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- From: nivek@cs.cmu.edu (Kevin Dowling)
- Newsgroups: comp.robotics.misc,comp.robotics.research,comp.answers,news.answers
- Subject: comp.robotics.* Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) part 3/5
- Supersedes: <c.r.part3_834902700@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu>
- Followup-To: poster
- Date: 16 Sep 1996 05:25:27 GMT
- Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, School of Computer Science
- Lines: 4431
- Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu
- Message-ID: <c.r.part3_842851502@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu>
- Reply-To: nivek@ri.cmu.edu
- NNTP-Posting-Host: mattock.frc.ri.cmu.edu
- Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions
- and their answers about robotics. It should be read by anyone
- who wishes to post to the comp.robotics newsgroups
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.robotics.misc:8658 comp.robotics.research:742 comp.answers:21142 news.answers:81710
-
- Archive-name: robotics-faq/part3
- Last Modified: Mon Sep 16 01:00:38 EDT 1996
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- This FAQ was compiled and written by Kevin Dowling with numerous
- contributions by readers of comp.robotics. Acknowledgements are listed
- at the end of the FAQ.
-
- This post, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1995 Kevin
- Dowling. Distribution through any means other than regular Usenet
- channels must be by permission. The removal of this notice is
- forbidden.
-
- This FAQ may be posted to any USENET newsgroup, on-line service, or
- BBS as long as it or the section is posted in its entirety and
- includes this copyright statement. This FAQ may not be distributed for
- financial gain. This FAQ may not be included in commercial collections
- or compilations without express permission from the author.
-
- Please send changes, additions, suggestions and questions to:
- Kevin Dowling tel: 412.268.8830
- Robotics Institute fax: 412.268.5895
- Carnegie Mellon University net: [2]nivek@cmu.edu
- Pittsburgh, PA 15213 url: [3]http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~nivek
-
- This FAQ may be referenced as:
-
- Dowling, Kevin (1995) "Robotics: comp.robotics Frequently Asked
- Questions" Available as a hypertext document at
- http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/robotics-faq. 90+ pages.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Last-Modified: Thu Dec 7 16:40:11 1995
-
-
- [4]Kevin Dowling <nivek@cmu.edu>
-
- References
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [6] What University Programs are there?
-
-
- [3][6.1] Graduate Programs in Robotics
- [4][6.2] Student Who's Who
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Any good four-year school undoubtedly offers robotics courses within
- engineering programs. Departments of mechanical and electrical
- engineering and computer science are all good candidates for
- coursework in Robotics. However, a number of schools have established
- track records with a focus on robotics and those are listed here.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [6.1] Graduate Programs in Robotics
-
- This list is grouped by countries including the United States,
- Australia, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland. Many
- European and Asian universities are not represented and should be.
- Please drop me a line if you have information on those that should be
- included.
-
- [5]Australia
-
- [6]University of Western Australia
-
- [7]Canada
-
- [8]McGill University
- [9]University of Alberta
-
- [10]Finland
-
- [11]Helsinki University of Technology
-
- [12]France
-
- [13]University of Paris
-
- [14]Japan
-
- [15]Waseda University
-
- [16]Sweden
-
- [17]Lulea University of Technology
-
- [18]Switzerland
-
- [19]Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
-
- [20]United Kingdom
-
- [21]Bristol University
- [22]Edinburgh University (UK)
- [23]Hull University, UK
- [24]Reading University, UK
- [25]Salford University
- [26]University of Birmingham
- [27]University of Essex (UK)
- [28]University of Manchester
- [29]University of Oxford
- [30]University of Surrey
- [31]University of the West of England at Bristol, U.K.
-
- [32]United States
-
- [33]Boston University
- [34]Brandeis University
- [35]California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
- [36]Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
- [37]Colorado School of Mines
- [38]Clemson University
- [39]Cornell
- [40]Georgia Institute of Technology
- [41]Harvard
- [42]Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- [43]New York University (NYU)
- [44]North Carolina State University
- [45]Northeastern University
- [46]Purdue
- [47]Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
- [48]Stanford University
- [49]University of California at Berkeley
- [50]University of Iowa
- [51]University of Kansas
- [52]University of Kentucky
- [53]University of Massachusetts
- [54]University of Michigan
- [55]University of Pennsylvania.
- [56]University of Rochester
- [57]University of Southern California (USC)
- [58]University of Maryland
- [59]The University of Texas at Arlington
- [60]University of Wisconsin-Madison
- [61]University of Utah
- [62]Yale University
- [63]Wilkes University
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Australia
-
- University of Western Australia
-
- Some neat telerobotic work can be found at
- [64]http://telerobot.mech.uwa.edu.au
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Canada
-
- McGill University
-
-
- Center for Intelligent Machines
- McGill University
- McConnell Engineering Building, Room 420
- 3480 University Street
- Montreal, Que, Canada H3A 2A7
-
-
- School of Computer Science
- McGill University
- McConnell Engineering Building, Room 420
- 3480 University Street
- Montreal, Que, Canada H3A 2A7
-
- There is a web page and ftp archive at [65]http://www.cim.mcgill.ca
-
- The McGill Centre for Intelligent Machines, CIM, was founded in 1985
- to provide researchers in robotics, computer vision, speech
- recognition, and systems and control with a context in which to pursue
- their common goal: the understanding and creation of systems which
- exhibit intelligent behaviour. The three main research foci are
- perception, robotics and control theory. The Centre now includes
- faculty members and graduate students from five departments:
- Electrical, Mechanical, Biomedical, and Mining and Metallurgical
- Engineering, and the School of Computer Science.
-
- The center itself does not have a degree program, rather students
- enroll in one of the associated departments and gain access by being
- supervised a faculty member who is also a CIM member. There are
- research programs directly related to computer vision, robot
- mechanical systems, walking machines, mobile robotics, etc.
-
- CIM Members: J. Angeles, P.R. Belanger, M. Buehler, P.E. Caines, L.
- Daneshmend, R. De Mori, G. Dudek, F. Ferrie, J. Hollerbach, V.
- Hayward, D. Levanony, M.D. Levine, A. Malowany, H. Michalska, J. Owen,
- E. Papadopoulos, M. Verma, S. Whitesides, G. Zames, P.J.
- Zsombor-Murray, S.W. Zucker
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Alberta
-
-
- Edmontom, Alberta
- Canada T6H 2H1
-
- _Center for Machine Intelligence and Robotics_
- Robotics Research Laboratory, Department of Computing Science _Faculty_
- Ron Kube
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Finland
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Helsinki University of Technology
-
- Research includes outdoor walking machines, all-terrain autonomous
- vehicle and many other projects. See [66]Automation Home Page and
- [67]Research Home page
-
- France
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Paris
-
- INRIA (Nice) recently started a Phd program in Robotics.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Japan
-
- [68]Waseda University Tokyo, Japan
-
- Humanoid Research Laboratory (HUREL), Advanced Research Center for
- Science and Engineering
-
- [69]Humanoid Project
-
- Sweden
-
- Lulea University of Technology
-
- _Department of Robotics and Automation_
-
-
- S-971 87 LULEE
-
- WWW: [70]http://www.sm.luth.se/csee/er/sm-roa/
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Switzerland
-
- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
-
- _The Institute of Robotics_
- ETH offers a Postgrad diploma in Mechatronics.
-
- The Institute of Robotics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
- (ETH) constitutes about 40 members of staff (including Ph.D.
- students). The main research theme is Intelligent Interactive
- Mechines. That is to say developing intelligent robots that in
- cooperation with man solves difficult tasks. The institute takes its
- students from the departments of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical
- Engineering and Computer Science. Robotics lectures and project work
- is offered to undergraduate students. In addition there is the
- "Nachdiplom" in mechatronics (somewhere near a M.Sc.) where robotics
- is a central theme. For further details on the "Nachdiplom" see below.
- Finally there are about 30 Ph.D. students curently registered working
- on a variety of themes and projects. Institute facilities include:
- several different robot arms including the in house developed modular
- robot arm (MODRO), mobile vehicles including the in house developed
- modular mobile robot, walking machines, supercomputing facilities,
- dedicated vision and signal processing hardware, etc.
-
- The head of the group is Professor G. Schweitzer.
-
-
- Institute of Robotics
- ETH-Center, LEO,
- 8092 Zurich
- Switzerland
- tel: (01) 256 35 84 (secretary)
- fax: (01) 252 02 76.
-
- The "Nachdiplom" in mechatronics runs over two semesters plus three
- months project/thesis work. The lectures covers: robotics, mobile
- robotics, micro robots, computer based kinematics and dynamics of
- multibody systems, control theory, magnetic bearings, real time
- software techniques, information processing with neural networks,
- computer vision, and artificial intelligence. The fees are 2400,-
- Swiss Franks, founding is available.
-
- _Contact:_
-
-
- H.-K. Scherrer
- Mechatronics postgraduate course
- ETH-Centre, LEO B3
- 8092 Zurich
- Switzerland
- net:
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- United Kingdom
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Edinburgh University
-
-
- Department of Artificial Intelligence,
- 5, Forrest Hill,
- Edinburgh
- EH1 2QL
- Scotland
-
- The Department of Artificial Intelligence has robot and vision groups
- within it.
-
- Main interests of the robotics group include:
- * behaviour-based control of robots (both mobiles and arms)
- * hybrid control -- symbolic planning and behaviour-based actions
- * learning, both reinforcement and other types implementations of
- biological systems eg cricket ears; vertebrate learning models
- * active vision
- * real-time control
- * long survival times
- * direct-drive arm control
-
- As well as PhDs by research, the Department offers a one-year, taught,
- modular, Masters course in Information Technology for Knowledge-based
- Systems where one of the possible specialisations is in robotics and
- vision. This course is designed for people without specific AI
- background. One module involves the Masters students building and
- programming their own robot out of Lego and supplied electronics.
- Another module gives hands-on experience with a simple robot arm.
-
- Contact the Admissions Secretary Judith Gordon for information about
- courses.
-
- _Principal Researchers_
- * John Hallam
- autonomous mobiles and survival
- * Bob Fisher
- vision
- * Chris Malcolm
- assembly robotics and hybrid systems
- * Gillian Hayes
- active vision and biological control
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Birmingham
-
- Birmingham, England
-
- See [71]School of Computer Science
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Essex
-
- _Brooker Laboratory for Intelligent Embedded Systems_
-
-
- email: robots@essex.ac.uk
-
-
- Main interests of the laboratory:
- * Behavior-Based Architectures (software and hardware)
- * Active Vision
- * Collaborative AI (ie multiple agents)
- * Fuzzy and Neural Systems
- * Virtual Systems (eg robot simulation and telepresence)
- * Planning & Learning
- * Reliable Robots (ie for inaccessible or hazardous environments)
-
- _Principal Researchers:_
- * Victor Callaghan
- * Paul Chernett
- behavior-based architectures, virtual systems and active vision
- * Libor Spacek
- active vision and face recognition
- * Jim Doran
- Collaborative AI
- * Chang Wang
- fuzzy and neural systems
- * Edward Tsang & Sam Steel
- planning & learning
- * John Standeven &
- * Martin Colley
- reliable robotic systems
-
- In addition to PhDs by research, there is a one-year, taught, Masters
- course in Computer Science where it is possible to undertake robotics,
- AI or vision.
-
- Contact csdept@essex.ac.uk for further details of courses or
- robots@essex.ac.uk for information on research. In addition some
- useful information on the laboratory can be obtained at
- [72]ftp://ftp.essex.ac.uk/pub/robots/SXlab.ps.Z
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of the West of England at Bristol
-
- (used to be Bristol Polytechnic)
- Undergraduate Robotics is taught as part of undergraduate programs in
- engineering courses and as part of a real time computing course. The
- engineering department has in its teaching labs Puma, Adept, IBM,
- Cincinatti-Milacron and Funac robots.
-
- _Intelligent Autonomous Systems group_
- * Yichuang Jin, Will Wray
- Neural net control of manipulators, especially stability-based
- adaptive control. Comparative modelling of neurocontroller design
- for robotics.
- * Lawrence Bull, Owen Holland, Chris Melhuish
- Behaviour-based mobile robots, collective behaviour, reinforcement
- learning and genetic algorithms.
-
- _Intelligent Flexible Assembly Technology (InFACT/ALASCA Group):_
- Eureka/FAMOS Projects (EC colaborative project - academic and
- Industry) The group has a large gantry based robot designed and built
- by the group.
- * Farid Dialami, Alan Redford
- Advanced Large scale flexible assembly (Peugot cars etc), generic
- tooling.
- * David Eastlake (hardware), Mike Morgan(software)
- Transputer based robot control of co-operating manipulators.
- Email:
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Bristol University
-
- _Faculty_
- Mr Khodlebandelhoo
- * Bi arm research
- * Path planning for redundant robots
- * Wall climbing robots
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Hull University
-
- _Faculty_
- Prof Alan Pugh
- * Garment Manufacturing
- * Arm/controller design
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Manchester
-
- _Department of Computer Science_
- The web page below describes research in mobile robotics in the areas
- of autonomous competence acquisition, learning by tuition and
- navigation. Papers are also available at this site.
-
- [73]http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/robotics
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Oxford
-
- _Robotics Research Group_
- The Robotics Group currently comprises about seventy academics,
- postdoctoral research staff, overseas visitors, and graduate students.
- A broad range of topics in advanced robotics is studied in
- collaboration with industry and government establishments throughout
- Europe.
-
- * Robot Design and Control
- A number of projects are concerned with the design and control of
- compliant robot arms.
- * Parallel Architectures
- Real-time sensor-based control of systems such as robot vehicles
- is a topic of increasing interest. For low bandwidth sensors such
- sonar, the emphasis is on Transputer architectures. For high
- bandwidth sensors such as vision, hybrid SIMD/MIMD architectures
- are being developed. A rapidly growing effort is concerned with
- the design, implementation, and application of neural networks.
- Digital and hybrid digital/analog chips have been designed and are
- being fabricated. Algorithms and TTL circuits have been
- constructed for text-to-speech synthesis.
- * Vision and Active Vision
- The theory and applications of vision accounts for approximately
- one-third of the laboratory's effort. Current projects include
- edge detection and texture segmentation and the computation of
- visual motion by a parallel algorithm that estimates the optic
- flow field.
- * Sensors and Sensor Integration
- Includes laser rangefinder development in addition to analog and
- digital sonar sensors, as well as infrared rangers, have been
- developed for the AGV project (below).
- * Autonomous Guided Vehicles
- Work on a research prototype of a fielded industrial AGV cuts
- across many of the separate themes of the laboratory's work. The
- goal of the initial project is to equip the AGV with sonar,
- infrared, laser ranging, trinocular stereo, and model-based vision
- sensors to enable it to avoid unexpected obstacles and to locate
- pallets.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Reading University
-
- _Faculty_
- * Prof Kevin Warwick
- Using neural nets in robotics and novel control algorithms.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Salford University
-
- [74]http://WWW.salford.ac.uk/ or robotics work more directly at:
- [75]http://WWW.salford.ac.uk/docs/depts/eee/homepage.html _Faculty_
- * Dr D.P.Barnes, Dept. Of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
- Mobile Robots Research Group.
- Autonomous mobile robot system with a behaviour-based architecture
- are designed and built with the intent to study the processes of
- cooperation with and without communication. Such an approach has
- led us up a number of paths with present work in behaviour
- synthesis and evolutionary robotics. Expertise in: Robotics,
- Sensors, Communication, Connectionist Systems, Genetic Algorithms
- and Genetic Programming. Possible studies in PhD and MSc work and
- courses at undergraduate level.
- * Ruth Aylett, Information Technology Institute
- Robot planning systems, multi-agent systems, robot architectures,
- hybrid behavioural/symbolic robots
- * Dr D.Caldwell, Dept Of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
- Multi-Functional Tactile Sensing and Feedback (Tele-taction)
- Tele-presence of an operator with a full mobile robot with two
- manipulator arms, stereo vision and sound. Tactile sensing
- datagloves are used to control the manipulators and video camera
- is used to move head. Expertise: Manipulators, Sensors,
-
- Tele-presence. Possible studies at PhD and MSc and courses at
- undergraduate level.
-
- Dr Francis Nagy
- Speech Control of a Puma-560, Control of an 'Inverted Pendulum',
- Miniature tactile sensors _Advanced Robotics Research Centre_
- * Ultrasonic wrist sensor for collision avoidance
- * Controller design
- * Stereo Vision
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Surrey
-
- Mechatronic Systems and Robotics Research Group _Faculty_
- * Prof G A Parker (g.parker@surrey.ac.uk)
- * John Pretlove (j.pretlove@surrey.ac.uk)
- Primary Areas of Research activity:
- * 3D co-ordinate tracking system for robot metrology
- * Neural networks and expert systems for vision and inspection
- * Active stereo vision for real-time robot arm guidance
- * Design of controllable stereo vision systems.
- * Open architecture Puma controller
- * Mobile robots
- * We also offer MSc courses and undergraduate courses in automation,
- * control, mechanical engineering and CIM.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- United States
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Boston University
-
- _Dept. of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering_
- _People_
-
-
- John Baillieul
- Control of Mechanical Systems and Mathematical System Theory
-
- Pierre Dupont
- Robot Kinematics and Dynamics, Friction Compensation in
- Robotics.
