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Vol. 4 No. 11
SERVO MAGAZINE

WELDING RTOS TO THE RESCUE CORDLESS DRILL MOTORS XPORT BOTBALL CONTROLLER

November 2006

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Robotic Kits

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Columns

Departments

08

Robytes

06

Mind/Iron

10

GeerHead

07

Bio-Feedback

14

Twin Tweaks

30

New Products

68

Events Calendar

68

Robotics Showcase

73

Robo-Links

74

SERVO Bookstore

76

Brain Matrix

82

Advertisers Index

by Jeff Eckert

Stimulating Robot Tidbits

by David Geer

Battery Operated Smart Servants

by Bryce and Evan Woolley

Only You Can Prevent Prehistoric

Forest Fires

20

Ask Mr. Roboto

24

Programmable Logic

by Pete Miles

Your Problems Solved Here

by Gerard Fonte

Counters

70

Robotics Resources
by Gordon McComb

Finding and Entering Robot

Competitions

78

Appetizer

by Dr. George Blanks

with Steve Marum and Ted Mahler

Why Its Great to be the BEST

79

Then and Now

by Tom Carroll

Robot Vacuum Cleaners and

Lawn Mowers

ENTER WITH CAUTION!

32 The Combat Zone
Weld, Weld, Weld!

SERVO Magazine (ISSN 1546-0592/CDN Pub Agree#40702530) is published monthly for $24.95 per year by T & L Publications, Inc.,
430 Princeland Court, Corona, CA 92879. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT CORONA, CA AND AT ADDITIONAL ENTRY MAILING
OFFICES. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to SERVO Magazine, P.O. Box 15277, North Hollywood, CA 91615 or
Station A, P.O. Box 54,Windsor ON N9A 6J5; [email protected]

SERVO 11.2006

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11.2006
VOL. 4 NO. 11

Page 14

Page 62

Features & Projects

44

XPort Botball Controller

Gives Good Game
by Jenny Grigsby, Jorge Villatoro,
and Matthew Oelke
Botballs primary processor makes a
teams task easier.

47

Omnidirectional
Robot Vision
by Bryan Bergeron
An exploration of omnidirectional
robot vision options and the
construction of an inexpensive
mirror system for autonomous and
tele-autonomous robots.

54

Real Time Operating

Systems to the Rescue
by Phil Davis
A review of FreeRTOS.org and what
it can do for you.

60

How to Convert Cordless

Drill Motors for Use in
Robot Drives
by Peter Smith
Step-by-step instructions for
this simple operation.

62

ROBOGames Prep
by Dave Calkins
This month: Androids!
SERVO 11.2006

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Published Monthly By
T & L Publications, Inc.
430 Princeland Court
Corona, CA 92879-1300
(951) 371-8497
FAX (951) 371-3052
Product Order Line 1-800-783-4624
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Mind / Iron
by Evan Woolley

Donning the Mentor Hat

Mentoring is an important aspect
of the field of robotics. Robotics can be
an intimidating field, especially to
young students considering study and a
career in science and technology.
Having the guidance of a mentor can
really be the deciding factor that gives a
student the confidence and inspiration
that they need to make the choice to
become an engineer. I know personally
that my mentors have meant a lot to
me, so I jumped at the chance to help
others in that same way.
After spending three years on a
FIRST robotics team, it seemed like the
natural next step to return in
subsequent years as a college mentor.
And it seemed easy enough to step into
the role of "mentor" I just tried to
emulate what my mentors had done for
me. And after donning the mentor hat,
I really realized that giving
encouragement and dispelling doubt
were as much of the process of
mentoring as technical instruction. I
also discovered that helping someone
else bring their idea to fruition was just
as rewarding as seeing my own come to
life.
It's kind of funny. While I was
actually on my high school's FIRST
team, I don't think that I ever
formulated a really good idea of how
creative everyone else on the team was.
I was focused more on my own ideas,
and though I tried to be receptive to
what the others had to say, I still think I
was a bit biased toward my own ideas,
and I think that is a natural tendency.
When I witnessed our robot perform
well in competition, I naturally focused
on the aspects of the design I worked

on, and as a result I attributed success

in a match to the area of my focus. As
a mentor, I was detached enough from
the initial design process so that I was
really able to appreciate how creative
everyone else really was, and I was
really able to appreciate the
contributions that everyone made to
the project. I find this funny because it
was only after leaving the team that I
realized how important the team as a
whole was. I think my appreciation of
the effectiveness of the team was really
one of the main benefits I derived as a
mentor.
And I think this appreciation and
awareness led me to seek out more
opportunities to mentor, and it just
seemed
like
another
natural
progression. Many of the students on
my high school FIRST team were also
members of the solar boat race team. I
had never really been involved on the
team during my high school years (too
busy with robots), but I found myself
involved as a mentor. Of course, I did
learn a few more things about solar
power than I did before, but what really
drew me in was not only the thrill of
achieving a goal, but the thrill of
helping others achieve something. That
might sound like a wallflower's vicarious
thrill, but it's quite the contrary.
Whenever I was on a robot team, it
really felt great to do well in
competition. What I usually focused on,
though, was how my contribution was
a part of the victory. Again, I think this
is natural, albeit a bit selfish. As a
mentor, I found myself really able to
appreciate the victory of the team it
was a selfless thrill. Selfless in that I was
able to really appreciate how everyone
had a hand in the victory. Not only
Mind/Iron Continued

SERVO 11.2006

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PUBLISHER
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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Jeff Eckert
Tom Carroll
Pete Miles
David Geer
Jenny Grigsby
R. Steven Rainwater
Gordon McComb
Jorge Villatoro
Kevin Berry
Ted Mahler
Dave Calkins
Phil Davis
Bryan Bergeron
Matthew Oelke
Pete Smith
Evan Woolley
Bryce Wooley
Gerard Fonte
Charles Guan
Bill Bottenberg
Steven Kirk Nelson
Paul Reese
Jeff Vasquez
George Blanks
Steve Marum
Robert Wilburn
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Copyright 2006 by
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All Rights Reserved
All advertising is subject to publishers approval.
We are not responsible for mistakes, misprints,
or typographical errors. SERVO Magazine
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Dear SERVO:
Wood it's what my robots are made of. It's snubbed
by most builders of robots. So I was pleased to see Robotics
Resources recommend it. However, I am a little disappointed
that McComb did not place more emphasis on gluing. The
ease of making strong glue joints is an important advantage
that wood has over metal and most plastics. Well-designed
glue joints are the key to high strength to weight wood
structures. Wood airplanes and that includes some World
War II fighters are glued together.
By the way, ANC 18 bulletin, Design of Wood Aircraft
Structures, June 1951, contains a lot of information useful to
builders of wood robots. Unfortunately, I have no idea where
you can get a copy.
Also, I would like to point out that thin (1/64" to 1/2")
birch plywood is available mail-order at about half the
hobby shop price. One such source is: Lone Star Models,
www.lonestar-models.com
William J. Kuhnle
Lavon, TX

