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Started by Kevin Dowling
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comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) part 1/2
Author: Kevin Dowling
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1993 18:51
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1993 18:51
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Archive-name: robotics-faq/part1
Last-modified: Mon Jan 4 12:57:52 1993
This is part 1 of 2 of the comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ) list. This FAQ addresses commonly asked questions relating to
robotics.
____________________________________________________________________________
This FAQ was compiled and written by Kevin Dowling with numerous
contributions by readers of comp.robotics. Acknowledgements are listed
at end of part2 of this FAQ.
Changes, additions, comments, suggestions and questions to:
nivek@ri.cmu.edu
aka: Kevin Dowling
Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
___________________________________________________________________________
Changes since last posting:
New introduction and ftp/uucp/Email instructions
Numerous additions and changes to sensors and suppliers
Archive list
Book subject category
Controller survey inclusion
____________________________________________________________________________
Contents:
Part 1
Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives
Changes since last posting
Professional organizations
Conference listings
Publications
Mobile robot companies
Manipulator companies
Organizations doing robotics
Graduate programs in robotics
Part 2
Sensors
Suppliers and sources for parts
Hero Robots
Puma Manipulators
Simulators
Real-Time Operating Systems
Robot Controller Survey
Books
Acknowledgements
_____________________________________________________________________________
Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives:
This FAQ is currently posted to news.answers and comp.robotics. All
posts to news.answers are archived and are available via anonymous
FTP, uucp and e-mail from the following locations:
FTP:
location: pit-manager.mit.edu [18.72.1.58]
directory: /pub/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq
filenames: part1, part2
location: ftp.uu.net [137.39.1.9]
directory: /archive/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq
filenames: part1.Z, part2.Z [use uncompress]
location: nic.switch.ch [130.59.1.40]
directory: info_service/Usenet/periodic-postings
filenames: 157, 158 [Check info_service/Usenet/00index if wrong]
location: ftp.cs.cmu.edu [128.2.206.173]
directory: /user/nivek/robotics-faq
filenames: part1, part2
UUCP:
location: uunet!/archive/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/
filenames: part1.Z, part2.Z
E-mail:
Send email to mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu containing these lines:
send usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part1
send usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part2
comp.robotics archives
You can find a dozen or more sites in the US, Europe and Japan that
store the FAQ and archives for comp.robotics by using the Internet
search programs, Archie or Wais
One location is
location: wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/comp.robotics/
filenames: read and search AuthorIndex and SubjectIndex first.
New users on the net should read news.announce.newusers
____________________________________________________________________________
Robotics Related Organizations:
IEEE
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Service Center
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854-4150
(201) 981-0060
A large organization with hundreds of publications including journals,
transactions, Spectrum, sponsoring conferences, workshops and meetings.
Society of Manufacturing Engineers, (SME)
One SME Drive
PO Box 930
Dearborn, MI 48121
(313) 271-1500
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, (ASME)
345 E. 47th Street
New York, NY 10017
Mechanical Engineering magazine, like the IEEE's Spectrum, is an
excellent general publication on aspects of mechanical engineering.
There are often publications on robotics and the ASME sponsors a
number of other publications and conferences that are relevant to
robotics.
National Service Robots Association (NSRA)
900 Victors Way
PO Box 3724
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
(313) 994-6088
An organization devoted to robots other than on the factory floor.
Robotics Industry Association (RIA)
(same address as NSRA)
SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering)
P.O.Box 10
Bellingham, Washington 98227-0010.
SPIE has publications, meetings and conferences in the
field of intelligent robots, mobile robots, teleoperation,
machine vision, etc.
Utility/Manufacturer Robot Users group (UMRUG)
Contact:
Harry T. Roman
Principal Engineer - Research
MC: 16-H
Public Service Electric and Gas Company
80 Park Plaza
PO Box 570
Newark, NJ 07101
(201) 430-6646
Advanced Robot Technology Research Association (Japan)
Kikai-shinko Bldg
3-5-8 Shiba-Kohen, Minato-ku, Tokyo
(03) 434-0532
fax (03) 434-0217
Has joint research programs with member companies.
Members are 20 or so Japanese companies including:
Ishikawajima-Harima, Oki Electric, Kawasaki Heavy Industry, Kobe
Steel, Komatsu, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Toshiba, JGC, NEC,
Hitachi, Fanuc, Fujitsu, Fuji, Matshushita Research Institute, Mitsui,
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Yaskawa
Center for Autonomous and Man-controlled Robotic and Sensing Systems
Charles Jacobus, CAMRSS director
ERIM
PO Box 8618
Ann Arbor, MI 48107
(313) 994-1200 X2457
Member companies include: Ball Aerospace, Coulter Electronics, ERIM,
Fairchild, Ford Aerospace, Geospectra, Grumman, Industrial Technology
Institute, KMS Fusion, Michigan State, UofM.
AIAA
American Insitute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW
Washington, DC 20024
(202) 646-7400
Technical Information Service (212) 247-6500
Conferences and publications, several cover automation technologies
for servicing on the ground and in space as well as exploration.
__________________________________________________________________________
Robotics Conferences:
Proceedings should be available in most good libraries or by
interlibrary loan.
Annual Conference of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
May 2-7, 1993 at the Atlanta Hilton and Towers, Atlanta, Georgia
Authors will be notified of acceptance by Jan 3, 1993
Final papers due for proceedings by February 3, 1993
Second International BEAM Robot Olympics Competition:
Ontario Science Center, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
April 22-25, 1993
"The BEAM Robot Olympics is not so much a series of technological
competitions as a chance for robot enthusiasts to present their
designs to each other, the press, and the public. It is also a open
forum for anyone who wants to get started in the field to compete and
compare. Any and every robot will be considered so long as it does
not come from a kit or store. Robots of similar ability will be
pitted against each other in simple competitions, but generally robots
will be judged on sophistication of behavior, novelty of design,
efficiency of power source, and quality of hardware."
Details will soon be posted. On-line rules soon available. There are
also two Robot Olympic Trial Games scheduled for this fall (in
Canada), but details will have to wait until September.
Contact: mwtilden@watmath.uwaterloo.ca
Annual Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
Annual Symposium on Industrial Robots
Biannual Symposium International Symposium of Robotics Research
Biannual Autonomous Intelligent Systems
American Association for Artificial Intellignece (AAAI)
Probably the largest and most prestigious conference
on AI. Have begun to sponsor robot competitions at the annual
AAAI conference.
___________________________________________________________________________
Robotics Publications:
There are a number of academic journals and trade magazines devoted to
robotics. There are no magazines currently devoted to the hobbyist or
designer of robotic mechanisms. In the 1980's Robotics Engineering
(nee Robotics Age) lasted for 7-8 years but folded. The one difficulty
I noted as a subscriber was the problem of addressing the hobbyist,
the curious and those whose work was devoted to robotics.
This list of periodical covers the academic journals, the trade
magazines devoted to both robotics and relevant sub-areas, and the
lone newsletter for hobbyists.
