Do Mark Miller's "androids" really walk?
Joe Strout
with bipedal robots, which he builds from scratch. There are a lot of
design tidbits and insights -- some of them quite surprising, such as
the fact that he generally uses $3 stepper motors.
But while the article seems to imply that his robots can walk, he
doesn't actually come right out and say so, or discuss anything of the
algorithms they would be using to do so. No contact information or web
address was given, and Googling has turned up some news stories, but
nothing with much detail.
Does anybody know anything about these robots? Do they actually walk or
not, and how in the world could a 4-foot robot walk on $3 motors?
Thanks,
- Joe
--
"Polywell" fusion -- an approach to nuclear fusion that might actually work.
Learn more and discuss via: <http://www.strout.net/info/science/polywell/>
John Nagle
> Mark Miller has a neat article in the latest Servo about his experiments
> with bipedal robots, which he builds from scratch. There are a lot of
> design tidbits and insights -- some of them quite surprising, such as
> the fact that he generally uses $3 stepper motors.
>
> But while the article seems to imply that his robots can walk, he
> doesn't actually come right out and say so, or discuss anything of the
> algorithms they would be using to do so. No contact information or web
> address was given, and Googling has turned up some news stories, but
> nothing with much detail.
>
> Does anybody know anything about these robots? Do they actually walk or
> not, and how in the world could a 4-foot robot walk on $3 motors?
>
> Thanks,
> - Joe
Walking robots are easy, provided that they only have to walk on a
flat surface, move slowly, and have big feet. Wind-up toys can do that.
He does nice looking mechanical construction, though.
John Nagle
Joe Strout
John Nagle <na...@animats.com> wrote:
> Walking robots are easy, provided that they only have to walk on a
> flat surface, move slowly, and have big feet. Wind-up toys can do that.
To be fair, I haven't yet seen a wind-up toy that does that without
overlapping foot polygons.
Best,
cast...@aol.com
> In article <Nlbti.26514$RX.10...@newssvr11.news.prodigy.net>,
My Androids do indeed walk-Mostly on flat level surfaces. I am going a
bit taller right now, almost 5'3 inches. I do in fact use cheap,
readily available stepper motors. Finding the right motor and gear
combination makes all the difference. I am writing an arm construction
article right now describing just such motors/gears all for a few
dollars each, which produces an arm that can lift a few lbs for about
50$.
The real challenge for me(building androids) was actually making the
joint system!
Mark
pogo
news:1186284971....@e9g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
Cool. Do you have a web site so we can learn more ?
Thanks !
JCD
Joe Strout
cast...@aol.com wrote:
> My Androids do indeed walk-Mostly on flat level surfaces. I am going a
> bit taller right now, almost 5'3 inches. I do in fact use cheap,
> readily available stepper motors. Finding the right motor and gear
> combination makes all the difference. I am writing an arm construction
> article right now describing just such motors/gears all for a few
> dollars each, which produces an arm that can lift a few lbs for about
> 50$.
That's really cool. Do you have a web site, or any videos up?
I'm really looking forward to your arm article. (In fact, if you want
anybody to proofread it, I'd be happy to help.)
> The real challenge for me(building androids) was actually making the
> joint system!
I'm just starting on a larger humanoid robot project -- though I'm
focussing on the upper torso for now, and not worrying about legs yet.
I'm still debating what to use for a frame, given a serious shortage of
time. I'm actually thinking about using Erector set parts, and just
trying to make sure they're covered enough not to look cheesy. :) I
might also consider Vex, though that'd mean investing in yet another
construction system, and my wife thinks I have too many already...
cast...@aol.com
> <castv...@aol.com> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
No, I dont have a website-You can however e-mail me for any info.
Mark
pogo
news:1186284971....@e9g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> On Aug 4, 11:26?pm, Joe Strout <j...@strout.net> wrote:
> > In article <Nlbti.26514$RX.10...@newssvr11.news.prodigy.net>,
> > John Nagle <na...@animats.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Walking robots are easy, provided that they only have to walk on
a
> > > flat surface, move slowly, and have big feet. Wind-up toys can do
that.
