unpacks
nutank.exe is the program
If anyone would like to put it on their server feel free to do
so. If you put the shareware on your sever please tell me so I can
send you updates.
Nutank shareware is available vie the ftp sites
cher.media.mit.edu:/pub/incomming/NuTank
or
ftp.essex.ac.uk:/robot/Simulators/NuTank
The shareware version has the ability to write to disk disabled. Feel
free to pass the shareware version around. The regular version costs
$50 (includes a printed copy of the paper) and can be had by sending
$50 US to
Richard Keene
Keene educational Software
8155 Lone Oak Court
Littleton, CO 80124
After Oct 3rd 1994 I'll be working for the Park City Group
and can be reached at
801-649-2221
NuTank, Copyright Richard Keene 1994, All rights reserved.
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS)
I used to include a list of RTOS' in this FAQ. But this effort has
spun off into it's own complete set of files, faqs and locations:
For general discussion of this topic see comp.real-time and
news.answers for the complete RTOS FAQ.
ftp:://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/realtime-computingfaq
Here is a complete list of many RTOS'.
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.realtime/
Comp.realtime:_A_list_of_real-time_operating_systems_and_tools_(LONG)
Below is a list of both commercial and research Real-Time Operating
Systems (RTOS) which are being used around the world for implementing
robotic systems. Only the names and addresses of the distributors are
included. Since the available features of each are constantly
changing, and the advantages and disadvantages of each are greatly a
matter of opinion and target application, no such descriptions are
given.
Commercial RTOS:
* iRMX III
Runs on Intel 80X86-based computers
U.S.A.:
Intel Corporation
3065 Bowers Avenue
Santa Clara, California 95051
tel (408) 987-8080
* LynxOS
Runs on wide variety of platforms, including Motorola,
Intel, Sun, and Hewlett Packard.
Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc
16780 Lark
Los Gatos, CA 95030
tel (408) 354-7770
fax (408) 354-7085
* OS-9
Runs on Motorola MC680X0-based single board computers.
Microware System Corporation
1900 N.W. 114th St.
Des Moines, Iowa 50322
tel (515) 224-1929
* pSOS+
Runs on a variety of Motorola 680X0 and 88100, and
Intel 80386 computers. Requires a host workstation or
personal computer if pASSPORT+ real-time programming
environment is to be used.
Software Components Group, Inc.
1731 Technology Drive
San Jose, CA 95110
tel (408) 437-0700
fax (408) 437-0711
* E-VENIX & VENIX
VenturCom Inc
215 First St.
Cambridge, MA. 02142
P: (617) 661-1230
I: in...@vci.com
Product runs on ix86 platforms and PC/104 systems.
Product is real UNIX, SVR3.2 & SVR4.2.
Workstation version requires ~4MB, 120MB, 80{3|4}86 processor.
Embedded version requirements vary depending on features used.
Embedded product allows for completely ROMed UNIX systems,
from read-only root to stand alone applications.
* VRTX
Runs on a wide variety of processors, including Motorola 680X0,
Intel 80X86 and 80960, National Semiconductor series 3200.
Ready Systems
470 Potrero Avenue
P.O.Box 60217
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(800) 228-1249
fax (214) 991-8775
* VxWorks
Runs on a wide variety of MC680X0 and SPARC-based single
board computers. Requires a workstation for program
developments. Widely used in Unix environments for realtime work.
Wind River Systems Inc.
1000 Atlantic Avenue
Alameda, CA 94501
tel: 510.748.4100 or 800.545.WIND (9463)
fax: 510.814.2010
<inqu...@wrs.com>
QNX
Distributed, POSIX, real-time microkernel for Intel x86 processors.
Supports fault tolerance and also hosts MS-Windows in Standard mode
QNX Software Systems QNX Software Systems
175 Terrence Matthews Cr. Westendstr.19 6000 Frankfurt
Kanata, Ontario K2M 1W8 am main 1
Canada Germany
voice: (613) 591-0931 x111 (voice) voice: 49 69 97546156 x299
fax: (613) 591-3579 (fax) fax: 49 69 97546110
Two QNX papers are available via anonymous FTP:
An Architectural Overview of QNX
A Microkernel POSIX OS for Realtime Embedded Systems
location: ftp.cse.ucsc.edu [128.114.134.19]
directory:/pub/
filenames: qnx-paper.ps.Z, qnx_embed.ps.Z
Research RTOS that are distributed:
* Chimera II
Runs on MC680X0-based single board computers.
Requires a Sun workstation for program development
U.S.A.:
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
ATTN: David B. Stewart
tel (412) 268-7120
fax (412) 268-3890
email: chi...@ri.cmu.edu
* Harmony
Runs on MC680X0-based single board computers
Canada:
Division of Electrical Engineering
National Research Council of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1A 0R6
ref: NRCC Tech Report No. 30081
* REXIS
REXIS (Real-time EXecutive for Intelligent Systems) is a small
multi-tasking preemptive real-time executive for implementing control
programs for intelligent systems such as robotics and distributed
networks. It provides functions for
managing tasks, memory allocation, message ports, timers, and
event processing.