-
- Ann Stokes
- Theoretical Dynamics and Control
-
- Matt Berkemeier
- Legged Robots, Robot Control
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Brandeis University>
-
- Waltham, MA
-
- Brandeis has a program in autonomous agents, focusing on multi--agent
- and multi--robot systems and machine learning, headed by Maja Mataric
- For details on research directions and a photo of the available robot
- herd see: http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/dept/faculty/mataric
-
- For graduate admission information see:
- http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/dept/grad-info/application.html
-
- To get more information about the Volen Center for Complex Systems,
- about the Computer Science Department, and about other faculty, see:
- http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/dept. For more information about the
- cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience programs at Brandeis see:
- http://fechner.ccs.brandeis.edu/cogsci.html
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- California Institute of Technology
-
- Pasadena, CA
-
- Joel Burdick
- serpentine manipulation, control
-
- Richard Murray
- control of nonholonomic systems, grasping
-
- Pietro Perona
- biological and machine vision
-
- For more detailed information on robotics research at Caltech see
- [76]http://robby.caltech.edu/
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
-
- Graduate program contact:
-
-
- Graduate Admissions Coordinator
- The Robotics Institute
- Carnegie Mellon University
- 5000 Forbes Avenue
- Pittsburgh, PA 15213
-
- [77]The Robotics Institute is the world's largest academic
- organization devoted to robotics. The Robotics Institute (RI) has over
- 45 full-time faculty, over 100 technical staff, 150 graduate students
- (90 in the RI program) and 25 visitors and post-docs. The Robotics
- Institute is part of CMU's [78]School of Computer Science
-
- The Robotics Institute also offers a [79]Robotics PhD and students
- from other programs (e.g. engineering and computer science) also do
- research in the Institute. Institute development spans the spectrum
- from fundamental and basic research to development and integration of
- complete systems for specific applications. Research includes many
- aspects of mobile robots, computer integrated manufacturing, rapid
- prototyping, sensors, vision, navigation, learning and architectures.
- The RI PhD program is comprised of a set of qualifiers and a program
- of research leading to a thesis and the degree.
-
- The many centers and laboratories include the [80]National Robotics
- Engineering Consortium (NREC), a facility and organization devoted to
- technology transfer between laboratory and companies.
-
- Facilities include about a dozen mobile systems with more under design
- and construction. Facilities include over 2000m^2 of offices and over
- 15,000 m^2 of laboratory and highbay space. Facilities available
- include many mobile robots, manipulator systems and lots of computer
- cycles/person.
-
- _People_
-
- Takeo Kanade
- Vision and Autonomous Systems Center
-
- Pradeep Khosla
- Advanced Manipulator Laboartory
-
- Matt Mason
- Manipulation Laboratory
-
- Tom Mitchell
- Learning Robots Lab
-
- Hans Moravec
- Mobile Robots Lab
-
- Mel Seigel
- Sensors Laboratory (non vision)
-
- Red Whittaker
- Field Robotics Center
-
- and many others.....
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Case Western Reserve University
-
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics
-
-
- Glennan Building
- 10900 Euclid Avenue
- Cleveland, Ohio 44106
- Phone (216)368-4088
- Fax (216)368-2668
-
- See [81]file://alpha.ces.cwru.edu/pub/agents/home.html
-
- Electrical engineering at CWRU is a broad, dynamic field offering a
- great diversity of career opportunities in areas such as microwave and
- rf communications, microprocessor-based digital control systems,
- robotics, solid state microelectronics, signal processing, and
- intelligent systems. The Department of Electrical Engineering and
- Applied Physics offers Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Master of
- Science in Electrical Engineering, Master of Engineering, and Doctor
- of Philosophy degree programs which provide preparation for work in
- these areas. The department offers a minor in electrical engineering
- for bachelor's degree students in other engineering disciplines as
- well as a minor in electronics for bachelor's degree students enrolled
- in the College of Arts and Science.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Colorado School of Mines
-
- _Mobile Robotics/Machine Perception Laboratory_
- _Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences_
- The Colorado School of Mines is a state university, internationally
- renowned in the energy, materials, and resource fields, attracting
- outstanding students in a broad range of science and engineering
- disciplines. The School of Mines is strongly committed to quality
- teaching and research. CSM provides an attractive campus environment,
- a collegial atmosphere, relatively small size (3000 students, about
- 30% in graduate programs), and an ideal location in the foothills of
- the Rocky Mountains 13 miles from downtown Denver and an hour from
- most ski areas.
-
- The Dept. of Mathematical and Computer Sciences offers BS, MS, and PhD
- degrees under the department title. With a faculty of 18 tenured and
- tenure track members, the department annually receives roughly a
- million dollars in grants; 116 undergraduate students and 70 graduate
- students are currently enrolled in ou r degree programs. The computer
- science group within the department has a strong focus in AI (symbolic
- and neural nets) and database and parallel processing syst ems. The
- Mobile Robotics/Machine Perception Laboratory is a facility devoted to
- basic and interdisciplinary research, technology transfer, and
- hands-on education in artificial intelligence through robotics.
- Research and technology transfer efforts concentrate on the reduction
- of human risk in hazardous situations, stewardship of the environment,
- and/or improvement of the quality of life throug h better
- manufacturing processes. Research in the MR/MP laboratory is supported
- by NSF, ARPA, NASA, and local industries.
-
- For more information, please send email to Dr. Robin R. Murphy,
- rmurphy@mines.colorado.edu. Include a brief summary of your
- educational (with GPA) and work experience, what your research
- interests are, and GRE scores.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Clemson University (CU)
-
- Graduate program contact:
-
-
- Robotics and Mechatronics (RAM) Laboratory
- Center for Advanced Manufacturing
- Clemson University
- Clemson SC 29634
- Lab Phone: 864-656-6988
- Fax: 864-656-7220
-
- For more information browse our web site at
- [82]http://crb.eng.clemson.edu or contact:
- Dr. Darren Dawson (ECE) [83]ddawson@eng.clemson.edu
- Tel: (864) 656-5924
- Fax: (864) 656-7220
- [84]http://crb.eng.clemson. edu/advisor/dawson.htm
- Dr. Chris Rahn (ME) [85]cdrahn@eng.clemson.edu
- Tel: (864) 656-5261
- Fax: (864) 656-4435
- [86]http://www.eng.clemson .edu/~cdrahn/resume.html
-
- Summary of Laboratory Activities
-
- * Research and Development
- * Education
- * Technology Transfer
- * Classroom/Laboratory Workshops
- * Faculty/Student Summer Interns
-
- Electrical and Computer Engineering RAM Personnel
-
- * Darren Dawson, Professor
- * John Luh, McQueen Quattlebaum Professor
-
- Mechanical Engineering RAM Personnel
-
- * Chris Rahn, Assistant Professor
- * Frank Paul, McQueen Quattlebaum Professor
-
- Approximately 25 Ph.D and Masters Thesis Students from both ECE and ME
- departments.
-
- RAM Research Facilities
-
- * Robotics Lab: Seven Robot Stations Including a Dual Robot Arm
- Workcell and two Direct Drive Robot Manipulators
- * Computational Lab: Cluster of Personal Computers and Workstations
- * Union Camp Lab: Motor Drive Equipment, a Magnetic Bearing, and
- Real Time Workstations
- * Environmental Restoration Lab: Virtual Reality Based Equipment and
- Software
- * Rapid Isothermal Processing Lab: Three Chemical Vapor Deposition
- Testbeds
- * Square D Lab: Three Vibration Control Testbeds
-
- RAM Research Thrust Areas
-
- * Advanced Computer-Based Software Interfaces and Position/force
- Control Systems for Robot Manipulator Systems
- * Dynamic Modeling Techniques and Tension Controllers for High Speed
- Transport of Fibers and Webs
- * High Precision Position Controllers for Electric Motors and
- Magnetic Bearings
- * Control Algorithms for Payload Swing Reduction for Overhead Cranes
- * Vibration Control Techniques for Flexible Beams and Cables
- * Closed-Loop Modeling, Control, Measurement, Techniques for
- Semiconductor Manufacturing (Chemical Vapor Deposition)
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Cornell
-
- Ithaca, NY Mechanical Engineering Bruce Donald
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Georgia Institute of Technology
-
- _Atlanta, GA_
- _Georgia Institute of Technology Robotics Activities_
- See also: [87]MRLHome.html Application study areas include:
- * Servo control and low level coordination
- * Machine intelligence and high level control
- * Design, sensors and actuators
- * Human/machine interface
-
- Robot applications are in areas such as manufacturing {K. Lee} poultry
- processing {W. Daley, G. McMurray, J.C. Thompson} and nuclear waste
- inspection and cleanup {R. Arkin, W. Book, S. Dickerson, T. Collins,
- A. Henshaw} are underway.
-
- Several robotics researchers are regularly involved in a student
- aerial robot design competition in which concurrent engineering
- concepts are being used to tailor the characteristics of the
- system.{D. Schrage} This competition, held at Georgia Tech and
- sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems, has been
- won by Georgia Tech entries for two of the three years it has been
- held.
-
- Current research topics and researchers:
- * Long arm control
- W. Book
- * Parallel actuation of manipulators
- K. Lee
- * 3DOF direct drive actuator
- K. Lee
- * Special purpose end-effectors
- R. Bohlander, H. Lipk
- * Parallel processing computer architectures for robot sensing and
- control.
- R. Bohlander, C. Alford, T. Collins, A. Henshaw
- * Laser generated ultrasound to sense structure of materials
- C. Ume
- * Gallium arsenide based rad-hard electronics.
- W. Hunt
- * Autonmous vehicles positioning
- S. Dickerson
- * Collision avoidance techniques
- R. Arkin, W. Book
- * Flexible arm control
- W. Book
- * Two arm coordinated motion.
- Alford, Vachtsevanos
- * Advanced feedback control, learning control, bounded uncertainty
- approach, applications to rigid and flexible manipulators, force
- control .
- N Sadegh, Y Chen, W. Book
- * Architectures, Framework for reactive control and hierarchical
- planning, vision feedback, fuzzy logic application
- Arkin, D. Lawton, G Vachtsevanos
- * Human Computer Interaction
- M Kelly, H. Lipkin
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Harvard
-
- Roger Brockett
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Iowa State University
-
- _Iowa Center for Emerging Manufacturing Technology_
- _Ames, Iowa 50011_
- See also: [88]http:// www.vislab.iastate.edu
-
- Iowa State University has one of the better visualization labs in the
- country. The lab consists of mainly mechanical engineers and computer
- scientists.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
-
- Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science both have strong robotics
- efforts. Asada, Slotine, Brooks, Raibert and others are known and
- respected for their work in direct-drive arm, control techniques,
- architectures, running machines etc.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- New York University (NYU)
-
- NYU's Department of Computer Science home page is at:
- [89]http://cs.nyu.edu/ _Degrees:_
- We offer Ph.D. and MS in computer science. Ph.D. students may work
- thesis research in robotics. MS students may work on a thesis (as a
- substitute for one course). All graduate students are eligible to
- enroll in Advaned Laboratory and work on a project in robotics.
- Qualified undergraduates may take Independent Study.
-
- The Department of Computer Science offers graduate and undergraduate
- courses in robotics, computer vision, AI and neural computation. There
- is also a weekly robotics colloquim For admissions information,
- contact karmen@cs.nyu.edu
-
- _Research (1994):_
- * Multimedia (Schwartz, Wallace, Perlin) See Below
- * 3-D target recognition (Hummel)
- * Grasp Metrics (Mishra, Yap)
- * Reactive Robotics (Mishra)
- * Wavelets and Compression (Mallat)
- * Human Body Animation (Perlin)
-
- _Faculty:_
- * Ken Perlin (Computer Graphics, Multimedia)
- * Jacob T. Schwartz (Robotics, Multimedia, Computational Logic)
- * Bud Mishra (Robotics, Theory of Computation)
- * Chee Yap (Robotics, Computational Geometry)
- * Stephane Mallat (Wavelets, Computer Vision)
- * Robert Hummel (Computer Vision)
-
- _What is Multimedia Robotics?_
- "Multimedia Robotics" is a new area of computer science concerning new
- markets for robotics technology, emphasizing the emerging areas of
- virtual reality and telepresence, animation and entertainment, and
- bioscience material processing.
-
- Wrench Displays
- Force and Torque input/output devices for user interfaces, also
- called "haptic displays".
-
- Bioscience Applications
- Microrobots in DNA micromanipulation,
- Wrench displays for surgical VR training applications,
- Microsurgical instruments
-
- Advanced actuators for VR and Multimedia
- Scaling theory and dynamics of piezeoelectrics, shape memory
- metals, electromagnetics and other new actuator technolgies.
-
- Telepresence
- Robotics and the WWW, Video Telephony, Telesensuality
-
- Research underway at NYU represents each of these four areas.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- North Carolina State Univerisity
-
- Raleigh, NC Professor Ren Luo tel: 919.515.5199
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [90]Northeastern University> Boston, MA 02115 The Marine Systems
- Engineering Laboratory (MSEL) of Northeastern University is pleased to
- announce its presence on the World Wide Web at [91]MSEL Home Page MSEL
- is a small, internationally-known lab that focuses on research in
- ocean engineering, in particular autonomous underwater vehicles
- (AUVs). AUVs are unmanned, untethered submersibles that are capable of
- carrying out missions autonomously. MSEL developed one of the first
- AUVs, EAVE-EAST. Currently, the EAVE AUVs are in their third
- generation, the EAVE-III vehicles. The lab maintains two EAVE-III
- vehicles for both single-agent and multiagent research. The lab is
- also developing a long-range AUV (LRAUV) for extended full-ocean depth
- missions. We have active research programs focusing on intelligent AUV
- control, AUV control architectural issues, long-range AUV development
- for ocean science applications, and multiple AUV systems and
- cooperative distributed problem solving.
-
- [92]Purdue University
-
- West Lafayette, Indiana 47907
-
- Here's a pointer to Purdue's [93]Robot Vision Lab
-
- _Faculty_
- * [94]Avi Kak: Vision and mobile robots
- * Antti Koivo: Manipulation
- * Mirek Skibiniewski: Construction Robotics
- * Anthony Maciejewski: Kinematics of redundant robotic arms,
- computer graphic techniques for animation, visualization
- * George Lee: Robot Control, Fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks
- * Akio Kosaka Vision-based navigation for mobile robots
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
-
- _Faculty_
- * George Saridis
- * Arthur Sanderson
- * Jon Wenn
-
- About 20 PhD and 30 MS students. Path planning and multi-arm control
- are current focus.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Stanford University
-
-
- Palo Alto, CA
-
- [95]http://www.stanford.edu/
-
- _Mechanical Engineering:_
- * Bernard Roth (kinematics of manipulators)
- * Mark Cutkosky: destrous manipulation and concurrent manufacturing
- * Larry Liefer (rehabilitation, user interfaces)
-
- _CS Department:_
- * Nils Nilsson
- * Mike Genesereth
- * Jean-Claude Latombe (path planning and geometric reasoning)
- * Leo Guibas (geometric reasoning)
- * Tom Binford (vision)
- * Yoav Shoham (agents)
- * Oussama Khatib
-
- _Aerospace Robotics Laboratory:_
- * Bob Cannon
- teleoperation, free flyers, space robotics, flexible manipulators
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of California at Berkeley
-
- _Faculty:_
- _Deparment of EE&CS_
- * Prof. J. Canny
- motion planning
- * Prof. R. Fearing
- tactile sensing, dextrous manipulation
- * Prof. J. Malik
- computer vision
- * Prof. S. Sastry
- multi-fingered hands, control
-
- _Dept. of Optometry/EE&CS_
- * Prof. L. Stark
- telerobotics
-
- _Dept. of Mechanical Engineering_
- * Prof. R. Horowitz
- control of robotic manipulators
- * Prof. H. Kazerooni
- man-robotic systems
- * Prof. M. Tomizuka
- control of robotic manipulators
- * Richard Muller
- micro mechanisms
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Kansas
-
- Space Technology Center (Telerobotics)
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Kentucky
-
- Center for Robotics and Manufacturing Systems (founded 1990)
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Massachusetts
-
- _Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics_
- Computer Science Department
- www: [96]http://piglet.cs.umass.edu:4321/lpr.html
-
- _Faculty:_
-
-
- Rod Grupen
- Robin Popplestone
-
- The lab is equipped with two General Electric P-50 robots, two GE A4s,
- a Zebra Zero, and a Denning mobile platform. In addition, the P-50s
- are fitted with a 4-fingered Utah/MIT and a 3-fingered Stanford/JPL*
- dexterous hand, respectively. The lab includes VxWorks distributed VME
- controllers and an experimental real-time kernel (Spring kernel).
- Research conducted at the lab includes:
-
- * controller composition for coordinating multiple robots
- * grasp planning
- * geometric reasoning for robust assembly & fine motion control
- * learning for admittance control & path optimization
- * biological models of motor planning
- * proprioceptive, tactile, & visual model acquisition
- * trajectory planning, coarse reaching
- * state-space decomposition
-
- The laboratory also engages in collaborative research with the
- Computer Vision (A. Hanson, E. Riseman, directors) and Adaptive
- Networks (A. Barto, director) groups within the department.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Michigan
-
-
- Ann Arbor, MI
-
- Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are
- relevant to robotics research. Research includes includes machine
- vision, systems and control, multiple cooperating agents (arms and
- mobile), and application of SOAR to robots (arms and mobile) in
- conjunction with SOAR groups at CMU and elsewhere.
-
- Umich robotics work can be found at [97]Umich Robotics _Contacts_
- * Johann Borenstein [98]johann_borenstein@um.cc.umich.edu
- * Yorem Koren [99]yorem_koren@um.cc.umich.edu
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Pennsylvania.
-
- UPenn offers Masters and PhD programs in Robotics and Robotics related
- fields of study. These programs are offered through the Departments of
- Computer and Information Science, Systems Engineering, and Mechanical
- Engineering and Applied Mechanics. The bulk of the robotics research
- is conducted in the inter-disciplinary General Robotics and Active
- Sensory Perception (GRASP) laboratory. [100]GRASP Web SiteActive areas
- of research are Telerobotics, Multiple Arm Control, Robotic Vision,
- Learning Control, Multi-agent Robotics and Mechanical Design.
-
- _Faculty_
- * R. Bajcsy
- * R.P. Paul
- * Vijay Kumar
- * Max Mintz
- * Jim Ostrowski
- * Eero Simoncelli
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Rochester
-
- _Computer Science Department_
- Well known Computer Vision group. See the following web pages:
- [101]http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag/PercAct/dvfb.html
- [102]http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Southern California (USC)
-
- USC has a new MS Program called: Master of Science in Computer Science
- with specialization in Robotics & Automation
-
- This Master of Science program prepares graduates for the future of
- manufacturing engineering. Emphasized areas include manufacturing as
- an international enterprise, and information engineering, with
- concentrations in specialties including multimedia, CAD for rapid
- prototyping, electronic packaging, magnetic recording, and
- manufacturing management. Classroom teaching is transferred into a
- practical format and weekly seminars. A nine month internship is a key
- part of the practical track for this Program. Students have been
- placed in internships with companies such as Sony, Hewlett-Packard,
- Qualcomm, Alcoa Electronic Packaging, Kyocera America, Maxtor
- Corporation, Spectragraphics, StorageTek, and Valor Electronics.