Did you know that if youre a paid subscriber

to SERVO Magazine, you can get the online
version for FREE?
Go to www.servomagazine.com
could I experience my enjoyment, but the whole team's
enjoyment.
But, of course, a mentor gets a lot more out of the
experience than the vicarious enjoyment of other people's
projects. You hear it all the time, but the mentored give just
as much back to the mentor. It might not necessarily be in
technical knowledge (though high school students can surely
have surprising insights), but they certainly return inspiration
twofold. When you realize that you've given at least one
person confidence, that is a huge thing. It goes beyond the
victory in a single competition. It encompasses academic
victories and professional victories and personal victories,
because you've helped steer someone on a path that they will
find exciting and rewarding.
Of course, my model of transition from team member to
team mentor wouldn't work for everyone. Many of the
mentors in organizations like FIRST didn't have the benefit of
being on the team first, and many possible mentors out there
in the world didn't either. The good news is that it is very easy
to become a mentor, especially in the fields of science and
engineering. FIRST teams are everywhere nowadays, as are
LEGO League teams, BEST teams, and now there are
emerging Vex Challenge teams. There are groups everywhere
in need of mentors. The only requirement is the will to inspire
and to be inspired. SV

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SERVO 11.2006

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Robytes
re you an avid Internet surfer
who came across something
cool that we all need to see? Are
you on an interesting R&D group
and want to share what youre
developing? Then send me an
email! To submit related press
releases and news items, please
visit www.jkeckert.com

Jeff Eckert

flight refueling and munitions dispense

testing. The vehicle is the result of a joint
effort by EDO Corporation (www.edo
corp.com), which funded development
of the composite airframe, and Boeings
Integrated Defense Systems division.

Consortium Looks at
Civil UAVs

Military UAV Achieves

Autonomy

by Jeff Eckert
leader in the technology by 2022.
The consortium includes such
companies as BAE Systems, EADS,
Agent Oriented Software, Flight
Refuelling, QinetiQ, Rolls-Royce, and
Thales UK, plus renowned research and
academic bodies and other small and
medium-sized enterprises. BAE Systems
(which is Europes largest defense
company) already has considerable
experience in the field (see photos).
Will the civilian skies soon be
swarming with unmanned police
planes? Will pizza be delivered by small
autonomous dirigibles? Stay tuned.

Robot With Taste?

Boeings PMTD UAV during a test

flight. Photo by Peter George,
courtesy of Boeing.

The ASTRAEA program is aimed at

enabling common-place civil use
of UAVs developed from current
models such as the Herti 1A and
the IAV2 vertical takeoff and landing
(VTOL) vehicle. Photos courtesy
of BAE Systems.

In a recent test flight from the

Vandalia Municipal Airport in Illinois,
Boeings (www.boeing.com) Persistent
Munition Technology Demonstrator
(PMTD) flew autonomously for the
first time, navigating to 14 programmed locations accurately, changing altitudes at four different points,
and operating at various preplanned
speeds. The 60-lb vehicle, with a
wingspan of 12 feet, was created to
demonstrate emerging technologies
via incremental upgrades and various
demonstration phases and to serve as
a test bed for future small UAVs. It is
designed for extended loiter times and
can be air or surface launched.
In the test, the PMTD took off and
landed under remote control, but the
flight itself was conducted without any
human intervention. Having completed
this first phase of development, the companys future plans include sensor integration and a demonstration of weapon
terminal guidance, as well as possible in-

Most of the focus of UAV development is aimed at military applications,

but that may change in coming
years. Britains Autonomous Systems
Technology
Related
Airborne
Evaluation and Assessment (ASTRAEA)
program (www.astraeaproject.com)
is a 32 million (~$60 million) effort to
open up opportunities for routine civil
use of UAVs in segregated and nonsegregated airspace for such purposes as
environmental monitoring and security.
Projects encompass key technologies and considerations including
collision avoidance systems, communications, flight control, propulsion,
autonomous decision making, health
monitoring, and affordability. Whereas
ASTRAEA specifically focuses on the
technologies, systems, facilities, and
procedures that will allow uninhabited
vehicles to operate safely and routinely
in the UK, it has obvious long-term
implications elsewhere, and a stated
goal is to position the UK as the worlds

SERVO 11.2006

This robot, developed by NEC and

Mie University, is billed as a partner
robot with a sense of taste. Photo
courtesy of NEC System Technologies.

One interesting bot that may have

escaped your attention is the food
tasting robot developed by NEC System
Technologies and Mie University,
dubbed by some as the winebot
because of its ability to identify
different types of wine. However, in
demonstrations, it has also successfully
identified several types of cheese, meat
products, and bread, often without even
opening the package. You may have
already noticed that the little guy doesnt
have a mouth, which would seem to
make tasting things difficult. And, in
fact, it does not have a sense of taste in
any normal meaning of the word.
What it actually does is employ an
infrared spectrometer, mounted on its
left arm, to analyze the food, providing

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Robytes
not only identification but also quantity
estimates of components such as sugar
and fat. Observers have noted that the
technology still needs some refinement.
One reporter was identified by the
robot as prosciutto, and another
individual was deemed to be bacon. If
the technology were adapted to a
robotic chef, the results could be both
tragic and unappetizing.

take approximately three minutes. The

battery-powered 3.7 meter long vehicle
will carry up to four people, assuming
their total weight doesnt exceed 500 kg
(~1,100 lb), and heat and air conditioning can be provided where required.
All of this sounds like a modest
start, but CityMobil envisages much
larger driverless public transport systems that take you virtually anywhere
you want to go. For more details, visit
www.citymobil-project.eu.

EU to Eliminate Drivers
Snakebot to Fight Fires

A new EU project called CityMobil

seeks to improve driving conditions
using autonomous vehicles such as the
ULTra, built by Britains ATS Ltd.
Photo courtesy of ATS.