It is distributed as shareware at a low cost to
hobbyists / students. The current requirements for compiling
and running REXIS is an ANSI C HC11 cross compiler and a HC11
target with at least 24K of RAM. Other targets are under
consideration. For more information, please contact
Richard Man
P.O. Box 6
North Chelmsford, MA 01863
(phone+FAX) (508) 452-5203
imag...@world.std.com, or
m...@labrea.zko.dec.com
Robot Control C Library (RCCL)
A robot programming environment embedded in C/UNIX. A graphics
simulator is provided which supports the PUMA, Stanford, and
`Elbow' manipulators. The system can be compiled on SGIs (so
the Indigo should be fine), and the graphics runs under either
X or GL. You can get the system from RCIM for a small fee to
cover copying and shipping. If you are interested send mail
to:
John Lloyd Research Center for Intelligent Machines
ll...@curly.mcrcim.mcgill.edu McGill University, Montreal
tel: 514.398.8281 fax: 514.398.7348
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Survey of Robot Development Environments
This is an updated and abridged survey compiled by Willie Lim
<wl...@lehman.com> The complete file can be ftp'd from
ftp://ftp.ai.mit.edu/pub/mobot-survey.text
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;; ;;;
;;; RESPONSES TO INFORMAL SURVEY ON DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS ;;;
;;; FOR MOBILE ROBOTS ;;;
;;; ;;;
;;; Updated: Fri Jun 24 09:07:57 1994 <wl...@lehman.com> ;;;
;;; Created: Sat May 23 09:37:24 1992 <wl...@lehman.com> ;;;
;;; ;;;
;;; Maintained by: wl...@lehman.com (for now) ;;;
;;; ;;;
;;; Please send updates, additions, corrections, etc. to: ;;;
;;; wl...@lehman.com ;;;
;;; ;;;
;;; A complete version of this survey including detailed ;;;
;;; descriptions of the various projects is available via ;;;
;;; anonymous ftp from the host ftp.ai.mit.edu as the file ;;;
;;; /pub/mobot-survey.text. ;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Organization Robot Development Languages &
Type HW Environment SW Enviroment
============= ==== ============== =============
Alcatel Alsthom Indoor robot SPARC II, VME proc VxWorks, MOTIF
Recherche (AAR) Outdoor robot
Brown U. a)Mobile robots SPARC I & II, OS/9, GNU Emacs, Xlib,
VME 68030 MOTIF, Forth, C, C++
b)2 RWI B12's Sparc 10s/Solaris offboard UNIX, Motif, C++, Lisp
, Rex, X
c)2 RWI B24's 486 Linux onboard, arms
CMU a) SM^2(walker) VME 68020 & 68030, Chimera II RTOS, C,
Sun Sun tools
b) AMBLER VME 68020 & 68030, MOTIF, VxWorks,
SPARC II, Iris X windows, C
c) Mobile Mani- Z8088s, Sun IPC & ELC, X Window, Lisp, C, Hero
pulator NeXT Basic
d) Mobile robot SPARC, Iris, Mac, X windows, Openwindows,
VME, Maspar, Titan VxWorks, Chimera RTOS,
TCA, GIL, LISP
e) Navlab Sun-4 X windows, C
Colorado Sch. Denning MRV-3 Sparc IIs, IPXs, C, X11, Khoros,
of Mines potential fields
IBM RS/6000s X11 visualization tool (homemade)
Colorado St. 6-legged robot 68HC11EVM, AT C
Cornell U. 2 mobile robots Gespak 68000, Intel Scheme, Lucid Lisp
(robot with 80c196, Sun(?)
tank-tread
base coming)
Cray Research(?)Mobile robot MC68HC16EBV, 386 Assembler
Georgia Tech Denning DRV-1 SUN IPC, Decstation, X windows, C,
& MRV-II Microvax II Lisp
Grumman CRC SmartyCat Mac II's/IIci's, C, CLOS, LISP, SAL
(Cybermotion uExplorer, SGI VxWorks(soon)
K2A) 68030 VME board(soon)
LLV (Grumman SGI, 68030 VME board, C, CLOS, LISP, SAL
Long Life Veh., mini-boards.
the US Postal
Truck)
IBM TJ Watson TJ, TJ2 Symbolics, RS/6000, LISP, CLOS, CLIM,
(1989?-1992) 286, 386, Suns C, X-windows, MOTIF,
GNU Emacs
ISX Corp Subsumption Mac II cx's/ci's C(?)
JPL 7 robots Suns to 6811 RCCL, ALFA
McGill U Mobile robot Sparcs, mc68hc11, PC GNU, X, Small-C
C, C++
QUADRIS SUNs, Macs, C-40, 68K C, X-windows, IRIS GL
Michigan Tech. Tracy 6502, Apple IIe, SUN, C, Assembly
U. 68HC11
Unnamed(Andros)
Minirobots 6811
MIT 20 robots Mac II & IIsi, HC6811 Behavior Language
GOPHER (ISR R2) 68332, Mac, Sun GCC, Behavior Language,
Lisp, X-windows
Polly VME, 6811, Mac Senselisp(Scheme)
SOZZY(homemade) 6811, Mac Lisp, Behavior Language
MITRE Denning MRV-1 MacQuadra, uExplorer Lisp, REX/GAPPS, C, C++
Northeastern U. Lobster Robot HC11, Mac C, Pascal, Assembly
Phaeton Sun 4/330, Mac C, epsilon (Cognex),
(Denning MRV3) X-windows
NRC of Canada EAVE Mac II's, 68020's C, HARMONY OS, MacAPP
(Cybermotion)
NC State Mobile robot VME 68020 & 68040, OS/9, P/NET
Osaka U. Homemade VME 68030, SUN IPX, C, X-windows
Sparc 2
Purdue U. PETER Sun4, 68030 C, VxWorks
(Cybermotion)
SRI FLAKEY Sparc10/30, Z80 Lucid Lisp, C, X-windows
Stanford Landmark based Mac IIci C, LISP
Navigation
(Nomadic)
Swiss FIT Mobile robot Mac MacMETH, Modula-2
U of Central a) 6-leg walker Commodore 64 SuperC, C
b) 6-leg walker Amiga 500 C
U of Edinburgh a) ALDER 8052, SUN, PC Basic
(Fischertecknik)
b) CAIRNGORM 68000, SUN C
(Fischertecknik)
c) Bill (RWI) PC, transputers C
d) Ben Hope(RWI) transputers C
e) (LEGO based) 68000 C, CPL
U of Mass., Denning DECstation 5000, C, LISP
Amherst Sparcstation
U of Michigan BORIS (TRC) 486, Decstations, SGI, Borland C++, FORTH, DOS
RS/6000
CARMEL (K2A) 286, 486, (ditto) Borland C++, FORTH, DOS
MAVERIC 486, Sparc 10, Lisp, GCC, Borland C++, X, DO
S
Datacube, (ditto)
U of New Underwater Sparcstation, VxWorks, C(?)
Hampshire robots CMOS VME boards
U Wash. Denning HP 9000 series 300's, Gensym G2, OS/9
68000 LLAMA (Forth), Lisp, C
Worcester Poly- James NEC 76310, 68HC11, Assembly, Small-C (DOS)
technic Inst. (RWI B12) Gateway 2000 PC
Wright Lab, Hero 2000 286 MS C (DOS), Assembly
Wright-Pat. Air
Force Base
VTT (Technical Akseli HP-1100, 386 MS-DOS, LynxOS (soon)
Research Center C
of Finland)
______________________________________________________________
+++What is the Miniboard?
The Mini Board is an outgrowth of the MIT 6.270 robot course and
design project. It is a small and inexpensive design for a controller
board based on the ubiquitous (yet sometimes hard to find) 68HC11
micro-controller.
The MINI BOARD 2.0 is a complete embedded computer board for robotic
applications. It can directly power four DC motors and receive inputs
>from numerous sensors. Its miniature size (smaller than a business
card) makes it suited well for mobile applications as well as other
embedded control.
It can be programmed in 6811 assembler code or C for stand-alone
operation, or it can serve as a serial-line based controller operated
by a desktop computer.
* overall dimensions: 3.3" by 1.86", smaller than a business card.
If desired, an off-board serial connector can be used, allowing an
additional .6" of board length can be chopped off.
* nearly all parts can be purchased from Digikey (including all
connectors and switches). Extensive use of resistor packs
minimizes component count.
* uses Motorola 68hc811e2 microprocessor with 2048 bytes of
internal, electrically erasable PROM and 256 bytes of RAM.