The IEEE has a formidable array of journals, transactions and
magazines. Here are a few that are relevant to robotics work:
IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
IEEE Control Systems Magazine
IEEE Computer Magazine
IEEN Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
Cost: Have to join IEEE and then subscribe. Student rates are
much less exensive than non-student rates.
International Journal of Robotics & Automation
Published by:
ACTA Press
P.O. Box 2481
Anaheim, CA 92814
U. S. A.
Editor-in-chief: Professor T. C. Hsia
Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
University of California
Davis, CA 95616
International Journal of Robotics Research
MIT Press
28 Carleton Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
Cost: $50/year to individuals
Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems
Three issues per volume, $58.50 per volume (individual)
Kluwer Academic Publishers Group
PO Box 322,
3300 AH Dordrecht,
The Netherlands
--in the US:
PO Box 358
Accord Station,
Hingham, MA 02018-0358
Journal of Robotic Systems
G. Beni and S. Hackwood, editors
College of Engineering
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521-0425
Publisher:
Interscience Division
Professional, Reference, and Trade Group
John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
605 Third Ave.
New York, NY 10158
Robotics Today
Published by:
Society of Manufacturing Engineers
One SME Drive
PO Box 930
Dearborn, MI 48121
(313) 271-1500
Robotics World
"The end-user's magazine of flexible automation"
Published quarterly
Communication Channels
6255 Barfield Road
Atlanta, GA 30328
(404) 256-9800
They also publish the Robotics World Directory $49.95
Robot (Japanese)
Industrial Robots and Application Systems
published bimonthly
Japan Industrial Robot Association (JIRA)
Kikai-Shinko Building
3-5-8, Shiba-Kohen,
Mina To-ku
Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo (03) 3434-2919, fax (03) 3578-1404
Robotica
International Journal of Information, Education and Research
in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
Quarterly publication, US $179 per year!
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building
Shaftesbury Road,
Cambridge CB2 2RU (UK)
in the US:
Cambridge University Press
Journals Department
40 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011-4211
Industrial Robot
Quarterly, $145/year
MCB University Press Ltd.
62 Toller Lane
Bradford, West Yorkshire
England, BD8 9BY
(44) 274 499821, fax (44) 274 547143
--in the US
MCB University Press Ltd.
PO Box 10812
Birmingham, AL 35201-0812
(800) 633-4931 (toll free US and Canada)
Automation in Construction
Publisher: Elsevier Science Publisher B. V., Amsterdam.
Desk Editor: Erik de Vries
The Editor of the journal is
Dr. T. Michael Knasel
10324 Lake Avenue
Cleveland, OH 441102-1239.
Fax. (216) 651-5136.
Don't have addresses for:
Advanced Robotics (in english)
published by
International Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing
Useful and relevant trade magazines:
Usually free, mostly ads or industry news. Many articles written by
advertisers. Great sources of product information. Our lab at
CMU receives 50-60 trade magazines and journals per month and while no
one reads all of the articles and pointers are passed
on to people around the lab. This keeps the group abreast of
new products and developments.
Sensors
Helmers Publishing
174 Concord Street
PO Box 874
Peterborough, NH 03458-0874
(603) 924-9631
Trade magazine devoted to sensing devices. Publishes annual directory.
Cost: Free to qualified subscribers, $55/yr otherwise
Advanced Imaging
445 Broad Hollow Rd.
Melville, NY 11747
(516) 845-2700 voice
(516) 845-2797 FAX
Subscription free to qualified professionals, $50/yr otherwise.
Machine Design
Design News
Motion Control
GPS World
RF Design
Sea Technology
Laser Focus
POB (surveying profession)
Broadcast Engineering (TV and radio engineering)
Embedded Systems
EE Times (news of the electronics industry)
Other extremely useful resources that every laboratory or company
should have are the Thomas Register and the EEM. The Thomas Register
is $250 for a complete set and they issue new ones every year. A cheap
investment for finding companies and parts.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Mobile robot companies:
There are a small number of companies targeting the research community
for the mobile robot market. TRC, RWI, Cybermotion and Denning have
all sold and are selling mobile devices for research and real
applications. A number of Automatic Guided Vehicle companies sell
their machines but their primary applications are factory operations.
Bell and Howell
Mailmobile Company
81 Hartwell Avenue
Lexington, MA 02173-3127
(617) 674-1110
Mailmobiles were developed by Lear-Siegler in the mid-70's for the
industrial cleaning market. They left this market and
Bell & Howell, the audio-visual 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.
Cybermotion
5457 Jae Valley Road
Roanoke, VA 24014
(703) 982-2641
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.
Denning Mobile Robotics Inc.
21 Concord Street
Wilmington, MA 01887
(508) 658-7800
Mobile robots - synchronous drive bases for research platforms.
Building automated camera platforms for newsrooms, working on
floor cleaning machines with an industrial partner.
Denning also has a number of products including a position scanner,
and IR beacons. A Denning floor scrubber is working in a post
office in Pittsburgh, Denver and Washington, and at a UPS site.
IS Robotics
4353 Park Terrace Drive
Westlake Village, CA 91361 USA
email: robots@isx.com
phone: (818) 597-1900
Associated with ISX Robotics of Cambridge.
T-1: tracked robot approx 50cm x 36cm. $5k
R-2: Wheeled machine. Gripper with 7.5cm opening, 18cm lift, 1kg
lift force. $7K
Ghengis II: Six-legged machine with whisker bump sensors and force
detection on legs. About $2k.
Use the ubiquitous MC68HC11E2 microcontrollers. Robots include IR
and bump sensing for obstacle detection. Pyro sensors and color
camera with pan-tilt are optional.
mecos Robotics AG
Gutstrasse 38
8400 Winterthur
Switzerland
Telephone: int + (0)52 29 58 28
Telefax: int + (0)52 29 96 53
E-mail: mecos@ifr.ethz.ch
Contact: S. J. Vestli
Company formed as a spin off of
the Institute of Robotics, ETH (Swiss 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 flexility 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.
Movit Robots
Available from:
Kelvin Electronics (800) 645-9212
Pitsco (800) 835-0686
Edmund Scientific (See Robot Parts Section)
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.
Nomadic Technologies
858 La Para Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
(415) 493-7700
fax (415) 493-7064
Mobile base and sensors (IR, Laser ranging, touch, GUI software
development) $10K range.
Real World Interface (RWI)
P.O. Box 270
Dublin, NH 03444
(603) 563-8871
Small synchronous drive bases, primarily for research purposes. Approx $6K
TRC
15 Great Pasture Road
Danbury, CT 06810
(203) 798-8988
Labmate research platform - $7500, plus additional optional sensors
etc. Other prodcuts for hospital markets and floor cleaning machines.
(Helpmate and RoboKent respectively)
Yamazaki Construction Company, Tokyo Japan.
Intelligent Robot Lab
Kaika Building
2-7-1 Sotokanda
Chiyoda-ku 101 Tokyo
Japan
phone: 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, Asnieres, France
Odetics,
Anaheim, CA
Six-legged, (pantograph) Walking machine.
