Re: Beeesh Art

On 19/09/05, Eric Sophie <[email protected]> wrote:
> In lugnet.build.mecha, [email protected] wrote:
> >
> > On 19/09/05, Eric Sophie <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> In lugnet.build.mecha, [email protected] wrote:
> >>
> >>> Once again - you have created something awesome. What do all the
> >>> pneumatics and electrics do? I can see the bits in the head, and in
> >>> the eyes, but is there more?
> >>
> >> The Pnuematic cylinder raises the head up and down. The High RPM 9v Motor
> >> moves
> >> the head left to right. There is also a clutch gear located in the
> >> geartrain,
> >> to
> >> prevent breaking from over rotation; left/right.
> >>
> >> I installed the motor for the neck, because, well frankly its easy to. (and
> >> I
> >> had the room) Then I connect the neck to an RC remote multiplexor so I can
> >> control the movement from across the room and when on display.
> >
> > Any chance of a vid, I was a little disappointed that I never got to
> > see more of Jama, so can you make sure you get some footage of it
> > moving and doing its stuff, as well as demoing all of the more manual
> > adjustments, before it is scrapped?
> 
> I will be setting up most of my completed models for an interview I am doing
> in
> my new studio, later this week. Perhaps then I can arrange for some video
> capture.
> 
> Jama won't get scraped. The head may be rebuilt, and the hip sure do need
> redesigning, but the robot will live on.
> 
> Speaking of, I have to fix it up for some shows I have in the next couple of
> weeks!
> 
> >>
> >>> Anyway - brilliant Eric, it is what i have come to expect from you.
> >>> Danny
> >>
> >> Thank you sir!
> >
> > A pleasure - you are quite an inspiration. I am more robot builder
> > than model mecha builder, but with your work the lines between those
> > genres get blurred.
> 
> Thank you, I try to blend both worlds. I have always said, the small Bots
> teach
> me about building Mecha, in turn, building Mecha teaches me to integrate
> robotics concepts in to my creations. Then when I set out to build robots, the
> lessons learned from both Bots and Mecha help me when buiding actual motorized
> models.
> 
> > Danny
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> P.S. Did I ever send you one of my original Jama Art Works? (not seen on
> Brickshelf)
> 
I am glad to hear that Jama is still around - I thought it had been
disassembled. I might have some ideas for programming it too...

I have not been send the Jama art work, but I would love to see it.

Is there room in Jama, or an evoloution of Jama to add sensors? ie
touch sensors on the feet - linked to the slight spread of lightly
flexible toe peices as a foot is placed? I was thinking that for Jama,
the best system of control would subdivisions - subsumption
architechture.

If each controller (I remember 9 or so) is controlling, and taking
sensor input from a localised grouping of motors and sensors, then
they would each handle a number of small localised operations,
reporting to other controllers grouping some of those together, and in
turn reporting a main controller - subsumption architecture - the
concept of Rodney A Brooks. It seems like the most interesting & most
likely result producing method. Of course, the reporting or
communications would be handled using VLL/IR (I remember there are
some scouts in the mix arent there?). since additional controllers are
not cheap, then while each of them will handle a grouped operation,
some of those will use the tasking feature of the RCX to perform
multiple processes - one as a local one, and one as a group.

So what you would end up with is one controller deals with the three
motors and sensors dealing with the left leg/foot, and one for the
right. These are then grouped (into one of the left/or right ones on
another task) into Legs. The same would be the case for arms. The
basic tasks would handle basic stuff like "extend full extents",
"contract full extents", "point toe extents" - or a more high-level
ones like "put foot down until it makes contact with surface", "lift
leg off ground", "move leg forward", "pull leg backwards". The group
above this for both legs would deal with concepts involving both legs,
like "sit" - which would tell both legs to contract (letting the leg
groups themselves sort out the lower level) or walk - a sequence of
"lift leg 1", "move leg 1 forward", "pull leg 2 backwards", "put foot
1 down until contact" then repeating it for leg 2 - querying the
controllers to make sure the feet really are on the ground and such.
There would be other groups like the arms/hands, the torso and head.
And one controller (one which is not already handling a group task),
would be the "master controller", which is responsible for telling the
rest to "walk" or "stop" or "sit"- which would also require (I
suspect) a balancing and forward leaning motion of the torso.

With a little extension of the concepts, you could see how it would
apply to most of the groups, and allow for grouped coordinated
actions. Unfortunately - i do not have that many controllers, or jama
myself to play with and try that kind of stuff out on, I only have 3
controllers, one being the Cybermaster which cannot communicate with
the other two (afaik), and the other being a spybotics with fixed
motors and sensors.

The communication protocol need not be too complex, with a shared bus,
and simple reduced commands between sections. However - I suppose bus
ownership (the bus simply being a bundle of Lego fibre-optic between
all the controllers) could be an issue, and commands probably need to
be an address/operation pair, as are responses. The addresses can be
hard-coded, since each controllers program would be somewhat
different.

Anyway, I am rambling, but while I really like Beesh, I am still
fascinated by the possiblities of Jama.

Danny
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