* four motor drivers for bidirectional control of small DC motors
(up to 600 mA current, 36 volts each motor).
* eight analog inputs; eight digital inputs or outputs; several
timer and counter I/O pins, all broken out to convenient header
ports.
* on-board 5v regulator allows board to be powered by any DC power
source from 5.6 to 36 volts.
* RS-232 compatible RJ-11 port for communication/program download
between host computer.
* two modular high speed serial jacks, allowing networks of multiple
MB 2.0's to be constructed using common 4-wire phone cable.
Multiple-mastering bus protocols supported.
* optional battery level monitoring using voltage divider from
supply voltage before regulation.
* XIRQ line broken out to a pad: when this line is given 12.5v,
an 'hc711e9 chip with 12K of EPROM can be programmed in place.
* MS-DOS, Macintosh, and Unix software provided for downloading
programs to board. 6811 monitor program provided for recording
changes in sensor state, controlling motors and interacting with
other board features over serial line.
* C/assembler libraries provided for code development using
Dunfield Development Systems' Micro-C compiler, and ImageCraft's
freeware icc11 C compiler.
A fifty-page manual describing how to build and operate the Mini Board
is on-line on the FTP server:
ftp://cherupakha.media.mit.edu/pub/miniboard/docs
People who don't have access to anonymous FTP can do FTP-by-mail,
provided as a public service by DEC. Send a message containing the
single word "help" to "ftp...@decwrl.dec.com" for instructions.
Also on-line is software for programming the Mini Board from MS-DOS,
Macintosh, and Unix machines.
-Two individuals are independent suppliers of Mini Board technology:
* Gregory Ratcliff (grat...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu), 1763 Hess
Boulevard, Columbus, Ohio 43212; (614) 487-0694 (late evenings EST).
Greg sells blank boards for $6, parts kits, and assembled boards.
Please contact him for information.
* Mark Reeves <rob...@jabba.cybernetics.net> 1117 Braemar Court,
Cary, NC 27511; BBS and voice (919) 481-3170 (voice hours from 5-7
pm EST).
Shipping - all orders will be shipped ASAP, we do not need to wait for
a certain number of orders (although there may be delays while certain
parts are gotten). If a delay happens you will be notified by email or
postcard. No check or MO will be cashed until the order is ready to
ship.
PRICES (subject to change without notice)
All kits include a PCB, a kit without a PCB will be $5.00 less.
A kit without the 1 RJ11 adpt will be $2.50 less, a kit without the
3 RJ11 adpt will be $5.00 less.
K0 - a super basic kit, does not include any RS232 stuff, or motor drive
items, inductors, or most of the other discrete components, it does have a
PCB, CPU, socket, one 36 pin header, and a few other items. Good for
TTL level RS232, via some other chip, for the person wants to use the
board for expansion purposes, or whatever.
Contact us for price.
K1 - basic kit all parts needed to get a board up and going, one
RJ11 jack, no headers, for the true hobby person
$41.00
K2 - same as above, but has all header connectors (3 female, 2 male - 36
pin header connectors)
$46.50
K3 - basic + motor controller the full kit with all needed parts, with
all LED's and motor controller chips, one RJ11 jack
$57.50
K4 - full kit same as K3, but has the 3 RJ11 jacks for interconnecting
with other boards
$60.00
B1 - bare PCB board, double sided, extended version silk screened parts
location, etc.
$5.00
J1 - a DC power jack and power switch for the board. Use if the screw
power connector is not used; this would work with a plug in power supply.
Note- these items are sold at cost, they are not cheap
$6.50
ASSEMBLED KITS
Add $25 to any kit to get it built, add an B to the kit number, i.e. K4-B
or K4-B-A for the 68hc11A1 version of the kit. All assembled boards
will have all parts soldered on them, but to meet FCC requirements
there will be minor work to be done ( you have to install on chip)
NOTE: the basic kits do NOT include the motor controller chips or the
motor LED's, they do have the RS232 parts, they are for people who want
to use the board for things other than robotics. No speaker or sensors
are included. All motor controller chips are the TI version, 1A drive
current. All prices are subject to change without notice; please
e-mail to check if prices have gone up or down since this posting.
Mark is a supplier of the recent board revision called the "Mini
Board 2.0 Extended." This version of the Mini Board includes a
power switch and DC power jack for ease of use. Please see the file
pub/miniboard/mbextend.txt for more information.
Hard copies of the Mini Board manual may be ordered by sending a check
payable for U.S. $5 to "MIT Epistemology and Learning" at Epistemology
and Learning Publications, MIT Media Laboratory, 20 Ames Street
E15-301, Cambridge MA 02139.
There is now a mailing list for discussing the board. The purpose of
the mailing list is to discuss robot controller boards, and robot
control in general. In particular, the list will be used to support
the Mini Board 2.0 and 6.270 board design by Fred Martin and Randy
Sargent of MIT. However, any and all traffic related to robot
controllers is welcome.
Administrative address: list...@oberon.com
(send a message containing the word "help" for directions)
Mailing list address: robot...@oberon.com
Maintainer: <gku...@oberon.com>
Please DO NOT send administrative things to the main mailing list
address, as then everyone will get annoyed.
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++What is the F1 Board?
A PCB board set designed around the 68HC11f1 microprocessor,
which I have made available as a non-profit enterprise to all you
folks on the net. To help those of you in the US, Daniel Mauch of the
Seattle Robotics Society agreed to act as a distributor.
Well, my first shipment of these PCB's to Daniel lasted about
a week, I didn't realise they were going to be so popular! He has now
received the second shipment from me, so if anyone is interested in
these boards please Email Daniel at <dma...@seanews.akita.com>
If you missed any of my original postings, here again are the details of the
boards:
'F1 Board:
Size 118 x 80 mm (4.6" x 3.2")
Connectors:
Power 6.5 - 35vdc (or 5vdc if you jumper the 7805 socket)
RS485 serial communications
RS232 serial communications
SPI interface (Same as Miniboard connectors but Master/Slave
switchable)
8 Analog inputs
Port A connector
Control bus connector for additional boards
Configuration:
32K Ram memory
32K EPROM (or another 32K Ram - switch select)
MODA & MODB jumpers
Analog Vrh & Vrl jumper to +5 & 0v or user selectable
Motor Board:
Size 107 x 59 mm ( 4.2" x 2.3")
Connectors:
8 Digital inputs
8 Digital outputs
4 x DC motors
2 x Stepper motors (<1.5 Amps each)
2 x R/C servo motors
Configuration:
5 x base address selections (allows for multiple boards to be used)
Stepper / Servo switch selectable
Separate power supply for DC and Stepper motors.
