Servo magazine 03 2008

Tạp chí Servo

Vol. 6 No. 3 SERVO MAGAZINEROBOT KITS•GENETIC ALGORITHMS•WOMEN OF ROBOTICS•BIOLOGICAL CONTROL SIGNALSMarch 2008 Cover.qxd 2/6/2008 2:16 PM Page 1 Full Page.qxd 2/4/2008 10:07 AM Page 2 Full Page.qxd 2/6/2008 9:55 AM Page 3 This Month In THE COMBAT ZONE . Features 28 The Holy Grail of Combat Robotics Usable Melty Brain (Part 2) 31 Manufacturing: Win With Bulletproof Planetary Gearboxes Events 34 Results and Upcoming Competitions 35 Rumble at the Rock: BotsIQ Gone Varsity Robot Profile 36 Dark Pounder SERVO Magazine (ISSN 1546-0592/CDN Pub Agree#40702530) is published monthly for $24.95 per year by T & L Publications, Inc., 430 Princeland Court, Corona, CA 92879. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT CORONA, CA AND AT ADDITIONAL ENTRY MAILING OFFICES. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to SERVO Magazine, P.O. Box 15277, North Hollywood, CA 91615 or Station A, P.O. Box 54,Windsor ON N9A 6J5; cpcreturns@servomagazine.com Departments 06 Mind/Iron 19 Events Calendar 26 New Products 27 Robotics Showcase 65 Menagerie 66 Robo-Links 75 SERVO Webstore 82 Advertiser’s Index Columns 08 Robytes by Jeff Eckert Stimulating Robot Tidbits 10 GeerHead by David Geer Pace Robotics Lab — Activevision Robot Technology Captures Sights in 3D 14 Twin Tweaks by Bryce and Evan Woolley Back to Basics: Why Turning RC Cars into Robots Makes All the Difference 20 Ask Mr. Roboto by Pete Miles Your Problems Solved Here 67 Different Bits by Heather Dewey-Hagborg Artificial Life — Part 1: Introduction to Genetic Algorithms 72 Robotics Resources by Gordon McComb Robot Kits for Easier Robotics 78 Appetizer by Allison F. Walton and Filomena Serpa When Art and Servos Mix 79 Then and Now by Tom Carroll Women of Robotics PAGE 79 4 SERVO 03.2008 TOC Mar08.qxd 2/6/2008 10:32 AM Page 4 03.2008 VOL. 6 NO. 3 SERVO 03.2008 5 38 Control of Power-Assist Exoskeleton Robots With Biological Signals by Kzauo Kiguchi Take a look at one soft computing technology that hopes to help bring exoskeleton robots to consumers. 43 Reviving an Androbot BOB by Robert Doerr This time, BOB gets lots of cool stuff added to him, including a Handy Board controller, H-bridge, power distribution, and sonar boards. 50 Building a Stepper Motor Controller: Part 2 by Fred Eady The preflight work from last month will now be applied to create controlled rotational movement of a stepper motor shaft. 58 A More Versatile Robotic Controller Using RobotBASIC by John Blankenship and Samuel Mishal RobotBASIC is a free programming language known for its integrated robot simulator. However, it also can be used for nearly any control application. 62 Designing and Building a Robot From Scratch by Brian Benson This new series of articles will take you through the entire process of designing and building a custom robot. PAGE 38 PAGE 10 PAGE 14 Features & Projects TOC Mar08.qxd 2/6/2008 10:33 AM Page 5 Published Monthly By T & L Publications, Inc. 430 Princeland Court Corona, CA 92879-1300 (951) 371-8497 FAX (951) 371-3052 Webstore Only 1-800-783-4624 www.servomagazine.com Subscriptions Toll Free 1-877-525-2539 Outside US 1-818-487-4545 P.O. Box 15277 North Hollywood, CA 91615 PUBLISHER Larry Lemieux publisher@servomagazine.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ VP OF SALES/MARKETING Robin Lemieux display@servomagazine.com EDITOR Bryan Bergeron techedit-servo@yahoo.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jeff Eckert Tom Carroll Gordon McComb David Geer Pete Miles R. Steven Rainwater Fred Eady Kevin Berry John Blankenship Samuel Mishal Kazuo Kiguchi Robert Doerr Brian Benson Allison Walton Nick Martin Michael Bastoni Bryce Woolley Evan Woolley Heather Dewey-Hagborg Filomena Serpa CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Tracy Kerley subscribe@servomagazine.com MARKETING COORDINATOR WEBSTORE Brian Kirkpatrick sales@servomagazine.com WEB CONTENT Michael Kaudze website@servomagazine.com PRODUCTION/GRAPHICS Shannon Lemieux Joe Keungmanivong ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Debbie Stauffacher Copyright 2008 by T & L Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved All advertising is subject to publisher’s approval. We are not responsible for mistakes, misprints, or typographical errors. SERVO Magazine assumes no responsibility