> >
> > To be fair, I haven't yet seen a wind-up toy that does that without
> > overlapping foot polygons.
> >
> > Best,
> > - Joe
> >
> > --
> > "Polywell" fusion -- an approach to nuclear fusion that might actually
work.
> > Learn more and discuss via:
<http://www.strout.net/info/science/polywell/>
>
> My Androids do indeed walk-Mostly on flat level surfaces. I am going a
> bit taller right now, almost 5'3 inches.
How *well* do they walk ? Do they just slide their feet forward ? Is it
supported only by the two feet or is there a stand to stabilize it ?
Personally, I would like to see a follow-up to this article showing *how*
they walk. From the article, it *appears* that all you have done is
duplicate the joints and the general exterior shape of human legs. A side
view of the legs shown in Figure 2 showing the gears and mechanical linkages
would be an improvement - thus giving us a better idea of how you did it.
I'm just saying that if you could demonstrate more on how to get an android
like yours walking it would be a stronger inspiration.
I look forward to the article on the arm!
Just giving my 1.2 cents.
JCD
cast...@aol.com
> <castv...@aol.com> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
Hopefully, I will get to all that and more in future articles.
I certainly didnt go to all that trouble to slide the feet along!
pogo
news:1186762347.6...@i38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> I certainly didnt go to all that trouble to slide the feet along!
>
COOL! That's what I had hoped to hear !
Very much looking forward to it !
Thanks and have a great weekend -
JCD
pogo
*
* That it was not, and never had been, simply a "telephone exchange" finally
* came to light in the 1975 JPAC Approval Report, when it admitted that the
* existing building had a comprehensive basement which housed NASA's micro-
* wave communications headquarters in Australia. Part of the justification
* of the "need" for the new, much larger building, was that by 1980, it was
* expected that NASA would run out of room in their existing home.
*
* Apart from NASA, it is now admitted that Deakin houses the National
* Computer Headquarters for, amongst others, the Australian Defense
* Department, the Australian Taxation Office, the Department of Social
* Security, the Commonwealth Department of Education, and the Department
* of Transport and Communications.
*
* Both Tax and Social Security are, in turn, directly linked to Medicare.
* In fact, the Department of Health used Social Security's computer
* facilities there until their own were completed.
*
* A small, but highly significant, part of the building is, in fact,
* occupied by Telecom. This is the part that contains the networking
* juncti
cast...@aol.com
was sure they were kidding her. Students and their parents protest, the school
board asks her back, but she says no, she is too disgusted at her treatment.
Zero Tolerance victims, falling into the abyss.
State troopers really know their "business":
: Robert Fitches, a 22 year-old said in his Federal lawsuit that he was
: humiliated when state troopers ordered him to drop his pants during a
: drug search along Interstate 15 in Davis County.
: Source: Salt Lake City Tribune 7/8/95
Maybe this is an accurate analogy of why dragnet-monitoring is wrong:
: The Sheraton Boston Hotel was discovered videotaping employees changing
: clothes in locker rooms. The 1991 surveillance caught employees using
: drugs, Sheraton said. Source: Senate Labor Committee on Employment, 6/93
If you strip us naked you will detect more crime, but also, you strip
individuals naked without specific individuals being suspected of a crime.
Dragnet monitoring should not be the American way.
Unrestricted cryptography must be made legal now,
so we are no longer naked to ECHELON monitoring.
It will be a beginning.
: Privacy Journal's War Stories (75 pages, $21.50) is available from
: PRIVACY JOURNAL, P.O. Box 28577, Providence RI 02908, 401/274-7861,
: electronic mail: 510...@mcimail.com.
:
: Beverly Folmsbee of Pittsfield Massachusetts, who was not suspected
: of any drug use, left her job after declining to take a "degr
pogo
MUST HAVE THEIR PASSWORDS CHANGED.
[snip]
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
SECURITY INCIDENT REPORT, 7/3/96
OASYS SOURCE CODE:
38,696 PROPRIETARY LINES
--------------------------------
This is a security incident report regarding the Internet (a public wire)
traffic of Salomon Brothers, which is monitored for security/compliance.