Cost:
F1 board $17
Motor board $13
EPROM (w/Buffalo) $11
Postage $5
This board was designed primarily for embedded control and small robotics
applications, and as such it is as versatile as I could get it. For more
details there is complete documentation (in postscript format) in the file
ftp://cher.media.mit.edu/pub/incoming/F1/f1doc.zip
Dept. of Mech. Eng. |Pete Dunster
University of Wollongong |Tel +61-42-213597
Northfields Ave |Fax +61-42-213101
Wollongong |Email p.du...@uow.edu.au
N.S.W. 2522 AUSTRALIA |
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++What is the Bot Board?
The BOTBoard is a single chip microcomputer board designed for
general use, and robotics applications. The BOTBoard uses the popular
68HC11 microcontroller in a minimum configuration, and is easily
programmed from your PC. Engineered to be small, the BOTBoard is also
powerful and flexible. Each BOTBoard is 2" X 3" with a 1" X 2"
prototyping area.
Special BOTBoard Features:
. Four R/C Servo Ports.
. Auto start jumper.
. Reset Switch and low voltage circuitry.
. 1" X 2" proto-typing area, with power bus strips.
. Easy to use Networking Port (SPI). With Master/Slave selection.
. Powered RS232 Port (TTL level) for serial communication.
. Pull up resistors on IRQ and XIRQ.
. All I/O pins on .100 grid headers.
. Single sided circuit board design.
. Uses either the MC68HC11 or MC68HC811 .
. Mounting holes that can be used for stacking.
. Power supply connector.
The BOTBoard is a bare circuit board that was designed to give
the most amount of flexibility for the least cost. The BOTBoard
manual contains parts list, building instructions, ordering
information, schematics, and application notes. You can assemble the
BOTBoard in less than a half hour, with a total cost of parts being
about $20.
BOTBoard = $5.95 each or three for $15.
Shipping = $1.25 plus .25 for each board.
Marvin Green 821 SW 14th Troutdale, OR 97060 (503) 666-5907.
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Microcontrollers
Which microcontroller should I use and what are the differences
between them? What about motor controllers and motor drivers?
There are a wide variety of microcontrollers that can be used in
robotics projects. Some of the most popular are 6811's (Miniboard and
many single board computers), 80186, and PIC's. This topic engenders
hot debates of the merit of one chip over the other. Therefore, the
best way for you to decide is to understand your problem requirements
and see which devices fit your needs. At that point, you can look at
issues of support platforms, cross-compilers, cost etc to make the
best decision.
Related newsgroups include: comp.sys.intel, comp.realtime,
sci.electronics, alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt
Basically there are three kinds of "boards" out there that are of interest
to design engineers and the definitions are necessarily broad:
1) The evaluation board. This is a board designed by the manufacturer
of a part to demonstrate its features. Using such a board a DE can
decide whether the part will meet their needs for the design they
are creating. Generally somewhat expensive (because they are
produced in relatively small numbers) except when the part is
being 'pushed' by the manufacturer and there is some sort of
promotional deal going on. Often the evaluation board will have
some sort of breadboard area on the board for custom circuitry.
2) The Single Board Computer or SBC. These are generally produced
by a third party using some manufacturers chip. The are generally
pretty flexible but may not 'expose' all features. SBCs come in
all sizes and price ranges, some are availabe in kit form. Many
have development tools available for them.
3) The Embedded processor. These are generally boards dedicated to
some particular function (like driving a stepper motor, running
a modem etc) and are usually available pretty cheaply on the
surplus market. Unlike SBCs there are rarely any design tools
available to use with them but they can be quite inexpensive.
A FAQ devoted to Microcontrollers can be found at the following:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.answers/microcontroller-faq/primer
Maintainer: Russ Hersch <si...@datasrv.co.il>
68HC11:
-------
A 68HC11 is an 8-bit data, 16-bit address microcontroller from
Motorola, with an instruction set similar to the older 68xx (6801,
6805, 6809) parts. It has several on-chip resources including digital
I/O, timers, PWM, A/D RAM, various types of ROM, and synchronous and
asynchronous communications channels (RS-232 and SPI). It can easily
be integrated into single-chip applications. Less than 20ma current
draw. Good freeware assembly-language tools are available, as well as
several good commercial C compilers. It is widely used because it is
very inexpensive and the availability of developments tools makes it
very attractive.
Moto nows offers an evaluation kit that includes DOS and Mac
compatible software, low-power design tutorial and extensive technical
literature. M68EBLPIIKIT has batteries included and has 68HC11E9
microcontroller, LCD display, Moto LCD driver, RS232 line
driver/receiver chips, wire-wrap area for custom work, simple
development platform and development code. Includes assembler, several
examples, and extra crystals. $199.11 through 4/22/94.
For a lot more detail see the 68HC11 FAQ at:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.realtime/68hc11_microcontroller_FAQ
The FAQ is also regularly posted to several newsgroups.
Motorola 683xx
--------------
The 683xx family from Moto are highly integrated CPU's.
Several have onboard RAM (eg, up to 2K), none have on-board ROM, but
they do have timers, software programmable chip selects, etc, making
it possible to build very small but complete systems.
68302: Designed for communications, especially ISDN. On-board
nice serial controller. 68000 CPU, some memory.
68330: Has CPU32, which is in between a 68000 and a 68020. Not much else.
68331: Add standard async serial controller.
68332: Add separate Time Processing Unit and some RAM. The TPU can do
things like off-line PWM processing. Nice general package.
68340: Delete TPU, add DMA controller.
Intel 80C186:
-------------
An 80C186 is a evolution from the 8086. It is an embedded
processor sold by Intel, and has the same instruction set as the 8086,
with the additional "real-mode" instructions of the 286. It has the
same 16-bit data and 20-bit address bus structure of the 8086. The
80C188 is an 8-bit data bus version, just like the 8088 (of PC & PC/XT
fame). For embedded systems, it is much easier to use than the 8086.
It has an on-chip timer system, interrupt controller, DMA
controller, and clock generator. For DRAM operation, it also has an
integrated DRAM refresh generator. However, it has no on-chip I/O,
nor does it have any memory on-chip. There is, however, extra
circuitry for selecting external memory with a minimum of extra logic.
Can be programmed using most DOS compilers and assemblers, but
requires a linker that knows about locating code in absolute memory.
The '186 is not as accessible; it is harder to set up, the
tools cost more, and robotics & control resources have to be added
externally. The timers can be configured for PWM or pulse timing, It
does, however, run at higher speeds, have more accessible memory, and
can be hooked up to a floating-point co-processor (C187). It looks a
lot like a DOS machine. This may be important when software is run on
multiple platforms and also helps with the learning curve.
Intel 8051
----------
A typical 8051 contains:
- CPU with boolean processor
- 5 or 6 interrupts: 2 external, 2 priority levels
- 2 or 3 16-bit timer/counters
- programmable full-duplex serial port
(baud rate provided by one of the timers)
- 32 I/O lines (four 8-bit ports)
- RAM and ROM/EPROM in some models
The 8051 and varients are now sourced by more than a half-dozen
companies including Intel, AMD, Dallas, Signetics, Siemans and others.