If you have developed an aversion

to the attitude and occasional aroma of
taxi drivers, you will take heart at a
recently announced project sponsored
by the European Union (EU). The
CityMobil concept which has been
funded to the tune of 40 million Euros
and involves 28 partners in 10 countries is aimed at replacing human
drivers with autonomous vehicles
wherever feasible. In fact, one of
three trial sites is Londons Heathrow
airport. (The others are the town of
Castelln, Spain, and an exhibition
center in Rome.) By 2008, Heathrow
will incorporate a route that covers
4.2 km of track, including station
loops, and 18 of the ULTra Personal
Rapid Transit (PRT) vehicles provided
by ATS Ltd. (www.atsltd.co.uk).
The rapid part is a relative term,
as it has a maximum speed on level
ground of 11 m/s (24.6 mph), which
isnt bad for buzzing around the
airport. A typical one-mile journey will

SINTEFs Snakefighter project has

resulted in a hydraulic snakebot
designed to fight fires and
dispense various liquids.
Photo courtesy of SINTEF.

moving around on its own, the concept

should have been obvious. But it took
until 2003 for a research scientist at
Norways SINTEF Group to think of building a self-propelled fire hose that can
enter a burning building on its own and
put out the fire without risking human
life. Hence the Snakefighter project.
This year, it bore fruit in the form
of (someone just couldnt resist) Anna
Konda, a 3 meter, 70 kg snakebot
that uses hydraulic valves and
actuators to slither like a snake. The bot
cleverly taps into 100-bar water pressure
that already exists in the attached fire
hose, and that provides it with enough
power to raise its head and aim the
spray, climb stairs, lift heavy objects, and
even break through a wall.
Other
potential
applications
include subsea maintenance of oil and
gas installations anything that
requires snake-like action. (Well, not
anything.) The company is looking
for collaborative partners to help with
continuing development of the system, so if you are interested, stop by
their website. The English version is at
www.sintef.no/default____490.asp
x (thats a quadruple underline). SV

If you have ever seen a garden hose

SERVO 11.2006

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by David Geer

Contact the author at [email protected]

Battery Operated Smart Servants

Know Youre the BOSS!
Robotic Assistance is in the Basket
Humble Beginnings;
Hey, Add a Motor to
Me, Will You?
Starting from a standard, small
frame shopping cart, the Battery
Operated Smart Servant (BOSS)
creator Greg Garcia graduate
research assistant in the center for
intelligent machines and robotics, the
University of Florida modified the
future BOSS robots wheels and
chassis by removing the default
wheels using a 4.5 inch angle
grinder with cutoff wheel.
Then, on a newly fabricated L
bracket, Garcia mounted the robot-tobes motors, having traced out and
drilled bolt holes in a pattern matching
the holes in the motors base. He also
drilled a clearance hole for the motor
shaft to traverse. The remaining,
opposite surface of the L bracket was
BOSS at the beginning just a
simple shopping cart.

10

SERVO 11.2006

left untouched for easy welding to

the cart.
BOSS employs Denso 12-volt DC
motors. These geared, right angle
DC motors produce greater torque,
suitable for those high-test applications. The worm gear [used in these
motors] translates the rotational effort
of the motor about an axis perpendicular to the motor; this keeps the
motors in profile along the vehicle,
says Garcia.
These motors can turn at 150 revolutions per minute. Together with the
eight-inch tires that Garcia specified,
this enables BOSS to move fast enough
to keep up with most people.
The motors are powered by a
series of four 12-volt batteries wired in
parallel in order to form one larger 12volt battery (to wire them in parallel, all
the negative terminals are connected
each one to the next, and likewise with
the positive terminals).
This is BOSS preliminary structural
design for placement of the battery.

Keeping the BOSS

Under Control
The motors are controlled by an Hbridge motor controller the Tecel
model D200 which is compatible
with motors requiring up to 60 amps of
current. The controller also uses four
110 amp MOSFETs (metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor).
The controller blocks, allows, and
directs current using gates or switches
in order to switch the motors on and
off and to guide the motors rotation
directions. You control the H-bridge by
sending pulse width modulated signals
that set the motor duty cycles (speed);
motor direction is set by sending digital
signals that express the selected direction that the motors and ultimately
BOSS should travel.
The primary data in/out for BOSS
is controlled by a MAVRIC IIB microcontroller board. The board employs an
Deciding where to put the
electronics enclosure.

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GEERHEAD

Drive motors with noise

reduction circuitry.

Atmega128 MCU (microcontroller

unit). The MAVRIC was chosen for its
versatility when applied to multiple
sensors and input and output data. An
analog-to-digital converter converts
analog data from three infrared
distance-measuring sensors to a digital
signal the controller can understand.
Digital I/O also delivers signals
between the sonar sensor and the
warning buzzer. The signals traverse a
coil relay to turn the buzzer on; I/O
also sends data to the LCD. RS232
serial connections are used so that
the microcontroller can talk to the
image-processing computer.
The microcontroller programming
can be coded using a variety of
programming languages. I used a software package called CodeVision, which
consists of a number of C libraries that
contain function calls designed to
interface with the ATmega128. The
programming of the vision algorithm
was also done using the C programming language. It was accomplished
using Microsoft Visual Studio 6 and
Motor controller housing unit.

At this stage, BOSS battery is

mounted and secured.

Intels OpenCV (open source computer

vision) libraries, says Garcia.

The BOSS Can See You

The BOSS vision program pulls
video input from a Logitech USB quick
cam. Garcia used his own image processing algorithm runs in order to create the proper reactive control action
and send it to the microcontroller. This
level of processor computation is too
great for the microcontroller to handle,
so it is outsourced to a higher power

The battery secured.

computer. This vision functionality is a

very primitive solution to a complicated
problem, says Garcia.
BOSS uses its vision facility to track
objects based on color recognition. By
adding other functionalities, Garcia was
able to make this simple tracking modality much more robust. Extraneous
factors like lighting and shadowing
affect the quality of color recognition
that can be performed. To offset this,
Garcia gave BOSS a training function
and built tolerances into his algorithm,
to allow for variances after the training

LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT CABLING

During the creation of BOSS, Garcia
learned that noise has a highly detrimental effect on sensor information. He also
learned how to avoid it:
Use good shield wiring.
Run power lines separate from data
lines whenever possible.
Mitigate noise from DC motors. There
BOSS with battery kill switch.

are many simple ways to filter out this

noise using a combination of capacitors
and resistors. For example, on my drive
motors I used some 10 microfarad
ceramic capacitors to reduce the noise
output. One capacitor was bridged
across the positive and negative voltage
leads, while two more were ran from the
positive lead to the motor case ground
and the negative lead to the same motor
case ground, says Garcia.
BOSS side view, early stages.

SERVO 11.2006

11

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Here the warning light has

been mounted.

phase of color-based object recognition.

When the vision program begins, a
prompt asks the user to select the color
she/he is wearing from a list of available colors. The user must then obscure
the cameras view with what they are
wearing. This allows the computer to
know its color under the given lighting
conditions, says Garcia. Tolerances are
built into the Red-Blue-Green color

BROADER LESSONS LEARNED

Nothing is as it seems, says
Garcia, to borrow an old adage. Greg
learned that actions and motions like
pushing a shopping cart or following
someone become very difficult when
you try to reproduce them in machines
alone. It requires incredible computer
power and sensing. These behaviors
are easy for us because we recognize
not only color but also shape and other
characteristics. We dont have to pull
out a tape measure and check each
doorway, we glance at it and know
whether we can pass or not. We can
also step over small boxes which a
wheeled robot cannot do, says Garcia.
A rear view of BOSS
electronics enclosure.