-
- Financial aid is available. Preferential assistance will be given to
- displaced defense industry professionals.
-
- For information on applying to the Program, or accessing an intern for
- your company, e-mail [103]PAM@ece.ucsd.edu or contact Vivian Shinmoto
- at 619-534-7398. MS program seeks to prepare students for a career in
- the application of Computer Science to design, manufacturing, and
- robotics. It also serves as an introduction to this area for students
- who wish to pursue advanced studies and research leading to a Ph.D. A
- major goal is to produce a steady stream of graduates who are
- qualified to tackle challenging problems in the development of
- software for CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing) and
- robotics.
-
- There is a strong focus on designing and building within the program
- Exposure to the practical aspects (and difficulties) of robotics and
- automation is strongly encouraged through laboratory work, and an
- optional thesis, conducted in collaboration with industry and research
- laboratories.
-
- See also [104]http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/robotics/home.html
-
- For additional information, a complete set of degree requirements, and
- application materials, contact our Student Coordinator:
-
-
- Ms. Amy Yung
- Computer Science Department
- University of Southern California
- Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781
- tel: 213.740.4499
- net:
-
- _Faculty_
- * George Bekey
- Assembly planning, design for assembly, neural nets for robot
- control, autonomous robots.
- * Ken Goldberg
- Motion planning, grasping, machine learning.
- * Sukhan Lee
- Assembly planning, sensor-based manipulation.
- * Gerard Medioni
- Computer vision.
- * Ramakant Nevatia
- Computer vision.
- * Keith Price
- Computer vision.
- * Aristides Requicha
- Geometric modeling, geometric uncertainty, planning for
- manufacture and inspection
-
- About twenty other faculty member associated with the Institute for
- Robotics and Intelligent Systems and many others associated with USC's
- Information Sciences Institute (ISI).
-
- A Brochure can be obtained from:
-
-
- Ken Goldberg, Asst Professor
- IRIS, Dept of Computer Science
- Powell Hall Room 204
- University of Southern California
- Los Angeles, CA 90089-0273
- Internet: goldberg@usc.edu
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Maryland
-
- _Faculty_
- * Dave Akin
- Director, Space Systems Laboratory.
-
- Facilties include a large neutral bouyancy tank, and a number of
- free-flying teleoperators used underwater in the NBT. Much
- teleoperations research. Dave has flown shuttle experiments and his
- research is in the areas of teleoperation, control, man-machine
- interaction and is one of the very few in the robotics community to
- fly hardware in space.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Notre Dame
-
-
- South Bend, Indiana
-
- The Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the
- University of Notre Dame offers several courses which are directed
- toward an fundamental understanding of the mechanics, kinematics,
- estimation and control theory, and computer programming which are
- important considerations in the design of robotic systems. Of special
- interest is a novel approach for achieving robust and precise
- vision-based control of manipulators - "camera-space manipulation".
- Doctoral recipients >from this program are teaching and doing research
- in tenure-track positions at US universities. For more information,
- see, on the World-Wide Web: [105]Skaar Home.html [106]AME
- HomePage.html or contact Prof. Steven B. Skaar, Director of Graduate
- Studies, [107]steven.b.skaar.1@ND.EDU Research in Vision-Based
- Robotics Using Estimation
-
- The multimedia monograph discusses recent experimental and theoretical
- work conducted at the University of Notre Dame aimed at using methods
- of estimation to achieve accurate, robust and reliable vision-based
- guidance of various kinds of mechanisms, including typical holonomic
- robots, fork-lifts and other vehicles. The monograph is divided into
- two parts: Part 1 discusses the method of "camera-space manipulation"
- and is in the early stages of development. Part 2 discusses
- vision-based navigation of a vehicle. Both parts include several
- QuickTime movie illustrations of existing experiments, and part 2
- includes 3-D animations for illustration of principles.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- The University of Texas at Arlington
-
-
- F.L. Lewis
- Automation and Robotics Research Institute
- University of Texas at Arlington
- 7300 Jack Newell Blvd S
- Ft. Worth, TX 76118
- tel: 817.794.5972
- fax: 817.794.5952
-
- UT Arlington is located in the heart of the Dallas / Ft. Worth
- metroplex. The EE department current has 33 faculty and the CSE
- department has 20 faculty. Participating students will also be able to
- conduct research at the Automation and Robotics Research Institute
- located in Ft. Worth.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
-
- _Mechanical Engineering & Electrical Engineering_
- _Faculty_
- * Roland Chin
- machine vision, pattern recognition
- * Neil Duffie
- teleoperation, autonomous systems, sensors
- * Robert Lorenz
- actuators and sensors, robot control algorithms
- * Vladimir Lumelsky
- motion planning, real-time sensing and navigation
-
- _Computer Science:_
- * Charles Dyer
- machine vision
-
- _Wisconsin Center for Space Robotics and Automation (WCSAR)_
- Interdepartmental NASA center: work is done on various applications of
- robotic systems for space.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- University of Utah
-
-
- Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
- Steve Jacobsen
- Center for Engineering Design
- 3176 MEB
-
- Hands, manipulators, biomedical applications, teleoperation. Micro
- electro-mechanical systems design.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Yale University
-
- There is a broad spectrum of research activities in vision and
- robotics at Yale. The members of this group include faculty from
- Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Psychology, Neuroscience,
- and the Yale Medical School. Active areas of research include machine
- vision, humanand computer object recognition, geometric reasoning,
- mobile robotics, sensor-based manipulation, control of highly dynamic
- nonlinear systems, planning, and learning. There is also a wide
- spectrum of interdisciplinary work integrating robotics and machine
- vision.
-
- _Faculty_
- * James S. Duncan
- Geometric/physical models for analysing biomedical images.
- * Gregory D. Hager
- Sensor-based/task-directed decision-making and planning.
- * David J. Kriegman
- Model-based object recognition, mobile robot navigation.
- * Drew McDermott
- Planning and scheduling reactive behavior, knowledge
- representation, cognitive mapping.
- * Eric Mjolsness
- Neural network approaches to vision and visual memory.
- * Pat Sharpe
- Computational models of hippocampal spatial learning.
- * Michael J. Tarr
- Behavioral and computational approaches to visual cognition.
- * Kenneth Yip Automated reasoning about complex dynamical systems.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Wilkes University
-
-
- Wilkes-Barre, PA
-
- [108]Wilkes University is a small, private university located in
- Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Despite its size, Wilkes is well equipped
- with robotics laboratories and has two faculty ( [109]Dr. C.R. Mirman
- Ph.D. in Robotics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and
- [110]Dr. M.R. Stein, Ph.D. in Robotics from the University of
- Pennsylvania) to sponsor graduate robotics research. Robotics is an
- integral part of the undergraduate Mechanical Engineering curriculum,
- and may be a topic for graduate study in Electrical Engineering.
- Wilkes offers a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS and Ph.D.
- degree in Electrical Engineering. See also their [111]Robotics and
- Automation page.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [6.2] Student Who's Who
-
- An useful additional source of information is the graduate student
- guide compiled by Ron Kube . It is a list of graduate students, their
- universities, and areas of research. The list is updated monthly and
- can be found at
-
- [112]ftp://ftp.cs.ualberta.ca/pub/kube/whosWho and is also available
- on the Web as:
- [113]http://www.sm.luth.se/csee/ra/sm-roa/Robotics/WhoSWho.html
-
- The list is a good starting point for those interested in graduate
- programs and for those looking for individuals with similar research
- interests.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Last-Modified: Fri Aug 30 02:19:04 1996
-
-
- [114]Kevin Dowling <nivek@cmu.edu>
-
- References
-
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- 10. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Finland
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- 65. http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/
- 66. http://www.hut.fi/English/HUT/Units/Faculties/T/Automation/index.htm
- 67. http://www.hut.fi/English/HUT/Units/Faculties/T/Automation/res/research.htm
- 68. http://www.waseda.ac.jp/
- 69. http://www.shirai.info.waseda.ac.jp/humanoid/index.html
- 70. http://www.sm.luth.se/csee/er/sm-roa/
- 71. http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/
- 72. ftp://ftp.essex.ac.uk/pub/robots/SXlab.ps.Z
- 73. http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/robotics
- 74. http://WWW.salford.ac.uk/
- 75. http://WWW.salford.ac.uk/docs/depts/eee/homepage.html
- 76. http://robby.caltech.edu/
- 77. http://www.ri.cmu.edu/
- 78. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/
- 79. http://www.ri.cmu.edu/ri-home/phdprog.html
- 80. http://128.2.197.1/home.html
- 81. file://alpha.ces.cwru.edu/pub/agents/home.html
- 82. http://crb.eng.clemson.edu/
- 83. mailto:ddawson@eng.clemson.edu
- 84. http://crb.eng.clemson.edu/advisor/dawson.htm
- 85. mailto:cdrahn@eng.clemson.edu
- 86. http://www.eng.clemson.edu/~cdrahn/resume.html
- 87. http://www.gatech.edu/aimosaic/robot-lab/MRLHome.html
- 88. http:// www.vislab.iastate.edu/
- 89. http://cs.nyu.edu/
- 90. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/www.northeastern.edu
- 91. http://cdps.cs.unh.edu/MSEL/home.html
- 92. http://www.purdue.edu/
- 93. http://RVL1.ecn.purdue.edu/
-
- 94. http://RVL4.ecn.purdue.edu/~kak/
- 95. http://www.stanford.edu/
- 96. http://piglet.cs.umass.edu:4321/lpr.html
- 97. http://www.engin.umich.edu/~johannb
- 98. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/johann_borenstein@um.cc.umich.edu
- 99. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/yorem_koren@um.cc.umich.edu
- 100. http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~grasp/home.html
- 101. http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag/PercAct/dvfb.html
- 102. http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag
- 103. mailto:PAM@ece.ucsd.edu
- 104. http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/robotics/home.html
- 105. http://www.nd.edu/NDInfo/Research/sskaar/Home.html
- 106. http://www.nd.edu/Departments/EN/AME/HomePage.html
- 107. mailto: steven.b.skaar.1@ND.EDU
- 108. http://www.wilkes.edu/
- 109. http://wilkes1.wilkes.edu/~mme/fachp/CM.html
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [7] What is the State of the Robot Industry?
-
- In general, there was a significant slump in the mid to late 1980's in
- industrial robotics. However in the early 1990's sales and number have
- rebounded to surpass early 1980 numbers and dollars.
-
- From Motion Control Magazine April 1994: Robotics Industries
- Association said recently Robot orders jumped 40% through June, 1993
- as the industry posted its best opening half-year ever.... Net new
- orders received by U.S. based robotics companies totalled 3,640 robots
- valued at $306.2 million, the highest unit and dollar figures ever.
-
- From the New York Times, Wednesday September 7th pC1
- (paraphrased) In the late 1980's a steep decline in robot orders drove
- most US companies out of the business. In the first half of 1994 4,335
- robots with a total value of $383.5 million. Fanuc is the leader with
- about $360M in sales this year. Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) is second with
- sales estimated at $120M. The next several are Japanese: Motoman,
- Panasonic, Sony and Nachi.
-
- The only major US producer to have survived is Adept Technology with
- about $50M in sales in a $700M market. The following table is
- interpreted from a graph in the article.
-
- Net new orders in US:
- Year # of robots $US
- 1984 5800 $480M
- 1985 6200 $380M
- 1986 5400 $320M
- 1987 3800 $300M
- 1988 4000 $325M
- 1989 4500 $510M
- 1990 5000 $510M
- 1991 4000 $410M
- 1992 5250 $500M
- 1993 6800 $630M
- 1994 4335 (6 mos) $383M (6 mos)
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- From Industry Flash Vol1, No. 4, Dec 5, 1994:
-
- _DEMAND FOR U.S. INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS SURGING_
- ANN ARBOR, Mich. - U.S.-based robotics companies are enjoying the best
- of times. The Robotics Industries Association (RIA) says surging
- demand recently led American robotic companies to their best
- nine-month totals ever.
-
- Through September, new orders totaled 6,218 robots valued at $548
- million, a 12 percent increase in units and 13 percent increase in
- revenue over the previous nine-month period last year. The greatest
- demand, says the trade group, is coming from U.S. manufacturers which
- are finally learning what the Japanese have known for years: robots
- can play a significant role in improving productivity, quality,
- flexibility and time-to-market. But, even though demand is surging and
- the U.S. is the world's second largest robotics user with some 53,000
- systems, the Japanese have more than seven times as many robots in
- use, RIA says.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Last-Modified: Sun Aug 11 08:49:43 1996
-
-
- [3]Kevin Dowling <nivek@cmu.edu>
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [8] What companies sell or build robots?
-
- [3][8.1] Mobile robot companies
- [4][8.1.1] AGV Companies
- [5][8.1.2] Underwater robots
-
- [6][8.2] Manipulator companies
-
- [7][8.3] Other Organizations doing robotics
-
- [8][8.4] Small Inexpensive Robots
-
- [9][8.5] Entertainment Robots
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [8.1] Mobile robot companies
-
- There are a small number of companies targeting the research community
- for the mobile robot market. Helpmate, RWI, and Cybermotion have all
- sold and are selling mobile devices for research and real
- applications. There are a number of Automatic Guided Vehicle companies
- as well and their primary applications are factory operations.
- Companies manufacturing Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV) are listed at
- the end of this section. Robot lawn mowers too!
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Action Machinery Co._ One Vulcan Drive
-
-
-
- Helena, AL 35080, USA
- tel: 205.663.0814
- fax: 205.663.3445
-
- Severe-duty hydraulic robots and manipulators. Payloads from 65kg -
- 7000kg. Primarily forge, foundry, and casting operations.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Applied AI Systems_
-
-
-
- Suite 500, Gateway Business Park
- 340 March Rd, KANATA
- Ontario, Canada K2K 2E4
- net: 71021.2755@compuserve.com
-
- Representing IS Robotics and Khepera (see below). MIT subsumption
- architecture style robots. Ghengis-II walker runs $8636.00 including a
- development system and downloading board, but without LISP.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Arrick Robotics _
-
-
-
- 2107 W. Euless Blvd.
- Euless, Texas 76040 USA
- tel: 817.571.4528
- fax: 817.571.2317
- net: rarrick@ix.netcom.com
- url: [10]www.http://robotics.com/
-
- R20 mobile robot platform for use by AI software developers. 3-wheel
- design, 14" wide, 14" long, 10" tall, 15lbs. 20lb payload. On-board
- controller connects to the user's laptop computer by cable or low-cost
- RF modem (RS232). Sensors include compass, tilt, wheel travel,
- temperature, light level, bumpers, battery status, etc. Price as of
- 1/1/95 $2,900.00. Units in use at UTA Automation Robotics Research
- Institute. Send for detailed specifications.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Bell and Howell_
-
-
-
- Bell & Howell Mailmobile Company
- 411 E. Roosevelt Ave.
- Zeeland MI 49464
- tel: 616.772.1000
- fax: 616.772.6380
- email: For now [11]rpaske@iserv.net
-
- Mailmobiles were developed by Lear-Siegler in the mid-70's for the
- industrial cleaning market. They decided to leave this market and Bell
- and Howell, the audio-visual equipment company, was refocusing on
- office automation products and picked up this product from
- Lear-Siegler. There are three models of Mailmobile, the Packmobile,
- the Sprint and the Trailmobile. About 3000 systems sold and about 2000
- probably in operation. They use a chemical trail that floureseces
- under UV light. Payloads up to a couple of hundred kg. Some systems
- have been operating for over 15 years.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Branch & Associates Pty Ltd_
-
-
-
- 1153 Tasman Highway
- Cambridge, Tasmania 7170
- Australia (operating in Europe, Asia and America)
- tel: +61-02-485-807
- fax: +61-02-485-809 contact: Alex Vail, Division Manager
-
- Since 1979, specialist in autonomous navigation and guidance; products
- and technology for applications, research, and teaching. Conquerer
- series of fully autonomous AGV's, mapping system, non-accumulated
- error, accuracy 1cm, 1 degree, no environmental modifications, $12K -
- $25K.
-
- Fander: research and educational mobile robot. $5.5K includes
- everything: built-in software demonstrates in real situations numerous
- exmaples of roboti mobility technologies for teaching, research and
- teaching manual, stand-alone and remote PC modes, real time graphics.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Cybermotion_
-
-
-
- 115 Sheraton Drive
- Salem VA 24153
- tel: 540.562.7626
- fax: 540.562.7632
- url: [12]Cybermotion Mobile Robotic Systems
-
- John Holland's company. Mobile K2 bases making use of ingenious
- torque-tube synchronous drive system. Security markets and research
- platforms, manipulators for base as well. Map building software too.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Cyberworks_
-
-
-
- 31 Ontario Street
- Orillia, Ontario
- L3V 6H1 Canada
- tel: 705.325.6110
- fax: 705.325.8566
-
- Primary product are 'building blocks' for mobile robot development
- including controllers, sensors, softare and chassis'.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Denning Branch International Robotics_
-
-
-
- 1401 Ridge Avenue
- Pittsburgh, PA 15233
- tel: (412) 322-4412
- fax: (412) 322-2040
-
- email: Soon. Messages to hpm@cs.cmu.edu will be forwarded.
- Denning-Branch is a merger of Denning Mobile Robotics, once located in
- the Boston area, and makers of human-size mobile robots since 1983,
- and Branch and Associates, of Hobart, Australia, designers and
- builders of smaller mobile robots since 1979.
-
- Among the first products available is an MRV retrofit kit, which
- substitutes a modern Intel 80486 system with more power and a simpler
- interface for the 1985 vintage MC 68000 based controller.