for the availability or condition of advertised items or for the honesty of the advertiser.The publisher makes no claims for the legality of any item advertised in SERVO. This is the sole responsibility of the advertiser. Advertisers and their agencies agree to indemnify and protect the publisher from any and all claims, action, or expense arising from advertising placed in SERVO. Please send all editorial correspondence, UPS, overnight mail, and artwork to: 430 Princeland Court, Corona, CA 92879. As highlighted by the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), 2008 is shaping up to be a good year for robotics innovators who rely on inexpensive, capable platforms for their experiments. The most impressive platform in the traditional D3 (dull, dirty, and dangerous) camp was the $99 iRobot Looj (www.iRobot.com). The treaded, weather resistant, remote controlled vehicle (see Figure 1) is intended to facilitate the D3 job of cleaning gutters of leaves, pine cones, twigs, and other light debris. Although the robot’s movement is limited to linear forward and reverse and access to the NiCad battery pack is somewhat awkward, the robot seems like the perfect platform for an amphibious vehicle. I’ll be featuring the Looj in an upcoming teardown article. As in previous years, consumer robots is less about sweeping floors, clearing gutters, or performing equally distasteful D3 tasks, and more about entertainment. WowWee (www.wow wee.com) promises to be a ready source of development platforms, following the popularity of the Robosapien among the robotics mod community. Highest on my want list is the Bladestar indoor flying machine with onboard obstacle avoidance. The three-channel digital IR controller is especially intriguing, in that it implies control is possible through a wireless laptop link that can be used to provide path planning in addition to simple object avoidance. Other members of the WowWee lineup — including the four-legged Roboquad, emotive Robopanda, and series of Alive pets — also seem promising. If you’ve ever developed a WiFi interface to your robots, then you’ll appreciate the Meccano Spykee ‘spy Mind / Iron by Bryan Bergeron, Editor  Mind/Iron Continued 6 SERVO 03.2008 FIGURE 1 Mind-Iron Mar08.qxd 2/6/2008 10:55 AM Page 6 robot’ with built-in Skype VoIP phone, webcam, and software suite (www.meccano.com). The French robot, sold under the Erector brand in the US, seems equally valuable as a source of parts and as a development platform. At $300, the treaded robot is about the price of a WiFi webcam without audio capabilities, battery pack, or mobility. I’m undecided about the viability of the long-awaited Pleo (www.pleoworld.com) as a repurposable robotics platform. Given the hype, I was expecting something with the capabilities of the discontinued Sony Aibo. However, I don’t envision squads of autonomous, bucolic Pleos playing robosoccer. That may change with the efforts of an innovative modder, however. One of the more interesting robotics products featured at the 2008 CES that spans the D3 and entertainment categories is the Gibson Robot Guitar (www.Gibson.com). Thanks to robotics and electronics developed by Tronical (www.Tronical.com), the guitar frees the guitarist from the dull and time-consuming task of retuning the guitar. It’s difficult to rationalize the added $700 expense for simply keeping six strings in tune, but where the German Tronical technology shines is in alternative tuning and intonation adjustments. Many traditional and modern songs use alternatives to the standard EBGDAE tuning (i.e., the first or thinnest string is tuned to E, the next string to B, and so on). Retuning a guitar to common alternatives such as Dropped D (DADGBE) or Delta Blues (DGDGBD) takes time. So much time that performers typically switch guitars between songs to accommodate alternative tuning. With the Robot Guitar, alternative tuning is as simple as turning a selector switch. The six motors in the head and piezo audio detectors in the bridge adjust individual strings to the appropriate tension within four seconds. The other big headache the Tronical technology addresses is adjusting intonation, which typically involves a trip to the guitar shop for adjusting the bridge. Instead of simply pressing a button, correcting intonation involves manually