BOSS computer brains, open and

ready for inspection.

values to mitigate minor lighting

changes. If BOSS cant gather enough
color information based on the image
for the algorithm to make a decision,
the robot will stop and sound its buzzer
to let the user know there is a problem.

Makes Sense to
Follow Along
More than a shopping cart with a
brain and sensors, BOSS homes in on
its masters image to follow and deliver
its cargo.
BOSS uses both IR and sonar ranging sensors for positioning. In this way,
BOSS can know its relative distance
from objects in it environment and
know its own positioning. The sonar
itself is specifically for ranging the
distance between BOSS and its master.
This sensor is mounted inline with
the camera so it measures the distance
to whatever the camera is pointing at.
This sensor controls the carts following
behavior. If the cart is too far away from
the target, it will speed up. Conversely,
This is BOSS motor actuation box.

BOSS front view; IR sensors

have been mounted.

if it is too close it will slow down or

stop. But, it will stop close enough to
you to not hit you and yet allow you to
put things in the cart, says Garcia.
The sonar is a Devantech SRF 05
ranger. It works by transmitting ultrasonic pulses. It counts the time between
sending the pulse and hearing its echo to
determine distance, as sonars generally
do. The sonars pulse cant be detected
by the human ear. This particular sonar
has a range of up to four meters.
The IR sensors are Sharp GPD 12s.
These are mounted close to the
ground. The mounting allows BOSS to
see in front of itself and to each side.
These sensors locate minor obstacles in
BOSS path. They are limited in range,
which is sufficient for their task. These
sensors can sense up to 30 centimeters.
When an obstacle is detected, the
cart will stop and sound an audible
tone alerting the user that the path is
blocked. These sensors are currently
used to prevent the cart from having a
collision. Based on empirical tests, it
has been shown that if the user follows
a clear path, that the cart too will
follow said path, says Garcia.

Why, BOSS?
Garcia is most frequently asked
why he built BOSS and how he got
the idea. It was mostly to satisfy
a class requirement (EEL 5666c
Intelligent
Machines
Design
Laboratory). The freedom to design
and create what he wanted within the class requirements was a
factor in his enthusiasm for the job.

12

SERVO 11.2006

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Page 13

GEERHEAD
BOSS GETS AROUND

At this stage of the build, the

warning light has been repositioned.

I believe that robots should be

used primarily to save human lives
where at all possible. But, if that is not
an option, they should at least be able
to enhance our quality of living, says
Garcia. It was the latter motivation that
lead Garcia to come up with plans for
BOSS. People can easily get caught up
in the drudgery of every day chores and
tasks, for example, when Garcia had to
go along to the grocery store as a kid.
You see, I have an older sister. We
always wanted something to do in the
store while we were with our mother
so we would ask to push the cart. I
guess she really didnt like doing it
because she would always agree.
Anyway, my sister would somehow
always find a way to accidentally
bump into me. So I started thinking of
how to avoid this, explains Garcia.
The more Garcia pondered the
problem and those memories, the
more he remembered the nuisances
of using a shopping cart. Sometimes
people forget where theyve left their
carts. Then, they have to go back and
NOVA 7896 SBC with CIMAR PS,
MAVRIC IIB, and LCD all mounted
and powered in box.

No, the BOSS wasnt invited to join

the Beach Boys, but it does get
around in a really cool way. The BOSS
uses skid steering to move and groove.
This means that two front caster
wheels and two rear multidirectional
orientation wheels are employed.
By telling the rear wheels to spin at
varying speeds or opposite directions,
BOSS can make zero turn radius turns,
according to Garcia. BOSS doesnt do
reverse yet, as there are no sensors in
the rear to guide it.

get them. Thats how Garcia arrived at

the solution he calls BOSS.
Beyond this, Garcia sees the possibility that a smart servant could help the
disabled. The same day the AP story
broke about our robots, I got an email
from a woman who is disabled. She has
limited use of one arm and suffers
intense pain when having to single-handedly push a shopping cart. She requested
that I keep her up to date on the development of this technology, adds Garcia.

Conclusion
Garcia simply added eyes, brains,
and mobility to a shopping cart. And,
yet, its clearly one more step toward
the close proximity we will all share
one day with the many servant and
co-worker robots to come! SV

RESOURCES
The BOSS at home on its
Web-based crib
http://grove.ufl.edu/~garcia/
BOSS in action. Catch the video here:
http://grove.ufl.edu/~garcia/BOSS_
internet.wmv
Tecel motor driver board
www.tecel.com/d200

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A=Aluminum Extrusion, B=Board-Level, O=Optical Encoder In,

R= RC outputs. Qty1 price. Contact us for OEM Qty prices

MAVRIC controller board

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Logitech
www.logitech.com
Devantech
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8180 E.Del Plomo Dr.

Scottsdale AZ USA 85258
(602) 617-3931 - [email protected]

www.roboteq.com
SERVO 11.2006

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THIS MONTH:
Only You
Can Prevent
Prehistoric
Forest Fires

his month, we have the pleasure

of presenting the newest addition
to the WowWee Toys robotics
family the Roboreptile. The
Roboreptile is the new version of the
Roboraptor, and this new generation is
sleeker, faster, and even more precocious, if that is at all possible. The only
other member of the WowWee family
that weve had major experience with
is the classic Robosapien and, given the
Robosapiens reputation for expandability and experimentation, we had
high hopes for the Roboreptile. Will
this new lizard on the block be the king
of the dinosaurs, or will it be at the
bottom of the food chain? There was a
quick way to find out ...

WOWWEE

14

COMPARISON.

SERVO 11.2006

King of the Dinosaurs

But before an epic showdown, we
needed to know what the Roboreptile
was capable of. The Roboreptile like
other WowWee products is operable
right out of the box after the procurement of a few AA batteries. The devilish dino is ready to play immediately
it comes with three preprogrammed
behaviors. The first behavior the
Roboreptile exhibits is the feed mode.
While feeding, the Roboreptile will
prowl around, reacting to its environment via sound and infrared sensors.
The reptile will not calm down until it is
fed, which can be achieved by pressing the feed button on the remote.

REMOTE ADDITION.