Stiquito
A small nitinol-based mobile robot is available from Indiana
Univeristy in a technical report and as a kit. Send your request for
the report with payment to:
Computer Science Department
215 Lindley Hall
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
To receive the technical report only send $5.00 PRE-PAID and add ATTN:
TR363A to the address To receive the technical report and a kit
containing all materials needed to construct Stiquito and its manual
controller send US$15.00 PRE-PAID and add ATTN: TR 363a Squito Kit
Mondotronics
524 San Anselmo Ave.,
#107
San Anselmo, CA 94960
tel: (415) 455-9330
(800) 374-5764
fax: (415) 455-9333
net: <mondo@holonet.net>
A number of muscle wire (nitinol) projects including a small walking
machine. Book and sample kit with 1m each of 50,100 and 150 um wire -
enough to build all 14 projects in book.
OWI
tel: (310) 638-4732
fax: (310) 638-8347
Small mechanical robots sold in many educational toy stores. All for
under $100. Some machines walk, follow lines, react to sound, use
infra-red sensing. Nice stuff!
Angelus Research
6344 Sugar Pine Circle
Angelus Oaks, CA
tel: (714) 794-8325
A small differentially-steered mechanism (no casters!) utilizing a
68HC11 controller w/ 32K RAM and RS-232 interface. Four visible
collision sensors (range 3-12 inches depending on ambient light) and
two whiskers. On-board battery (Pb- acid and built in charger)
monitors current as well for stall current. Software included with
easy-to-use command set. A lot of features for a very affordable
device. $395, controller board available separately and basic kit
available for $325
_____________________________________________________________________________
Robot manipulator companies:
Adept Technology
150 Rose Orchard Way
San Jose, CA 95134
(408) 432-0888
fax (408) 432-8707
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 sells vision systems and
controllers also.
Antenen Research
PO Box 95
Hamilton, OH 45012
(800) 323-9555
(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.
CRS Plus,
POox 163, Station A
830 Harrington Court
Burlington, Ontario
Canada L7R 3Y2
(416) 639-0086
fax (416) 639-4248
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.
Kraft Telerobotics
Microbot was bought out by the British company UMI two years ago. In May, 1991
they moved from Silicon Valley to Detroit, MI
UMI Microbot
12665 Richfield Ct.
Livonia, MI 48150
Phone (313) 464-9500, -3276 (fax)
Motoman [Hobart/Yaskawa]
3160 MacArthur Boulevard
Northbrook, IL 60062-1917
(708) 291-2340, fax (708) 498-2430
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.
Salisbury Robotics, Inc.
20 Pemberton St.
Cambridge, MA 02140
(617) 661-8847
Sell the three-fingered Salisbury hand and force sensing fingertips.
Contact: Ken Salisbury, email: <jks@ai.mit.edu>
Schilling
Sony Corporation of America
Factory Automation Division
542 Route 303
Orangeburg, NY 10962
(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!
Zebra Robotics
Jeff Kerr
Menlo Park
(415) 328-8884
Small manipulators with integral force control.
Sarcos Research Corporation
261 East 300 South Suite 150
Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
Manufacturing is done by:
Animate Systems Inc.
1780 West 2300 South
Salt Lake City, Utah 84119
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.
Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Vesteraas, Sweden
ABB Robotics
2487 South Commerce Drive
New Berlin, WI 53151
(414) 789-9235
Now own Cinncinatti Milacron robotics group, Graco and Trallfa.
mecos Robotics AG
Gutstrasse 38
8400 Winterthur
Switzerland
tel: int + (0)52 29 58 28
fax: int + (0)52 29 96 53
E-mail: mecos@ifr.ethz.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).
USA Robot
PO Box 4018
Portland, ME 04101
tel: (207) 774-3822
Maxym production robots for business. Simple accurate 3D linear
motions coupled with power tooling. Workspaces up to 2x4x.5 feet.
IBMPC software for designing parts and production paths. 2 mil/foot
accuracy. Units come with 3.25HP Porter- Cable router and vacuum foot.
This is 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.
Zymark Corp
Hopkinton, MA
Robots for laboratory automation.
Western Space and Marine (WSM)
International Submarine Engineering (ISE)
Robotic Systems International (RSI)
Furukawa
Sumitomo
Chubu
_____________________________________________________________________________
Other organizations doing robotics:
Most large aerospace companies have groups working in or looking
into robotics. Martin Marietta (Denver), Rockwell International
(Downey, CA), Boeing (Seattle) to name a few.
Redzone Robotics
2425 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-4639
(412) 765-3064
A spin-off of CMU, Redzone has focused
on hazwaste and nuke manipulator applications but is branching out into
mobile applications. Primarily protoypes and not multiple unit manufacturing.
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.
Vision Applications
NY, NY
Small, low cost fovial camera systems. Development stages. Unique
integrated, super small camera/pan/tilt device. Miniature active
vision systems, video telephones.
Mechanical Engineering Lab (MEL)
Tsukuba City
Kazuo Tanie: Robotics and cybernetics
--NASA Centers
Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL)
Pasadena, CA
Hazardous-environment robots, teloperation, control, space and
planetary missions.
Tony Bejczy, Chuck Weisbin, Brian Wilcox, Larry Mathies,
Henry Stone, David Miller
Ames Research Center (ARC)
Moffett Field, CA
Telepresence and virtual user interfaces, vision (optical and parallel
processing), free-flyers, task planning, agents.
Contact: Butler Hine III <hine@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov>
Terry Fong <doctor@tardis.arc.nasa.gov>
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Contact: Stepehn Leake <nbssal@robots.gfsc.nasa.gov>
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.
Johnson Space Center
Houston, TX
Contact: Charles Price
More of an operations house but lots of shuttle RMS work. Becoming
central site for Artemis (lunar explorer) work.
Kennedy Space Center
Robotics Group
Contact: Bill Jones
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.
Langley Research Center, (LaRC)
VA
Contact: Jack Pennington - vision, inspection, 3-D sensors
Southwest Research Institute
San Antonio, TX
Robotics and Automation Department
Some large systems for servicing aircraft (painting, spraying,
deriveting etc)
Oak Ridge National Lab
ORNL/CESAR
PO Box 2008, MS-6364
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6364
(615) 574-6126
Contact: Alex L. Bangs <BangsAL@ornl.gov>
Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR)
Research in mobile and manipulator robotics, including redundant
and multiple manipulators, cooperating mobile robots, parallel
vision systems, sensor fusion, 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 space exploration.
Researchers: Alex Bangs, Marty Beckerman, Judd Jones, Reinhold Mann,
Ed Oblow, Francois Pin, Michael Unseren
______________________________________________________________________________
Graduate Program in Robotics:
Any good four-year school undoubtedly offers robotics courses within
engineering programs. Departments of mechanical and electrical
engineering and computer srcience are all good candidates for
coursework in Robotics. However, a number of schools have established
track records and a focus on robotics and those are listed here.
