REST MY good and faithful robot !!!

                   MAN ITS COLD ON THE MOON !!!

   

  Those of us who live in the northern climates are used to cold weather. We dress for it and fill ourselves up with warm delicious liquids , like coffee to keep our core temperatures up. However I do not think any of us could survive temperatures of   -180 degrees Celsius. You have read it correctly, minus one hundred and eighty degrees. Now that is COLD and the temperature poor Yutu and its lander have to endure. They will sleep through the lunar night and I know they will be alright. Those who built them and landed them know what they are doing.

      Well for me I wish them pleasant dreams and the happiest new year. 

Take Care and I will write soon !!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!!

Here we are another December and time to spend with family and friends. Over the past year I am amazed and humbled that so many around the world view my humble blog!! I know I am opinionated and tend to be long winded at times. So before this season is over I would like to give every one an early gift. Knowing me you know it has to do with robots and Christmas. So without further adieu I present this video and hope you watch to the end. it is quite charming. From the bottom of my heart I wish all of you a very ,

    

    Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and a very prosperous New Year!!

Pius

WATCH THIS video of YUTU landing on the moon !!!

  Another day and more exciting news. This morning before my morning coffee I watched this fascinating video of the Chinese moon rover landing. I know it is a few minutes but if you watch all the way through without skipping you will be as captivated as I was by it. 

   Landing on the moon has placed China in a new space race. I was thinking today of the story of the tortoise and the hare. Even though it is named Jade Rabbit I do believe that China is the tortoise in this story. In its slow determined step by logical step it will pass the other space faring nations. Sadly these nations are not looking to the stars but on the ground and seem preoccupied with trivial pursuits.

                       Fascinating Video of Landing !!

                        Political Analysis of Landing !!

  Will write soon, take care !!

YUTU is Fantastic !!!!!!!!!!

  I know there is a lot going on but so few have noted or cared about this magnificent achievement !! I cannot get enough about this stuff. Space is the realms of dreams. I believe if we look up we will solve more problems then looking down. Look up and look at these videos too !!! I will write more very, very soon !!

Amazing Rover PICS !!!!!

       

              Its gets better and better as the days go by!! Yet there is no wide coverage of this event. Let me say the world has its priorities upside down !! I am going to have a YUTU party !! Boy this is going to be a merry Christmas or what !!! Take a look a these most

fascinating pictures from the MOON !!!

Jade Rabbit is on the surface of the moon !!!!!!!

LOOK MOTHER TRACKS !!!

Jade Rabbit's Lander taken by rover, WOW!!!

YUTU LANDED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

       Wonderful news, exciting news YUTU is on the moon. It landed in my time zone at 8:11 A.M. Congratulations to all those who made it possible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why is the world not heralding this as simply awesome, great, fantastic. You certainly know how I feel. Let us celebrate as a species. Strangely the news media is awful silent.

Moon as seen by YUTU

CONGRATULATIONS CHINA  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MOON ORBIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        Jade Rabbit the Chinese moon rover has achieved lunar orbit . The burn to slow the craft was an important one . If it had not been successful their would be no landing later. Now all we have to do is wait, which for me is the hard part.

         What is strange to me is why the media is ignoring this story. Is it because the moon rover is not from a western nation? Surely this is the most exciting news. What could be more important than mankind's quest for space. We are to preoccupied as to the origin of this little robot. The United States carried the the torch for a long time and now they have passed that torch to China. For whatever the reason we are all one species. I do believe that the differences that people consider important will be seen in the future as completely irrelevant.

Jade Rabbit will soon being doing this for real !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

            

Good Luck Jade Rabbit !!!!!

GO YUTU GO !!!

 I am so excited Yutu the chinese moon rover is on its way to the moon. It should land about December 14 or 15 THIS YEAR !!! WOW I cannot wait and I wish all the people involved the best of Luck. My prayers are with them and that brave little probe. What a wonderful Christmas this will be ,there is going to be a robot on the moon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rover and lander on the moon conception, absolutely fascinating!!!

Spectacular view of rockets after separation of  rocket stage

MY ROBOTS for ALL to SEE !!