When we first read about the feeding behavior, we were a bit curious
about what was meant when it was
said that the reptile wouldnt calm
down until fed. The Roboreptile comes
with a hood that, when worn, will
effectively tranquilize the robot dino by
stopping it in its tracks. But if you try to
put the dinos hood on before it has
been fed, it will vehemently shake the
hood off if the Robosapien family
boasts a fusion of technology and
personality, then the Roboreptile is
definitely the maladjusted teenager of
the group. Thats not to say that it isnt
entertaining; quite the contrary.
We both loved to play with
dinosaur toys when we were kids, and
even with just the feeding mode the
Roboreptile would have been the
coolest toy ever. In addition to the
basic feeding behavior, the Roboreptile
can also simply roam, using sensors
to avoid obstacles, and guard, where
the dino crouches on its hind legs and
waits until it is provoked, after which it
will lunge at the offending sound or
motion. In addition to the preprogrammed modes, the Roboreptile can
be controlled via individual commands
given by the infrared remote.
Besides the modes that come pre-

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Only You Can Prevent Prehistoric Forest Fires

programmed, the Roboreptile exhibits
several moods. The feeding behavior
is characteristic of the hungry mood.
While hungry, the reptile is the most
aggressive, even chasing after the
remote control if the user taunts it with
the feed button too much. Once fed
via the button on the remote, the
Roboreptile displays the satisfied
mood, where it moves more slowly and
is more amenable to being hooded.
Hooded is the last mood, where
the Roboreptiles sensors are inactive.
If left hooded for long enough, the
Roboreptile will eventually fall asleep
and power down. The Roboreptiles
moods certainly make it an interactive
and entertaining toy, and there are
many more positive traits it exhibits
beyond personality.
The Roboreptile is advertised as
much faster than its predecessor, and the
feisty dino certainly makes good on this
claim. The Roboreptile can scoot around
at an impressive speed by using its stubby front arms as skids of sorts. The reptiles waving tail and swaying head really
create a realistic motion as the creature
prowls around, and the bot is hugely
entertaining even in demo mode.
In addition to the fluid movements, the Roboreptile can create a
variety of sounds, ranging from ragged
breathing to beastly roaring perfect
for terrorizing housepets. Granted
weve never seen real dinosaurs in
action, but if we ever come across one,
were sure it would saunter around and
sound a lot like the Roboreptile.
Beyond all of the mayhem the
Roboreptile is capable of simply with its
preprogrammed behaviors, the bot also
has the ability to be programmed by
the user. The user can enter a sequence
of up to 20 moves through the remote.
The Roboreptile comes with a veritable
plethora of possible moves, including a
tail strike, bite, shake, and even
one called dizzy. Such variety means
tons of possible 20 move sequences
definitely more than enough to keep
even the most jaded dinosaur expert
entertained for hours on end.
The Roboreptile certainly makes a
good first impression with its overflowing personality and lifelike movements.
The robotic dinosaur is unquestionably

entertaining, but is that

enough to make it the
king of the dinosaurs?

Stomping
Grounds
Argus is our German
Shepherd dog. If the
Roboreptile could hold its
own against such a fearsome adversary, then
surely its dominance
would go unquestioned
KING OF THE DINOSAURS! GRRRRR!
thereafter. Unfortunately,
even the Roboreptiles
fearsome lunges and roars stood no
needed to be addressed was to
chance against Argus jaws. What
become
acquainted
with
the
could be done to help the Roboreptile
Roboreptiles insides. The Roboreptile
reassert its dominance? An early idea
has a much more compact board than
was to emulate the mythological dragits distant cousin, the Robosapien,
ons of yore and give the Roboreptile
though such is to be expected with the
the ability to breath fire, but that
smaller lizard. As was the case with the
project presented the risk of a melted
Robosapien, all of the wires that
plastic dinosaur if things went awry.
connect to the board do so through
Everyone has heard of a firesockets, and this feature makes it easy
breathing dragon anyway, and we are
to flip over or remove.
never ones to fall back on tired clichs.
Removing the board is the only
We came up with the more construcway to get a deeper look into the
tive idea of making the Roboreptile
Roboreptile, and the backside of the
breath smoke carbon dioxide gas.
PCB. An inspection of the PCBs
This way, the Roboreptile could put out
backside reveals that all of the pins are
fires instead of start them. Such protecconveniently labeled by their function
tive tendencies would certainly make a
everything from leg and tail motor
less Machiavellian king of dinosaurs,
ports to test pads. A look at the
and the ability to put out fires would
mechanical workings of the dinosaur
make the Roboreptile a great role
reveals that the Roboreptile abides by
model for kids if anything unfortunate
the same principles of reflexive motion
should happen to Smoky the Bear.
as the Robosapien, so just by taking a
look inside anyone can learn a thing or
two about efficient engineering.
The Roboreptile uses very few
The first order of business that
servo motors to achieve its wide range

Back From Extinction

REPTILE VS. ARGUS ...

THE

FIRE EXTINGUISHER.

SERVO 11.2006

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Twin Tweaks ...

CHECK

OUT THE DINO GUTS!

of movements. A great example is the

decidedly reptilian waving of the bots
tail. At first glance, the movement of
the segmented tail seems to be a complicated motion such graceful kinetics seem like they should be achieved
by complicated mechanisms. But such
is not the case the tail mechanism is
simply a single servo motor that moves
the base of the tail back and forth. The
ingeniously designed segments of the
tail are made in such a way as to create
a smooth motion with no further
locomotion. Similar graceful minimalism is to be found throughout the
entire robot.
In various ways, however, the
Roboreptile is a lot less intuitive for
hackers than its humanoid progenitor.
One glaring example of this literally
glares at you the head of the
Roboreptile, with those beady little
eyes, is a lot more difficult to get into
than the Robosapiens dome. First of
all, the Roboreptiles head cannot be
accessed until all of the neck segments
have been removed. This should
have been a clue, because once we
finally worked our way to the head, we

THE

16

NECK.

SERVO 11.2006

EW, MORE

INSIDES!

discovered that the dinos skull was not

meant to be breached.
After dismantling all of the neck
segments, the only dismantling that
can be done to the head is the removal
of a small part at the base of the skull
the jaws cannot even be split apart.
So, it is our recommendation that the
only way one should attempt to get
inside the head of the Roboreptile is
through a series of clever mind games.

Feeding the
Roboreptile
Just because the Roboreptile is
resistant to major surgery, that doesnt
mean we cant get started on its
firefighting modification. Our initial
vision was to give the dino the ability to
spew compressed CO2, perhaps even
through a tube snaking through the
bots neck. Our idea was that if the
tube had a small enough opening,
the expelled gas would look like a puff
of smoke.
Normal-sized pneumatic parts
were too big to turn the Roboreptile
into a small fire extinguisher, so we had

LOADING THE

CYLINDER.