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.
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
The Robotics Institute is a 150 person organization that offers
a PhD in Robotics but students from other programs (engineering and
computer science mostly) do research in the Institute as well. Lots
of mobile robot work, computer integrated manufacturing, rapid
prototyping, sensors, vision, navigation, learning and architectures.
Program is taking taking qualifiers and a program of research leading to
a thesis and the degree.
Facilities include about 10 mobile systems with more under design and
construction. Many manipulator systems and lots of compute
cycles/person.
The Institute will be starting an MS program as well.
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)
Steve Shafer - Calibrated Imaging Laboratory
Red Whittaker - Field Robotics Center
and many others.....
Graduate program contact:
Graduate Admissions Coordinator
The Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
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. Active areas of research are
Telerobotics, Multiple Arm Control, Robotic Vision, Leanring Control,
Multi-agent Robotics and Mechanical Design. Leding Faculty members
are Drs. R. Bajcsy and R.P. Paul.
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
Artificial Intelligence Lab (Elec. Eng. and CS) relevant to robotics
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)
North Carolina State Univerisity
Raleigh, NC
Professor Ren Luo
(919) 515-5199
Stanford University
Palo Alto, CA
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 Southern California (USC)
Long history of robotics with interested faculty in CS, EE, ME, and ISE.
People include:
George Bekey - founder of IEEE R&A
Michael Arbib - head Brain Simulation Laboratory
Ram Nevatia - Computer Vision Laboratory
Ari Requicha - Programmable Automation Laboratory
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).
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
Space Systems Laboratory. Large Neutral Bouyancy Tank,
teleoperations research,
Dave Akin - director
Dave has flown shuttle experiments.
New York University (NYU)
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
Richard Wallace - vision
Yale University - Vision and Robotics Group
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, human and 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.
Dan Koditschek: Application of dynamical systems theory to machine dexterity.
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.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Mechanical Engineering & Electrical Engineering:
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.
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Pasadena, CA
Joel Burdick - serpentine manipulation, control
Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI)-?
Center for Intelligent Robotic Systems for Space Exploration (CIRSSE)
George Saridis
Arthur Sanderson
Jon Wenn
Appro. 20 PhD and 30 MS students working in the center. Path
planning and multi-arm control are current focus.
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.
Purdue
Avi Kak: Vision and mobile robots
Antti Koivo: Manipulation
Mirek Skibiniewski: Construction Robotics
University of Kentucky
Center for Robotics and Manufacturing Systems
(founded 1990)
University of Alberta
Center for Machine Intelligence and Robotics
University of Wisconsin
Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR)
University of Kansas
Space Technology Center (Telerobotics)
University of Paris
INRIA (Nice) just started a Phd program in Robotics.
University of California at Berkeley
Faculty in Robotics at UC Berkeley
Dept. 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
Harvard
Roger Brockett
Oxford
Oxford has a large robotics group. Mobile robots, path planning etc.
Mike Brady director
Salford University, UK
Advanced Robotics Research Centre
Ultrasonic wrist sensor for collision avoidance
Controller design
Stereo Vision
Dr Francis Nagy
Speech Control of a Puma-560
Control of an 'Inverted Pendulum'
Miniature tactile sensors
Reading University, UK
Prof Kevin Warwick
Using Neural Nets in Robotics
Novel control algorithms
Bristol Polytechnic, UK
Mr Khodlebandelhoo
Bi arm research
Path planning for redundant robots
Wall climbing robots
Hull University, UK
Prof Alan Pugh
Garment Manufacturing
Arm/controller design
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
The Institute of Robotics
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.
Address:
Institute of Robotics
ETH-Center, LEO,
8092 Zurich
Switzerland
telephone: (01) 256 35 84 (secretary)
telefax: (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
email: scherrer@ifr.ethz.ch
Cornell
Ithaca, NY
Mechanical Engineering
Sam Landsberger
Jeff Koechling
Bruce Donald
___________________________________________________________________________
End of part1
--
comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) part 2/2
Author: Kevin Dowling
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1993 18:51
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1993 18:51
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32472 bytes
32472 bytes
Archive-name: robotics-faq/part2
Last-modified: Mon Jan 4 12:58:04 1993
This is part 2 of 2 of the comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list.
This FAQ addresses commonly asked questions relating to robotics.
Part 2
Sensors
Suppliers and sources for Parts
Hero Robots
Puma Manipulators
Simulators
Real-Time Operating Systems
Robot Controller Survey
Books
Acknowledgements
Changes, additions, comments, suggestions and questions to:
nivek@ri.cmu.edu
aka: Kevin Dowling
Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
___________________________________________________________________________
Sensors:
This list covers only the most frequently requested types of
robot sensors. These include point-range sensors, cameras, and
acoustic devices. See Sensors magazine <in periodical section of this
FAQ> directory for a large and comprehensive list. This list covers
the following:
cameras
inertial measurement devices
laser rangemfinders
force/torque sensors
sonar sensors
position determination devices
pan/tilt mechanisms
shape memory devices
----Cameras
There are a large number of cameras on the market and many
consumer products such as the smaller camcorders are inexpensive and
suitable for imaging applications. I'll try to list some different and
unusual ones here.
Note that although some of these cameras are very small many
of them are appended to a large box of electronics via a cable that
supplies power and transmits video.
Sony Component Products
15 Essex Road,
Paramus, NJ 07652
tel: (201) 368-5188
fax: (201) 368-3514
Sony XC/999/999P is a nice small color CCD camera the size of a
microphone. CCD resolution is 768Hx493V. The 999 is NTSC and the 999P
is the PAL format.
XC-75 has small camera head and separate electronics.
Toshiba IK-M40A -- head is 1.5" long, 5/8" diameter
Panasonic GP-KS152 -- head is 1 3/8" long, 15/32" diameter
CCTV Corporation
315 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
tel: (800) 221-2240
fax: (212) 463-9758
CCTV makes a number of small CCD surveillance cameras. Some as
small as a pack of cigarettes that sell for less than $300.
CIDTech has some really nice ones with CID instead of CCD, especially good for
machine vision, no blooming, fast image grabbing.
----Inertial measurement devices
This includes such devices as accelerometers such as
accelerometers, gyros, and inertial devices used for measuring
orientation or acceleration of moving vehicles. Accelerometers are
devices for measuring the rate of change in velocity and can provide
estimations of distance or be used to detect high forces.
KVH Industries
110 Enterprise Center
Middletown, RI 02840
(401) 847-3327
Nice small well-designed units that provide heading data. About $1K w/
RS232 adapter.
Lucas NovaSensor
1055 Mission Court
Fremont, CA 94539
(510) 490-9100
Lucas makes a 1"x1"x0.5" accelerometer for about $200. Good noise
immunity but fragile.