-
- Fander
- Small (~60x30x30 cm) 80486 based robot for educational
- purposes, with infrared and rotating sonar sensors,
- preprogrammed for several autonomous navigation tasks, and
- externally controllable via serial link. $5.5K
-
- MRV 1 &4
- Large (~90x90x120 cm) heavy payload capacity synchro drive
- robot, with optional sonar ring and laser nav sensors and
- software. $13.5K
-
- LaserNav
- Robot-mounted scanning infrared laser unit that uses wall
- mounted bar-coded retroreflectors or active transponders to
- navigate to centimeter precision in 10-meter-scale areas. $8K
-
- RotoSonar
- Small-scale revolving sonar head with 4 sonar units and
- software. $3K
-
- Sonar Ring
- MRV-scale belt of 24 sonar units and driving hardware and
- software.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _General Robotics_
-
-
-
- 14618 W. 6th Avenue
- Suite 150
- Golden, CO 80401
- tel: 800.422.4265 (US and Canada)
- tel: 303.277.1574
- fax: 303.277.0310
-
- RB5X mobile robot for educational use. Developed in the early 80's and
- has been sold for many years. Similar to design and market for
- Heathkit robots. RB5X is $2995. Also sell base unit without wheels and
- shell board mounted for experimentation or building your own robot:
- $1995. A variety of other options including sensors, cameras, radio
- link and software for for Mac, Apple II and PC's are available.
- Educational curriculum workbooks and manuals are also available
- separately.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _HelpMate Robotics (formerly TRC)_
-
-
-
- Shelter Rock Lane
- Danbury, CT 06810
- tel: 203.798.8988
- fax: 203.791.1082
- [13]Helpmate Home Page
-
- Labmate research platform - $7500, plus additional optional sensors
- etc. Other products for hospital markets and floor cleaning machines.
- (Helpmate and RoboKent respectively)
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _IS Robotics_
-
-
-
- Suite 6, 22McGrath Hwy
- Somerville, MA 02143
- tel: 617.629.0055
- fax: 617.629.0126
- net:
- url: [14]http://isr.com/~isr
-
- * R-3, wheeled robot, $14K
- * Genghis II, 15" walking robot, $8.6K
- * Pebbles III, tracked robot, $12.5K
- * Hermes - high end walking robot
-
- Robots use the 16MHz 68332 (68020 core) microcontrollers (except
- Ghengis). Robots include IR and bump sensing for obstacle detection.
- Pyro sensors and color camera with pan-tilt are optional. ISR also
- performs contract engineering (custom robots). Check the [15]ISR home
- page for more details.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Kentree_
-
-
-
- Kilbritten,
- County Cork, Ireland
- tel: +353 23 49791, 49808
- fax: +353 23 49801
-
- Teleoperated bomb disposal vehicles in a range of sizes.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _mecos Robotics AG_
-
-
-
- Technopark
- Pfingstweidstrasse
- CH-8005 Zurich
- Switzerland
- tel: + 41 1 445 11 35
- fax: + 41 1 445 11 34
- email: mecos@mecos.ch
- Contact: S. J. Vestli
-
- Company formed as a spin off of the Institute of Robotics, ETH wiss
- Federal Institute of Technology). "mecos Robotics" specialises in
- modular and adaptive robot manipulators and robot vehicles (mobile
- robots). All "mecos Robotics" systems uses the same type of
- controller, a VME based computer. This system comes with high level
- development tools, and for research institutions the systems have the
- advantage of being open. The overall goals of all "mecos Robotics"
- systems are flexibility and modularity.
-
- The mobile robot program from "mecos Robotics" follows this principle.
- The physical size and the mechanical configuration can be altered. The
- standard configuration has three wheels with air tyres and independant
- suspension. One wheel is used for steering and propulsion (imagine a
- kids tricycle). The overall size is 0.7 m (W) * 1.0 m (L) * 0.5 m (H).
- The price depends on configuration and starts around the 70.000,-
- Swiss Franks mark.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Nomadic Technologies_
-
-
-
- 1060-B Terra Bella Avenue
- Mountain View, CA 94043
- tel: 415.988.7200 ext. 203
- fax: 415.988.7201
- net: nomad@robots.com
-
- Nomad 200 is an integrated mobile robot system with four sensing
- modules including tactile, infrared, ultrasonic, and 2D laser.
- Integrated software development package for the host computer includes
- a graphic interface, robot simulator and a library of motion planning,
- motion control and sensory data interpretation functions. Geared
- toward teaching and research in Robotics and AI. The Nomad utilizes a
- synchronous steering system (ala Cybermotion and RWI). Speeds up to .5
- meters/second and onboard battery power.
-
- Nomad 200 Mobile Base $10,000
-
- Nomad 200 Control System $ 6,000
-
- Sensus 100 Tactile Sensing System $ 1,500
-
- Sensus 200 Fixed Sonar System $ 2,500
-
- Sensus 500 Structured Light Vision System $ 7,000
-
- RF Modem Kit $ 2,000
-
- Digital Compass $ 450
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _OTO MELARA_
-
-
-
- Via Valdilocchi 15
- 19136 La Spezia ITALY
- tel: +39 187 58 2843
- fax: +39 187 58 2669
- contact: Gian Carlo Caligiani, Robotic Systems Office
-
- OTO MELARA R.2.5.Robotized System
- The Robotized R.2.5 (R.2.5.R) Project aims at prototyping a
- mobile robot for intervention in hostile environments. The
- system is composed by three main units: the transportable
- control station, the radio communication set and the mobile
- robot based on an armoured, diesel propelled, wheeled platform
- called R.2.5. Gorgona, produced by OTO MELARA. Robot can be
- remotely controlled via full-duplex radio link. Can be
- teleoperated and provides supervised modes as well. Speeds from
- 30cm/sec to 30km/h. As of May 1994 the locomotion system and
- teleoperated system are complete. Additional functionality in
- the form of supervised and autonomous operation are planned.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Poulan/Weed Eater_
-
-
-
- c/o Robotic Solar Mower Dept.
- PO Box 91329
- Shreveport, LA 71149-1329
- tel: 318.687.0100 X3939
-
- [Boiled out of their press release - Gareth Branwyn] The Robotic Solar
- Mower is a 5.6kg (12.5lb). automated solar-powered "lawn groomer." It
- uses a wire boundary system to keep it inside the mowing area. It runs
- continuously when the sun shines. Its operation is "virtually noise
- free." It continues on its constant mowing course, taking between
- several hours and several days to complete a grooming cycle (depending
- on size of yard, obstacles, etc.). Instead of cutting 1/3 of the grass
- blades (as in a conventional mower), it only trims the tips. It can
- handle a yard up to 1250m^2 (13,500 ft^2) and has a slope tolerance of
- 15-20 degress. A pilot program is currently offering the mower in the
- US for $2,000.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Real World Interface (RWI) _
-
-
-
- PO Box 375
- 32 Fitzgerald Drive
- Jaffrey, NH 03452
- tel: 603.532.6900
- fax: 603.532.6901
- net: [16]sales@rwii.com
- [17]RWI homepage
-
- RWI manufactures the B14 (an evolved B12) and B21 Mobile Robot
- Systems, and in collaboration with ActivMedia, Inc. and Kurt Konolige
- of SRI, the newer, low-cost, Pioneer 1 Mobile Robot.
- Recently redesigned, the B14's 35.5 x 61cm (14" x 24") (d x h) Synchro
- Drive Base now has built-on, tool-less access Smart Panels(tm) with
- tactile sensors, a 192-watt hr, hot-swappable battery power system for
- continuous service, and carries up to a 9kg (20 lb) payload. New B14
- Enclosure mounts on top the Base and hosts Linux computer system,
- complete with RWI's RAI robotics servers and client development
- software libraries. Full range of IR, sonar, and tactile sensors
- included (seamless 360-degrees, top-to-bottom bump protection).
-
- RWI's flagship robot -- the B21 -- is for mobile autonomous research
- and commercial applications. The 53x30cm (21" x 12") (d x h) 4-wheel
- drive B21 Synchro Drive Base carries a payload of 190kg (200 lbs) and
- has 1500-watt hours of independent battery power, hot-swappable for
- continuous service. The B21 Enclosure mounts on top the Base and hosts
- two internal computers plus a console laptop, all integrated via an
- onboard Ethernet, Linux OS, and RWI's RAI robotics software. Smart
- Panels(tm) around give easy access to Base and Enclosure equipment and
- host a full range of IR, sonar, and tactile sensors. Optional
- four-axis arm has gripper and 360-degree wrist, and mounts inside
- Enclosure.
- Both the B14 and B21 Mobile Robots come with a variety of accessories,
- including a newly released stereo vision system and other video
- options, radio Ethernet, compass, text-to-speech interface, and more.
- Released Summer '95 at IJCAI, the Real World/ActivMedia/Konolige
- [18]Pioneer 1 Mobile Robot is targeted for research and training where
- affordability (under $2500!) and many platforms are required. Based on
- the popular and winning (AAAI '94) Flaky, Pioneer 1 has a
- position-accurate 2-wheel drive in a 46 x 35.5 x 23cm (18x14x9") (l x
- w x h) chassis, which also carries a 84 watt-hr powerpack and hosts
- seven sonars. The custom on-board 68HC11-based controller runs a suite
- of robotics servers accessible via onboard serial port by piggyback
- laptop or basestation computer client software running SRI's Saphira
- software for research in multiple-intelligence and interactive
- behaviors. Client libraries and a simulator are included to assist
- application development. Fast-Track Vision System, based on [19]Newton
- Labs' Cognachrome Vision System now available for Pioneer 1.
- Manipulation gripper, vision system, experimenter's modules, and
- supporting textbooks by Dr. Kurt Konolige to come.
-
- (B14) B14 Base w/ tactile Smart Panels(tm) $8,500
- B14 Enclosure w/ full sensor array $6,000
- B14 Pentium (100/16/540MB)* $2,850+/-
- B14 Power Station $400
-
- (B21) B21 Base w/ tactile & IR Smart Panels(tm) $19,500
- B21 Enclosure w/ full sensor array $11,500
- B21 Four-Axis Arm $18,250
- B21 Pentium (133/32/1200)* $4,125+/-
- B21 Pentium Console (100/16/540/28cm screen) $4,350+/-
- B21 Power Station $1,500
-
- (Acc) Pan-Tilt Head $1,950
- PCI-based Video Frame Grabber $950
- CCD Cameras (color & B &W) $931-$1,375
- Radio Links (RS-232 & Ethernet) $595-$5,390
- Digital Navigation Compass $850
-
- (New) Basic Robot $2,495
- Fast-Track Vision System $2,995**
- Gripper $750
- ComRad RS-232 Radio $595
- Experimenter's Module $200
-
- * All Bxx computers come with Linux and RWI RAI software installed and
- with Ethernet networking. ** Introductory price good through May,
- 1996.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Remotec_
-
-
-
- 114 Union Valley Road
- Oak Ridge, TN 37830
- tel: 615.483.0228
- fax: 615.483.1426
-
- The ANDROS line of teleoperated mobile robots. These were designed to
- be useful in the nuclear industry and in other hazardous applications,
- and are very rugged. You can hose them down. Available in a range of
- sizes, with a variety of optional attachments, such as video cameras,
- arms, etc.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _TAG Technology_
-
-
-
- 5 Bowlands Mill, Dispensary Street
- Alnwick, Northumberland, NE661LN, UK
- tel: +44 655 604895
- fax: +44 665 510624
- net: [20]http://www.tag.co.uk/robots/
-
- A variety of small modular mobile robots, sensors and controllers.
- * Frank - a tracked vehicle. Cost $UK 3198
- * Igor - a small quadraped walking machine. $UK 2238
- * Sensors - ultrasound and IR. $UK 144 - 318 depending on model.
- * Neural modeling system - single eurocard board for neural work.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Visual Inspection Technologies_
-
-
-
- 27-2 Ironia Road
- Flanders, NJ 07836-9124
- tel: 201.927.0033
- fax: 201.927.3207
-
- VIT specializes in remote visual and ultrasonic testing but sells or
- rents a small tracked rover for inspection work. Products include
- ROVVER, SPOT, and PIPECAT vertical pipe crawler. VIT also makes
- miniature remote pan and tilt devices.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Yamazaki Construction Company_
-
-
-
- Intelligent Robot Lab
- Kaika Building
- 2-7-1 Sotokanda
- Chiyoda-ku 101 Tokyo
- Japan
- tel: 81-3-5256-0715
-
- LR1 robot - small research robot, basically a VME cage on wheels with
- some ultrasonic sensors and a nice constant force suspension. Has
- shown up at IEEE R &A conferences $30K.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _RoboSoft SA_
-
-
-
- 6, allee Paul Cezanne
- 93360 Neuilly Plaisance
- FRANCE
- tel: +33 1 4944 3035
- fax: +33 1 4944 3297
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [8.1.1] AGV Companies
-
- AGV's are Automatic Guided Vehicles. They are common in factory
- automation and usually consist of mobile platforms for transporting
- goods and materials within factories. Most still use buried wires for
- guidance, but several vendors have or will have off-wire capabilities.
- AGV subsystems can also be useful in building mobile bases. Wheel
- modules can be purchased that already include hub, tire, motor,
- bearings, suspension and sometimes steering as well as drive.
-
- The first AGV was installed by the Cravens Company at Mercury Motor
- Express in Columbia, SC in 1954. The use of AGV's did not take off
- however and even by the early 80's the investment by US firms in AGV's
- was less than $70M. However, several European companies took hold of
- the idea and rapidly evolved it. The industry in the US peaked in 1985
- at about $175M and is slowly recovering. -- From Modern Materials
- Handling - 4/96
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _AGV Products_
-
-
-
- 9307-E Monroe Road
- Charlotte, NC 28270-1485
- tel: 704.845.1110
- fax: 704.845.1111
-
- Controls and components for AGV's. Supplier of Schabmuller
- motor-in-wheel drives.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _BT Systems_
-
-
-
- 7000 Nineteen Mile Road
- Sterling Heights, MI 48314
- tel: 313.254.5200
- fax: 313.254.5570
-
- Automated Handling Systems (Formerly Volvo Automated Systems)
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Caterpillar Industrial (now FMC)_
-
-
-
- 5960 Heisley Road
- Mentor, OH 44060
- tel: 216.357.2935
- fax: 216.357.4410
-
- Manufacturer and distributor of fork lift trucks and guided vehicles.
- Cat's SGV's use rotating laser scanner and barcodes as opposed to
- traditional wire-guided systems.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Control Engineering Company_
-
-
-
- Jervis Webb Company
- 34375 W. Twelve Mile Road
- Farmington Hills, MI 48331-5624
- tel: 313.553.1220
- fax: 313.553.1253
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Eaton-Kenway_
-
-
-
- 515 East 100 South
- PO Box 45425
- Salt Lake City, UT 84145-0425
- tel: 801.530.4000
- fax: 801.530.4243
-
- AGV's and integrated systems
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Elwell-Parker_
-
-
-
- 4205 St. Clair Avenue
- Cleveland, OH
- tel: 216.881.6200
- fax: 216.391.7708
-
- Designs/manufactures rider style, electric, fork and platform mobile
- material handling equipment. Line includes AGV's, high tonnage
- capacity. Mobile cranes, explosion proof forklifts.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Eskay Corporation_
-
-
-
- 563 West 500 South
- Bountiful, UT 84010
- tel: 801.295.5315
- fax: 801.299.9990
-
- Automated material handling systems including AGVS.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Fata Automation_
-
-
-
- 37050 Industrial Road
- Livonia, MI 48150
- tel: 313.462.0678
- fax: 313.462.0997
-
- Sales and service of AGVs.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _FMC Corporation_
-
-
-
- 400 Highpont Drive
- Chalfont, PA 18914
- tel: 215.822.4300
- fax: 215.822.4342
-
- AGVs, Automated Handling Systems, Consulting, Trolley and Power and
- Free Converyors, Tow lines, Integrated Systems and Controls, Roll
- Handling Equipment.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Frog Navigation Systems b.v._
-
-
-
- Cartesiusweg 120
- 3435 BD Utrecht
- The Netherlands
- tel: (+31) 30 244 05 50
- fax: (+31) 30 244 07 00
- net: frog@ich.nl
- contact: Leo Lans
-
-
-
- USA-office:
- 1091 Centre Road, Ste 170
- Auburn Hills, MI 48326
- tel: (+1) 810 377 4000
- fax: (+1) 810 377 4004
- contact: Charles Rouse - dir of marketing and sales
- net: 102024.665@compuserve.com
-
- FROG makes AGVs and AGV navigation systems that utilize infrastructure
- components to accurately determine AGV position. FROG, and the
- SuperFROG AGV supervisory software, are used in both 'traditional' and
- 'non-traditional' AGV Markets. Traditional applications include
- manufacturing and warehousing. Non-traditional applications include
- container handling, personnel transport, mining and military use. FROG
- will fit any vehicle and can be used in any environment from
- clinically clean warehouses to weather beaten dockyards.
-
- Articles on Frog are in 'Automation' February 1991 or in 'Modern
- Materials Handling', December 1994 P.46.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _IDAB Incorporated_
-
-
-
- 1 Enterprise Parkway, Suite 300
- PO Box 8157
- Hampton, VA 23666
- tel: 804.825.2260
- fax: 804.825.9307
-
- Automatic handling systems and AGV's
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Mannesmann Demag Corporation_
-
-
-
- 29201 Aurora Road
- Cleveland, OH 44139-1895
- tel: 216.248.2400
- fax: 216.248.3086
-
- Overhead cranes, wire rope and chain hoists, AGV systems, automatic
- storage and retrieval systems, monorail, aircraft maintenance
- equipment.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Mentor AGVS Products_
-
-
-
- 8500 Station Street
- PO Box 898
- Mentor, OH 44060
- tel: 216.255.4051
- fax: 216.255.3430
-
- AGV systems and automated transfer cars.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Munck Automation Technology_
-
-
-
- 161 Enterprise Drive
- Newport News, VA 23603
- tel: 804.887.8080
- fax: 804.887.0558
- url: [21]http://www.munck.com
-
- Manufacturer and integrator of automated material handling systems.
