🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul27.174110.5064@trantor.harris-atd.com> dwilliam@jabba.ess.harris.com (David Williams) writes:
>
>   Somehow I think I'm going to get flamed... "what?  I've got eight
>3" by 4" six-leggers munching on my ankles right now!  All are powered
>by watch batteries, and use a 4-bit processor!  You're an idiot"
>
>   Seriously, a six-legger that had been stripped down to reduce it's
>complexity seems like it would just not be that much fun to fiddle with.
>On the other hand, I couldn't come up with any mechanism for a six 
>legger with each leg having two degrees of freedom that wouldn't cost
>an arm and a ... leg?  (uuupppphhh!  pun not intended)
>

This is not a flame, but a reference to a really neat small six legged
robot. 

Reference 1: Brooks. Rodney A.
	     New Approaches to robotics
             Science v253  p1227-32 Sept 13 '91

	In this article there is a picture of Genghis, a six legged
robot and the caption reads:

	"Genghis is a six-legged robot measuring 35 centimeters in
	length. Each rigid leg is attached at a shoulder joint with
	two degrees of rotational freedom, each driven by a model
	airplane position controllable servo motor.  The sensors
	are pitch and roll inclinometers, two collision-sensitive
	antennae, six forward-looking passive pyroelectric infrared
	sensors, and a crude force measurements from the servo loops
	of each motor.  There are four onboard eight-bit
	microprocessors, three of which handle motor and sensor signals
	and one which runs the subsumption architecture."

There are many references in the article, some of which are specific
to Genghis.

Almost certainly, Genghis is not an ``inexpensive'' or ``stripped down''
robot, but it is impressive.
 
If I remember correctly, there is also a group at Case Western Univ. (
led by a Dr. Sterling? ) that has created a neural net that runs a six
legged cockroach.

Perhaps the six legged insect approach should be placed in the FAQ?

Mark D. Smucker   ----   mds@iastate.edu