Humphrey
BEI - Systron Donner
2700 Systron Drive,
Concord, CA 94518-1399
tel: (510) 682-6161
fax: (510) 671-6590
GyroChip - a very small solid state angular rate sensor. Based a
quartz tuning fork device - all support electronics are included. Max
range available: +/-10 deg/sec to +/-1000 deg/sec. Input +/- 5VDC
Output scale +/- 2.5VDC. Systron Donner also makes a variety of linear
accelerometers and inertial measurement products.
----Laser rangefinders
There are a variety of laser rangefinding devices that have
been builtand used over the past 8 years or so for robotics. The 3D
devices are still large, power hungry and heavy but give very nice
images suitable for fast map building and navigation work. Expect to
pay over $80K for these time-of-flight devices. Most AM Lidars measure
phase shift between outgoing and reflected beams. A mirror system
rasters the beam forming a video-camera-like image. Some devices
supply the reflectance image as well as range which is nice for
corresponding the two. Comprehensive references include:
P. Besl, ``Active, Optical Range Imaging Sensors'', Machine Vision and
Applications, v. 1, p. 127-152, 1988.
A longer version of Besl's paper appears in ``Advances in Machine
Vision: Architectures and Applications'', J. Sanz (ed.),
Springer-Verlag, 1988.
Other good surveys are Ray Jarvis' article in IEEE TPAMI v5n2 and
Nitzan's article in IEEE PAMI v10n2.
A number of laboratory works have also demonstrated FM or chirp
systems which can be highly accurate (e.g. elevation maps of coins are
one demonstration of these) but these are very specialized and I don`t
know of commercial devices currently.
ERIM (Environmental Research Institute of Michigan)
ERIM has built a number of custom AM laser rangefinders
including those used in the ALV (Autonomous Land Vehicle) program. CMU
and Martin Marietta have both used this systems in extensive work.
Basic system was a 128x64 2fps 20m (ambiguity interval) system.
Odetics
Perceptron
A spin-off of ERIM, Perceptron has also built a number of
AM laser rangefinders. CMU and Caterpillar have used these for map
building and obstacle avoidance work in rough terrain navigation.
128x128 programmable up to 2048x2048 through tilt, 2fps, programmable
tilt on nodding mirror. About $90K
Schwarz Electro-Optics
3404 N. Orange Blossom Trail
Orlando, FL 32804
tel: (407) 298-1802
fax: (407) 297-1794
Schwarz makes some very nice point range laser ranging devices. These
devices are slightly bigger than a soda can. About $6K. CMU experience
for use in simulated unmanned air vehicle platform worked well. Their
MARS (marine angle range system) is a rotating laser device that
reflects off targets in the environment. Max range up to 1000meters
using corner prisms. Accuracy +/- 1m.
Origin Instruments
854 Greenview Drive
Grand Praire, TX 750750-2438
tel: (214) 606-8740
fax: (214) 606-8741
The Dynasight sensor is a 3-D optical radar that provides real-time
3-D measurements of passive targets with sub-millimeter resolution.
Automatic search and track is provided, eye-safe operation and no
adjustments or alignment required. Original application was head
tracking of computer users but end- effector tracking is also viable.
Operatin range depends on target size 0.1-1.5m for 7mm target, 0.3-4m
for 25mm target and 1 to 6m for 75mm targets. RS-232 interface.
Accuracies 1mm cross range and 4mm down range, resolutions 0.1mm cross
range and 0.4mm down range.
A number of labs have built light stripe devices using projected light
LCD shutters and laser line projectors determine distance through
geometry (as opposed to directly measuring distance through
time-of-flight means) One common need is that of generating the laser
line.
LaserMax
Rochester, NY
Manufactures semiconductor laser diode packages and cylindrical
lenses. Packages and small and rugged.
Recent power tools such as miter saws and radial arm saws are using
laser line projection - these may be available cheaply as spare parts.
----Force and Torque Sensors:
California Cybernetics
10322 Sherman Grove
Sunland, CA 91040
(818) 353-5991
(818) 951-3889 (fax)
Six DOF F-T devices.
JR3
22 Harter Avenue
Woodland, CA 95695
(916) 661-3677
6-DOF force-torque sensors. Strain gage technology. Newer packages
have all electronics built into the sensor. Make some high-force
devices as well. CMU's Ambler used JR3's on all the feet.
Assurance Technologies (ATI)
(formerly Lord Industrial Automation)
503D Highway 70 East
Garner, North Carolina 27529
tel: (919) 772-0115
fax: (919) 772-8259
Largest supplier of muli-axis force sensors. Use silicon rather than
foil strain gages for lower strain levels and increased life. F/T
sensor ratings from +/- 15lbs to +/- 150lbs (+/- 15 in-lbs to +/- 600
in-lbs) weights are 0.4 and 2.2 lbs for the 4 available sensors.
Serial or parallel digital interface or analog interface. ATI also
makes robotic tool-changers and an RCC device for assembly operations.
An ATI sensor is also incorporated in the Hughes SMARTee end-effector.
Hughes STX
4400 Forbes Blvd
Lanham, MD 20706
tel: (301) 794-5016
fax: (301) 306-0963
A 6-dof end-effector with automatic load sensing and compensation.
Control modes include position control (cartesian with user spec-ed
poses and frames), impedence and force control modes. Programmable
behaviors (sliding, hinge, move-to-touch, guarded move, follow etc),
open architecture (VxWorks, VME, user-linakable libraries) and a lot
more. Interfaces available included RS-232, ethernet, RS-422 and SCSI.
Pretty amazing end-effector!
Cybernet
1919 Green Road
Suite B-101
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
tel: (313) 668-2567
fax: (313) 668-8780
email: <heidi_jocobus@um.cc.umich.edu>
PER-force - A 6dof compact force-reflecting controller. Can be used
for teleoperationor interactive graphics applications.
----Sonar sensors
Acoustic time-of-flight devices have been around for awhile
now. The ubiquitous Polaroid device is cheap and easily integrated and
has has found wide use in robotic devices. Other companies have
developed nice complete turnkey sonar devices though and Polaroid is
no longer the only choice.
Polaroid
(617)-577-4681 or write at
119 Windsor St,
Cambridge, MA 02139
Polariod Ultrasonic Components Group offers two ultrasonic ranging kits:
Specs are:
Distance range: 0.26 to 10.7 meters
Resolution: Nominal +- 3mm to 3m, +-1% over entire range
Sonar acceptance angle: approx. 20 degrees
Power Requirement: 6VDC, 2.5 Amps (1 mS pulse), 150mA quiescent
Weight: Transducer, 8.2gm
Ranging module, 18.4 gm
Designer's Kit:
1 transducer, 1 ranging module, electronics display
accurate to 1/10th meter. Cost is $169
OEM kit:
2 transducers, 2 ranging modules. Cost is $99.
Siemans - nice complete sensor package, 5 degree cone angle
Massa - components
----Position determination
Noncontact, cabled measurement of 6DOF's. Virtual reality
applications. System ranges can be as small as a tabletop and can
extend for kilometers. All measurements are given in metric unless
spec sheets appear in English units only. All pricing is in $US.