The 8051 FAQ can be found at:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.realtime/8051_microcontroller_FAQ
It includes 8051 ftp sites, public domain langauges, commercially
available software and publications for the 8051.
Intel 8096
----------
It is 16 bit, many registers, internal RAM, the usual compliment of
on-board peripherals (serial, A/D, pwm, timer/counters, etc)
Microchip PIC16/17
------------------
Microchip Technology
Corporate Office
2355 West Chandler Blvd
Chandler, AZ 85224-6199
tel: 602.786.7200
fax: 602.899.9210
UK: Arizona Microchip Technology
tel: 44 062-885-1077
fax: 44 062-885-0178
Japan: Microchip Technology
tel: 81 45/471-6166
fax: 81 45/471-6122
CMOS field-programmable microcontrollers - PIC16/17. high performance
low cost and small package size. Large numbers are used in consumer
electronics and automotive applications, computer peripherals,
security and telecommunication applications.
A FAQ on the PIC exists and is posted regularly to the following
newsgroups: comp.realtime, comp.robotics, sci.electronics
Maintainer: Tom Kellett <T...@takdsign.demon.co.uk>
A PIC list address is: p...@figment.mit.edu
Administrative matters go to: pic-r...@figment.mit.edu
PIC16CXX and PIC17Cxx are 8-bit microcontrollers that use a high-speed
RISC architecture.The PIC17CXX is probably the faster 8-bit
controller. 16-bit instruction word and vectored interrupt
capabilities.You can add external program memory, up to 64K words. The
PIC17C42 has a number of counter/timer resources and I/O handling
capabilities.
Features include: timers, embedded A/D, extended instruction/data
memory, inter-processor communication and ROM, EPROM and EEPROM
memories. assemblers, linkers, loaders, libraries and source-level
debuggers are available. Digi-Key carries PIC's (See Parts Suppliers)
Vendor of PIC boards:
[from a review by Chuck McManis <cmcm...@firstperson.com>]
Micro Engineering Labs
P.O. Box 7532,
Colorado Springs, CO 80933
tel: 719.520.5323
contact: Jeff Schmoyer
MEL has designed a couple of PC boards for prototyping PIC
systems PICProto 18 - $9.95 US including shipping in the US. This
board is 1.5" by 3", double sided, solder masked, and has plated
through holes. the top 7/8" x 1.5" of the board (oriented with the
narrow side "up") consists of an 18 pin socket print, holes to
conviently mount either a crystal or RC oscillator and a set of holes
to mount a 5v regulator, either the TO-220 type or the low power TO-92
type as used on the Miniboard. All of the PIC I/O pins, RB0 - 7, RA0
- 3, RTC, Vdd and Gnd are brought out to a dual row of pads. they are
followed by 15 rows of pads, with the outer pad on one side being the
Vdd bus and the outer pad on the other side being the Vcc bus. After
this there are two rows of pads, offset, that can accomodate a DB9,
DB15, or DB25 connector. This board will accept either the 16C5x
series (in the 18 pin package) or a 16C71 PIC.
The PICProto Dual - $14.95 US
Is similar except it has pads for 1 18 pin PIC and 1 24 pin
(or another 18 pin) PIC. It is 3" x 3" and shares all of the same
properties of the PICproto 18 with respect to setting up crystal or RC
timing for the PICs. It has pads for 1 DB connector that is 25 pins
or less. It adds about 50% more prototyping pads so you can put two
or three more chips on it. The nice thing about this one is that one
PIC can do asynchronous things like be a serial interface while the
other provides I/O pins and monitoring functions.
Parallax BASIC Stamp
--------------------
The Stamp is a 1x2" (2.5x5cm) computer that runs BASIC
programs written on a PC. 8 I/O lines which can be used for serial
communications, potentiometer inputs, pulse measurement, switches,
speaker drivers etc. Usually you'll have to add no more than a
resistor or capacitor at most. A BASIC editor on the PC converts
instructions into token that are downloaded to the Stamp via a
3-conductor cable and stored in EEPROM. Whenever the Stamp is powered
up, the on-board interpreter runs the program. Battery clips are built
in for a 9V battery (Stamp has 5V supply built in.) and the Stamp has
a small prototyping area as well. From Digikey the Development Kit
(including a Stamp) is $139, and a Stamp is $39.
National Semiconductor LM628/629
--------------------------------
Small motor control chip. Does PWM for motion control at a very low
cost. A couple of H-bridges on the outputs. Good reference for using
the 628/9 for motion control is in: Closing the Loop on DC Motor
Control by Tom Dahlin and Don Krantz The Computer Applications
Journal, Issue #28 Aug/Sept, 1992
Hewlett-Packard HCTL 1000, 2000
-------------------------------
HP's motor and encoder interface chips. Widely used and widely available.
Motor-Drivers
-------------
The L293D, motor driver on a chip, is an SGS-Thomson part and is
second sourced by Unitrode. In spite of its utility it is not readily
available in small quantities. This part is a dual full H-bridge that
can drive motors up to 0.6A.
The significance of the 'D' in L293D is that it is diode protected.
There is a reverse biased diode that shunts the reverse EMF from a
motor to the V+ supply. The L293B doesn't have this diode so it must
be provided externally.
National has an LM18293 which they say is a cross for an L293B. The
price should $4.00 or less and they need the external diodes. A
replacement for the D part is the Texas Instruments 754410 which
actually has a bit better current capacity (1A vs .6A) this latter
part is available from Arrow electronics in the US.
An alternative part is the UDN2998 which is available from Pure Unobtainium
tel: 919.676.4525. THis is a 3A bridge in an inline package, it is limited to
motor supplies greater than 10V. You can also build your own H-bridge out
of either bipolar chips or MOSFETs.
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Books, Online Information and Videos
The readership of this group ranges from the beginner to experienced
robot designers and users. Accordingly, this list covers the gamut as
well. I would like to include net resources as well such as papers or
tech reports so send me your sites!
Advanced Robot Systems
Mark J. Robillard
Howard Sams & Co. 1984
Autonomous Robot Vehicles
I.J. Cox and G.T. Wilfong (eds)
New York, Springer-Verlag, 1990
Collection of seminal papers on autonmous robot vehicles.
Build Your Own Universal Computer Interface
Bruce Chubb
TAB Books
Control System Design Guide
George Ellis
ISBN 0-12-237470-3
Covers hardware,software and theory of ordinary PID control.
Directed Sonar Sensing for Mobile Robot Navigation
by John J. Leonard & Hugh F. Durant-Whyte
Kluwer Academic Press
Boston (1992) ISBN 0-7923-9242-6
An expansion on John's thesis work, which he did at Oxford.
Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, Mechatronics and the Coming Robotopia
Frederik L. Schodt
Kodansha International
New York, NY 1988
Lots of interesting views of robots in Japan and Japan's fascination
with robots.
Interfacing Test Circuits With Single-Board Computers
Robert H. Luetzow
TAB Books
Machines That Walk
Shin-Min Song and Kenneth J Waldron
ISBN 0-262-19274-8
Like it says: legged locomotion. Focus is on the OSU Adaptive
Suspension Vehicle.
A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation
R. M. Murray, Z. Li, and S. S. Sastry
CRC Press, 1994
For more information, see http://avalon.caltech.edu/~murray/mls
Microprocessor Based Robotics
Mark J. Robillard
Howard Sams & Co. 1983
Microcontroller Technology: The 68HC11
Peter Spasov
Regents/Prentice Hall, 1993, ISBN 0-13-583568-2
Aimed at the 68HC11 family, good reference.
Minimalist Mobile Robotics
Jonathan H Connel
ISBN 0-12-185230-X
Brooks subsumption architecture robots. Shows complex behaviors are
possible with little of the massive architectures done in other
programs.
Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation.
Joseph L. Jones and Anita Flynn,
This book grew out of the Mobot Lab at MIT and covers many aspects
of mobile robots including design and the mechanics and electronics of
construction as well as robot programming. Good for the beginner and
experienced robot builder. A Mobile Robot kit is also available. See
the Rug Warrior in the section on Small, Inexpensive Robots.
Klaus Peters
President and Publisher
AK PETERS, LTD.
289 Linden Street
Wellesley, MA 02181
tel: 617.235.2210
fax: 617.235.2404
net: <kpe...@geom.umn.edu>
The Robot Book
Richard Pawson
Windward, 1985, 192 pages.
Utilizes Lego kits.
The Robot Builder's Bonanza: 99 Inexpensive Robotics Projects
Gordon McComb
TAB Books
Robot Hobby: The Complete Manual, for Individuals and Clubs
John W. Gutmann, Foreword by Joe Engelberger
ISBN 0-9634272-4-5
Soft cover $29.95
Hard Cover $36.95
Machine Press Publishing
P.O. Box 870210
Stone Mountain, GA 30087-0006
Robotic Technology: Principles and Practice.
Werner G. Holzbock
Van Nostrand Reinhold Co, 1986, ISBN 0-442-23154-7
Robotics
edited by Marvin Minsky
Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1985
ISBN: 0385194145, LCCN: 84024390
Robot Motion: Planning and Control
Brady, Hollerbach, Johnson, Lozano-Perez, and Mason.
Cambridge, MA, MIT Press 1982)
Collection of excellent papers on the topic of robot motion.
Robots
Peter Marsh
Crescent (Crown) Publishers, NY 1985
Marsh edited the volume and the book is made up of several
contributions from robotics researchers. A very well illustrated book
that covers the general topic of robots. Excellent source materials
and graphics.
Safety, Reliability, and Human Factors in Robotic Systems.
Edited by James H. Graham.
Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1991.
ISBN 0-442-00280-7
Laws/rules/regulations are governing industrial robot installations
in the U.S.
CDROMS
------
Isaac Asimov's The Ultimate Robot.
It is an excellent intro and retrospective on robotics.
Includes movie clips from several cinema robots, robotic terminology
defined and illustrated (linkages, kinmatics, arm types etc),
vignettes of many historically important robots including Moshers work
>from the 60's, many teleoperated devices, several mobile machines
including the ASV and many others. There is also a fun part where you
get to select parts, build a robot and animate it. (Design by Ralph
MacQuarrie who was production designer on Star Wars)
There are video interviews with Asimov and all of his robot
stories and essays as well Published by Microsoft. Available from a
number of CDROM vendors.
AICDROM
Network Cybernetics Corporation is now shipping the second
annual revision of their popular AI CD-ROM, an ISO-9660 format CD-ROM
containing a wide assortment of information on AI, Robotics, and other
advanced machine technologies. The AI CD-ROM contains thousands of
programs, source code collections, tutorials, research papers,
Internet journals, and other resources. The topics covered include
artificial intelligence, artificial life, robotics, virtual reality,
and many related fields. Programs for OS/2, DOS, Macintosh, UNIX,
Amiga, and other platforms can be found on the disc. The files have
been collected from civilian and government research centers,
universities, Internet archive sites, BBS systems and other
sources. The CD-ROM is updated annually to keep it current with the
latest trends and developments in advanced machine technologies such
as AI. The AI CD-ROM Rev. 1 was a CD-ROM PROFESSIONAL CONSUMER DISK
PRODUCT OF THE YEAR AWARD finalist and has received good reviews in
many magazines including Byte (Jerry Pournelle, March '93) and IEEE
Computer (J. Zalewski, July '93), CD-ROM Professional and others.
The new revision of the AI CD-ROM is now shipping. The price
of Revision 2 will remain the same as the Revision 1 CD: $129 + $5
(US) / $10 (foreign) for shipping & processing. If you currently own
the revision 1 AI CD-ROM, you can "upgrade" to the Rev.2 CD for $79 +
shipping. Email or fax us to get an upgrade form.
From: Network Cybernetics Corporation
4201 Wingren Road, Suite 202
Irving, Texas 75062-2763
tel: 214.650.2002
fax: 214.650.1929
ARTICLES [Initial List Provided by Dave Hrynkiw]
--------
Best source for most general articles and journal articles is
your library.
Discover Magazine, March 1991, Pg 43
An excellent 6 page article of the goings-on in the MIT Artificial-
Intelligence lab.
"Mathematical Recreations - Insectoids Invade a Field of Robots"
Scientific American Magazine, July 1991
Another excellent 4 page article about MIT's work in the field of mobile
robotics.
"Gearing Down"
Science News, Vol. 139 No. 2, January 12 1991, Pg 26-27
I haven't seen a copy of this article yet. If you find it, PLEASE
fax/send me a copy. Referenced from Scientific American Magazine,
July 1991 ("Mathematical Recreations" column)
"Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control"
Research News, May 1990, Pg 959-961
One of the better MIT Lab articles. Worth hunting down.
"Working the bugs out of a new breed of 'insect' robots"
Smithsonian Magazine, June 1991, pgs 63-73.
Another excellent & more technical article on MIT's robot research.
"The Iconoclast - Life in the Anthropomorphic Lane"
Macworld magazine, May 1991, Pg 43-47
Another basic, but decent review of MIT's AI Robot labs.
"People - A Mind of Their Own"
Connoisseur Magazine, May 1991, Pg 42-46
A more personal look at Rodney Brook.
"Robot Insects"
Popular Science, March 1991, Pg 52-55,86
Popular Science does it's regular quality article. Some detail, but not
to technical. Good, basic read.