    

    Robot builders strive for perfection and we always want to show the world what wonderful things we form with our own hands. My robots are built from scratch with parts I have in my lab-study. This does not mean I shrink away from making it just right but it does mean I tend to slow down so things work as they should. I experimented with different ideas and concepts and I have been graced with a few robots.

     Each was built around the specific parts that I found around my place or purchased. Now when I say purchased it did not mean a big outlay of cash. One idea I know to be true is that quite sophisticated machines can be built from the simple and cheap parts. Most of what I have in my lab comes from surplus stores or what I retrieved from all the electronic garbage people throw out routinely.

     The first robot in this particular piece is Robo. It is built around a rather cool motor I retrieved from a large piece of garbage electronics. In my other blog I intend to write how it was built and provide all the neat technical details.  I used a circuit that takes light and activated two small white relays, which in turn activated the motor. I had it set up that depending how the light hit a particular phototransistor the motor would turn in one direction, then the other direction. It works well and after it was built I noticed a very interesting phenomenon it displayed and is shown in this video. This has happened time and again when I have built robots. They exhibit completely unexpected behaviors, indeed the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

Robo

     Good old Tipsy is a great little machine. If you look closely you will find that Tipsy is made from an old cassette drive mechanism. Around this I screwed some old metal parts and glued some small wheels that were from the same tape mechanism. To activate it I built, from some small transistors, a flashing l.e.d. and a solar panel  a BEAM type solar driven activator. BEAM is an acronym and stands for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics and Mechanics. Tipsy is a photophile and goes toward a light source. Since it was built with a solar cell it was sluggish in ordinary light. However as this video shows it really loves the sunlight. Mark Tilden was one of the researchers that invented the BEAM concept. He wrote articles and books explaining his design philosophy.  He went on to assist WowWee Robotics. Robosapien was his as was Robopet and the Roboquad. All these are absolutely great robots. They walk and sense their surroundings and most important of all fun to play with when you want to play with robots. The most fascinating and wonderful robot is Robosapien V2. Talk about amazing and spooky in its reactions. I once watched it track someone with its head and it sent chills up my spine. Please do not worry about Tipsy in this video , both robot and creator are just fine.

Tipsy

     Every time I go shopping for groceries I pass the section that sells plastic containers of many sizes and I see hundreds of robots. No I have not taken leave of my senses I have come to them. If you look closely at this video of Firefly you will see that it's case is actually a sandwich container with the top removed. This robot was built so that my daughter would have an entry in a robot show that was eventually cancelled. The show did not go on because of lack of interest. I do believe the world has got its priorities upside down. How can anyone not find robots and robot building endlessly fascinating ???? The inside of Firefly was and old base from a toy jeep I had for years. I connected similar circuits that would activate when light was shone onto them. I made some parts petty obvious so the newcomers to robotics would not miss them. The decoration was courtesy of my offspring, someone I am exceedingly proud of on a continuous basis.

Firefly

FireFly moves

     Lester is the last video I am presenting in this particular blog. He was a challenge on two counts. Firstly I had to connect the head so that the wires going to the motor that controlled his head would not tangle as the head moved left and right. This was solved by placing the wire up near the motor. Secondly the circuit I used was one I had been experimenting for years. It also activates relays that run a single motor. However the light devices used were light dependent resistors. I was amazed since the LDRs were connected to a five foot wire and they still worked well. The robot head was from an old Robie Sr. robot from Radio Shack. The neat thing about the circuit was that I used two nine volt batteries. One was for the circuit and one was for the motor.

Lester

     As I write this last bit I am wondering if all those people who view this blog will like my robots? I am going to place a more detailed story of how each was built on my other blog " Robot and Nothing But."  I will include all the delicious technical details and schematic diagrams. I hope this will encourage others to build their own or similar robots. I am addressing the brave person who has come this far. I believe to the core of my being that no matter who you are, no matter what level of technical skill, no matter what your economic situation,and no matter where you are on this planet, YOU can build a robot. It will take a bit of work and some tools but all my robots were built from basically other peoples trash. With that treasure I was blessed with working robots. If I have encouraged others to do this then I will be very, very, very, happy!!!

Get that screwdriver !!!

Fascinating Stuff !!!