Polhemus Inc
(802) 655-3139
(802) 655-1439 (fax)
Burlington, VT
3Space, Isotrak, FasTrak:
Electromagnetic devices for sensing xyz and rotations remotely.
Limited to 1m or so radius. Sensitive to metallic objects in vicinity.
Approx $3k
Ascension Technology
(802) 655-7879
(802) 655-5904
The Bird. A 6d0f measuring device much like the Pohlhemus device.
Denning Mobile Robots
21 Concord Street
Wilmington, MA 01887
tel: (508) 658-7800
fax: (508) 658-2492
LaserNav 2: rotating laser (Class 1 eyesafe) scans barcode targets in
area and returns target angle. This is combined with target location
to provide vehicle position and heading. RS-232 interface.
Caterpillar also has a rotating laser device for it's SGV products
for factory Automation. They license the Cedeglec (nee GEC) developed
technologies.
Video systems
Selspot - used for biomechanical applications.
----Pan/Tilt devices
A common robotic need. Most pan-tilts sold today by companies such as
Pelco and Vicon are for CCTV applications for continuous scanning or
remote operation. At most these will have pots for feedback.
Directed Perception
1451 Capuchino Avenue,
Burlingame, CA 94010
(415) 342-9399
Computer controlled pan-tilt unit Model PTU-33-17.5
Weighs 1kg and can support ~1.5kg camera payload.
Very nice specs: 200 deg/sec slew, 3-4arc-min accuracy,
RS-232 interface, About $1200.
CCTV Corporation
315 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
tel: (800) 221-2240
fax: (212) 463-9758
Standard CCTV pan-tilt devices like those from Vicon and
others. Inexpensive but no computer control. $557 - $1400
CameraMan
CameraMan is a pan/tilt device built to support any camcorder
and has a wireless interface to an external remote control. 360 deg
pan and 50 deg of tilt. The unit is made by ParkerVision and sold
through Columbia AudioVideo (and probably other suppliers)
A number of undersea companies make pan-tilt devices as well.
Remote Ocean Systems
5111-L Santa Fe Street
San Diego, CA 92109
(619) 483-3902
Underwater P/T systems, expensive $6K but very nicely packaged
RSI Research
Sidney, BC
(604) 656-0101
Underwater pan-tilts
Photosea
6377 Nancy Ridge Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
(619) 452-8903
underwater pan-tilts including Cobra, very small design.
Telemetrics
Hawthorne, NJ
(201) 423-0347
Computer controlled P/T devices - fairly large though.
Zebra Kinesis, a spin-off of Zebra Robotics, has a pan-til head.
Jeff Kerr
(415) 328-8884
Shape memory materials:
Nickel-titanium alloys were first discovered by the Naval Ordinance
Laboratory decades ago and the material was termed NiTinOL. These
materials have the intriguing property that they provide actuation
through cycling of current through the materials. It undergoes a
'phase change' exhibited as force and motion in the wire.
Mondotronics
524 San Anselmo Ave.,
#107
San Anselmo, CA 94960
tel: (415) 455-9330
(800) 374-5764
fax: (415) 455-9333
net: <mondo@holonet.net>
A number of muscle wire (nitinol) projects including a small walking
machine. Book and sample kit with 1m each of 50,100 and 150 um wire -
enough to build all 14 projects in book.
Memry Technologies
57 Commerce Drive
Brookfield, CT 06804
tel: (203) 740-7311
fax (203) 775-2359
Memry sell a Mitsubishi developed polyurethane based Shape Memory
Polymer. The material undergoes property changes in hardness,
flexibility, elastic modulus and vapor permeability under temperature
change. Medical applications are one series of applications for this
material.
____________________________________________________________________________
Robot parts: Suppliers of useful mechanical and electrical components.
Allied Devices
2365 Milburn Avenue,
PO Box 502
Bladwin, NY 11510
(516) 223-9100
(516) 223-9172 (fax)
Standard precision mechanical components
Winfred M. Berg
499 Ocean Ave.,
East Rockaway, LI, NY 11518
(516) 599-5010
Precision Mechanical Components
C&H Sales
Pasadena, CA
(818) 796-2628
(800) 325-9465
Surplus parts. Motors etc.
Small Parts Inc.
6891 NE Third Ave
PO Box 381966
Miami, FL 33238-1966
(305) 557-8222
fax (305) 751-6217
Lots of neat small supplies including: materials, metal stock, fasteners,
tools etc.
Servo Systems
115 Main Road
PO Box 97
Montville, NJ 07045-9299
(201) 335-1007
fax (201) 335-1661
Surplus pieces and prices, motors, actuators, geardrives, controllers,
robots, encoders, transducers, amplifiers.
Herbach and Rademan
401 E. Erie Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19134
(215) 426-1708
Lots of surplus stuff including AC and DC motors.
Nordex
50 Newton Road
Danbury, CT 06810-6216
Gears, cams, universals etc.
Seitz
Box 1398
Torrington, CT 06790
(203) 243-5115
drive components, gears etc.
Stock Drive Products
2101 Jericho Turnpike
Bobx 5416
New Hyde Park, NY 11042-5416
(516) 328-3300
(516) 326-8827 (fax)
Great set of handbooks of thousands of components.
Edmund Scientific
101 E. Gloucester Pike
Barrington, NJ 08007-1380
(609) 573-6250 order
(609) 573-6260 customer service
Lots of optics, science and educational items. A little high priced, but
nice selection.
PIC Design
PO Box 1004
Benson Road
Middlebury, CT 06762-1004
(800) 243-6125 (except CT)
(203) 758-8272
Bearings, clutches, brakes, couplings, tools, belts, pulleys, gears etc.
Any technical library should have catalogs from the larger
distributors. These include McMaster-Carr, Grainger, Allied, Newark,
etc.
____________________________________________________________________________
Hero robots:
Heros are no longer being made but Heath (Zenith) still offers some
replacement parts. They had about 8 years of sales: 4,000 Hero Jr's,
3,000 Hero 2000's, 14,000 assembled Hero 1's. Ones with less
capability didn't do as well but higher priced ones did ok in the
market. Service and maintainability are a problem due to the sheer
number of bolts, pulleys, boards, sensors, cables etc. Used ones can
be picked up cheap - caveat emptor.
Heathkit
Benton Harbor, MI
order line (800) 253-0570
tech line (616) 982-3980
_____________________________________________________________________________
Puma manipulators:
Pumas are probably the most common robot in university laboratories
and one of the most common assembly robots. Designed by Vic Schienman
many years ago, the Puma (Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly)
was produced for many years by Unimation (later purchased by
Westinghouse and sold at a loss later to Staubli, a Swiss company)
Found in many university labs as well.
PUMA singularities:
The PUMA has three singularities: the ``alignment'' singularity (wrist
is as close to the axis of joint 1 as it can get), the ``elbow''
singularity (elbow is fully extended or folded up; the latter is not
possible because of joint limits), and the wrist singularity (the axes
of joints 4 and 6 are aligned).