"New Approaches to Robotics"
Science Magazine, Vol.253, September 1991, Pg 1227-1232
Very complete & technical document by Rodney Brooks. Has a very
complete reference & notes section.
"Artificial Intelligence - Building a Better Mouse"
Omni Magazine, ??, Pg 22,126
Interesting Article about Dave Otten, the micro-mouse champ. Short,
but interesting read.
"Tech Update - Transformer Robots Crawl Up Stairs"
Popular Mechanics, March 1993, Pg 17
Not much to say, but look at the pictures - what innovation!
"Mighty Mouse"
MIT Reporter, July 1991, Pg 12
A short piece about Dave Otten's micromice.
"The OMNI Photovore - How to build a robot that thinks like a roach"
Omni Magazine, October 1988, Pg 201-210,212
MIT developed this basic robot for the magazine. A really interesting
read, with good technical. Haven't built mine yet, but I have all the
parts... (Excellent article)
"Annual Report of Microbot Technology, Inc."
Omni Magazine, ??? Pg 68,70,76
Omni's interesting futuristic look of the possibilities with micro robots.
"Tech Update - Mechanical Caterpillar"
Popular Mechanics, June 1992, Pg 24
Another neat idea to look at.
"Tech Update - Silicon Ants Could Prove Tireless Workers"
Popular Mechanics, May 1992, Pg 21
Interesting little bit on the future of solar powered microbots. Neat
graphic.
"Trends - Let's Get Small"
Technology Review, Aug/Sept 1992, pg 18-19
Article on JPL/IS Robotics small robots. Decent article
"Go Robots, Go!"
Popular Science, December 1992, Pg 97-102,138,140
Interesting overview of the AAAI Mobile Robotics Competition held in
San Jose.
"New Trends - Legs win over wheels for moon work"
Machine Design Magazine, February 11 1988
A dated article on Georgia Tech's "Skitter". Short, but has
photograph.
"Light Elements - RoboHockey"
Discover magazine, May 1990, pg 82
Interesting bit about MIT's Mech Eng 2.70 competition.
"Society - Technology - For the Love of Robotics"
Newsweek magazine, March 9 1992, Pg 68-69
Public-robot fodder. Nothing new here but some interesting pictures.
Covers the Austin area Robot Group
"Robots Go Buggy"
Science News Magazine, Vol 140, November 30 1991, Pg 361-3
Very good article about the comparison between "simple" robotics and
biologics (bugs)
"Build This Robot Bug"
Radio-Electronics Magazine, June 1992, Pg 33-38
_Very_ basic robot. Not a bad place to start tho...
Science Digest, April 1983 p68
"The Rise of the Robot" by Tom Parrett. Article includes photos of the
"Atlanta Robotics Special Interest Group" founded by John W. Gutmann
with the support of Bill Dodd, owner of Hobby Robot CO. The first
meeting was held on April 21st of 1981.
ONLINE REPORTS
--------------
There are emerging sources on the net for tech reports and papers. If
you know of additional ones please send me email. Thanks.
-----
Site: optima.cd.arizona.edu
Dir: /japan/kahaner
This directory archives reports written about computing in Japan by
Dr. David Kahaner, a numerical analyst current on assignment with
the Office of Naval Research Asia (ONR Asia). The file INDEX
contains a short description of each report in alphabetical order.
The file INDEX.bydate contains the same descriptions ordered by the
date the report was written.
Relevant files:
control.34 (Aug 1, 1990)
Proceedings of 34th annual Conference of Institute of Systems,
Control and Information Engineers. The papers cover topics in
optical computing, neural computing, fuzzy logic, control theory,
robotics, parallel computing, vision, knowledge engineering,
imaging, feature extraction, probability, communications networks,
etc., as well as applications to car location, fish school size
estimates, mathematical programming, factory automation and many
others.
imacs.92 (Sep 29, 1992)
Titles of (almost 300) papers presented at IMACS/SICE RM^2'92,
International Symposium on Robotics, Mechatronics and Manufacturing
Systems '92 in Kobe Japan, 16-20 Sept 1992.
iros.91 (Jan 7, 1992)
A summary of Japanese research in intelligent autonomous robot
control, and especially of the conference, Intelligent Robots and
Systems, 3-5 Nov 1991, is given. (Y. Kanayama, Naval Postgraduate School).
isarc.92 (Sep 22, 1992)
Titles of papers presented at the 9th ISARC, International
Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, Tokyo Japan,
3-5 June 1992.
ismcr.92 (May 30, 1993)
Conference program for the Second International
Symposium on Measurement and Control in Robotics (ISMCR'92), Nov 15-19,
1992, at the AIST Tsukuba Research Center, Tsukuba Science City, Japan.
robots (Feb 28, 1991)
Overview of trends in robot manufacturing, use, and sales in Japan.
robots.93 (Dec 10, 1993)
Summary of the 24th International Symposium on Industrial
Robots (ISIR), the 1993 International Conference on Advanced Robotics
(ICAR), and the 1993 International Industrial Robot Exhibition, all held
in Tokyo 1-5 Nov 1993.
-----
The 6.270 Robot Builder's Guide (See also the Miniboard section in this FAQ)
Fred Martin
ftp://cherupakha.media.mit.edu/pub/6270/docs/
filenames: *.PS.Z
This directory contains "The 6.270 Robot Builder's Guide", the
course notes to the 1992 MIT LEGO Robot Design Competition.
Hardcopy also available for $15 from:
E&L Memo Requests
MIT Media Laboratory
20 Ames Street Room E15-309
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
Check made out to 'MIT Epistemology and Learning'
Contact: Fred Martin at fr...@media-lab.media.mit.edu
-----
Cambridge University
Tech report on 3D object model acquisition and recognition:
ftp://svr-ftp.eng.cam.ac.uk/reports/
filename: vinther_tr136.ps.Z
-----
Carnegie Mellon University SCS Technical Reports
1) The machine rep...@cs.cmu.edu is the offical SCS machine for
ftping SCS technical reports. Directories containing .ps files
(compressed and uncompressed, dependent on size) are stored for
ease of access. You can use the instructions below to browse the
directories.
Presently, the majority of reports in the directories are Computer
Science publications. We have been offering the reports this way since
1992. The ftp service has greatly reduced publication costs (which are
high!) and is providing a more timely mechanism for colleagues to access
reports (free of charge).
2) The reports appearing in our ftpable directories are also automatically
transferred into MOSAIC. Authors retain the right to decide whether
their report(s) should or should not appear in the public ftp
directories/MOSAIC.