THE

REPTILE SKULL.

to find something a little more scaled

down. As it turns out, the Roboreptile
is of similar proportions to a paintball
gun. The tiny CO2 cylinders used for
paintball guns would be a perfect fit
for the robotic dinosaur, and we could
scavenge the valve from a paintball
gun to ensure a controllable release of
the gas. So we bought a paintball gun,
after which we did what we think
should be done to all paintball guns
we dismantled it so the parts could be
used in far more useful applications. In
this case, that application would be a
fire extinguishing dinosaur.
After dismantling the paintball
gun, we discovered that the mechanism we needed was housed in a large
and unwieldy casing. All we wanted
was the portion that punctured the
cylinder seal, so we cautiously dissected the spring loaded casing. Much to
our pleasant surprise, the desired piece
could easily be unscrewed from the
open casing. Unfortunately, by taking
only the part we wanted from the
paintball gun, we lost the ability to
hold the cylinder in place. Fortunately,
the tiny cylinders happened to fit perfectly into some PVC pipe, and a screwon cap provided the perfect method to
press the cylinder onto the pin.
The other element we needed for
our smoke-breathing Roboreptile was a
way to control our hacked addition. We
had some leftover pneumatic solenoids
from FIRST robot kits, and we also
scavenged a remote radio control to
turn our mechanism on and off. We
are sure clever hackers could devise a
way to operate additional mechanisms
via the original remote, but we wanted
to do things as easily as possible.

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Only You Can Prevent Prehistoric Forest Fires

Our plan to give
the Roboreptile smoky
breath was to bodge
together a mechanism
that would consist of
the PVC pipe to hold
a CO2 cylinder, connected via a tube to
a pneumatic solenoid
that could regulate the
exhaust. The solenoid
could
ideally
be
powered by the existing power supply of
the Roboreptile, which is also how we
planned to power the receiver for our
radio control. All that was left would
be one last tube connecting to the
solenoid. It sounds simple enough
in concept, but convincing the
Roboreptile to adopt its extra equipment proved to be rather difficult.

Stratigraphic
Shenanigans
In our attempts to hack pneumatic
solenoids onto the Roboreptiles PCB,
we came across several difficulties that
indicate the bot should only act as an
expandable platform for serious
tinkerers with a bit of an electronics
background. The Roboreptile has a PCB
similar to the sedimentary layers that
buried its prehistoric ancestors in
other words, a multi-layer PCB.
The Roboreptile operates on six
AA batteries nine volts. The pneumatic solenoids at our disposal were
intended for a 12 volt system, as was
the radio control. We did test the
solenoids and the radio control at nine
volts and both of the devices actually
worked. It looked like we were in the
clear, but our initial test of the solenoids was not done under pressure.
When we tested the solenoids under
pressure using an air compressor, we
discovered that nine volts would not
provide the requisite power. We
thought an easy solution would be to
add two more AA batteries in series to
give us the last three volts we needed.
We could also use some diodes in the
circuit to ensure that the rest of
the dinos electronics would remain
unaffected by our thirst for power.

THE

REPTILE AND THE TANK.

But the multi-layered PCB apparently splits the voltage between the
layers three volts for one layer and six
for the other. Because of the voltage
schism, we couldnt easily attach two
more batteries. We tried to find the
nine volts coming directly from the
battery pack before the split, but even
after a thorough investigation of
the PCB with a multimeter, the nine
volt source eluded us. Were that
somewhere in the depths of the
Roboreptiles innards there existed a
nine volt source, but we were unwilling
to dissect the bot that extensively.
The Roboreptile is so compact in
its assembly that any major dissection
would involve the excavation of layers
and layers of casings and mechanical
bits. In this sense, the Roboreptile is
rather unfriendly to hackers. Were that
there are plenty of bits that determined
hackers could badge on that would
only need six volts, but the limitation is
certainly disheartening. Another caveat
deserves to be mentioned here the
Roboretiles rambunctious nature
drains the batteries at an alarming rate,
and after a few hours, the dino will
begin to slow down. Any hacked additions would add even more of a power
demand on the reptiles batteries, so
hackers beware. But even at full power,
with a maximum of six volts at our disposal, it looked like our dreams of a
solenoid controlled fire extinguisher
were going up in smoke.

Smoke and Mirrors

We were in a bit of a hard place
with the Roboreptile. Our solenoids
and our receiver all depended on 12

THE

REPTILE

PCB.

volts, but the most we could squeeze

out of the dinosaur was six volts. And
even if we could wire all that to the
bot, its compact design would force us
to attach everything to the outside of
the dino. The prospect of bodging a
solenoid, radio receiver, and extra batteries onto the shell of the Roboreptile
was not a very intuitive solution. But
we were determined to make the
Roboreptile breath smoke, so we
began to consider a more mechanical
solution.
The minimum that we would need
to make the dinosaur breath smoke
would be our custom PVC pipe, a CO2
cylinder, and a short length of pneumatic tubing. The mechanism would
be purely mechanical in this sense,
because all that would be required for
activation would be to screw on the
end cap that would puncture the
cylinder seal on the pin. Then, all of the
gas would be exhausted at once, but
we were pretty confident that would
create the effect we were hoping for.
After being frustrated by the
unfriendliness of the Roboreptiles electronics, we were certainly ready to try
the mechanical solution. After attaching the firefighting apparatus to the
dinosaurs back, we were ready to test.
Our first test was, well, quick. Once the
cylinder was punctured, the C02 did
indeed whoosh out in an instant, even
creating a visible cloud. The problem
was that the mechanical nature of the
execution did not lend itself well to
being captured on film. We also only
had a limited number of cylinders, and
we didnt want slow shutters to foil our
quest for proof of hack. Thankfully,
digital cameras nowadays come with
SERVO 11.2006

17

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Twin Tweaks ...

Recommended Websites
For more information on the
Roboreptile, go to
www.roboreptileonline.com
www.wowwee.com
movie filming capability, and we were
at least able to capture the
Roboreptiles best impression of the
Big Bad Wolf on video.

Reverse Evolution
So, what has been gained by the
reverse evolution of the humanoid
Robosapien
to
the
reptilian
Roboreptile? We think the most
apparent improvement is in the movement of the precocious dinosaur. The
Robosapien was impressive with its two
legged walking capability, but we think
that the difficulty of achieving this
motion is lost on many of the kids that
get the Robosapien simply as a toy. The
Roboreptile is fast, vocal, and more

18

SERVO 11.2006

lifelike with its reptilian prowl than the

Robosapien was with its lumbering
gait. In this sense, we think it plays to
its target audience a lot more effectively. But what about the other possible
target audience the tenacious tinkerers, eager to capitalize on the potential
expandability of the reptile?
Perhaps our greatest criticism of
the Roboreptile is the disconnect
between the audience it targets as a
toy and the audience it targets as
an expandable platform. Surely the
Roboreptile could be entertaining for
all ages, but the target demographic
for the toy half of the dino is certainly
of the younger set. As for the other
demographic, the Roboreptile is really
only suitable as an expandable
platform for those with some tinkering
knowledge under their belts. With no
easy free ports to use, hackers must go
to great lengths that including
soldering on their own pins to the
board if they want to add any serious
extra abilities to the Roboreptile.