The angles corresponding to these depend on the Denavit-Hartenburg
(DH) parameter assignment. For the PUMA, the definitions given in [1]
are perhaps the most commonly used Using these, and letting A2, A3,
D3, and D4 denote the translational DH offsets, the singularities
occur when the following are true:
Alignment: D4*sin(ang2+ang3) + A2*cos(ang2) - A3*cos(ang2+ang3) == 0
Elbow: sin(ang3 - atan2(A3,D4)) == 0
Wrist: sin(ang5) == 0
Typical offset values for the PUMA 560 are
A2 = 431.80
D3 = 149.09
A3 = 20.32
D4 = 433.070
[information provided by John Lloyd <lloyd@curly.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>]
Useful references:
[1] Richard Paul, Brian Shimano, and Gordon Mayer, ``Kinematic Control
Equations for Simple Manipulators''. IEEE Transactions on Systems,
Man, and Cybernetics, Vol SMC-11, No. 6, June 1981.
[2] B Armstrong, O Khatib, and J. Burdick
The Explicit Dynamic Model and Inertial Parameters of the PUMA 560 Arm
Proceedings IEEE Int. Conference on Robotics and Automation, April 1986
San Francisco, CA pp510-518
_____________________________________________________________________________
Simulators:
Simulation allows researchers, designers and users to construct robots
and task environments for a fraction of the cost and time of real
systems. They differ significantly from traditional CAD tools in that
they allow study of geometries, kinematics, dynamics and motion
planning. This list is NOT a comparative analysis of the different
systems but rather a list of systems that are available.
Ars Magna:
The ARS MAGNA robot simulator provides an abstract world in which a
planner controls a mobile robot. The simulator also includes a simple
graphical user-interface which uses the CLX interface to the X window
system. Version 1.0 of the ARS MAGNA simulator is documented in Yale
Technical Report YALEU/DCS/RR #928, "ARS MAGNA: The Abstract Robot
Simulator". This report is available in the distribution as a
Postscript(tm) file, as well as from
Paula Murano
Yale University
Department of Computer Science
P.O. Box 2158 Yale Station
New Haven, CT 06520-2158
Email: <murano@cs.yale.edu>
Comments to Sean Engelson: <engelson@cs.yale.edu>
ARS MAGNA is available by anonymous ftp:
location: ftp.cs.yale.edu
directory: pub/nisp
filename: ars-magna.tar.Z
CADSI
PO Box 203
Oakdale, IA 52319
(800) 383-1322
(319) 337-8968
DADS - kinematics and dynamics package. Have ProEngineer to CADSI
interface. Supports rigid and flexible body analysis. Animation and
interfaces to FEA/FEM and CAD programs.
Deneb Robotics, Inc.
3285 Lapeer Road West
PO Box 214687
(313) 377-6900
Product: IGRIP
Platforms: SPARCs, (SGI's?)
Cost: US$50-$60,000.
Allows offline programming, dynamics capability etc.
Mechanical Dynamics Inc.
2301 Commonwealth Blvd
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
(313) 944-3800
ADAMS dynamics package
Silma/Cimstation
1601 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road
Cupertino, California 95014
(408) 725 8908
Product: CimStation
Platforms: SGI-4D, SUN SparcStation, Apollo, Intergraph,
Computervision, HP, IBM Risc6000 and DEC.
Cost: Base system around $55K (commercial license)
They also have a University Partnership
Program to enable universities to purchase CimStation
for around $20K US and $25K International.
Provides: Basic CAD Tools: 2D and 3D solid & wireframe, IGES
interface, Robot Modelling: generate the required governing equations
(iterative or closed form) automatically for "many" classes of robots
Path Generation Kinematic Simulation with Collision Detection Dynamic
Simulation (CimStation only at this point) I/O Operations
John Craig of "Introduction to Robotics" fame is head of Silma's R&D.
Silma has a programming environment called SIL complete with its own
PASCAL-like iterative language with graphics and robotics extensions.
CimStation is built out of this language. This allows you to add your
own functionality. E.g. your own path planner. You can also write
C-code, compile it, and add it to the system.
Comutek
1223 Peoples Avenue
Troy, NY 12180
tel: (518) 276 2817
fax: 518 276 638
contact: Vinay Joshi
Products: Work-Out
Cost: Around $25000.
Tecnomatix Technologies/Robcad
39750 Grand River Avenue
Suite A-3
Novi, MI 48375
tel: (313) 471-6140
fax: (313) 471-6147
Platforms: HP, Silicon Graphics, IBM and Sun
Tecnomatix makes several packages for simulation including ones for
Spot welding, Arc welding, Painting, Teleoperation (Martel), CMM and
Drilling. They also have an open systems environment, ROSE, that
allows user customization and interface design. ROBCAD itself allows
robot modeling (library of 100 robots is supplied), collision free
path generation, importation of IGES, VDAFS and SET files and direct
interface with Catia and ComputerVision.
GMF Robotics
2000 S. Adams Road
Auburn Hills, MI 48057
ph# 313 377 7000
Products: OLPW-200
Platforms: ?
Cost: ?
Auto Simulations, Inc.
655 Medical Drive
Bountiful, UT 84010
ph# 801 298 1398
telex 801 298 8186
contact: Teresa Francis, ext 330
Products: AutoMod II
Platforms: ?
Cost: ?
_____________________________________________________________________________
Real-Time Operating Systems
This is an abridged list of Dave Stewart's FAQ on RTOS'. See
comp.real-time and news.answers for that FAQ.
Below is a list of both commercial and research Real-Time Operating
Systems (RTOS) which are being used around the world for implementing
robotic systems. Only the names and addresses of the distributors are
included. Since the available features of each are constantly
changing, and the advantages and disadvantages of each are greatly a
matter of opinion and target application, no such descriptions are
given.
Commercial RTOS:
* iRMX III
Runs on Intel 80X86-based computers
U.S.A.:
Intel Corporation
3065 Bowers Avenue
Santa Clara, California 95051
tel (408) 987-8080
* LynxOS
Runs on wide variety of platforms, including Motorola,
Intel, Sun, and Hewlett Packard.
Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc
16780 Lark
Los Gatos, CA 95030
tel (408) 354-7770
fax (408) 354-7085
* OS-9
Runs on Motorola MC680X0-based single board computers.
Microware System Corporation
1900 N.W. 114th St.
Des Moines, Iowa 50322
tel (515) 224-1929
* pSOS+
Runs on a variety of Motorola 680X0 and 88100, and
Intel 80386 computers. Requires a host workstation or
personal computer if pASSPORT+ real-time programming
environment is to be used.
Software Components Group, Inc.
1731 Technology Drive
San Jose, CA 95110
tel (408) 437-0700
fax (408) 437-0711
* VRTX
Runs on a wide variety of processors, including Motorola 680X0,
Intel 80X86 and 80960, National Semiconductor series 3200.
Ready Systems
470 Potrero Avenue
P.O.Box 60217
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(800) 228-1249
fax (214) 991-8775
* VxWorks
Runs on a wide variety of MC680X0 and SPARC-based single
board computers. Requires a workstation for program
developments. Widely used in Unix environments for realtime work.