3) A third mechanism for storing and making reports available is
MERCURY--the scanned image, full text, online database (part of the
LIS system). Whether the report is scanned into the system is again
left up to invidivual author choice. The CMU community is able to
view text for the reports, as they appear, at their desks using
Mercury. This system, supported by ARPA and CNRI, will open soon
to MIT, Stanford, Cornell, and Berkeley...so we can all share online
text of reports. Down the road, it is anticipated that more and
more universities will become a part of this service. We scan
original copies of reports into the system,
DIRECTIONS FOR ANONYMOUS FTP:
URL: ftp://reports.adm.cs.cmu.edu/ or
1) Ftp to reports.adm.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.222.79) as "anonymous".
2) At the password prompt, send your Username@site
(you must include the "@" or the login will fail)
3) Then "cd 1994" (the directory for 1994 technical reports)
"cd 1993" (the directory for 1993 technical reports)
"cd 1992" (the directory for 1992 technical reports)
"cd 1991" (the directory for 1991 technical reports)
"cd robotics" (the directory for robotics reports)
"cd cmt" (the directory for Center for Machine Translation)
4) Use the standard ftp commands, such as "get", "cd", "ls", etc.
5) The reports are in postscript format (.ps). The index file
is called README.mss. The reports are listed in the directory
by their NUMBER.ps...for example, CMU-CS-92-100.ps, CMU-CS-92-101.ps
and so on. The majority of the files are not compressed, although
any compressed files will be listed as NUMBER.ps.Z . A very few
reports have been broken down into multiple postscript files. They
will appear as NUMBERA.ps, NUMBERB.ps, etc. The README.mss will
indicate the reports that have multiple .ps files.
6) When you have finished copying the files you need, simply "quit."
-----
MIT AI Laboratory
net: public...@ai.mit.edu
tel: 617.253.6773
fax: 617.253.5060
MIT bibliography, general info about the lab and most recent
research publications.
ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/bibliography and ai-publications/general-pubs
[choice of ascii or ps files]
-----
NASA Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL)
ftp://robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/gat/
filenames: bc4pe.rtf, aaai92.rtf, nats.rtf
Note that all files are in Microsoft Word RTF format.
Contact <g...@robotics.jpl.nasa.gov> if you don't have access
to a Mac.
-----
LIFIA/INRIA
ftp://imag.fr/pub/LIFIA (129.88.32.1)
filenames: [several compressed PS files]
-----
University of Massachusetts:
ftp://rabbit.cs.umass.edu/pub/papers
filenames: [The files are compressed postscript, topics include
path planning, neuroscience, and control.]
-----
University of Kaiserslautern FTP-Server is :
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/reports_uni-kl/computer_science/mobile_robots/
subdirectories: 1993/papers, 1994/papers, etc
-----
SPIE abstracts:
ftp://mom.spie.org/abstracts/1800/
filenames: 1831.txt [From Mobile Robots VII 1992]
SPIE bookorders can be made through booko...@mom.spie.org
Other reports:
--------------
JTEC report on Japanese Space Robotics
Available from NTIS (see below)
A summary of the Japanese Technology Evaluation Center (JTEC)
panel's report on the state of the art of Japanese robot technology.
Lots of pictures of wierd and wonderful robots -- elephant trunk,
caterpillar, space tentacle, wall builder, Komatsu's walking undersea
rubble-leveler, humanoid two-armed assembly robot, 4-legged stair
climber. Also tells where to write for videotapes of these machines
in action. Here's the info (two years old, remember) ... Tape with
narration by William "Red" Whittaker:
cost: $37.50
University Video Communications
Box 20006
Stanford, CA USA 94309
tel: 415.327.0131
Shorter tape of highlights from many Japanese labs:
National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA USA 22161
tel: 703.457.4650
Article: "Japan robotics aim for unmanned space exploration"
William L. Whittaker, Takeo Kanade. IEEE Spectrum, December 1990
Videos
------
[new section - looking for additional material]
MIT Press has a number of companion videos - Legged Robots That
Balance and others. See Publications for address etc.
-----
Video Proceedings from the 8th International Symposium on Unmanned
Untethered Submersible Technology (UUST 93) September 27-29, 1993
Marine Systems Engineering Lab, University of New Hampshire, Durham,
New Hampshire USA
The video proceedings are now available for $35 US for VHS (NTSC)
format and $50 US for PAL format. The video is being made publicly
available on a non-profit basis. Printed abstracts and points of
contacts are included in a pamphlet with each video. The program is
available eclectronically via anonymous ftp to
file://taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil/pub/auv/uust93_video_proceedings.ps.Z
After AUgust 1 1994, you may order this video (or printed conference
proceedings) by sending a check or money order to:
Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute (AUSI)
8 Earle Drive
Lee, New Hampshire 03824 USA
(603) 862-4600
postscript copy: ftp://taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil/pub/auv/uust93.ps.Z
Video Contents:
01:20 AUVs for Scientific Research
in Hazardous Conditions
07:15 A Versatile Testbed: The "Twin-Burger"
13:55 ARPA/Navy Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV)
31:30 Summary of MBARI/Stanford ARL Joint Underwater Robotics
Research Program
43:05 Development of an Aquatic Walking Robot for Underwater
Inspection: "AQUAROBOT"
47:30 Naval Postgraduate School Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
50:15 The Rational Behavior Model (RBM) Software Architecture
57:25 Mobile Undersea Systems Test (MUST) Laboratory
1:02:10 The Advanced Unmanned Search System (AUSS)
1:11:20 credits
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Acknowledgements
Thanks to those who responded with updates, new material,
corrections, suggestions etc. Some of the names are indirect; that is,
they replied to queries on the newsgroup:
Hans Moravec, Maki Habib, Ken Goldberg, David Stanton, John Nagle,
Sean Graves, Sjur Vestli, Mark Yim, Rich Wallace, Dan Hudson, Sanjiv
Singh, Matt Stein, Dave Stewart, Ed Cheung, Ron Fearing, Klaus
Biggers, Lisa Rendleman, Nobuhiko Mukai, Paul Sharkey, Fred Martin,
Willie Lim, Allen Brown, Erann Gat, Judd Jones, Tony Sprent, Richard
Seldon, Brian Richardson, Ross McAree, Nathan Stratten, Chuck McManis,
Ben Brown, Terry Fong, Jeff Fox, Bill Lye Patrick Arnold, David
Novick, Stephen Klueter Chris Malcolm, Frank Hausman, Sam Miller, Rich
Voyles, Jean-Pierre Merlet, Karl Altenburg, Dave Hrynkiw, Ken Baker,
Vic Callaghan, Gerhard Weiss, Ambarish Goswami, Peter Turner, Peter
Corke, Michael Bakula, Andrew Whitwell, Brian Richardson, Mark Copley,
Karl Altenburg, Mike Cleary, and many others who dropped off
suggestions, comments and changes. Thank you!
_____________________________________________________________________________
aka: Kevin Dowling Carnegie Mellon University
tel: 412.268.8830 The Robotics Institute
fax: 412.682.1793 5000 Forbes Avenue
net: <ni...@cmu.edu> Pittsburgh, PA 15213