adjusting the distance between points holding the strings (the nut at the far end and the bridge at the near end). While this is a manual operation, the circuitry in the guitar signals the operator how far to turn the adjustment screws to achieve proper intonation. There have been other automatic, motorized tuners on the market, but the Tronical-Gibson is the first to pull it off in a clean, fully integrated way. Because the Tronical components are the same size and actually lighter than traditional components, the system is available for Fender Strats and a variety of Gibson guitars. The system can be quickly installed and removed tracelessly without extra drilling, holes, or screws. While the market for all stringed instruments is threatened by all electronic instruments, the Robot Guitar is a good example of how robotics can be integrated seamlessly and almost invisibly into an existing product to provide enhanced value. I leave you with the challenge of identifying application areas where the same approach can be applied to activities of daily living, from driving and cooking to simply moving from one place to another. SV SERVO 03.2008 7 Extreme Robot Speed Control! OSMC 6 6 6 6 Monster power! 14-50V 3.15 x4.5”x1.5” 3 wire interface 160A! ” www.robotpower.com Phone: 253-843-2504 sales@robotpower.com Scorpion HX 6 6 6 6 Dual (6A pk) H-bridges fwd-only channel 5V - 18V 1.6“ x 1.6” x 0.5” 2.5A 12APlus $79.99 Scorpion Mini 6 6 6 2.5A (6A pk) H-bridge 5V - 18V 1.25“ x 0.5” x 0.25” $119.99 Scorpion XL 6 6 6 Dual H-bridge 5V - 24V 2.7“ x 1.6” x 0.5” 13A 45A Peak! 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 14V - 50V - Dual H-bridges - 150 Adjustable current limiting Temperature limiting Three R/C inputs - serial option Many mixing options - Flipped Bot Input Rugged extruded Aluminum case 4.25" x 3.23" x 1.1” 80A A+ Peak! $29.99 $399 Introducing Dalf 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 Closed-loop control of two motors Full PID position/velocity loop Trapezoidal path generator PIC18F6722 CPU C source for routines provided See Giant Servo Mode! www.embeddedelectronics.net $250 MADE IN THE USA H-bridges: Use with Dalf or with your Micro/Stamp Simple-H 6 6 6 6 6-28V 25 2.25 x2.5 x0.5” 3 wire interface current & temp protection A! ”” $79 Mind-Iron Mar08.qxd 2/6/2008 10:56 AM Page 7 8 SERVO 03.2008 Climbing the Walls In the common tradition of borrow- ing robotic concepts from nature is Waalbot, which needs no magnets or vacuum devices to attach itself to vertical planes. Like a common gecko, this Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) invention uses tiny fibers on its feet to adhere to just about any surface. The lit- tle guy isn’t much bigger than a quarter, but he sports two sets of three-footed wheels, each with its own motor. The spring-loaded tail keeps the critter pushing against the wall’s surface. Motion control, including steer- ing, is provided by a PIC microcon- troller and power by lithium-ion batteries. Projected applications include inspection, surveillance, and possibly spacecraft repair. Coming soon to a Waal-mart near you. Dinosaurs to Roam Again Dubai, to put things in perspec- tive, is the second largest nation within the United Arab Emirates, even though it occupies only 4,114 sq km (about 16 sq mi). This puts it on a par with Headland, AL. But its population is 1,422,000, as opposed to Headland’s 3,523, so a lot of people must be standing up most of the time. On the positive side, Dubai’s gross domestic product in 2006 was $46 billion, which means they have a lot of extra money for fun projects. And these folks, who have already created a private island archipelago shaped like the Earth’s continents, and the world’s first underwater hotel, don’t think small. The current hot project there is Restless Planet, a “unique, world-class natural history phenomenon” that will recreate 11 acres of the Earth as it was 100 million years ago. The park — projected to cost $1.1 billion — will feature 109 robots housed in a 75 m dome, constituting the world’s largest collection of animatronic dinosaurs. The bots are being created by Japan’s Kokoro Co. under the direction of famed paleontologist Jack Horner. The first one out of the gate is T. Rex (the lizard, not Marc Bolan), which is capable of follow- ing you with