Yes the world is full of robot builders !! Here are a few examples at what their creative minds are up to !!!

Robot Soccer

I can watch these robots play four hours. Besides being so much fun the creators of these teams hope to be able to field a team of robots to play the world soccer champions in the year 2050. Good Luck to them !!

Little Dog

By the same people that created Big Dog this little robot stole my heart. When you watch you will be cheering it on as it struggles to get up that little hill. Its movements are so like a real creature that it sends chills up my spine.

Wild Cat

Yet another creature that moves so like a real creature. Now that is not to say it is not real, just robotic. Watch carefully as it comes to make a turn. Its power system is very loud but it moves so gracefully.

Hero 2000 Singing

This is an older robot built by Heathkit in the early 1980's. When I saw and heard this clip it made me smile and I hope it makes all the viewers of this blog smile. Come on now robots are fun !!!

Mimic

This just so weird I had to put it at the end. I have no comment about this but I would like to know what others think about it ???

Take Care until I blog again !!!

Robots for War are just plain WRONG !!!

   

      If you did not read my title let me repeat a word, WRONG. I as a builder of robots firmly believe that to use those wonderful creations of our collective genius in destruction is not the right path.

Atlas 

  

    Now I am pragmatic and realize that all the wishing in the world is not going to prevent the use of robotic technology in areas of conflict. Many robots as I write these words are used to render road side bombs useless. I have read many newspaper accounts of police forces using robots in bomb disposal. I saw a news account of a robot dealing with a person that had a gun in a car that the police had surrounded.

     Let me tell you a little story that come to mind as I was writing this note. On many channels around the world there is a version of robots fighting in an arena. Now to me since they are remote controlled they are not true robots A true robot must, and I repeat this for this is a key concept, must be autonomous. David Heiserman, my mentor taught me this lesson very early and I have never forgotten it. Also why do we call it artificial intelligence?? Is it somehow fake ????  I prefer and use the term machine intelligence. Shows like this are upsetting to me for I hate to see what people, through a lot of blood sweat and tears create, smashed to pieces. They matched a beautiful walking robot with a powerful one and the walking robot was pulverized in seconds. As it happened I wondered how long it took for that roboticist to build and troubleshoot it.

   In the United States there is an agency that is pouring a lot of time and a ton of money into robotics research. That agency is DARPA.

That stands for Defense Advances Research Programs Agency.

They are spending billions of dollars to make sure that a lot of the fighting will be done by robots and not humans. It is part of the congressional mandate to limit the casualties of any future conflict. We already as a species, deploy drones and smart bombs. Cruise missiles have proven their effectiveness over the years. Even though I am firmly against it, this trend will only intensify over the next few decades.

Does this kind of future frighten you??? Well I firmly believe that the future is what we make it. It hinges on the day to day decisions we all make, no matter how insignificant  they may seem at the time. Also I feel lamenting about what I cannot control as counter productive.

The question is what can we do to try and modify the way the future will become. I have not the power or the money to try and change the world. However I can control what I do. Firstly I will tell whoever wants to listen and read what I feel about these important subjects.

     However I know that all those robot builders around the world that struggle alone and with woefully inadequate funding will make a  real difference. I know being in the field for decades that progress that is significant takes many, many years of painstaking work. Those that want a quick fix will find this field rather frustrating. However I can speak from experience that when the work is done the results are well worth the wait. This field that we chose is still in its infancy and I believe that the breakthroughs will come from individuals following their own dream, rather from well heeled laboratories. Those in the military and business think only of the bottom line and very quick results. 

     This blog of mine deals with the ideas that come to me when I thinks about robots, which is every day. I will write more technical pieces in the future and will join it to my other blog  Robots  and

Nothing But. I am so grateful to Google for having such a wonderful service available for those of us with meager funds. However since we pay the bills we direct the research and I state with the greatest confidence , you ain't seen nothing yet !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    

A very, very long voyage for Voyager !!

         
     It was announced very recently that Voyager has passed out of our solar system and has become mankind's first interstellar vehicle. I find that so exciting that I can barely stand it. However it must have been so minor for the rest of this world for it only warranted a small, very small mention in all the news that others think as important. 





