- AGVS of many configurations (unitload, forklift, towing)
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _The Raymond Corporation_
-
-
-
- South Canal Street
- PO Box 130
- Greene, NY 13778
- tel: 607.656.2311
- fax: 607.656.9005
-
- Material handling equipment.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Roberts Sinto Corporation_
-
-
-
- 3001 West Main Street
- PO Box 40760
- Lansing, MI 48901-7960
- tel: 517.371.2460
- fax: 517.372.4930
-
- MGV's (Mechanically guided vehicles)
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Professional Materials Handling Co, Inc._
-
-
-
- 4203 Landmark Drive
- Orlando, FL 32817
- tel: 305.677.0040
-
- Steinbock fork trucks. Wire guided, use regenerative braking.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Saurer Automation Systems_
-
-
-
- Saurer Automation Systems
- 11818 James Street
- Holland, MI 49424-9658
- tel: 616.393.0101
- fax: 616.393.0331
- Holland, MI
-
- Saurer was formerly Litton Industrial Automation and is a full service
- material handling company.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [8.1.2] Underwater robots
-
- [new section, need more information]
-
- There are a number of companies building underwater remotely operated
- vehicles (ROV's).
-
- _[22]R.O.V. Technologies, Inc_
-
-
-
- Franklin Road, Vernon, Vermont 05354
- tel: 802.254.9353
- net: [23]rovtech@sover.net
-
- Nuclear Underwater Equipment, Sales and Service
- * Hydrovision Tel UK ? 224-740145
- * Benthos Tel US 1-800-446-1222
- * JW Fishers Tel US 1-800-822-4744
- * Sutec Tel Sweeden ? 46-13-15-80-60
- * Rovtech Tel Uk ? 229-813641
- * Deep Ocean Engineering Tel US 501-562-9300
- * UWI Tel UK ? 224-896913
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [8.2] Manipulator companies
-
- This is only a partial list of manipulator manufacturers. A wide
- variety of arms and arm components are made by these vendors and other
- vendors.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Adept Technology_
-
-
-
- 150 Rose Orchard Way
- San Jose, CA 95134
- tel: 408.432.0888
- fax: 408.432.8707
- url: [24]http://www.adept.com/
-
- High speed direct-drive and harmonic-drive SCARA style arms. 0.001"
- (.025mm) repeatabiliy. Payloads from 4-25kg Can be used in clean room
- and food applications as well. Adept also sells vision systems and
- controllers.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _AEA Technology_
-
-
- AEA is the commercial division of the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
- markets the NEATER series telerobots for decommssioning in the nuclear
- industry. The system includes a bilateral input device and active
- (autonomous) force control.
-
- The system can deploy drills, reciprocating saws, nibblers, grippers
- for insertions etc. Larger range of robots including the AEA
- Technology 200 Kg arm, use filtering compliance to avoid damage to the
- robot when deploying heavy duty dismantling tools.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Antenen Research_
-
-
-
- PO Box 95
- Hamilton, OH 45012
- tel: 800.323.9555
- tel: 513.887.4700
- fax: 513.887.4703
-
- New and used robots for manufacturing, research and training. Used at
- savings of 40% - 70%. Also lots of parts and accessories.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Vesteraas, Sweden_
-
-
-
- ABB Robotics
- 2487 South Commerce Drive
- New Berlin, WI 53151
- tel: 414.785.3400
- fax: 414.789.9235
-
- Now own Cinncinatti Milacron robotics group, Graco and Trallfa. ABB
- Robotics is part of a ABB, large swiss-based company, with Many types
- of larger industrial robots. Many are optimized for painting, welding
- and sealant applications.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Comau - Italy_
-
-
-
- Via Rivalta 30
- 10095 Grugliasco
- Torino, Italy
- tel: 011 33341
- fax: 011 7809156
-
- A variety of industrial manipulators ranging in payloads from 6kg to
- 125kg. All electric AC drives. One of the novel designs is a 6DOF,
- 12kg payload robot The SMART-3 6.12 R. It uses a carbon fibre forearm,
- absolute resolver feedback and 0.15mm repeatability.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _CRS Plus,_
-
-
-
- 5344 John Lucas Drive
- Burlington, Ontario
- Canada L7L 6A6
- tel: 905.332.2000
- fax: 905.?
-
- Sells several manipulators. 5-DOF around $25K, 6DOF around $33K. Sell
- end-effectors as well (electric, vacuum and penumatic) Wrist can be
- bought separately. Controllers use RAPL, a VAL-like language. Fairly
- open architecture. 3Kg payloads +/- 0.05mm repeatability.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Eshed Robotics_
-
-
-
- Eshed Robotec
- Israel (HQ)
- tel: 03-498136
- fax: 03-498889
-
- In the US
-
-
-
- Eshed Robotec Inc.
- 445 Wall St.
- Princeton, NJ 08540-1504
- tel: 609.683.4884
- tel: 800.777.6288
-
- Eshed Robotec BV
- Oude Torenweg 29
- 5388 RK Nistelrode
- The Netherlands
- tel: +31.412.611476
- fax: +31.412.613185
- net: [25]eshedbv@pi.net
-
- url: [26]http://www.pi.net/~eshedbv/ and [27]http://www.eshed.com
- Eshed makes a variety of robot manipulators for education, training
- and instructional use. This includes a half-dozen manipulator
- products, vision systems and a variety of machining and
- manufacturing systems. Eshed has sold over 8000 robots for training
- and education.
- Eshed has many dealers throughout Europe. Many dealers can be found
- at: [28]dealer list
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _International Submarine Engineering Ltd, ISE_
- 1734 Broadway Street
- Port Coquitlam, B.C.
- Canada V3C 2M8
- tel: 604.942.5223
- fax: 604.942.7577
- url: [29]http://www.ise.bc.ca/ E-mail: [30]info@ise.bc.ca
- Underwater manipulators and teleoperated underwater vehicles.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Kawasaki Robotics (USA Inc.)_
- 28059 Center Oaks Court
- Wixom MI 48393
- tel: 810.305.7610
- fax: 810.305.7618
- [31]KR Home page Kawasaki was the first Japanese mfg to lead in the
- production of industrial robots. They licensed the former Unimation
- line of robots and now make about a dozen types of electric arms for
- welding, painting and assembly.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Kinetic Sciences_
- 3250 East Mall
- Vancouver, BC, CANADA V6T 1W5
- tel: 604.822.2144
- fax: 604.822.6188
- net: [32]info@kinetic.bc.ca
- url:
- [33]http://www.asi.bc.ca/asi/affiliates/kinetic/KSI_home_pg.html
- Kinetic Sciences Inc. (KSI) provides technology innovation, research
- services and product development in the field of advanced robotics
- for operation in hazardous or menial environments. Our areas of
- expertise include: innovative robotic mechanisms (such as our
- Tentacle robot arm), computer vision (6 DOF position measurement and
- automatic inspection), advanced sensors, and autonomous control. For
- further information check out our web pages at: [34]KSI
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Komatsu_
- Construction Robotics Department
- contact: Shigeo Ohno
- fax: 81.44-288-6177 (japan)
- email: shigo-o@aix.or.jp
- url: [35]http://www.japan.hosting.ibm.com:80/komatsu/index-e.htm
- (English)
- The LM15-1 mini crane is a compact and portable electrically powered
- manipulation system. The device can be transported in a van and can
- be easily moved up and down stairs by rubber crawler tracks or
- winched vertically. The LM15-1 can work in relatively small spaces
- of 4x10m in area. It is powered by 100VAC, and has wireless remote
- control. Load specifications are 150kg at 3m. The telescoping boom
- can reach to 4m. It can be stored in a compact size of about 1m^2
- and can be split into two even smaller pieces to ease storage and
- transport further.
- See the URL listed above for more details and pictures. Price:
- Y3,200,000 (between US$25-32K depending on the exchange rate)
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Kraft Telerobotics_
- 11667 W. 90th Street
- Overland Park, KS 66214
- tel: 913.894.9022
- fax: 913.894.1363 Nice telerobotic arms for underwater work.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Labman Automation Ltd_
- Stokesley, North Yorkshire. TS9 5JY. UK
- net: tel:INT 44 642 710580
- url: [36]www.quay.co.uk/labman/
- [soon to be www.zebra.co.uk/labman/] Contact: Andrew Whitwell
- Tailoring mainly gantry based systems for laboratory applications.
- Designs include storage systems, multiple manipulators, special
- probes, modification of instruments and laboratory equipment. PC
- driven stepper drives, linear drives, dc motors, pneumatics, all
- sensors, RS232 links, LIMS communication. Systems include powder
- feeding, wet chemistry analysis, microtitre plate handling and many
- more.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _mecos Robotics AG_
- Technopark Zurich
- Pfingstweidstrasse 30
- CH-8005 Zurich
- Switzerland
- tel: + 41 1 445 11 35
- fax: + 41 1 445 11 34
- net: mecos@mecos.ch
- Contact: E. Nielsen Spin-off of the Institute of Robotics, ETH
- (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). Modular and adaptive robot
- manipulators and robot vehicles (mobile robots). All mecos Robotics
- systems use a VME based computer as controller. The system comes
- with high level development tools, and are open systems. The
- manipulator's mechanical configuration can be changed at will
- (number and type of joints, length of links, etc.) Manipulators use
- linear aluminum extrusions with integral motions for joints. The
- controller accounts for configuration changes. With this principle
- of modularity and flexibilty hybrid force / position controllers
- have been realised on "mecos Robotics" arms. Price depending on
- configuration (50.000,- Swiss Franks and upwards). NTSC or PAL
- videos available for Sfr. 40 per tape.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Mitsubishi_ Mitsubishi PA-10 portable robot.
-
- 7 DOF, with continuous path control
-
- Supposedly *open* control architecture, using PC
-
- 30 Kg arm, 25 Kg controller, 10 Kg payload
-
-
- [I have no other information on this, anyone?]
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Motoman [Hobart/Yaskawa]_
- Corporate Office:
- 805 Liberty Lane,
- West Carrollton, OH, 45449.
- tel: 513.847.3300
-
- Sales Office
- Dublin, OH
- tel: 614.718.6200 Large industrial manipulators for welding,
- painting, palletizing, dispensing, etc. Can be floor, ceiling or
- wall mount units. Payloads for the 8 robots in the K-series range
- from 3kg to 100kg and repeatability of 0.1 to 0.5 mm over that same
- range. They are vertical jointed-arm type manipulators. (i.e. 4 bar
- linkage to reduce arm intertias). 3 S-series robots are SCARA-type
- manipulators with payloads of 50-60kg and varying workspace sizes
- Yaskawa also has bought the rights to RobotWorld, Vic Schienman's
- unique gantry design robot system. This system allow a number of
- mobile modules in the same workspace to zip around at speeds up
- 80"/sec (3G accel). RAIL and C can be used in a multilevel
- programming environment. 0.002" Accuracy, 0.0005" repeatability.
- Neat stuff.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Oxford Intelligent Machines (OxIM)_
- 12 Kings Meadow,
- Osney Mead Industrial Estate
- Oxford, OX2 0DP, UK
- tel: +44 (0) 865 204881
- fax: +44 (0) 865 204882
- contact: Dr. Peter Davey Incorporated in 1990, OxIM provides a
- complete design service in the related fields of industrial sensors
- and automation. OxIM is manufacturing and developing robots and
- advanced industrial equipment. The MAP-IT vehicle is an open
- architecture research vehicle for indoor environments. The top
- surface, complete with an array of mounting holes, is available to
- the user for moutning experimental sensors and payload. Two direct
- drive motor-gearbox units provide locomotion. An extended 3U rack
- contains a controller card and power converter drive card. A third
- spare slot is provided. 400mm diam with payload surface 200mm above
- ground. Remote base station including power supply, dual RS232
- ports, Full ANSI source code, 2 spare axes of servo control, bumper
- system, 10kg payload, 65W power supply. Several options are also
- available including PC interface.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Salisbury Robotics, Inc._
- 20 Pemberton St.
- Cambridge, MA 02140
- tel: 617.661.8847
- net: jks@ai.mit.edu Sells the three-fingered Salisbury hand and
- force sensing fingertips. Contact: Ken Salisbury,
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Sands Technology International_
- US
- Sands Technology International Inc.
- 825 Highway 33, Trenton NJ 08619
- tel: 1.609.584.7522
- fax: 1.609.584.0239
- email: [37]robotics1@aol.com
- contact: David Sands or Annis Monforte
- UK/Europe
- Sands Technology Ltd.
- Orwell House, Cowley Road, Cambridge, UK
- tel: 44 1223 420288
- fax: 44 1223 420291
- email: [38]robotics1@dial.pipex.com
- contact: David Sands or Cathy George
- Sands has been making robots since 1989. Sands make 3 robots, a low
- cost 5 axis bench top articulated arm, a bench top cylindrical
- format arm and a modular Cartesian arm which can be quite small or
- quite large depending on customer needs.
- All the robots are low cost, driven by stepping motors with
- sophisticated controls. Fairly fast, fairly accurate, very reliable.
- The controller is open, and uses an extension of FORTH we called
- ROBOFORTH which has over 400 commands (not counting building blocks)
- See [39]Sands Home Page for more details including drawings
- dimensions, speeds, payloads etc.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Sarcos Research Corporation_
- 390 Wakara Way,
- Salt Lake City, Utah 84108
- tel: 801.581.0155 Spinoff of University of Utah's Center for
- Engineering Design (CED). Teleoperated systems, manipulators.
- Audio-animatronic work as well. Beautiful force reflecting work and
- systems. High performance and small hydraulic valves and actuators.
- IP address: sarcos.com
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Schilling_
- 1632 Da Vinci Court
- Davis, CA 95616
- tel: 916.753.6718
- fax: 916.753.8092 Electro-mechanical engineering and manufacturing
- company specializing in telerobotics. Various remote manipulator and
- telerobotic manipulator systems.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Seiko Instruments_
- Torrance, CA
- tel: 310.517.7850
- fax: 310.517-8158
- url: [40]Seiko Instruments
- Seiko Instruments offers a complete line of industrial robots
- including SCARA, Cylindrical and Cartesian robots which are some of
- the fastest in the world. They also offer a point and click
- Microsoft Windows based Vision System which works with all our
- robots or as a stand alone system.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Sony Corporation of America_
- Factory Automation Division
- 542 Route 303
- Orangeburg, NY 10962
- tel: 914.365.6000
- fax: 914.365.6087 Several SCARA type manipulators including a double
- armed manipulator. This model is used for the assembly of 8mm
- camcorders!
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Robotics Research Corp._
- P.O. Box 206
- Amelia, OH 45102
- tel: 513.831.9570
- fax: 513.381.5802 RRC offers a variety of dexterous manipulators
- which can be operated individually or in dual-arm mode. Their second
- generation, denoted the "i-Series", is lighter and provides great
- dexterity. They are currently building "spaceflight-qualified"
- manipulators for NASA (GSFC) using this new generation of their
- product. They have also been doing some work developing sensor-based
- automatic obstacle detection and avoidance technology which uses a
- patented algorithm with arm-mounted sensors. They have also built
- two massively-redundant 17-DOF Anthropomorphic systems for Grumman
- and JPL to serve as testbeds for researching "man-equivalent" robots
- for space applications.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Robotic Systems International (RSI), Ltd._
- 9865 W. Saanick Rd.
- Sydney, BC V8L 3S1
- Canada
- tel: 604.656.0101
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _UMI Microbot _[no longer in business in the US]
- In the UK:
-
- Oxford Intelligent Machines, UK
- tel: 0865 204881 Originally known as the Microbot teachmover. A
- small cable driven manipulator for desktop robotics. Excellent
- teaching tool. Original design by John Hill (now at SRI) Microbot
- was bought out by the British company UMI two years ago. In May,
- 1991 they moved from Silicon Valley to Detroit, MI. As of Early
- 1994, only the UK company was still in business.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _USA Robot_
- PO Box 4018
- Portland, ME 04101
- tel: 207.761.9039 Maxym production robots for business. Simple
- accurate 3D linear motions coupled with power tooling such as
- routers, air drills and sanders. Workspaces up to 60cmx147cmx15cm.
- IBMPC software for designing parts and production path but takes DXF
- files as input. Not a machine like the giant production turning and
- routing machines used by large furniture makers but is a nice small
- machine for small production shops. Prices range from $14.5K to
- $19.9K.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Western Space and Marine_
- 111 Santa Barbara St.
- Santa Barbara, CA 93101
- tel: 805.963.3831
- fax: 805.963.3832 Telerobotic manipulators for space and undersea
- applications.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Yamaha Robotics_
- PO Box 956
- Broomall, PA 19008-0956
- tel: 800 92-YAMAHA
- fax: 610.543.8113 Yamaha makes HXYA series of light cartesian
- robots. AC brushless motors can move payloads up to 50kg at 1.4m/s.
- Aluminum extruded frames that are lightweight, rigid and easy to
- mount. Work envelope sizes from 250mm x250mm to 2050mm x 1050mm.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Zymark Corp_
- Zymark Center
- Hopkinton, MA 01748-1668
- tel: 508-435-9500 Robots for laboratory automation. Zymate Robots.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- Other companies: (no addresses, yet)
-
- Furukawa
-
- Sumitomo
-
- Chubu
-
- Beckman Biomark
-
- HP ORCA
-
- Tecan
-
-
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- [8.3] What other Organizations are working with robotics?
-
-
- This list is a small fraction of companies and other organizations
- that are actively working in robotics. One way to obtain more
- companies is to search through proceedings of conferences or find
- member companies of many of the organizations listed in previous FAQ
- sections. Industrial robotics is used widely throughout a number of
- companies. Most large aerospace companies have groups working in or
- looking into robotics. Lockheed Martin (Denver), Rockwell
- International (Downey, CA), Boeing (Seattle) to name a few.
-
-
- Educational Organizations (Not Universities)
-
-
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _KISS Insitute for Practical Robotics (KIPR)_
- 10719 Midsummer Drive
- Reston, VA 22091
- contact: Dave Miller
- tel: 703.620.0551
- fax: 703.860.1802
- net: [41]kipr@src.umd.edu
- url: [42]http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/dmiller/kipr/kipr.html
-
-
-
- KISS Institute for Practical Robotics is a private non-profit
- educational corporation. As an organization dedicated to promoting
- education and utilization of practical integrated robotics, KISS
- Institute provides an umbrella for conducting joint research
- projects, dispersing information, and teaching courses involving
- members from many different home institutions.