Such demands can only be

realistically made of a demographic
more experienced with electronics than
the kids that will get the Roboreptile as
a toy. Perhaps were being a bit
quixotic, but what we might have liked
to see would have been a platform that
was a bit more accessible to the
younger group, one that could have
initially appealed as a toy, but once
opened up, could easily introduce even
novice tinkerers to simple electronics
experimentation.
Our
investigation
of
the
Roboreptile has led us to believe that
WowWee made the decision to appeal
to casual fun seekers and serious
electronics buffs separately, but this
should still be an effective strategy if
the success enjoyed by the Robosapien
in both groups is any indication. At any
rate, the overall intention behind
the Roboreptile seems to have been
make an entertaining toy, and
WowWee has certainly succeeded in
that department. SV

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2:02 PM

Page 19

SERVO 11.2006

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Page 20

Our resident expert on all things

robotic is merely an Email away.

[email protected]

Tap into the sum of all human knowledge and get your questions answered here!
From software algorithms to material selection, Mr. Roboto strives to meet you
where you are and what more would you expect from a complex service droid?

by

Pete Miles

. I have been a subscriber since

the beginning and have built
several small robots, but dont
recall ever seeing any info on a stall
sensor for robots. I note that the
Scribbler has one and wonder how it is
implemented.
Ted Poulos

. First off, lets start with a little

background on what a stall sensor
is for those who dont know. A
stall sensor is a sensor that monitors the
current draw from the motors of a robot
so that the main microcontroller can
turn the motors off to ensure that they
are not damaged if they become stalled,
or overheated. By definition, a stalled
motor is a motor that is not turning even

current sensor are essentially the same

thing (unless the sensor uses some sort
of a mechanical or optical sensing
element that is monitoring the wheels
actual physical motion). Some sensors
are binary, i.e., they will output a high
signal if the current draw is too high
(like the one in the Scribbler robot).
Others are analog, and will output a
voltage that is proportional to the current going through the sensor/motor.
Since I personally dont own a
Scribbler robot (www.scribbler.com), I
dont have any actual hands-on experience with the robot and cant tell you
exactly how it works. So, I contacted
Parallax (www.parallax.com) to get
some specific information about how
the sensor works, and they put me in

though the power to the motor has

been turned on. Stalling a motor is the
worst-case situation for a motor, and will
result in permanent damage to the
motor if it is stalled for too long of a
period. How much time until failure
occurs really depends on the motor and
the applied voltage. Also, overworking a
motor for a long period of time will
slowly overheat the motor, drain the
batteries faster, and overheat the motor
controller, which will eventually lead to
permanent damage to the motors and
motor controller. To protect these
components, you will want to make sure
that the current draw isnt too high for
too long of a time period.
In order to monitor this, a current
sensor is needed. A stall sensor and a

Figure 1. Simple stall sensor circuit.

+V

+5V

R3
1K ohm
MOTOR

+V

R1

LED
D1

STALL
VREF
RSENSE
VOLTAGE

RUNNING

LM386
3
RSENSE
SIGNAL OUT
R2

20

SERVO 11.2006

SIGNAL OUT
4

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Page 21

contact with one of the members of

the robots design and development
team at Element Products, Inc. (www.
elementinc.com). After a couple
discussions with them, it turns out that
their stall sensor is a lot more complicated than I originally thought it was.
In a nutshell, their stall sensor uses
a Sonix SN8P1602 (www.sonix.
com.tw) eight bit microcontroller
along with a 1.0 ohm resistor
connected to a comparator to establish a trip detection level referenced
to Vcc through a voltage divider.
Then, using some special algorithms
(written in assembly language),
calculations are made based on the
magnitude of the current draw from
the motors. Then, comparing the pulse
width of the measured current draw
with the PWM pulse that drives the
motors and correcting these calculations against the battery voltage, a stall
current trip signal is generated.
As you can see from this description, the stall sensor that the Scribbler
robot uses is a fairly advanced circuit.
For a commercial product, a stall sensor should be fairly robust and be able
to account for current draw variations
due to terrain variations (such as carpet, hardwood floors, sand, etc.), hills,
sticks, potholes, and walls. In addition,
a good stall sensor needs to take into
account the state of the battery. As the
battery drains, the available voltage to
the motors begins to drop. As the
voltage drops, the amount of torque
needed to stall a motor decreases. A
stall sensor that doesnt take into
account the voltage state of the batteries may indicate that the motors are
still turning because the current draw is
less than a preset threshold, when, in
fact, the motors are actually stalled due
to the lower applied voltage.
Figure 1 shows a schematic for a
simple stall sensor. RSENSE is the currentsensing resistor. As a general rule, the
value of this resistor should be less than
1/10 the resistance of the motor. If the
value is greater than this, then the resistor will start slowing the motor speed.
For example, if the RSENSE resistor had
the same resistance as the internal
resistance of the motor, then the
maximum speed of the motor will be
half the maximum speed if the RSENSE

CARRIER WAVE

SIGNAL TO BE
TRANSMITTED

AMPLITUDE MODULATED
WAVE

Figure 2. AM radio transmission signals.

resistor was not present. In essence,
this will act like a voltage divider.
R1 and R2 are wired as a voltage
divider to establish a reference voltage.
This reference voltage is the trigger
point that tells you that the motor has
stalled. These values are chosen based
on what the voltage across the RSENSE
resistor is when the motor is near the
stall condition. Usually R1 > R2. When
the RSENSE voltage exceeds the
reference voltage, the LED will light
indicating that the motor has stalled.
The output voltage will then drop from
the five-volt state to a less-than-one-volt
state. A microcontroller can be
attached to the output signal line to
monitor the state of the motor.
Hopefully, this will help point you
in the right direction of how basic stall
sensors work. If you want to know the
subtle details of how the stall sensor on
the Scribbler robot works, you might
want to buy one and take it apart. They
are fairly inexpensive, so it would be a
fun way to learn how they work and
have a robot to play with.

. I am thinking about making a

radio-controlled robot. Whats
the difference between AM
and FM RC systems? Why does
everyone say an FM radio is better than
an AM radio?
Joanna Mills

. Other than the electronics inside

the transmitter and receiver,
the main difference is in how
the commands are transmitted from
the transmitter to the receiver. Both

systems use radio frequency waves to

transmit information through the air.
The difference between the two is how
this radio frequency wave encodes the
information being transmitted. Both
systems transmit a basic constant
amplitude and constant frequency carrier wave that is at the characteristic frequency of the radio. For example, 27
MHz for most AM radios, 72 MHz for
aircraft using FM radios, and 75 MHz
for ground vehicles using FM radios.
AM radios use what is called an
Amplitude Modulation technique to
transmit information. Here, the amplitude of the carrier wave is increased
when information is being transmitted,
then drops back to normal when no
information is being transmitted. To
illustrate this, the top of Figure 2 shows
a simple characteristic radio frequency
being transmitted through the air. The
amplitude and frequency is constant in
this radio wave. The middle line shows a
square wave representing some data
that needs to be transmitted. This information is simply transmitted by increasing the amplitude of the carrier wave
when the data is in a high state, and
dropping back to normal when the data
is in a low state. Hence, amplitude modulation. This is illustrated with the AM
wave shown at the bottom of Figure 2.
FM radios work in much the same
way. Instead of amplitude of the carrier
wave changing, the frequency is
changed. To illustrate this (as in Figure
2), the top of Figure 3 shows a simple
characteristic radio frequency being
transmitted through the air, and the middle of the Figure shows a square wave
representing some data that is being
SERVO 11.2006