hungry eyes, breathing, and curling its lips, but it will probably stop short of eating you. A series of rides will take visitors through a collection of high-tech effects that illustrate the birth of the planet and the creation of its topographical features and oceans. The finale is a visit to the age of dinosaurs. Restless Planet is scheduled to open late this year, so book your flight to the City of Arabia (www.cityofarabiame.com) early. (The current price is $1152, round trip KLM.) Baby Seals Boost Mental/Physical Health Most of the bots you see these days are aimed at some sort of mundane application, be it industrial or service. But Japanese developers seem to be wrapped up in what has been called the “cult of cute,” and one of the most adorable is Paro, the baby harp seal from Intelligent System Co. (www.intelligent-system. jp). It is classified as a “mental commit- ment robot,” defined as one devel- The CMU Waalbot climbs walls using dry adhesion. Photo courtesy of Carnegie Mellon Nanorobotics Lab. Left: Paro, the robotic baby harp seal, photo courtesy of Intelligent System Co., Ltd. Right:The real thing, photo by Rei Ohara, courtesy of harpseals.org. The Restless Planet theme park will feature 100+ mechatronic dinosaurs. Photo courtesy of City of Arabia. by Jeff Eckert Robytes Robytes.qxd 2/5/2008 6:02 PM Page 8 oped to interact with human beings (often the sick and elderly) and make them feel emotionally attached to it. According to the company, such devices provide three basic therapeutic effects: psychological (e.g., relaxation and motivation), physiological (improved vital signs), and social (stimulating communication between patients and caregivers). Going beyond a common stuffed animal, Paro incorporates tactile, light, audio, tem- perature, and posture sensors to com- prehend people and its environment. It recognizes light and dark and gets sleepy at night. It blinks its eyes and makes seal noises. It likes to be pet- ted and tries to avoid you if you smack it. Paro can even recognize words and where your voice is coming from, and you can tickle it by touching its whiskers. Pretty clever. But with Paro’s $3,200 price tag, a cat might be a more cost-effective solution. Don’t Eat the Yellow Ice Also more huggable than it needs to be is Yuki-taro, from Research & Development, Inc. (RDI, www.rdi- japan.com), which has been described as “a supercute robot that eats up snow and poops ice blocks.” Developed by a consortium in Japan’s snowy Niigata Prefecture, it is self-guided via a GPS system and cameras mounted in his “eyes.” He measures 63 x 37 x 30 in (160 x 95 x 75 cm), weighs in at 880 lb (400 kg), and his droppings are 24 x 12 x 6 in (~60 x 30 x 15 cm) ice bricks. Given the nature of his diet, you probably won’t want to crush up the bricks for your evening cocktail, but the ice could be stored for refrigera- tion or air conditioning in summer months. Yuki-taro isn’t ready for mass production yet, but its inventors hope to be selling them within five years. The estimated price will be $9,000. Report on Future Military Systems In its infinite wisdom, the US Department of Defense (www. defenselink.mil) has released a report titled, “Unmanned Systems Roadmap 2007—2032,” which outlines how the military intends to proceed in developing, acquiring, and integrating unmanned technology over the next 25 years. This should prove helpful to inventors, defense contractors, hostile governments, terrorists, and anyone else who has an interest in such things. The Roadmap covers not only UAVs but land- and maritime-operated systems, as well. The report is available at a somewhat out-of-the-way corner of the DoD website, or you can download it at www.jkeckert.com/ unmannedsystems.pdf. Do-It-Yourself Earth Defense Strangely, the DoD’s Roadmap completely ignores the threat of aliens from outer space, but Daniel H. Wilson, Ph.D., has it covered in his latest book, How to Build a Robot Army. Regardless of whether you find yourself attacked by aliens, ninjas, or zombies (or mum- mies or great white sharks or Godzilla), you can get the better of your blood- thirsty adversaries using the techniques outlined within. You can pick up the paperback edition from amazon.com for a paltry $11.16 as of this writing. And may the farce be with you. SV Robytes Yuki-taro, the snow-eating