-
-
- _Computers, Robotics and Artists Society of Houston [CRASH]_ See
- [43]CRASH
-
- Research Centers
-
-
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Advanced Robotics Research Centre_
-
- Salford, UK. The Advanced Robotics Research Ltd (incorporating the
- National Advanced Robotics Research Centre, UK) is a joint UK
- Government and UK Industries funded research organisation involved
- in the research of enabling technologies for the advanced robotics
- systems.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Automation and Robotics Research Institute (ARRI)_
-
- 7300 Jack Newell Blvd. South
- Ft. Worth, Texas 76118
- tel: 817.794.5900
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Mechanical Engineering Lab (MEL)_
-
- Tsukuba City, Japan Kazuo Tanie: Robotics and cybernetics
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL), AIST, MITI._
-
- 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305 Japan.
-
- General description:
- ETL is a govermental institute with about 630 staffs and annual
- budget of over 10 billion yen including personnel expenses,
- covering a broad area related to electronics, physics, material
- sciences, device technology, energy technology, standards and
- measurements technology, bio-electronics, information science,
- computer science, computer systems, artificial intelligence,
- and robotics. Gopher host: [44]gopher://etlport.etl.go.jp
-
- Robotics group:
- Intelligent Systems Division covers robotics and related areas.
- It consists of following sections; Intelligent Machine
- Behavior, Autonomous Systems, Computer Vision, Interactive
- Interface Systems, and Communicating Intelligence.
-
- The robotics group in the division foucuses on intelligent
- robots and system integration. Its current research topics
- include, but not limited to, Dextrous manipulation, Motion
- planning, Active vision, Multi-sensor fusion, Multi-fingered
- hands, Hand-eye systems, Mobile robot navigation,
- Multiple-robot cooperation, Intelligent teleoperation,
- Learning, and Architecture.
-
- The robotics group at ETL has continuously been at the frontier
- of intelligent robotics research.
-
- PostDoc positions:
- ETL accepts postdoctoral research fellows from all over the
- world. Mainly two support programs are available: STA
- fellowship and AIST fellowship. They require a doctoral degree,
- age no greater than 35, fluency in Japanese or English, etc.
- Typical research period is one year (2 yrs max.). The
- fellowship includes a basic allowance (270,000yen/month) plus
- family allowance (50,000yen/month), housing cost, and a round
- trip air ticket (1 person). The fellowships are highly
- competetive and have different application procedures depending
- on an applicant's nationality. Those who are interested should
- contact their local governmental agency for international
- research cooperation (such as NSF in USA). A more convenient
- way might be to catch a member of ETL staff at some conference
- and inquire about the fellowships.
-
- Graduate Summer Institute Program:
- ETL is a member of the graduate summer institute program. The
- robotics group hosts a couple of guest student researchers
- every summer. The Graduate Summer Institute program is based on
- Japan-USA contract on research cooperation in science and
- technology. It is open for graduate students in the USA who are
- majoring in science and technology fields.
-
- The aim of the program is to provide opportunities for the
- students to get acquainted with Japanese culture, science and
- techonology, and to promote future collaboration in research in
- science and techonology. Here is some data from last year's
- example.
-
- Period: 2 months (Late June -- Late August).
-
- Program (subj. to change): Japanese classes. Research at host
- institutes. Lectures, Meetings, Going to Kabuki, Kyoto
- tour, Official Receptions.
-
- Support: Return air ticket, domestic transportation,
- accomodation, japanese classes, tours.
-
- Contact: Japan Programs, Division of International Programs, NSF.
-
-
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Groforschungseinrichtungen (AGF)_
- (Association of National Research Centers)
- Wissenschaftszentrum
- Ahrstrae 45
- Postfach 20 14 48
- 53144 Bonn
- tel: (02 28) 3 76 74-1
- fax: (02 28) 3 76 74-4 [45]http://www.gmd.de/AGF-Anschriften.html
- These are sixteen research centers in Germany. One of the research
- centers is GMD and they do robotics. GMD is at
- [46]http://borneo.gmd.de/AS/janus/pages/janus.htm
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
-
-
- _NASA Headquarters_
- NASA Headquarters, Washington DC. Contact: Dave Lavery email:
- dave.lavery@hq.nasa.gov, URL: [47]Dave Lavery Home Page
-
-
- The ongoing NASA robotics research program develops autonomous,
- semi-autonomous and teleoperated systems and technologies for
- applications in Earth orbit and on planetary surfaces. Technology
- efforts are focussed on local autonomy, dexterous manipulation,
- task-level command and control, and contending with extremely harsh
- environments.
-
-
- [48]NASA HQ Telerobotics Home Page
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _NASA Ames Research Center_
- Moffet Field, CA.
-
-
- I, TROV and Ranger projects. [49]http://maas-neotek.arc.nasa.gov/
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)_
- Greenbelt, MD 20771
- Contact: Stephen Leake Since the cancellation of the Flight
- Telerobotic Servicer (FTS), the Robotics Lab has been concentrating
- on work in the area of automated space craft servicing. The goal is
- to replace or supplement Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) with
- teleoperated or semiautonomous robotic systems for external vehicle
- maintenance. Current project includes a robot to assist in second
- Hubble servicing mission.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory_
-
- 4800 Oak Grove Drive
- Pasadena, CA
- Contact: Chuck Weisbin, The JPL robotics efforts concentrate on
- development, integration and demonstration of A&R technologies, with
- a focus on plantary surface systems and autonomous mobile rovers.
-
-
- [50]NASA JPL Robotics Home Page
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC)_
-
- Houston, TX
- Contact: Charles Price More of an operations house but lots of
- shuttle RMS work. A number of robot projects including testing of
- space station manipulator systems happens at JSC.
- [51]http://tommy.jsc.nasa.gov
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC)_
-
- Robotics Group
- Contact: Bill Jones [52]http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/ksc.html
- Like JSC, KSC is an operations house with responsibility to keep
- shuttles flying and integrate payloads. There is a small but growing
- robotics group that is emplacing ground support robotics
- applications. Recent work includes filter inspector for launch pad
- payload areas, shuttle radiator inspector and a mobile system for
- thermal protection system tasks.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- _NASA Langley Research Center, (LaRC)_
-
- Hampton, VA Contact: Jack Pennington - vision, inspection, 3-D
- sensors [53]http://www.arc.nasa.gov/
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- National Laboratories
-
-
- The US National Laboratories are large complexes with a number of
- robotics efforts. One current focus is the enormous and costly
- cleanup of the weapons complexes throughout the country.
- Remediation, removal and cleanup of hazardous materials will require
- hundreds of billions of $$$ and many years. Robotics will be a key
- in much of this.
-
-
- _Sandia National Laboratories_
- Albuquerque, NM Sandia is a DOE National Laboratory with a
- substantial program in robotics at its Intelligent Systems and
- Robotics Center. The Center has interests in manufacturing,
- hazardous material handling, site remediation, and research to
- support these applications. Consequently areas of focus include
- assembly planning, robotic interfaces, control theory, motion
- planning, sensor fusion, sensor development, mobile vehicles,
- telemanagement, mobile vehicles, and so on.
-
-
- At the time of writing (2/15/93) the center has nearly 100 full-time
- staff with degrees in computer science, mechanical engineering,
- mathematics, electrical engineering, as well as a few in other
- fields. The mix is about 30% PhD, 40%MS, and 30% BS. Recent hires
- have come from Cornell, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, Illinois, Penn, ...
-
-
- The center operates over 20 fully equipted labs including robots
- from Puma, Adept, GCA, Cincinnati Millacron, and Schilling. The
- virtual reality lab includes stereoscopic viewers from Fake Space,
- audio, speech recognition and synthesis, and big boxes from SGI to
- drive the graphics. In addition to the normal complement of
- departmental computing we have use of other compute resources at
- Sandia including a 1000 node N-cube, a 1000+node Intel Paragon,
- several crays, a CM-200 (16K procs).
-
-
- Contacts: Randy Brost, Pat Xavier, Sharon Stansfield, Pang Chen,
- David Strip, Jim Novak, Ray Harrigan, Pat Eicker, Bob Anderson.
-
-
- _Oak Ridge National Laboratory_
-
- Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research
- P. O Box 2008, MS-6364
- Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6364
- tel: 615.241.4959
- fax: 615.574.7860 Contact: Dr. Lynne E. Parker, email:
- ParkerLE@ornl.gov
-
-
- Research in mobile and manipulator robotics, including redundant and
- multiple manipulators, cooperating mobile robots, parallel vision
- systems, sensor fusion, laser range finder research, real-time
- quantitative reasoning and behavior based control, and machine
- learning. Current applications include robots for nuclear power
- stations, environmental restoration and waste management, material
- handling, and automated manufacturing.
-
-
- Researchers: James Baker, Marty Beckerman, Chuck Glover, William
- Grimmell, Judd Jones, Reinhold Mann, Ed Oblow, Lynne Parker,
- Nageswara Rao, David Reister, Phil Spelt, Michael Unseren.
- _______________________________________________________________
-
- US Department of Defense
-
-
- _Air Force's Robotics and Automation Center of Excellence (RACE)_
-
-
-
- Robotics and Automation Center of Excellence
- SA-ALC/TIEST
- 450 Quentin Roosevelt Rd
- Bldg 183
- Kelly AFB
- San Antonio, TX 78241-6416
- url: [54]http://www.kelly-afb.org/links/orgs/race/race.htm
- net: [55]ti-race@sadis01.kelly.af.mil
- contact: Steve Knauber [56]sknauber@sadis05.kelly.af.mil
-
- The mission of the Robotics and Automation Center of Excellence (RACE)
- is to insert appropriate robotics and automation technologies into Air
- Force industrial processes. RACE accomplishes this mission by keeping
- abreast of current technology and recommending any technologies that
- may resolve present or future Air Force requirements. RACE is the link
- between industry, universities, the Department of Energy, NASA,
- technical societies, contractors and the Air Force.
-
- RACE is also responsible for providing organic technical expertise to
- the Air Force during integration of new robotics and automation system
- developments. RACE acts as a consultant throughout the entire
- acquisition process, providing technical evaluations from initial
- problem specification to implementation of proposed solution. RACE
- employee expertise, in-house test and evaluation facilities, and
- process studies are all used to support hardware transfer to the user.
-
- _[57]NRaD_ NRAD is the Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation
- Division of the Naval Command Control and Ocean Surveillance Center
- (NCCOSC), located in San Diego, California. NRaD and its predecessor
- organizations (Naval Ocean Systems Center (NOSC), Naval Undersea
- Center (NUC), etc.) have been involved in various aspects of robotics
- since the early 1960's.
-
- Robotics research and development at NRaD are currently performed by
- two groups:
-
- [58]The Advanced Systems Division (Code 37): land and air robots
- [59]The Ocean Engineering Division (Code 74): underwater robots
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Companies
-
- _Redzone Robotics_
-
-
-
- 2425 Liberty Avenue
- Pittsburgh, PA 15222-4639
- tel: 412.765.3064
- fax: 412.364.3069
-
- contact: Dave White
-
- A spin-off of CMU, Redzone has focused on hazwaste and nuke
- manipulator applications but is also developing mobile applications.
- Primarily protoypes and not multiple unit manufacturing at this time.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Southwest Research Institute_
-
-
-
- San Antonio, TX
-
- Robotics and Automation Department
- Some large systems for servicing aircraft (painting, spraying,
- deriveting etc)
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [8.4] Small Inexpensive Robots
-
- One of the most common discussions on the net are related to finding,
- building and working on small and low cost robots. There are several
- small robots on the market and a number of construction kits that
- robots can be built from such as Lego, FischerTechnik, Erector and
- Capsula. None of these require large investments. These systems are at
- most several hundred $US and can run on a desktop. There are also a
- number of kit robots that include printed-circuit boards and
- components.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Advanced Design, Inc._
-
-
-
- 6080 N. Oracle Road, Suite B
- Tucson, Arizona 85704
- USA
- tel: 520.544.2390
- fax: 520.575.0703
- net: desk@robix.com
-
- url: [60]Robix WWW Site
-
- ADI makes the Robix(tm) RCS-6 Robotic Construction Set, priced at
- US$550, or US$565 for 220V/50Hz and PAL video. The RCS-6 is designed
- specifically for use by educators and industrial modelers, and is used
- to build and operate a wide variety of PC connected desktop robots.
- Included are many construction parts, 6 hobby-type servos, an
- electronics interface with an 8-channel 8 bit A/D, power supply,
- software, manual, video, carrying case, and more, even including a
- pair of safety goggles.
-
- The 40-minute video that comes with the set is also available
- separately for just the airmail postage cost: US$3 to US locations, $4
- to Canada, $5 to Mexico and $8 to all other countries. Shown in the
- video are 5 different arms built for (and performing) 5 different
- tasks, a pair of 3-servo-each opposable fingers twiddling a ball, 3
- animatronic figures, and a 3-legged (but 6-footed) walker with both a
- walking and galloping stride. In addition, an arm is built
- step-by-step in the video, and then programmed interactively. The
- software includes a scripting interface as well as complete C and
- QuickBasic 4.5 libraries with documentation and sample code.
-
- For complete technical information, a faq section, text of a cover
- story about the RCS-6 in Popular Electronics Magazine, plus over 50
- image files (.gif's), a DOS PC .gif viewer, a useful section on what
- the set does *not* do, and more, download from the anonymous ftp site:
- [61]ftp://ftp.robix.com/pub/robix. See the readme.txt file there
- first.
-
- To get the video, order by phone or fax, or by email from
- desk@robix.com. Visa and Mastercard are accepted.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Aleph Technology_
-
-
-
- Parc Heliopolis
- 16 rue du Tour de l'eau
- BP 295-38407
- Saint Martin d'Heres cedex, France
- tel: +33 76422999
- fax: +33 76444620
-
- Small, turtle robot for education. 17000FF
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Angelus Research_
-
-
-
- 6344 Sugar Pine Circle #98
- Angelus Oaks, CA
- tel: 909.794.8325.
- contact: Don Golding
- net: [62]http://www.AngelusResearch.com
-
- Angelus' line of robot products includes:
-
-
- Whiskers the Robot-A 13 pound rugged robot which is very
- intelligent and is very simple to program ($895).
- Advanced Whiskers-Two networked processors allow real-time
- collision avoidance and navagation ($1895).
- ARC-100 controller-Build your own intelligent robot($895) like
- Whiskers. Networkable. ARC-110 controller-Like above but has
- our narrow beam sonar onboard. Networkable.
- HiPower Board-Drive two 10 amp DC motors($195).
- MR-1-Series robot for the serious researcher or roboticist.
- Available March 1996. ($1995-$10,000).
- Heathkit Hero intelligent upgrade kit ($795) includes:
-
-
- 1 ARC-110 controller
- 1 HiPower Board
- 4 6 inch Light sensor arrays
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Capsula_
-
-
-
- Play-Jour International
- Room 914, New World Office Building
- (East Wing), 24 Salisbury Rd
- Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
-
- Capsula is a robot construction set. Looks like a series of bubbles
- connected together. Some intriguing modules including IR control,
- voice commands, motorized clutches etc. Edmund Scientific sells this
- as do many toy stores.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Circuit Specialists Inc_
-
-
-
- PO Box 3047
- Scottsdale, AZ 85271-3047
- tel: 800.528.1417
- tel: 602.464.2485
-
- Quickshut robot arm sold by Circuit Specialists for $259. Appears to
- be a nice low cost 5 axis arm for education. IBM (or compatible)
- interface, kit including all components and board, power supply kit,
- software package, logic probe and experiments and instructions. If
- anyone has information as to who actually makes this please send me
- email. CSI has a FAX back service at 1(800)622-5426. At the voice
- prompt, enter 3060 for more information on the arm. The software
- package supplied includes test routines and Robot control proceedures.
- The software is written in BASIC and Assembly languages.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _The Electronic Gold Mine_
-
-
-
- PO Box 5408
- Scottsdale, AZ 85261
- tel: 602.451.7454
-
- Roamer Robot Kit. A simple, hardwired robot kit with all parts
- necessary to complete the kit. It sells for $39.95.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _FischerTechnik_
- [Germany]
-
-
-
- Fischerwerke
- Arthur Fischer GmbH & Co. KG
- Weinhalde 14-18
- D-72178 Waldachtal
- tel: germany 07443/12-487
- fax: germany 07443/12-591
-
- [USA]
-
-
-
- Model Technologies
- 2420 Van Layden Way
- Modesto, CA 95356
- tel: 209.575.3445
- fax: 209.575.2750
- url: [63]Fischertechnik
-
- [UK] Economatics Ltd
-
-
-
- Epic house, Darnell Road
- Attercliffe, Sheffield
- United Kingdom
- tel: +44 742 56 11 22
- fax: +44 742 43 93 04
- telex: 5 47 095 ECOMAT G
-
- Like Lego, Fischertechnik is a european-developed construction kit but
- much more comprehensive in scope. Electro-mechanical parts galore
- including a wide variety of switches, relays, slip rings, contacts,
- etc. Many types of building block units as well and computer
- interfaces available. More expensive than Lego. Model Technology,
- listed above, is one distributor. See also the Robot Explorer in the
- publications section.
-
- Here is a listing of some of the kits that they build: Interface for
- Macintosh: "Service II" from Boenig and Kallenbach, sold by
-
-
-
- Pandasoft Uhlandstrasse 195 D-1000
- Berlin 12
- fax: 030 315913-55
-
- For DM 498.- for Mac Plus or better. 8 digital in and outputs, 2
- analoguous inputs. With Hypercard Stack Computing Experimental and
- driver software for all Pascal versions, 4th Dimension and Ragtime
- (comparable to MSWorks). Works also with the FischerTechnik Robot and
- Plotter assembly kit, 80 pages manual in german?, 3 Diskettes.
-
- There are also computing kits containing interfaces for C64, PC and
- Apple II.
-
- Profi Computing by Fischer Technik:
- "High-end" kit, 3 motors, 6 switches, 4 lights, 2 fotocells, 20
- plugs patch bay, construction base-support plate, 12 models
- explained as there are a robot with a controlled hand, a
- plotter, a slot-machine, a credit-card reader and a CD-player
- (certainly without audio out), 888 parts in total: DM 376,
- needs the Service II interface.