On Jul 3 1996, sara xxxxxxxxx of XXX-NJ emailed over the unprotected
Internet 38,696 lines of OASYS C++ code to vendor RogueWave for tech support
This code was clearly marked:
" This SOFTWARE is proprietary and confidential to \n"
" SALOMON BROTHERS INC. and may not be duplicated, \n"
" disclosed to third parties or used for any purpose \n"
" not expressly authorized by Salomon Brothers Inc.. \n"
" Any unauthorized use duplication or disclosure is \n"
" prohibited by law and will result in prosecution. \n";
SISS sincerely hopes noone was positioned to monitor this Internet
traffic, because they would have p
cast...@aol.com
Cybernetic control of society.
Some people have taken a stand. They are fighting back.
* "Police in California Fight Citizen Complaints"
* By Tim Golden, The New York Times, 8/15/1996
*
* With a quiet but forceful lobbying campaign, officers' unions and their
* supporters are pressing for new state laws that would remove unsubstant-
* iated complaints from police personnel files and limit the time in which
* a citizen's complaint must be investigated.
*
* Only 4% of complaints are upheld by review boards, and 70% are ruled
* inconclusive. Over time, some officers build up quite a bulk of complaints
* in their personnel file. Police chiefs oppose the legislations because it
* could undermine early warning systems for spotting bad officers.
*
* In some states, police unions have begun filing libel suits against those
* who file police complaints.
*
* The police officers assert that paper trails on complaints can ruin
* law-enforcement careers.
Police are the same bunch of law enforcement personnel who keep extensive
non-criminal notes and allegations on citizenry.
In fact, NYC Police have TWICE been caught using a form marked "for unofficial
notes, not to be kept with the normal records".
In other words, when the defendant tries to use discovery to get details of
the police case against them, so they can analyze what happened, these
"offline" notes are how the police withhold the information.
You know, like Geronimo Pratt's primary prosecution witness was a paid
government informer.
And the FBI won't delete the file of the kid who aspires to be in our Foreign
Service, but made the mistake of writing to foreign embassies in grade school.
Poor schmuck.
The FBI wants to keep "suspect" information on anyone in its NCIC 2000 system.
----
Some people f
Joe Strout
US attorneys are FBI agents. Every meeting we had included a couple FBI agents
taking notes and turns questioning.
The nice FBI personnel I dealt with were from the New York Computer Crime
Squad. Special Agents Steven N. Garfinkel and David P. Marziliano.
This posting isn't about the many good FBI and other law enforcement people.
Sorry.
The other FBI case involved transfer of Salomon technology to the ISP account
of an employee who had accepted another job, but hadn't yet notified Salomon.
They mailed home to themselves Salomon's Risk Management financial code.
The Salomon Managing Director in charge was not amused.
The ex-Salomon person had transferred it to their home ISP account, and
started working for Jefferies Securities.
I found this transfer to Jefferies Securities in the backups too:
********** begin excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
Dumb-and-Dumber incident:
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Sender: Fred_...@jefco.com
date: 28 Feb 96 8:14:56 EDT
subject: Greetings!
Recipient: Dr...@xxx.sbi.com
Drake.
Favor time! I need documenta
cast...@aol.com
# "Eye To Eye: Contact!", Information Week magazine, June 3 1996
#
# Computer passwords may be a thing of the past using a scanner that maps
# over 400 identifying features of your iris. The system will be tested at
# ATMs in Columbus, Ohio later this year. The company has been inundated
# with calls from other industries interested in using the technology.
And what about head shots of people...any 'machine vision' deals there?
* "New System Lets Computer Identify Pictures and Images"
* The New York Times, By John Holusha, [I failed to date the article clipping]
*
* New technology that may help solve one of the thorniest problems in computer
* science---teaching machines to recognize pictures--- was announced yesterday
* by officials of the David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, NJ. "We are
* going to make a business out of this", said IS VP Curtis R. Carlson. "It
* does things on a personal computer that used to require a supercomputer."
