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Jonathan Wilson | 1 Dec 2003 02:57
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an idea, can someone tell me if this is possible/been done before/etc?

Or, provide suggestions on how to do it?
I saw Wild Wild West the other day and was looking at the giant spider 
robot and wondered if making such a "sipder" robot is possible with lego 
robotics?

Would it be possible?
Has anyone done it?
Does anyone have any tips on how to do it? (I suspect one would probobly 
need more than one RCX to pull it off which means I cantr do it :)
--
Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics
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Steve Baker | 1 Dec 2003 03:34

Re: an idea, can someone tell me if this is possible/been done before/etc?

Jonathan Wilson wrote:
> Or, provide suggestions on how to do it?
> I saw Wild Wild West the other day and was looking at the giant spider 
> robot and wondered if making such a "sipder" robot is possible with lego 
> robotics?
> 
> Would it be possible?
> Has anyone done it?

Plenty of people have build eight legged walkers - that's not all that hard.

However, the machine in WWW is supposedly very flexible and could climb near
vertical cliff-faces, etc.

You'd need at least two or three motors per leg to get that kind of flexibility.
I'd suggest using one RCX per leg!

Realistically, this would be very difficult.

The issue of how the spider in WWW was controlled was of course quietly
ignored...but that's not something you could avoid.  Providing a remote
controller to drive all those legs in useful ways would be an ergonomic
nightmare...trying to make the robot sense it's environment well enough
to climb over things would be a major technical challenge.

I suggest you start off by looking at the Mibo project (Like the AIBO
robotic dog - but done in Lego).

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
HomeEmail: <sjbaker1 <at> airmail.net>    WorkEmail: <sjbaker <at> link.com>
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Philippe Hurbain | 1 Dec 2003 10:56
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Re: New LEGOTIC Hand

In lugnet.technic, Chris Masclet wrote:
> Hi everybody, this is my new LEGOTIC-hand.
>
>
>
> http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/chrismaker/LEGOTIC-Hand/hand1.jpg
>
> http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/chrismaker/LEGOTIC-Hand/hand11.jpg
>
> http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/chrismaker/LEGOTIC-Hand/hand12.jpg
>
> http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/chrismaker/LEGOTIC-Hand/hand2.jpg
>
> http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/chrismaker/LEGOTIC-Hand/hand2.jpg
>
>
> Each finger is auto-adaptative, an IR sensor (built in Philo's Lab) detects near
> objects.
> I spent a lot of time on geometry and design, as you can see I' ve used Bionicle
> part.
>
> One cylinder acts thumb.
> One cylinder acts other fingers. Each finger is independent and auto-adaptative.
> Those 2 cylinders are connected on same pneumatic switch. When providing
> air-pressure thumb close before other fingers.
>
>
> Third cylinder acts wrist. Rotation sensor detects hand position. (real rotation
> is x6 for best accuracy)
>
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Kevin L. Clague | 1 Dec 2003 17:25
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Re: Pneumatic Quadraped 242

In lugnet.technic, Eric Sophie wrote:
> In lugnet.technic, Kevin L. Clague wrote:

[snip]

> 
> Can I build a Mecha Sheith for it? An outer skin? Can I can I!
> 
> Question: Any entertainment for a Tail of some sort to study the effect
> during articulation?

I started working on articulated head and tail.  Quad242 has a very large
footprint, and walks inefficiently.

One of the reasons for large feet is center of gravity. The center of gravity on
Quad242 is just a little behind the center of the body (because of the two extra
pistons on the back.)  When two feet are down, the feet form a folcrum that
Quad242 has to balance on.  A diagonal drawn between the two down feet does not
intersect the center of gravity, so the feet have to be big enough to cover the
center of gravity.  

Articulated head and tail will help move the center of gravity closer to the
folcrum.  The head and tail will be able to move forward and back, as well as
side to side.  By proper placement of head and tail when two feet are down I
might be able to get the center of gravity onto the folcrum with much smaller
feet.  

The head/tail will have to move forward/backward twice each cycle (once for each
down pair of feet), so this has made me enhance my sequential design techniques.
It looks good on paper, but I've yet to build the prototype circuit.  I'll
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Jim Choate | 1 Dec 2003 04:12

Re: an idea, can someone tell me if this is possible/been done before/etc?


On Sun, 30 Nov 2003, Steve Baker wrote:

> Plenty of people have build eight legged walkers - that's not all that hard.
>
> However, the machine in WWW is supposedly very flexible and could climb near
> vertical cliff-faces, etc.
> You'd need at least two or three motors per leg to get that kind of
> flexibility. I'd suggest using one RCX per leg!

