Newsgroups: comp.robotics,news.answers Path: rwsys!trsvax!utacfd.uta.edu!news.oc.com!news.kei.com!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!noc.near.net!das-news.harvard.edu!cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!nivek From: nivek+@cs.cmu.edu (Kevin Dowling) Subject: comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) part 1/2 Message-ID: Followup-To: poster 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 newsgroup Sender: news@cs.cmu.edu (Usenet News System) Supersedes: Nntp-Posting-Host: j.gp.cs.cmu.edu Reply-To: nivek@ri.cmu.edu Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1993 00:40:01 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu Expires: Sun, 18 Jul 1993 00:39:51 GMT Lines: 1340 Xref: rwsys comp.robotics:5188 news.answers:8848 Archive-name: robotics-faq/part1 Last-modified: Sun Feb 14 23:26:39 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. This post, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1993 Kevin Dowling. Distribution through any means other than regular Usenet channels must be by permission. The removal of this notice is forbidden. Changes, additions, comments, suggestions and questions to: Kevin Dowling phone: 412.268.8830 Robotics Institute fax: 412.682.1793 Carnegie Mellon University email: nivek@ri.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213 ___________________________________________________________________________ Contents: Part 1 +++Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives +++What is Robotics? +++Professional organizations +++Conferences +++Publications +++Mobile robot companies +++Manipulator companies +++Small Inexpensive Robots +++Organizations doing robotics +++Graduate programs in robotics Part 2 +++Sensors +++Wireless communication +++Suppliers and sources for parts +++Hero Robots +++Puma Manipulators +++Simulators +++Real-Time Operating Systems +++Robot Controller Survey +++What is the miniboard? +++Books +++Acknowledgements _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives: If you haven't done so, new users on the net should read news.announce.newusers. In particular, the following posts are a good idea: A Primer on How to Work With The Usenet Community Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Usenet Hints on Writing Style for Usenet 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: FTP is a way of copying file between networked computers. If you need help in using or getting started with FTP, send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq as the body of the message. 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: [Check info_service/Usenet/00index] location: ftp.cs.cmu.edu [128.2.206.173] directory: /user/nivek/ftp/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: filenames: pub/comp.robotics/ ____________________________________________________________________________ +++What is Robotics? There is a lengthy, committee-written definition from one of the robotics organizations that defines robotics as preprogrammable, electro-mechanical devices perform a variety of functions. It's rather dry and, in the end, uninspiring. Better ones might include: Force through intelligence. Where AI meet the real world. I know it when I see it. Webster says: An automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans or a machine in the form of a human. The word 'robot' was coined by the Czechloslovakian playwright Karel Capek (pronounced "chop'ek") from the Czech word for worker or serf. Capek was reportedly several times a candidate for the Nobel prize for his works and very influential and prolific as a writer and playwright. Mercifully, he died before the Gestapo got to him for his anti-Nazi sympathies in 1938. The use of the word Robot was introduced into his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) which opened in Prague in Jan of 1921. The play was an enormous success and productions soon opened throughout Europe and the US. R.U.R's theme, in part, was the dehumanization of man in a technological civilization. There is some evidence that the word robot was actually coined by Karl's brother Josef, a writer in his own right. But I cannot find the article I once read on this subject. [I believe it was in SigART]. ____________________________________________________________________________ +++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. __________________________________________________________________________ +++Conferences There are a wide variety and number of conferences related to robotics and automation. Some are focused on industrial applications, many are researchy in nature and most are a mixture of both. Proceedings should be available in most good libraries or by interlibrary loan. Annual Conference of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICARA) May 2-7, 1993 at the Atlanta Hilton and Towers, Atlanta, Georgia 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 International Conference on Computer Vision British Machine Vision Conference IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Conference IMAC/SICE International Symposium on Robotics, Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems. American Association for Artificial Intellignece (AAAI) Probably the largest and most prestigious conference on AI. Is now sponsoring a robot competition at the annual AAAI conference. There are also specific conferences in application areas: Mining: Int. Symposium on Mine Mechanization and Automation (organized by the Colorado School of Mines) Canadian Symposium on Mining Automation Canadian Conference on Computer Applications in the Mineral Industry ___________________________________________________________________________ +++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 expensive 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 Mechatronics 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 tel: int (0)52 29 58 28 fax: int (0)52 29 96 53 email: 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. 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 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. 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. _____________________________________________________________________________ +++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 11667 W. 90th Street Overland Park, KS 66214 tel: (913) 894-9022 fax: (913) 894-1363 Some nice telerobotic arms for underwater work. 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: 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! 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). Robotics Research Corp. P.O. Box 206 Amelia, OH 45102 phone: (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. 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. Zebra Robotics Jeff Kerr Menlo Park (415) 328-8884 Small manipulators with integral force control. Zymark Corp Hopkinton, MA Robots for laboratory automation. Western Space and Marine (WSM) International Submarine Engineering (ISE) Robotic Systems International (RSI) Furukawa Sumitomo Chubu _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Small Inexpensive Robots Lego Dacta 555 Taylor Road PO Box 1600 Enfield, CT 06083-1600 tel: (800) 527-8339 fax: (203) 763-2466 LEGO Dacta is the educational branch of the LEGO company. Dacta sells the LEGO Technic product line. These are the geared and motorized versions fo the LEGO system. Kits recommended for robotics include: 1038 Technical Universal Buggy - dual drive vehicle. $60 1032 Technic II w/ motorized transmission - $76 9605 Technic Resource Set - general parts kits - $200 Other places for Lego-to-Mac software: Paradigm Software (617) 576-7675 Bots (415) 949-2126 MIT has papers on LEGO projects available via FTP from: kame.media.mit.edu. Look in pub/el-memos for a number of files. memo8.* is "LEGO/LOGO: Learning Through and About Design" 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: 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 (Movit robots) tel: (310) 638-4732 fax: (310) 638-8347 Available from: Kelvin Electronics (800) 645-9212 Pitsco (800) 835-0686 Edmund Scientific (See +++Robot Parts section for address) 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. 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 FischerTechik Like Lego 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. More expensive than Lego though. _____________________________________________________________________________ +++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. Mitre Corporation of McLean VA and Houston TX, is also doing quite a bit in robotics. 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 NASA 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 NASA 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 Terry Fong NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Greenbelt, MD 20771 Contact: Stepehn 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 Johnson Space Center (JSC) Houston, TX Contact: Charles Price More of an operations house but lots of shuttle RMS work. Becoming central site for Artemis (lunar explorer) work. NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) 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. NASA 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 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) USC has a new MS Program called: Master of Science in Computer Science with specialization in Robotics & Automation Beginning in Fall, 1993, this new 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. 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 Telephone: (213) 740-4499 Internet: amy@pollux.usc.edu Faculty include: 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). 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. McGill University Department of Biomedical Engineering 3775 University Street Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2B4 Ian Hunter and John Hollerbach Interests include: Master-slave manipulators for precise surgery 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 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 as 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. 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 -- aka: Kevin Dowling Carnegie Mellon University tel: (412) 268-8830 The Robotics Institute adr: nivek@ri.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213 -- aka: Kevin Dowling Carnegie Mellon University tel: (412) 268-8830 The Robotics Institute adr: nivek@ri.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213