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Baby
beetle performing Viennese Waltz (robot
uses 7 BS2SX's)
This choreograph shows off the omni-directional
characteristics of the robot. Each step requires
a new set of leg amplitude and direction vectors
to be calculated causing the centre of the robot
body to travel in a straight line and at the same
time the body is rotating about the centre. It's
all done with 16bit integer calculations calculating
a new set of vectors for 6 legs at 50 times every
second.
Size: 2.9 MB
Date: November 2000
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Tricycle
competition on track without obstacle
This choreograph shows off the omni-directional
characteristics of the robot. Each step requires
a new set of leg amplitude and direction vectors
to be calculated causing the centre of the robot
body to travel in a straight line and at the same
time the body is rotating about the centre. It's
all done with 16bit integer calculations calculating
a new set of vectors for 6 legs at 50 times every
second.
Size: 1.0 MB
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Omni-directional
beetle robot - adaptive behaviour)
This is Chong Kok Leong's (graduate student under
my supervision) work into robotic behaviour using
the omni-directional robot beetle. The robot is
equipped with a roll and pitch level sensor, "looking
down" non-contact range finder sensors, touch
sensitive whiskers, a looking-forward roll and
pitch actuated non-contact range finder sensor
(watch the eyeball) and touch sensors on each
foot. All done with Basic Stamp2SX's. The robot
is programmed to avoid obstacles and to walk over
steps (a bit clumsy at the moment) and not to
walk over the edge of the table (this robot is
getting expensive!!)
Size
: 16.0 MB
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Underwater
Prawn Robot (Acknowledgements
to A/P's Robin Bradbeer, Stephen Harrold, and
Research Assistants Herman Zhang and Danny Ho,
all of City University of Hong Kong)
(Prawn uses 7 Basic Stamp 2's and consists of
waterproof units) Note that the legs can inched
forwards and backwards, (see the robot on the
dry bench....there's nothing wrong with the movie).
The purpose of the bottle on the surface of the
water is to retrieve the robot.
Size
: 13.1 MB
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Humanoid
face (acknowledgements
to So Man Yi Geommi)
A pc is used to control many servos in order to
give some facial expressions. The tongue is made
from a rubber O-ring that is manipulated by two
servos so as to shift the tongue left and right
and curl up and curl down. Geommi wrote the software
and the mechanical system was designed and built
by F. Nickols.
Size : 3.1 MB
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Precision
calibration water flow rig
System consists of two tanks where each tank stores
1.8tonnes of water and water travels from top
tank under gravity to bottom tank through turbine
flowmeter and water transferred back to top tank
at end of test. Water volume measured accurately
(better than 0.1%) with float level sensor in
top tank. Water flow rate controlled by valve
in top tank. Students made their own flowmeters
to test in the rig. Students also wrote software
for the control of the rig. The complete rig was
designed and built by F. Nickols based on his
experience at Danfoss Flowmetering in the UK.
Size: (5.2 MB)
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Hovercraft(acknowledgements
to Poon and Shiu Chi Thun)
Some fluid mechanics for the students.
Size : 0.9 MB
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Sticky robot
(acknowledgements to Siu
Kin-Man and Wong Ho-Fan)
Idea here is NOT to have a suction pump but instead
to use suction pads (obtained from local hardware
store). I guess an octopus uses this principle
but multiplied hundreds of times with little muscles
and little suction pads on its tentacles. Man
and Fan designed and built the robot based on
the legs by F. Nickols.
Size:(1.8
MB)
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Robot grasshopper
(acknowledgements to the
tall guy)
Playing around with different leg length combinations.
An early robot with 2dof legs.
Size: 1.4 MB
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Recirculating
calibration water flow rig
This device is used to calibrate flowmeters
by comparing a standard flowmeter against one
to be calibrated. The standard flowmeter has
been calibrated against the precision calibration
water flow rig shown in movie 6) above. The
recirculating flow rig is used in a production
scenario because it has the potential of a faster
turn-round time. The precision calibration water
flowrig takes longer to calibrate a flowmeter
but is more accurate than the recirculating
flowrig.
Size:3.6MB
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Walking
on back four legs
This is Chong Kok Leong's (graduate student under
my supervision) work intorobotic behaviour using
the omni-directional robot beetle. The front two
legs have been lifted up and take no part in the
walking. It means that the back four legs have
to shift left and right to keep the centre-of-gravity
of the beetle inside the support polygon of the
remaining legs. All done with Basic Stamp2SX's.
Size: 2.2 MB
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Prototype
tricycle
Another tricycle with a stepper motor built into
the front wheel which is also a steering wheel.
This one is an introductory robot for students
and is controlled by two Basic Stamp1's.
Size : 0.9 MB
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Tutorial
Beetle
Seven Basic StampSX's (BS2SX) control this omni-directional
robot. There are 18 servos to control at a rate
of 50 times per second. Many manoeuvres can be
programmed, eg crabbing sideways, a Viennese waltz
or simulating a front wheel steering car which
is the way an ant walks. In fact it can turn about
any instantaneous centre of rotation on the ground.
It's very easy to control because all the complicated
mathematical routines have been hidden in six
of the seven BS2SX's so all you need to do is
program the seventh in a high level language.
The software in six of the seven BS2SX's has been
designed to enable you to do many behaviour patterns
without reprogramming. The seventh BS2SX simply
sends high level instructions to the other six
BS2SX's.
Size: 3.5 MB
Date : April 2002
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NTU's 20th
Anniversary Concert in July 2001 (Spider Scenario)
This was a nerve-racking experience because the
spider had to be dropped safely through a full
50foot height drop through an aperture in the
auditorium ceiling. Two MEng students, Khaw Aik
Hau and Tan Kok Wei, under my supervision dropped
it smoothly using strong fishing line and a plastic
rod acting as a pulley. They were working in the
dark up there under radio instructions from the
control room and they couldn't see below. They
were cool about it but I was a nervous wreck thinking
about the things that could go wrong. Kok Wei
got the radio instructions and then signalled
to Aik Hau to start walking along the catwalk
at a well rehearsed speed and then when the plastic
rod that he was holding measured up to a steel
support rod on the catwalk he stopped walking.
At that point the robot was just on the point
of touching the stage floor below. I made the
hook a little too safe because you can see the
actor and actress struggling to free the robot.
We tried radio controlling the spider motion but
with all the radio communication flying around
from the stage controllers it didn't work so I
had to program it to go through a set pattern.
The computer animation of the spider, by Animation
Design Effects Centre of Singapore, at the beginning
is real cool and the music very catchy too. During
this production I was really impressed with the
talent and creativity that exists here in Singapore.
Size: 4.7 MB, divx
codex needed
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NTU's 20th
Anniversary Concert in July 2001 (Beetle Scenario)
I love listening to the girls in this excerpt
as they remember their lines concerning "mechanical
birds songs" ........or something like that
and also "artificial intelligence, real-time
programming and parallel processing" The
actresses were not engineering students so they
were not used to the technical phrases
Size
: 6.2 MB, divx codex needed
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