That's one approach, probably the wrong one considering the limitations
of the RCX. Instead of trying to solve your problems with the RCX why not
take the approach of the original; pullies, gears, differentials, gear
trains, etc. As I made allusion to in a earlier response to this thread,
don't think of 8 legs but 4 legs on two sets. And the two sets are always
out of sync (I'll leave the issue of a clutch/break for turning as an
exercise in gear trains).

> Realistically, this would be very difficult.

I would say it's more tedious than difficult, the real question is what
would motivate somebody to spend that amount of time and effort to do it?
As much as I like robots, to build a complicated one in Lego/RIS somebody
will have to pay me $$$.

> The issue of how the spider in WWW was controlled was of course quietly
> ignored...but that's not something you could avoid.

Look up 'steampunk'. I'd also suggest looking a little closer at the robot
since it's clearly steam powered, controlled by mechanical levers (re
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Jim Choate | 1 Dec 2003 03:48

Re: an idea, can someone tell me if this is possible/been done before/etc?


On Mon, 1 Dec 2003, Jonathan Wilson wrote:

> Or, provide suggestions on how to do it?
> I saw Wild Wild West the other day and was looking at the giant spider
> robot and wondered if making such a "sipder" robot is possible with lego
> robotics?
>
> Would it be possible?

Yes

> Does anyone have any tips on how to do it? (I suspect one would probobly
> need more than one RCX to pull it off which means I cantr do it :)

Not really, if you start with a hexapod and break the legs down into two
groups of three (you get stability that way) you should be able to do it
with two outputs (one for start/stop the other for for/rev).

As an aside, and a rather odd synchronicity, I just finished reading an
old book (I'd never read before),

Walking Machines
An Introduction to Walking Robots
D.J. Todd
ISBN 0-85038-932-1

You might find it interesting.

 -- --
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Kevin L. Clague | 2 Dec 2003 02:27
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Re: an idea, can someone tell me if this is possible/been done before/etc?

In lugnet.robotics, Steve Baker <sjbaker1 <at> airmail.net> wrote:
> Jonathan Wilson wrote:
>> Or, provide suggestions on how to do it?
>> I saw Wild Wild West the other day and was looking at the giant spider
>> robot and wondered if making such a "sipder" robot is possible with lego
>> robotics?
>>
>> Would it be possible?
>> Has anyone done it?
>
> Plenty of people have build eight legged walkers - that's not all that hard.
>
> However, the machine in WWW is supposedly very flexible and could climb near
> vertical cliff-faces, etc.

I'd recommend pneumatics instead of large number of RCX's.

Kevin
--
Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics
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Sonnich Jensen | 2 Dec 2003 12:25
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Re: Robotex2003 Winner: Lego

I found some picture from the event. It has been really hard to find any
information at all.

All pictures:
http://dharik.com/Robotex/

The legorobot (and another one I did not notice before)
http://dharik.com/Robotex/photos/Picture%20010.jpg
http://dharik.com/Robotex/photos/Picture%20038.jpg
http://dharik.com/Robotex/photos/Picture%20053.jpg
http://dharik.com/Robotex/photos/Picture%20133.jpg
http://dharik.com/Robotex/photos/Picture%20135.jpg
http://dharik.com/Robotex/photos/Picture%20136.jpg
http://dharik.com/Robotex/photos/Picture%20137.jpg
http://dharik.com/Robotex/photos/Picture%20156.jpg

BR
Sonnich

In lugnet.robotics, Sonnich Jensen wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> I am not in to lego robotics myself, but I want to share this:
> At the Robotex 2003 (http://www.robotex.ee ) competion, the winner was the Lego
> robot.
>
> I did not follow the show that much, but I did notice how efficient the Lego
> robot was, how fast it found the 4 mines and ran through the system. As of what
> I saw it was the best (well, it did win so...)
> The robot was quite small, RCX controlled.
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lester witter | 2 Dec 2003 12:28

Search algorithms

Has anyone tried A* or D* on an RCX

Lester Witter
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Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics
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pixel | 2 Dec 2003 13:01
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Re: an idea, can someone tell me if this is possible/been done before/etc?


"Kevin L. Clague" <kevin_clague <at> yahoo.com> wrote in message news:Hp8uqD.8yM <at> lugnet.com...

> I'd recommend pneumatics instead of large number of RCX's.

but pneumatics gives you just automation
you dont have "adaptation"

i can imagine sensor-like pneumatic valve configuration
but it would be much more complicated than using rcx (even few of them)

let's take a small obstacle into consideration

when bot set the foot on the surface which is higher than expected
bot has to accomodate this obstacle
and decide if the original "program" of setting this foot (and next feet)
will continued unchanged or some changes have to be made
(it will cause the bot's body will slope or not)

solving this problem using pneumatics is VERY complicated
with rcx and even just touch sensors it looks (for me) much more simple

of course you can leave this problem and bot can go just like that
but i think it was not an issue

what do you think

pixel
--
Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics
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Gmane