robot. Photo courtesy of RDI. New report from the DoD outlines its plans for future unmanned systems. Photo courtesy of US Department of Defense. Daniel Wilson’s latest book, How to Build a Robot Army. Photo courtesy of Bloomsbury USA. SERVO 03.2008 9 Robytes.qxd 2/5/2008 6:02 PM Page 9 10 SERVO 03.2008 P ace University Labs produced the “activevision” technology (per a Pace University academic paper) in conjunction with research into a much larger robot cognition project. With activevision, the robot models itself and its environment in a 3D world using graphics rendering engine technology from Ogre3D, just like that used in gaming software. The robot sees the world around it, then assembles it in 3D. It saves and works within that reservoir of graphical data in order to develop changing and improving perceptions of its surroundings. ADAPT-ing The robot vision project, called Adaptive Dynamics and Active Perception for Thought (ADAPT), falls under the work of three University research groups: one from Pace University (computer science), one from Brigham Young, and one from Fordham. The research has produced several robots, which are available from ActivMedia today along with some others. These robots are capable of a variety of responses in largely unpredictable environments using robotic cognition and activevision. There were obstacles to accomplish- ing this level of perception with earlier robots. Developers had to pre-program those robots to work in their environ- ments. So, while the pre-programming had a lot to do with how they could respond, it didn’t help them learn from the environment or produce their own perceptions before they responded. By developing robotic cognitive abil- ities, researchers hope to be able to give robots the tools they need to learn from their environments and adapt according- ly. Some of the pieces to that puzzle include the abilities for the robot to solve problems and improve navigation. Seeing is Predicting The mobile robot in the ADAPT research sees by first predicting what it will see. It does this using a virtual model of the world around it through its multimedia. This exists in the SOAR software and algorithms (SOAR is a cognitive software architecture and framework for developing intelligent robotics systems), and in memory. The virtual, multimedia aspect of the model exists in a 3D game. Ogre3D is an open-source programming platform, virtual-world-based game with advanced graphics. It uses state-of-the- art game physics (the physics make virtu- al objects in the game respond to each other in the same way that the same objects would respond in the real world). The robot uses its machine vision and software tools to create a copy of its environment with itself included. It stores and interacts with 3D data in the virtual game world, learning from the process. This forces the robot to use its intelli- gence so it can make decisions based on its perceptions of the world around it and not on feedback (based on machine vision techniques) from that world alone. The robot learns to adapt and respond to the world around it as a part of a complex problem-solving process. The robot’s software uses the virtual Contact the author at geercom@alltel.net by David Geer PACE ROBOTICS LAB Activevision Robot Technology Captures Sights in 3D Pace Robotics Lab has developed a real looker — a robot with machine vision that remembers the world in 3D. ActivMedia Activrobot, Pioneer 2 rear side- angle view. This early experimental version is the granddaddy to ActivRobots’ Pioneer 3 models, including the P3-DX. The P3-DX comes with battery, two wheels, caster, motors, encoders, and a front ring of sonars. The robot must have its microcontroller, as well as a sonar board, power board, ARCOS microcontroller server software, on the hardware I/O bus with ARIA software and ARIA Robotics API for software developers (to add to the robot’s skills), and an operator’s manual. Geerhead.qxd 2/5/2008 5:58 PM Page 10 . and Servos Mix 79 Then and Now by Tom Carroll Women of Robotics PAGE 79 4 SERVO 03.2008 TOC Mar08.qxd 2/6/2008 10:32 AM Page 4 03.2008 VOL. 6 NO. 3 SERVO. publisher@servomagazine.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ VP OF SALES/MARKETING Robin Lemieux display@servomagazine.com EDITOR Bryan Bergeron techedit -servo@ yahoo.com