-
- Training robot by Fischertechnik:
- 3 rotation axes which may be controlled simultaneously. Working
- radius between 12 and 37 cm, fetching height: 6 to 25 cm,
- driven by 3 Fischer Technik S-motors, positioning with infrared
- photocell, with cabling and manual, needs the Service II
- interface, for DM 547.
-
- Plotter/Scanner by Fischertechnik:
- Scanning head not included, "heavy duty" construction,
- precision less than 0.5 mm on a A4 surface, driven by 2 bipolar
- stepper motors, needs the Service II interface. For DM 487.-
-
- Computing by Fischertechnik:
- 10 models possible, all explained: antenna rotor, Plotter,
- Graphic Tablet, 2-axis robot etc., needs Service II and power
- supply for DM 298.-
-
- One source for Fischertechnik that was claimed to be the best,
- cheapest and fastest source is Tim King. He stocks a full line of all
- the kits as well as the individual components, including repair parts
- or service.
-
-
-
- Tim King Electronics
- 14595 Oceana
- Allen Park, MI, 48101
- tel: 313.928.2598
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Graymark International_
-
-
-
- Box 2015
- Tustin, CA 92681
- tel: 800.854.7393
-
- Graymark sells a variety of electronic kits, like Heathkit used to,
- and some small robot kits that resemble the OWI kits. (see below)
- Currently they sell a small sound-controlled robot "Scooter" (601A), a
- line finder "blinky" (602A) , and a small programmable robot "Copycat"
- (603A) and computer interfaces for the Copycat (parallel, serial and
- microprocessor interface. Robots are from $19 to $57 and interfaces
- are $18-$41.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Johuco, Ltd._
-
-
-
- Box 390
- Vernon, CT 06066
-
- Muramator and Photovore. These are simple robot control boards that
- are hardwired but can be adjusted using potentiometers. They sell bare
- PCBs and you can get the parts from Radio Shack or DigiKey. The PCBs
- sell for about $25.00.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Khepera Support Team_
-
-
-
- LAMI - DI - EPFL
- INF Ecublens
- 1015 Lusanne
- Switzerland
- tel: ++41 21 693.52.65
- fax: ++42 21 693.52.63
- net:
- contact: Franscesco Mondada
-
- Web site is at [64]http://lamiwww.epfl.ch/Khepera
-
- A VERY small mobile robot. Motorola 68331 Processor with 256K RAM and
- 256 or 512K ROM. Serial port. Six 10bit analog inputs. DC motor
- powered with incremental encoders. Eight IR proximity and light
- sensors. NiCd batteries. Additional capabilities can be added by using
- stackable K-extension bus. Software environments: Calm assembler (PC
- or MAC), Gnu C compiler (on all machines supported by GNU) and LabView
- (PC, Mac or Sun).
-
- * Size: 55mm diameter, 30mm high
- * Weight: 70grams
- * Cost: 3000 Swiss Francs [About $2K US]
- * Vision and Gripper modules under development.
-
- See also:
- Mondada et al. Mobile Robot Miniaturisation: A Tool for Investigation
- in Control Algorithms. Third International Symposium on Experimental
- Robotics, Kyoto, Japan, Oct 28-30, 1993
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _LEGO_
-
-
-
- Lego Dacta
- 555 Taylor Road
- PO Box 1600
- Enfield, CT 06083-1600
- tel: 800.527.8339
- fax: 203.763.2466
-
- Canadian office for Lego/Dacta: tel: 800-387-4387.
-
- LEGO Dacta is the educational branch of the LEGO company. Dacta sells
- the LEGO Technic product line. These are the geared and motorized
- versions for the LEGO system.
-
- Use anonymous ftp to obtain a list of a variety of lego information
- and application programs from:
- [65]ftp://earthsea.stanford.edu/pub/lego/
-
-
- CAD/ contains several languages for specifying models
- faq/ contains latest faq sheet for alt.toys.lego
- games/ Rules for games using lego people and pieces
- images/ Pictures and drawings of sets and instructions
- sets/ Database listings of lego sets and catalog numbers
- upload/ Place your files here!
-
- Lego kits recommended for robotics work include:
- 1038 Technical Universal Buggy - dual drive vehicle. $60
- 1032 Technic II w/ motorized transmission - $76
- 9605 Technic Resource Set - general parts kits - $200
- Lego-to-Mac software:
- Paradigm Software at tel:617.576.7675
- Bots at tel: 415.949.2126
- MIT has papers on LEGO projects available via FTP from:
- [66]ftp://kame.media.mit.edu/pub/el-memos. The files are in
- memo8.* "LEGO/LOGO: Learning Through and About Design"
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _M & T Systems_
-
-
-
- POB 7816
- Huntington Beach CA 92615
- Contact M &T Systems at:
- tel: 714.969.3166
- fax: 714.969.3167
- net: mandtsys@ix.netcom.com
-
- [Tom Thorton] The HexWalker(tm) walking robot kit is based on the
- Insectoid built by Gary Malolepsy of The Robotics Society of Southern
- California (RSSC), and chronicled in the February, March and April
- 1994 issues of Robot Builder (the newsletter of RSSC). The Insectoid
- robot was given passing mention by Scott Edwards in the June 1994
- issue of Nuts and Volts (How Far Can a Stamp Take You?).
-
- RSSC Club Officers had discussed kitting the walking robot up for
- members for several months, but had taken no action. Finally, I built
- one for myself. It generated so much attention at meetings that I
- decided to kit it out. The HexWalker(tm) robot kit is the result.
-
- As supplied in the kit the Hexwalker(tm) robot detects the world by
- means of two feelers. Normal movement for HexWalker(tm) is to walk
- forward using the opposing triangle gait. When the robot detects an
- obstacle (when a feeler switch closes) it pauses, backs up several
- steps, turns left or right, and resumes forward walking. HexWalker(tm)
- turns left when the right feeler switch closes, or right when the left
- feeler switch closes.
-
- HexWalker(tm) is large enough to work on easily. It measures 8 1/2
- inches (22cm) long (plus feelers), 6 1/2 inches (16cm) wide, and 2 1/2
- inches (6cm) tall. It is strong, able to support its own weight (12
- ounces) plus about an 8 ounce payload.
-
- Modifying the basic robot is encouraged. Ideas for
- modification/improvement include: Substitute LED photodetectors for
- the feeler/snapswitch sensors. Add a second Stamp to HexWalker(tm)
- that performs sensor monitoring functions. Add additional sensors to
- HexWalker(tm).
-
- * Backup sensor to prevent walking into objects when walking
- backwards.
- * Down sensor to detect "cliffs" and prevent walking off edges.
- * Sonar for long range sensing."
-
-
- HexWalker(tm) sells for US $125.00.
- California residents add 7.75% sales tax.
- Shipping throughout North America is US $3.00.
- Shipping to all others is US $15.00.
- The kit without Basic Stamp (if you have your own controller)
- is US $100.00 plus s &h.
- The construction manual alone is US $10.00 plus US $1.00 s &h.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Meccano/Erector_
-
-
-
- Headquarters:
- 363, avenue de Saint-Exupery
- 62104 CALAIS CEDEX - FRANCE
- Tel. 21.96.63.90
- Fax. 21.96.34.35
- In the US:
- 888 Seventh Avenue
- New York, NY 10106
-
- Erector sets have been around for over 80 years and many interesting
- things can be built with these construction sets. There are several
- mechanical construction systems available. The best source of info
- I've seen is a list put together by Colin Hinz at
- [67]ftp://psych.toronto.edu/pub/meccano
-
- The German model train company, Maerklin makes a Meccano compatible
- construction set. They also have a 1007 Robotic Arm kit and
- programmable controller as well. ~$300 You may be able to order it
- through a local train and hobby shop.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Mondotronics_
-
-
-
- 524 San Anselmo Ave.,
- #107
- San Anselmo, CA 94960
- tel: 415.455.9330
- 800.374.5764 (orders)
- fax: 415.455.9333
- 800.455.9333 (orders)
- net: info@mondo.com
-
- A wide variety of Nickel-Titanium Alloy products. Mondo can supply an
- email brochure as well as a Muscle Wire FAQ. Products include:
-
- Muscle Wire Project Book- New 3rd Edition. Presenting everything you
- need to successfully design, build, and operate devices with Muscle
- Wire - nickel-titanium filaments that actually contract when
- electrically powered and lift thousands of times their own weight.
-
- Topics include: Basic lever action, ratchets and latches, model
- railroad crossing, AC power circuit, solar power circuit, paper
- airplane launcher, life-like butterfly, rubber tube "flexi",
- proportional control, radio control interface, programmable multiple
- wire controller & serial port interface, PC parallel port interface
- and much more. Boris the six-legged motorless miniature walking
- machine.
-
- BORIS - A miniature motorless six-legged walking machine
- SPECIFICATIONS
- Length: 13.5 cm
- Height: 4.5 cm
- Weight: 30 grams
- Power & Drive:
- - Eight 100 um dia. Muscle Wires (50 centimeters total).
- - 6 volts, 500 milliamp max.
- - Full software control via PC parallel printer port.
-
- -
-
- MUSCLE WIRES PROJECT BOOK 3-133 $17.95
-
- MUSCLE WIRES PROJECT BOOK & DELUXE KIT
- Includes meter each of Flexinol 050, 100 and 150, plus crimps and
- instructions. Enough to build all the projects in the Project Book
- including Boris the motorless walking machine. An ideal starter
- package for engineers, students and experimenters of all ages.
-
- Project Book & Deluxe Kit 3-168 $59.95
-
- MUSCLE WIRES RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT PACKAGE
- A complete package designed for corporate and laboratory Research and
- Development work with shape memory alloys. Includes the following:
- * Muscle Wires Project Book
- * Five meters each of Flexinol 050, 100 and 150
- * One meter of Flexinol 250
- * Crimps & instructions
-
- Muscle Wires R & D Package 3-102 $249.00 A wide variety of NiTiNol
- lengths and diameters are also available. Send email to
- info@mondo.com.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _OWI (Movit robots)_
-
-
-
- 1160 Mahalo Place
- Compton, CA 90220-5443
- tel: 310.638.4732
- fax: 310.638.8347
-
- Many educational toy store, hobby stores, and electronic parts stores
- carry these kits. Also available from:
-
-
- Jayso Electrnics 800.426.4422 or 212.798.1050
- Pitsco 800.835.0686
- Edmund Scientific 609.573.6260 (See Robot Parts Section)
- Hobbico 800.637.7660
-
- These are small toy-like robots that reflexively respond to obstacles,
- sounds or light depending on the model. They're cute and show what can
- be done with a relatively small amount of hardware. The top of the
- line model is the Wao II which has two 'feelers' for bump sensors and
- can be programmed with an on board key-pad or via a host computer. It
- sells for $89.95. Most of the other robot kits sell for between $35
- and $55. The kits usually only require mechanical hardware assembly
- (no soldering required.) Edmund also has a Robotic Technology
- Curriculum with lessons and tests featuring the Movit robots.
- Curriculum is $65 from Edmund Scientific.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Reality Robots_
-
-
-
- Marvin Green,
- 821 SW 14th, Troutdale, OR 97060
- tel: 503.666.5907
- net: marvin@agora.rdrop.com
-
- Starter Kits
-
- The B-BOT Frame:
- This is a complete robot frame with a 360 degree bumper skirt
- and clear head dome. The frame is six inches in diameter and
- uses two modified RC servos (not included). The B-BOT can be
- controlled by a small microcontroller, such as the BOTBoard,
- Mini Board, PIC or BASIC STAMP. The B-BOT Frame is expandable,
- flexible, and makes it easy to get your robot projects off the
- ground quickly.
- The B-BOT Frame and assembly manual is $29.95. The B-BOT jr.
- (smaller, with single level base) is $19.95. Please add $4.00
- shipping for first kit, $1.00 for each additional kit. Please
- make check or money order to Marvin Green at the above address.
-
- The BOTBoard:
- The BOTBoard is a bare printed circuit board designed for
- robotic applications. The BOTBoard uses the popular 68HC11
- microcontroller in a minimum configuration, and is easily
- programmed >from your PC. Engineered to be flexible, the
- BOTBoard is also powerful and easy to use. Each board measures
- 2" X 3" and contains 38 I/O pins, and a small prototyping area.
-
- The BOTBoard is $5.95 each, or three for $15.00. Add $1.25 plus
- $.25 for each board for shipping.
-
- The ARMBOT:
- The ARMBOT is a flexible three axis robotic arm. It is designed
- to use small unmodified RC servos and a microcontroller. The
- ARM-BOT provides clockwise and counter clockwise rotation of
- greater than 180 degree, shoulder lift of greater than 45
- degree a gripper range of about two inches. The ARMBOT is
- surprisingly strong. It's fun to use, and can easily be build
- within a couple of hours.
- The ARMBOT kit and instruction manual is $12.95. Please add
- $2.00 shipping and handling.
-
- NOTE: These kits are designed to spark your intuitive engineering
- skills. Each kit comes with a detailed manual, assembly instructions,
- diagrams, parts list, and all the custom parts needed to build the
- kit. Common parts, such as RC servos or ICs are not included because
- they can be purchased elsewhere. Keep in mind that you may need to
- drill some holes or use a soldering iron.
-
- real_bot.zip contains three gif images of the ARMBOT and B-BOT.
- [68]ftp://cherupakha.media.mit.edu/pub/incoming/real_bot.zip
- Seattle Robotics Society BBS: (206) 362-5267
-
- I designed these kits to help inspire people to build robots. The kits
- are high quality and inexpensive. Please contact me for more
- information. martin@agora.rdrop.com
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Rug Warrior_
-
-
-
- A K Peters
- 289 Linden Street
- Wellesley, MA 02181
- tel: 617.235.2210
- fax: 617.235.2404
- net: kpeters@geom.umn.edu
- url: [69]http://www.tiac.net/users/akpeters
-
- A companion kit for the book, Mobile Robots: Inspiration to
- Implementation. See [70]Books section of this FAQ. The Rug Warrior
- circuit board is designed to support the construction of small, yet
- sophisticated mobile robots. The board provides all the processing,
- memory, and sensor circuitry needed for a custom designed robot.
- $289.00. Does not include chassis, skirt and motors.
-
- Rug Warrior offers the following features: Motorola MC68HC11
- microcontroller, LCD display (32 alphanumeric characters), 32K of
- battery backed RAM, RS-232 serial port, Collision detection from any
- of 6 directions, Photoresistor light sensors, Infrared obstacle
- detection, Microphone for sound detection, Piezoelectric buzzer
- generates tones of arbitrary frequency, Motor driver chip allows
- control of two DC motors, Dual shaft encoders allow velocity/position
- control, Four user controllable LEDs, Optional pyroelectric (heat)
- sensor, Expansion capabilities for more sensors and actuators.
-
- The kit consists of a circuit board with the logic and interface
- components already soldered on and tested, plus all the sensors and
- other circuitry needed to build the robot board as described in our
- book "Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implimentation."
-
- The kit includes Interactive C (IC) on a disk for either Mac or PC.
- Self test routines are also provided for each of the standard sensors
- and actuators. In the near future A. K. Peters plans to offer a
- complete robot kit including chassis, skirt, and motors.
-
- The "Mobile Robot Kit", Rug Warrior from AK Peters is now available in
- the "IBUKI Trading Post" on the WWW. The URL for the Trading Post is:
- [71]IBUKI The "Rug Warrior" can be found under "Toys toys from IBUKI"
- on the "Robots" page. More robot kits will be coming soon. If you want
- one listed please contact IBUKI. Questions or comments can be sent to
- IBUKI from the pages of the Trading Post or by sending email to
- [72]rww@ibuki.com
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Stiquito_
- The Stiquito is a small muscle-wire actuated robot developed by Jon
- Mills and his students at Indiana University.
-
- Stiquito is a small six-legged robot that you customize by adding
- sensors, controllers, power sources, etc. The robot provides an
- inexpensive platform to study computational sensors, subsumption
- architectures, neural gait control, emergent cooperative behavior, and
- machine vision. It is currently being used for research at IU, and, at
- a ratio of one robot per student, in "VLSI for Robotics" and "Machine
- Learning" classes.
-
- Stiquito is small (3cm H x 7cm W x 6cm L) and simple (32 parts)
- because its legs are propelled by nitinol actuator wires. Each leg has
- one degree of freedom. The robot walks up to 10 centimeters per minute
- and can carry a 9-volt cell, a MOSIS "tiny chip" and power transistors
- to drive the nitinol actuator wires. Alternatively, power and control
- can be supplied through a tether.
-
- After being innundated with requests for the unit, sales of the kits
- are now being handled by Robotic Systems. Robotic Systems offers a kit
- to build the Stiquto II walking robot The kit is $45 and includes a
- PCB for a PC-based controller (Mac version coming soon).
-
-
-
- [73]Robotic Systems, Inc.
- 1102 West Glen River Road
- Glendale, Wisconsin 53217
- url: [74]http://www.robotic.com
- contact: Clint Laskowski, President
- tel: 414.821.7675
- fax: 414.963.4825
-
- For more information including comprehensive technical reports on
- Stiquito, please see
- [75]http://www.cs.indiana.edu/robotics/stiquito.html
-
- See [76]ftp://www.cs.indiana.edu/pub/stiquito/STIQUITO.INFO for an
- overview of Stiquito and the files at Indiana.
-
- Technical report TR 414 - _Stiquito II and Tensipede: Two
- Easy-to-build Nitinol-propelled Robots_ is available in FINAL DRAFT
- via anonymous ftp from [77]ftp://cs.indiana.edu/pub/stiquito
-
- The report is archived as four .hqx (binhex encoded) .sea (stuffit
- lite self-extracting archive) Microsoft Word 4, 5 & 6, available on
- PCs. Macs should be able to read and print word 4 documents.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _TSS Lynxmotion_
-
-
-
- Technical Service and Solutions
- 104 Partridge Road
- Pekin, IL 61554-1403
- contact: Jim Frye
- tel: 309.382.1254
- net: [78]jfrye@dris.com
- url: [79]www.lynxmotion.com
-
- TSS is Home of the Lynxmotion Robotic Arm. It uses Scott Edwards Mini
- SSC Controller.