     My goodness Voyager 1 was launched in 1977 and it is 18.67 billion kilometers from the earth as the representation above indicates. It is absolutely amazing that it is still transmitting data to earth. The batteries should last till 2025. I look forward in great wonder to see what it discovers out there.

     Because of the nature of what is happening I also wonder if some other species discovers our brave little satellite. For do not forget that it has a record that they can explore.

You can see the gold record on the side !!!

      Here are the sounds of earth. So familiar to us and hopefully will make a good impression on those other species that will listen. I wonder what they will make of them ????  At the speed that our valiant spacecraft is travelling it will take a while, say 40,000 years to reach our nearest neighbor star. I always think that it would be sooner .

So my hopes and prayers go with that little robotic spacecraft I know it will do us proud!!!

Mankind's Greatest Achievement !!!

     It was on this date in 1969 that man landed on the moon. To me it was amazing. I feel that being a witness to this event made me somehow different. I could say that I was alive when it happened.
     
     However it seems that the world has forgotten how wonderful that event was and that it should be remembered. It should be celebrated as the most marvelous technological feat of the last century. For the first time in all of human history man set foot on another celestial body.

      It was a milestone among milestones and it placed us on a path to greatness. Now with the moon under our belts we could set up bases and continue to study the solar system and go to even more planets. Of course the next really big step would be to dream of going off to another solar system. Let us not get ahead of ourselves but it is a neat thought.

      Well to the rest of the world this day may pass as any other , but in one small corner there is a human being who has not forgotten and who will continue to celebrate this day as being one to always remember.!!!

Why Technology Works !!

   Here I am standing beside my self in wonderment that so many of you out there in the real world take the precious time out of their busy day to look at my blog !!
   I review the stats and there are people from every part of the globe and this makes me very humble and happy !

   Now my lab and research area is in a shambles, not through any natural disaster. I work and read and things get a just more than a bit messy. I have failed in my initial experiments with ultrasonic range finding for my robot . The circuits I have painstakingly built have failed and I have nothing to show for it. So I have to do some more research. Now there are commercial units available however I want to build everything from scratch . It is more fun that way and you learn a great deal more as well.
   
   I have also been documenting my success with Sam's main board. I have implemented an input circuit and a functioning ram. I have also written a z80 machine language program that tests the hard ware. I had to do this before I go on so I can reference back when things go slow or nowhere at all. 
   
   I will provide more detail and schematics of my failed experiments in the next blog. I wonder if the people who write these books and draw up these circuits actually build and test them. In my experience I have found more than one mistake and this is annoying and very frustrating. My rule is to test and test and make sure the things I build and program, work always and for hours if not days. When you trust these guys you assume they know what they are writing about. MY RULE trust yourself when it comes to building things.

A Modern World

            As I think about how to create my robot in the small expanse of time that I was given I also trip over many other thoughts. I am going to finish my wondrous artifact and have him react and act in the world.

             Then I look around as I am walking about and I am concerned at what I witness. People with a terrible sense of preoccupation with themselves. In this twenty-first century I would have expected more progress. We still use fossil fuels to drive our cars. It seems that we use cell phones for the most trivial of conversations. Our leaders are baffled about how to solve the myriad problems facing us as a species.

                                           Sam's Brain Board Prototype 1  

                                                          Sam's Brain Board Prototype ( opposite side wiring)
     

                    Sam's    2716  EPROM which I programmed in Z80 Machine Language

The Mighty Z80  Sam's Microprocessor Brain

 Into this mess I am going to throw a device that will I believe ,as it develops , will help solve these problems. Despite initial negative reaction we will accept the help that will be offered. Then and only then will we survive !!!!!!                                                                                                

First Audio Blog !!!

Here it is the second day of  2013 and I have learned how to add audio to my blog!! How exciting and interesting this year is going to be!!  I am now monitoring my comment section and someone who liked my blog made an excellent suggestion about adding video , pictures and audio to my blog to give it more pop !!

Well here it is and I promise I will not end this sentence with an exclamation mark.

"http://archive.org/download/FirstAudioBlog2013/MIC-2012-12-20_01h21m00s.mp3"

This audio is about 2:55 in length and if you have the time please listen and by all means let me know what you think.

Take Care

Pius