Subject:
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Re: Robotic Wheelchair
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics.handyboard
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Date:
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Thu, 1 Jul 1999 18:24:41 GMT
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Original-From:
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Gary Livick <glivick@pacbell.net%StopSpammers%>
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Viewed:
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803 times
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I did see that! Very impressive, as long as you don't run into an object
below the CG while up on two wheels :-). They have probably thought of that
already.
This is the kind of good work that people in robotics can do. There are
other "robots" in use already that help improve, and even preserve lives.
There are implants for the inner ear that allow people who are stone deaf
"hear." Devices are being developed that help people who are completely
blind "see." Implants in the chest regulate heartbeats, and some even
monitor for ventricular fibrilation, delivering a shock to get the heart
beating properly if it happens. There are artificial limbs that users can
consciously control, similar to a biological limb. Dr. Tonkens probably
knows of other things either in use or in development that most of us have
never heard of. If we put 1/10 the time and money into this kind of
research that we put into cruise missiles, the world would be a better
place.
A couple of months ago, I was down at my local electronics supply house and
I saw one of the clerks playing with a robotic device a friend of his had
built. I haven't described it before now, because of the difficulty in
doing so, but I'll take a shot at it.
The robot was built around a basic stamp. It had an arm that it could spin
in a horizontal plane around a vertical axis (picture a ball swung around in
a circle from a string, but the string is rigid). At the distal end of this
arm was mounted a rigid pendulum which could rotate about the axis of the
arm. The pendulum arm had a weight on the end of it that kept the pendulum
pointed down in when the robot was off. Both degrees of freedom of the
device had rotary encoder feedback to the basic stamp.
So picture yourself holding this thing in your hand. You hold the arm out
straight, knowing if you wiggle it just right the penculum will start
spinning around on the end like a single bladed propeller. There, I guess
that is clear enough.
The robot, when you turned it on, wiggled the arm and set the pendulum to
swinging. After tfive or ten seconds, the robot would stop with the
pendulum pointed straight up, perfectly balanced on the end of the arm.
Everything was on needle bearings, so this was no easy task.
Gary Livick
rmtmd wrote:
> Anybody catch the segment last night on the robotic wheelchair. I think
> it was on Dateline.
>
> Watching it climb stairs was impressive, but seeing the chair stand
> upright on two of its four wheels while the occupant caught a 25lb sack
> of lead, all without the robotic chair even appearing to correct its
> balance was amazing. The inventor must have one fast controller, lots of
> accelerometers, and some very fancy code to do that!
>
> Ross M. Tonkens, M.D.
> Medical Director
> Primary Care of Nevada
> 100 North Green Valley Parkway
> Suite 240
> Henderson, NV 89014
>
> 702 914-7120 VOICE
> 702 914-7129 FAX
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Robotic Wheelchair
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| Anybody catch the segment last night on the robotic wheelchair. I think it was on Dateline. Watching it climb stairs was impressive, but seeing the chair stand upright on two of its four wheels while the occupant caught a 25lb sack of lead, all (...) (25 years ago, 1-Jul-99, to lugnet.robotics.handyboard)
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