- * 5 axis (base rotate, shoulder, elbow, wrist and gripper)
- * All axis' are closed loop.
- * Can be completely battery powered by a 9V and 6V battery.
- * Extremely easy to program and control with any serial port.
- * Can utilize a PC, single board computer, PIC or even BASIC Stamp.
- * Very fast, accurate and repeatable movement.
- * Available in three different configurations.
-
-
- _Basic kit_
- Includes all hardware, structural components, a 27 page
- detailed assembly manual with illustrations, and software. You
- will need to provide the servos and a Mini SSC servo
- controller.
- Basic kit $60, additional $10 for software.
- _Level 2 kit_
- Includes all hardware, structural components, assembly manual,
- software, 6 servos and a Mini SSC servo controller.
- Level 2 kit $180
- _Level 3 kit_
- Completely assembled and tested robot ready to move.
- $255 with software included
-
- Please note that there are additional shipping charges. See TSS' home
- page or contact TSS for more details.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Tomy Armatron_
-
- The Armatron was sold by Radio Shack in the US and was a popular small
- plastic manipulator. A mobile version, the Mobile Armatron was also
- sold. A number of articles appeared in the hobbyist press regarding
- linking the Armatrons to computers. The Armatron is a clever, maybe
- even brilliant, mechanical engineering feat that uses a single motor
- to control all 6 degrees of motion AND the timer. The mobile version
- is still being sold in Japan and is called the "GO ROBO ARM" You might
- be able to pick one up at a flea market or garage sale. They have
- shown up again in the Fall of 1994 in Radio Shack stores. Buy it -
- they are neat, very clever, inexpensive and fun.
-
- Articles:
- * Computer Controlled Robot Arm, Jimmy Banas, Radio Electronics, pp.
- 49-53, and 117, May 1985. The control requires the addition of 6
- DC motors, and machining of 'bearing blocks' to hold gears and
- align shafts.
- * Armatron: A Study in Arm Engineering, Mark Robillard, Robotics
- Age, Nov/Dec 1982, Vol. 4 No. 6, pp.40-46 (cover photo too)
- * Super Armatron, John J. Shiavone, Mike Dawson, and James E.
- Brandeberry, Robotics Age, Jan 1984, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 20-28.
-
- Myron A. Calhoun provided the following information on the Mobile
- Armatron:
-
- The four batteries are wired in series; the center is reference, so
- there is +/- 2.5 volts to control the motor. Between the main body
- (which holds the battery) and the control head is a color-coded
- seven-wire flat cable. The BLACK wire is one side of reference; the
- BROWN wire is the other side of reference, and the reference wire
- color is WHITE. In the control head are two rheostats (ganged) to
- control motor speeds by controlling applied voltage.
-
-
- Wire
- color | Controls | Details
- -------+--------------+----------------------------------------------------
- BLUE | main UP | BROWN (~250 ma.)
- | arm DOWN | BLACK (~200 ma.)
- | | This motor has a spring counterbalance to assist
- | | "up" motion. I did not disassemble the main arm,
- | | but suspect there is quite a lot of gearing inside.
- | |
- ORANGE | wrist UP | BROWN (~200 ma.)
- | DOWN | BLACK (~200 ma.)
- | | I did disassemble this arm, and there are SEVERAL
- | | layers of geardown involved.
- | |
- RED | finger CYCLE | BLACK (~200 ma. when open, ~235 ma. closed)
- | | The open/close cycle is caused by a cam.
- | |
- | wrist ROTATE | BROWN (~225-255 ma.)
- | | A ratchet mechanism permits finger-cycling versus
- | | wrist-rotation using just one motor. When the
- | | motor turns one way a ratchet locks wrist turning
- | | but allows finger cycling, and vice versa.
- | |
- YELLOW | left FORWARD| BROWN (~350 ma. when driven by itself)
- | drive REVERSE| BLACK (~350 ma. when driven by itself)
- | wheel |
- | |
- GREEN | right FORWARD| BROWN (~350 ma. when driven by itself)
- | drive REVERSE| BLACK (~350 ma. when driven by itself)
- | wheel | When both wheels are driven in the same direction,
- | | the total current draw is ~475 ma. Internally, both
- | | drive motors are actually in one unit; I suspect
- | | there is some clutch interlock between them.
-
- I disassembled most of the body/forearm/wrist (but NOT the main arm)
- just for fun. Inside the main turret is a pedestal upon which is
- mounted a small PC card which terminates all wiring. Coming up from
- below are all seven wires from the flat cable plus several (thinner)
- wires from the battery compartment and the motors. They connect to the
- PC card IN THIS ORDER from left to right when viewing from the rear:
-
- BLACK BROWN RED ORANGE YELLOW GREEN BLUE WHITE (common)
-
- Going up into the arm mechanisms are three wires, RED/WHITE, ORANGE/
- WHITE, and BLUE/WHITE, and associated with each is a white wire. In
- general, the wiring is color-consistent; the RED-with-WHITE-stripe
- wire connects to the RED terminal, the BLUE-with-WHITE-strip wire to
- the BLUE terminal, all of the WHITE wires to the WHITE (common)
- terminal, etc. But inside the base unit an ORANGE wire connected to
- one end of the battery (opposite the BLACK wire connected to the other
- end of the battery). I did NOT see a BROWN wire here as would be
- expected. Myron.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Ublige Software and Robotics Corporation_
-
-
-
- P.O. Box 18034
- Huntsville, AL, 35804-8034
- net: [80]usr@delphi.com
- url: [81]http://www.traveller.com/~insecta/
- tel: 205.518.9422
- contact: Luis Lopez
-
- Kits and pre-assembled robot walkers (insects). USR produces
- Electro-Optic components and software tools for compound eye robotics.
- The catalog lists a low-cost walking system kit called Prometheus and
- Sparticus on the order of $1500 (US). A number of control and I/O
- modules are also available (eg. RS232 interface, data acquisition,
- motor control module, motor driver etc.) Leg units are also sold
- separately.
-
- For USR's catalog, which includes a Video for Windows demo of their
- robots in action and a selection of research articles, please send
- check or money orderfor $3US within the United States or $7US for
- outside the United States the address above.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- _Zagros Robotics_
-
-
-
- PO Box 460342
- St. Louis, MO 63146-7342
- tel: 314.768.1328
- net: [82]zagros@Walden.MO.NET
- contact: Atha Jamar Neal III
-
- Zagros sells two robot kits. All you need to add is a CPU, and you
- have a fully functional robot. Zagros offers their own HC11 based
- processor board with 'C' compiler. The Mini Max has a maximum speed of
- about 22.5 meters/minute. Each drive motor generates 1.1 Nm of torque.
- The platform is 30cmx30cm 6mm thick industrial plastic. Zagros accepts
- check, money order, COD, Discover, Visa and Mastercard.
-
- Mini Max Robot Kit $129.95 (plus $15.00 shipping) This kit includes
- the following:
-
- * (2) 12 volt DC drive motors
- * (2) 15cm drive wheels
- * (1) caster wheel
- * (1) base plane 30cm x 30cm
- * (1) battery power supply
- * (1) motor driver kit
- * (1) book of project notes
- * (1) solderless breadboard
-
- MAX '96 ROBOT KIT $189.95 (plus $15.00 shipping)
- * (2) 12 volt DC drive motors
- * (2) 15cm drive wheels
- * (2) caster wheels
- * (1) base plane 41cmx41cm
- * (1) battery power supply
- * (1) motor driver kit
- * (2) pulse encoders
- * (1) book of project notes
- * (1) solderless breadboard
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- *
-
- [8.5] Entertainment Robots
-
- While not quite in the mainstream of robotics research, there are a
- number of companies catering to mainstream venues using animated
- figures that are remotely controlled. These are often used to
- entertain people in restaurants, at shows and conferences,promotional
- events and at a variety of other types of gatherings.
-
- _The Robot Factory_
-
-
-
- 3740 Interpark Drive
- Colorado Springs, CO 80907
- tel: 719.447.0331
- fax: 719.447.0332
- net: [83]info@robotfactory.com
- url: [84]http://www.robotfactory.com/
-
- Robots for advertising, education and entertainment since 1966. The
- major product categories available from The Robot Factory include
- Talking signs, mobile robots, animated Musicians and customized
- robots.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Last-Modified: Mon Sep 9 09:49:48 1996
-
-
- [85]Kevin Dowling <nivek@cmu.edu>
-
- References
-
- 1. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/copyright.html
- 2. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/TOC.html
- 3. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/8.html#8.1
- 4. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/8.html#8.1.1
- 5. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/8.html#8.1.2
- 6. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/8.html#8.2
- 7. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/8.html#8.3
- 8. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/8.html#8.4
- 9. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/8.html#8.5
- 10. http://www.robotics.com/
- 11. mailto:rpaske@iserv.net
- 12. http://www.infi.net/~cyberdog/
- 13. url: www.helpmaterobotics.com
- 14. http://isr.com/~isr
- 15. http://isr.com/~isr
- 16. mailto:sales@rwii.com
- 17. http://www.rwii.com/
- 18. http://www.activmedia.com/RealWorld/RobotHome.html
- 19. http://www.newtonlabs.com/"
- 20. http://www.tag.co.uk/robots/
- 21. http://www.munc.com/
- 22. http://www.sover.net/~rovtech
- 23. mailto:rovtech@sover.net
- 24. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/http;//www.adept.com/
- 25. mailto:eshedbv@pi.net
- 26. http://www.pi.net/~eshedbv/
- 27. http://www.eshed.com/
- 28. http://www.pi.net/~eshedbv/dealer.html
- 29. http://www.ise.bc.ca/
- 30. mailto:info@ise.bc.ca
- 31. http://www.ar2.com/kawasak.htm
- 32. mailto:info@kinetic.bc.ca
- 33. http://www.asi.bc.ca/asi/affiliates/kinetic/KSI_home_pg.html
- 34. http://www.asi.bc.ca/asi/affiliates/kinetic/KSI_home_pg.html
- 35. http://www.japan.hosting.ibm.com/komatsu/index-e.htm
- 36. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/www.quay.co.uk/labman/
- 37. mailto:robotics1@aol.com
- 38. mailto:robotics1@dial.pipex.com
- 39. http://ds.dial.pipex.com/robotics1/
- 40. http://www.seikorobots.com/
- 41. mailto:kipr@src.umd.edu
- 42. http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/dmiller/kipr/kipr.html
- 43. http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~nivek/faq/3.html#3.3
- 44. gopher://etlport.etl.go.jp/
- 45. http://www.gmd.de/AGF-Anschriften.html
- 46. http://borneo.gmd.de/AS/janus/pages/janus.htm
- 47. http://ranier.oact.hq.nasa.gov/staff/Lavery.html
- 48. http://ranier.oact.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics_page/telerobotics.html
- 49. http://maas-neotek.arc.nasa.gov/
- 50. http://robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/../robotics.html
- 51. http://tommy.jsc.nasa.gov/
- 52. http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/ksc.html
- 53. http://www.arc.nasa.gov/
- 54. http://www.kelly-afb.org/links/orgs/race/race.htm
- 55. mailto:ti-race@sadis01.kelly.af.mil
- 56. mailto:sknauber@sadis05.kelly.af.mil
- 57. http://www.nosc.mil/robots/
- 58. http://www.nosc.mil/robots/people.html#Code37
- 59. http://www.nosc.mil/robots/people.html#Code74
- 60. http://www.robix.com/
- 61. ftp://ftp.robix.com/pub/robix
- 62. http://www.AngelusResearch.com/
- 63. http://www.phoenix.org/fischer/index.shtml
- 64. http://lamiwww.epfl.ch/Khepera
- 65. ftp://earthsea.stanford.edu/pub/lego/
- 66. ftp://kame.media.mit.edu/pub/el-memos
- 67. ftp://psych.toronto.edu/pub/meccano
- 68. ftp://cherupakha.media.mit.edu/pub/incoming/real_bot.zip
- 69. http://www.tiac.net/users/akpeters
- 70. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/4.html#4.2.1
- 71. http://www.portal.com/~rww/trading_post.html
- 72. mailto: rww@ibuki.com
- 73. http://www.robotic.com/
- 74. http://www.robotic.com/
- 75. http://www.cs.indiana.edu/robotics/stiquito.html
- 76. ftp://www.cs.indiana.edu/pub/stiquito/STIQUITO.INFO
- 77. ftp://cs.indiana.edu/pub/stiquito
- 78. mailto:jfrye@dris.com
- 79. http://www.lynxmotion.com/
- 80. mailto:usr@delphi.com
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [9] What is a Robot Architecture?
-
- A robot 'architecture' primarily refers to the software and hardware
- framework for controlling the robot. A VME board running C code to
- turn motors doesn't really constitute an architecture by itself. The
- development of code modules and the communication between them begins
- to define the architecture.
-
- Robotic systems are complex and tend to be difficult to develop. They
- integrate multiple sensors with effectors, have many degrees of
- freedom and must reconcile hard real-time systems with systems which
- cannot meet real-time deadlines [Jones93]. System developers have
- typically relied upon robotic architectures to guide the construction
- of robotic devices and for providing computational services (e.g.,
- communications, processing, etc.) to subsystems and components. These
- architectures, however, have tended thus far to be task and domain
- specific and have lacked suitability to a broad range of applications.
- For example, an architecture well suited for direct teleoperation
- tends not to be amenable for supervisory control or for autonomous
- use.
-
- One recent trend in robotic architectures has been a focus on
- behavior-based or reactive systems. Behavior based refers to the fact
- that these systems exhibit various behaviors, some of which are
- emergent [Man92]. These systems are characterized by tight coupling
- between sensors and actuators, minimal computation, and a
- task-achieving "behavior" problem decomposition.
-
- The other leading architectural trend is typified by a mixture of
- asynchronous and synchronous control and data flow. Asychronous
- processes are characterized as loosely coupled and event-driven
- without strict execution deadlines. Synchronous processes, in
- contrast, are tightly coupled, utilize a common clock and demand hard
- real-time execution.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Subsumption/reactive references
-
- Arkin, R.C., _Integrating Behavioral, Perceptual, and World Knowledge
- in Reactive Navigation_, Robotics & Autonomous Systems, 1990
-
- Brooks, R.A., _A Robust Layered Control System for a Mobile Robot_,
- IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, March 1986.
-
- Brooks, R.A., _A Robot that Walks; Emergent Behaviors from a Carefully
- Evolved Network_, Neural Comutation 1(2) (Summer 1989)
-
- Brooks, Rod, _AI Memo 864: A Robust Layered Control System For a
- Mobile Robot_. Look in [3]ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/
-
- Brooks, Rod, _AI Memo 1227: The Behavior Language: User's Guide_. look
- in [4]ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/
-
- Connell, J.H., _A Colony Architecture for an Artificial Creature_, MIT
- Ph. D. Thesis in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1989.
-
- Erann Gat, et al, _Behavior Control for Robotic Exploration of
- Planetary Surfaces_ To be published in IEEE R &A. FTPable.
- [5]ftp://robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/gat/bc4pe.rtf
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Insect-based control schemes
-
- Randall D. Beer, Roy E. Ritzmann, and Thomas McKenna, editors,
- _Biological Neural Networks in Invertebrate Neuroethology and
- Robotics_, Academic Press, 1993.
-
- Hillel J. Chiel, et al, _Robustness of a Distributed Neural Network
- Controller for Locomotion in a Hexapod Robot,_ IEEE Transactions on
- Robotics and Automation, 8(3):293-303, June, 1992.
-
- Joseph Ayers and Jill Crisman, _Biologically-Based Control of
- Omnidirectional Leg Coordination,_ Proceedings of the 1992 IEEE/RSJ
- International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp.
- 574-581.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Asynchronous/synchronous
-
- (i.e., "traditional", "top-down", etc.)
-
- Amidi, O., _Integrated Mobile Robot Control_, CMU-RI-TR-90-17,
- Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 1990.
-
- Albus, J.S., McCain, H.G., and Lumia, R., _NASA/NBS Standard Reference
- Model for Telerobot Control System Architecture (NASREM)_ NIST
- Technical Note 1235, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, July 1987.
-
- Butler, P.L., and Jones, J.P., _A Modular Control Architecture for
- Real-Time Synchronous and Asynchronous Systems_, Proceedings of SPIE
-
- Fong, T.W., _A Computational Architecture for Semi-autonomous Robotic
- Vehicles_, AIAA Computing in Aerospace conference, AIAA 93-4508, 1993.
-
- Lin, L., Simmons, R., and Fedor, C., _Experience with a Task Control
- Architecture for Mobile Robots_, CMU-RI-TR 89-29, Robotics Institute,
- Carnegie Mellon University, December 1989.
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- Schneider, S.A., Ullman, M.A., and Chen, V.W., _ControlShell: A
- Real-time Software Framework_, Real-Time Innovations, Inc., Sunnyvale,
- CA 1992.
-
- Stewart, D.B., _Real-Time Software Design and Analysis of
- Reconfigurable Multi-Sensor Based Systems_, Ph.D. Dissertation, 1994
- Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon
- University, Pittsburgh. Available online at [6]STEWART_PHD_1994.ps.Z
- It's 180+ pages.
-
- Stewart, D.B., M. W. Gertz, and P. K. Khosla, _Software Assembly for
- Real-Time Applications Based on a Distributed Shared Memory Model_, in
- Proc. of the 1994 Complex Systems Engineering Synthesis and Assessment
- Technology Workshop (CSESAW '94), Silver Spring, MD, pp. 217-224, July
- 1994.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Last-Modified: Sun Aug 11 08:50:22 1996
-
-
- [7]Kevin Dowling <nivek@cmu.edu>
-
- References
-
- 1. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/copyright.html
- 2. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/TOC.html
- --
- aka: Kevin Dowling, <nivek+@cmu.edu> address: Carnegie Mellon University
- tel: 1.412.268.8830 The Robotics Institute
- fax: 1.412.268.5895 5000 Forbes Avenue
- url: http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~nivek Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA
- --
- aka: Kevin Dowling, <nivek+@cmu.edu> address: Carnegie Mellon University
- tel: 1.412.268.8830 The Robotics Institute
- fax: 1.412.268.5895 5000 Forbes Avenue
- url: http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~nivek Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA
-