# "FBI Setting Standards for Computer Picture File of Criminals", NYT, 11/5/95
#
# A meeting called "Mug Shot and Facial Image Standards Conference"
Joe Strout
products, such as web browsers, outside U.S. territory, without compromising
it with Government "Key Recovery"; i.e. made stupider and breakable.
Why such an indirect control on what they claim is a domestic problem?
Because that is how 'The Creeping Police State' works.
Slowly, bit-by-bit.
Slowly, State-by-State everyone in the U.S. is being fingerprinted.
The FBI is now advocating biometric capture of all newborns too.
This is an interesting manifesto, please take the time to read it.
Cryptography can be used to keep private: Internet traffic, such as email,
and telephone conversations (PGP phone). A version of PGP phone that looks
and works like a normal telephone --- but can't be spied upon --- would
eventually become wide-spread.
It begins to change the mind-set that the Police State is inevitable.
----
Major references...
In the last several years intelligence operatives, specifically including
SIGINT (signal intelligence) people, have started telling the story about
the massive domestic use of computer monitoring software in the U.S.
Including our domestic phone calls, Internet, fax, everything.
I'm going to quote a number of articles and books; they involved talking
to over 100 of these intelligence operatives.
Buy this book: "Secret Power" by Nicky Hager, ISBN 0-908802-35-8.
It describes in detail the ECHELON platform. It's one of the most i
John Nagle
* view.
*
* When I invite others into my home for social occasions, it means an offer
* of great intimacy to me and is not a casual event to be taken lightly. My
* possessions and living area are private to me --- that is, very personal.
* I feel offended when I find someone has been handling them or looking at
* them without invitation.
*
* I am often offended by information requested of me by government, school,
* employer: identification numbers, financial history, marital status, age.
*
* The right to so much information seems questionable to me, and I feel I
* am being asked to reveal very personal things about myself in doing so.
*
* This always seems to me to represent a lack of respect for personal privacy.
How quaint, to want privacy.
Our privacy has been fading into a distant memory over the
last twenty years. And that's not even figuring ECHELON.
Just try leaving the hospital without naming your baby. The government
wants 'it' to be issued a social security number too, otherwise no tax
deducting it. Gosh, a birth certificate won't do, will it?
* Source #1: HBO Undercover Special Report
* Source #2: Computer Security Journal Vol IV #1,
* "Peeping Sam: Uncle Is Watching Us", by George B. Trubow
*
* "We started getting letters from the Federal Government's Selective
* Service System, telling us that our dog had to register." the father
* explained. The letters became quite demanding.
*
* Shown are three children and their dog. One of the boys had an ice cream
* cake birthday special at a popular national ice cream parlor chain, which
* asks for your social security number to get the special.
*
* They were working with the government to spot unregiste
Joe Strout
* Laboratories and several other government research facilities to develop
* ways to defeat "any locking system whether it be mechanical or electronic,
* or computer supplemented."
[snip]
*
* The FBI's Rapid Prototyping Facility (RPF) is a laboratory and factory
* dedicated to the design and manufacture of "unique miniaturized devices in
* direct support of various investigative efforts" of the "FBI and other
* members of the U.S. law enforcement community."
*
* Operated jointly by the FBI and the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research
* Projects Agency (DARPA, creators of the Internet), the FBI facility was
* created to allow the bureau "to use computer-aided design, engineering
* and manufacturing of tools and equipment (software and firmware
* respectively) to design, simulate, and fabricate integrated circuits,
* printed circuit boards, electronic components, packages, systems and
* concealments in a quick turnaround cost-effective manner."
*
* Among the facilities advantages are speed "through the use of laser
* restructuring, high-density interconnect, and reverse milling capability,"
* and a capability "to produce an integrated microphone ('microphone on a
* chip') in a single design/fabrication process."
*
* For many years, the FBI had been placing secret microphones on street-
* lamps, telephone p
Taerzik
Looks like all of Mark's (castvee8) online content has disappeared.
I've found a few crummy photos but no high quality ones or video shiny them in action.
If anyone has info, PLEASE contact me!
--
For full context, visit https://www.polytechforum.com/robotics/do-mark-miller-s-androids-really-walk-18458-.htm