Wind River Systems Inc.
1000 Atlantic Avenue
Alameda, CA 94501
(800) 545-9463
fax (415) 814-2010
Research RTOS that are distributed:
* Chimera II
Runs on MC680X0-based single board computers.
Requires a Sun workstation for program development
U.S.A.:
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
ATTN: David B. Stewart
tel (412) 268-7120
fax (412) 268-3890
email: chimera@ri.cmu.edu
* Harmony
Runs on MC680X0-based single board computers
Canada:
Division of Electrical Engineering
National Research Council of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1A 0R6
ref: NRCC Tech Report No. 30081
Robot Control C Library (RCCL)
A robot programming environment embedded in C/UNIX. A graphics
simulator is provided which supports the PUMA, Stanford, and ``Elbow''
manipulators. The system can be compiled on SGIs (so the Indigo should
be fine), and the graphics runs under either X or GL. You can get the
system from RCIM for a small fee to cover copying and shipping. If you
are interested send mail to:
John Lloyd Research Center for Intelligent Machines
lloyd@curly.mcrcim.mcgill.edu McGill University, Montreal
(514) 398-8281 Fax: (514) 398-7348
_____________________________________________________________________________
Survey of Robot Development Environments
This version: Mon Sep 14 07:16:31 1992 Please send updates, additions,
corrections, etc. to: <wlim@gdstech.grumman.com>
[Sorry about the format, I'll try to work it into 80 cols - nivek]
Organization Project Robot Development Languages &
Type HW Environment SW Enviroment
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alcatel Alsthom Indoor robot Own design SPARC II, VME proc VxWorks, MOTIF
Recherche (AAR) Outdoor robot Own design
Brown U. Mobile robots Own design SPARC I & II, OS/9, GNU Emacs, Xlib,
(RWI base) VME 68030 MOTIF, Forth, C, C++
CMU a) SM^2(walker) Own design VME 68020 & 68030, Chimera II RTOS, C,
Sun Sun tools
b) AMBLER (6 Own design VME 68020 & 68030, MOTIF, VxWorks,
leged walker) SPARC II, Iris X windows, C
c) Mobile Mani- HERO 2000 Z8088s, Sun IPC & ELC, X Window, Lisp, C, Hero
pulator NeXT Basic
d) Mobile robot Own design SPARC, Iris, Mac, X windows, Openwindows,
VME, Maspar, Titan VxWorks, Chimera RTOS,
TCA, GIL, LISP
e) Navlab Own design Sun-4 X windows, C
Colorado St. 6-legged robot Own design 68HC11EVM, AT C
Cornell U. 2 mobile robots Own design Gespak 68000, Intel Scheme, Lucid Lisp
(robot with (RWI base) 80c196, Sun(?)
tank-tread
base coming)
Cray Research(?)Mobile robot Own design MC68HC16EBV, 386 Assembler
Georgia Tech Mobile robots Denning DRV-1 SUN IPC, Decstation, X windows, C,
& MRV-II Microvax II Lisp
Grumman CRC SmartyCat Cybermotion Mac II's/IIci's, C, CLOS, LISP, SAL
K2A uExplorer, SGI(soon) VxWorks(soon)
68030 VME board(soon)
IBM TJ Watson TJ, TJ2 Own design Symbolics, RS/6000, LISP, CLOS, CLIM,
(1989?-1992) (RWI bases) 286, 386, Suns C, X-windows, MOTIF,
GNU Emacs
ISX Corp Subsumption Own design Mac II cx's/ci's C(?)
JPL 7 robots Own design Suns to 6811 RCCL, ALFA
McGill U Mobile robot Own design Sparcs, mc68hc11, PC GNU, X, Small-C
(RWI base) C, C++
MIT 20 robots Own design Mac II & IIsi, HC6811 Behavior Language
Polly Own esign VME, 6811, Mac Senselisp(Scheme)
(RWI base)
MITRE Mobile robot Denning MRV-1 MacQuadra, uExplorer Lisp, REX/GAPPS, C, C++
NRC of Canada EAVE Customized Mac II's, 68020's C, HARMONY OS, MacAPP
Cybermotion
NC State Mobile robot? Own design VME 68020 & 68040, OS/9, P/NET
Mac
Purdue U. PETER Cybermotion Sun4, 68030 C, VxWorks
Stanford Landmark based Nomadic Mac IIci C, LISP
Navigation
Swiss FIT Mobile robot Own design Mac MacMETH, Modula-2
U of Central a) 6-leg walker Own design Commodore 64 SuperC, C
b) 6-leg walker Own design Amiga 500 C
U of Edinburgh a) ALDER Fischertecknik 8052, SUN, PC Basic
b) CAIRNGORM Fischertecknik 68000, SUN C
U of Mass., Denning DECstation 5000, C, LISP
Amherst Sparcstation
U of New Underwater Own design Sparcstation, VxWorks, C(?)
Hampshire robots CMOS VME boards
U Wash. Mobile robots Denning HP 9000 series 300's, Gensym G2, OS/9
68000 LLAMA (Forth), Lisp, C
VTT (Technical Akseli Own design HP-1100, 386 MS-DOS, LynxOS (soon)
Research Center base with C
of Finland) "turtle" config
_____________________________________________________________________________
Books:
The readership of this group ranges from the naive user to experienced
robot designers and users. Accordingly, this list covers the gamut as
well.
The Robot Builder's Bonanza: 99 Inexpensive Robotics Projects
Gordon McComb
TAB Books
Interfacing Test Circuits With Single-Board Computers
Robert H. Luetzow
TAB Books
Build Your Own Universal Computer Interface
Bruce Chubb
TAB Books
Robots
Peter Marsh
Crescent (Crown) Publishers, NY 1985
Marsh edited the volume and the book is made up of several
contributions from robotics researchers. A very well illustrated book
that covers the general topic of robots. Excellent source materials
and graphics.
Microprocessor Based Robotics
Mark J. Robillard
Howard Sams & Co. 1983
Advanced Robot Systems
Mark J. Robillard
Howard Sams & Co. 1984
The 6.270 Robot Builder's Guide
Fred Martin
Server: kame.media.mit.edu (18.85.0.45)
File : ~ftp/pub/fredm/README
This directory contains "The 6.270 Robot Builder's Guide", the
course notes to the 1992 MIT LEGO Robot Design Competition.
Contact: Fred Martin at fredm@media-lab.media.mit.edu
_____________________________________________________________________________
Acknowledgements:
[People who responded directly to me or the net]
Hans Moravec, Maki Habib, Ken Goldberg, David Stanton,
John Nagle, Sean Graves, Sjur Vestli, Mark Yim, Rich Wallace
Dan Hudson, Sanjiv Singh, Matt Stein, Dave Stewart, Ed Cheung, Ron
Fearing, Klaus Biggers, Lisa Rendleman, Nobuhiko Mukai,
--
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