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Page 22

CARRIER WAVE

TRANSMITTED

FREQUENCY MODULATED
WAVE

Figure 3. FM radio transmission signals.

transmitted. What is different here, is
that when the data is in a high state, the
frequency of the carrier wave is
increased, and when the data is in a low
state, the frequency returns to its normal
characteristic frequency. Hence, frequency modulation, which is illustrated with
the FM wave at the bottom of Figure 3.
Both of these systems transmit the
servo position information the same
way. Instead of changing the magnitude of the amplitude in AM systems or
varying the frequency in FM systems to
be proportional to the desired position
of the servo, the duration of the amplitude/frequency change determines the
position of the servo. This is known as
Pulse Position Modulation, or PPM.
Figure 4 illustrates a simple threechannel AM transmitter (not drawn to
scale). The three channels are transmitted sequentially. The pulse width for
each channel varies between 1.0 and
2.0 ms, and there is about a 0.5 ms
delay between each channel. After the

third channel is transmitted, the signal

goes low until a total time of 20 ms has
elapsed, and the transmit cycle is
repeated again. An FM system works
the same way except that the frequency is changed instead of the amplitude.
When there is no source of radio
interference, both AM and FM systems
work quite well. However, since AM systems interpret data based on the amplitude of the signal, the distance between
the transmitter and receiver, obstacles
between them, and electrical noise interference can alter the transmitted signal.
This will cause the receiver to respond to
the signal differently than expected.
FM systems are not immune to
electrical noise interference, but they
are not as sensitive to electrical interference as AM systems. When it comes to
having a reliable radio communication
link between the transmitter and the
robot, a FM radio system is more reliable than an AM radio system. When
even more reliability is needed, look at

the advanced FM radio systems that

use Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) to
transmit the data.
A PCM radio converts the pulse
width data into binary data, adds a
checksum value, and transmits a
square wave similar to what is shown
in Figure 3. The receiver takes the
binary data and compares it with the
checksum value, and if any radio
interference causes the data not to
match up with the checksum value,
the data is ignored. This way, the
receiver wont respond to bad data
like the other systems do. It is better
for a robot not to respond to bad data
than having it do unexpected things if
it received a bad signal.

Q
A

. How do you make a light

sensor work?
Janet Kawalski

. Probably the easiest way to do

this is to use a Cadmium Sulfide
(CdS) cell, which is also known as
a
photoresistor
or
photocell.
Photoresistors are an optical version of
a potentiometer. Instead of mechanically turning a knob to change the
resistance in a potentiometer, changing the light intensity changes the
resistance in a photoresistor. The photocells resistance is inversely proportional to the light intensity, where the
resistance is at the maximum value in
total darkness and rapidly drops down
to less than 50 ohms in direct sunlight.
Depending on which
CdS cell part number
Figure 4. Pulse position modulation of an AM radio transmission signal (PPM Signal).
you have, the maximum resistance can
range from 100K to as
high as 20 megohms.
Photoresistors are
typically wired into a
voltage divider circuit
so that as the resistance of the photocell
changes, the output
1.0
2.0 ms
1.3
1.5
voltage will change
proportionally. Figure
0.5
0.5
SYNC TIME
5A shows a simple
20 ms
schematic that illusCHANNEL
CHANNEL
CHANNEL
CHANNEL
trates how the sensor
1
2
3
1
is wired. The value of

22

SERVO 11.2006

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Page 23

resistor R1 is arbitrary since it depends

on the resistance range of the CdS
cell, what is the typical variation of
the light intensity the sensor is
attempting to monitor, and what is
the voltage range your electronics
can monitor. Generally, the best resistor value will be one that gives the
greatest voltage swing for the normal
range of the light intensity changes
that the photocell will be monitoring.
The easiest way to determine an
appropriate value for R1 is to use the
calibration circuit shown in Figure 5B.
With this circuit, the voltage is
inversely proportional to the light
intensity. In other words, the voltage
will decrease as the light intensity
increases. To use this circuit, lower the
light intensity to its normal darkness,
and adjust the potentiometer until the
voltage is within about half a volt from
the supply voltage. Then raise the light
intensity to its normal maximum value
(sometimes this requires moving the
sensor to the light source). Adjust the
potentiometer to some low setting, say,

+5V

+5V

CdS Cell (PHOTOCELL)

PHOTOCELL

VOLTAGE OUT

R1

VOLTAGE OUT

R2

A) GENERAL PURPOSE CIRCUIT

10k ohm

B) CALIBRATION CIRCUIT

Figure 5. Simple photocell wiring setup.

one volt. This brackets the resistor value
range for your setup. Then, repeat this
process a few more times, but dont
adjust the resistor as much each time.
At some point, you will find a potentiometer position that will give you the
biggest voltage swing to the different
lighting condition changes. Once this
potentiometer position is found, then

the proper R1 resistance can be measured, then the final circuit can be made.
These sensors are inexpensive and
can detect a wide variation of light
changes, so using a lot of these sensors
at one time will provide a lot of sensor
data on the various intensities of the
light, and be able to locate the brightest and darkest areas. SV

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SERVO 11.2006

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Page 24

Programmable

The goal
of this
bimonthly
column is to
provide a basic
understanding
of the various
programmable
logic techniques.
There are a lot
of powerful
low-cost
components
available today
that are rarely
considered by
hobbyists and
even some
engineers
because of
unfamiliarity.
You have to be
comfortable
with the idea
and concepts of
programmable
logic before you
will be likely to
employ them.

24

SERVO 11.2006

Logic:

by Gerard Fonte

Counters
his installment on programmable
logic concerns counters. There
are different types of counters
that you can choose for your design.
Knowing the characteristics, strengths,
and weaknesses of these counters is
important in using them properly.
While this article is geared towards
programmable logic, many of the
ideas are directly applicable to discrete
digital design.

Counter Basics
A counter is basically a finite state
machine. This is a complicated way of
saying that a counter has a memory of
what has happened in the past and will
act accordingly in the future. For
example, it knows that the last count
was seven and the next count should be
eight. This is very different from an AND
gate which only reacts to the values
presented at its inputs at the moment.

The simplest counter is a one-bit

counter, shown in Figure 1. It has two
states: low and high. As a counter,
these two states typically represent
zero and one, but this is arbitrary. Note
that the input does not have to be a
nice, regular signal. This counter reacts
to the negative going edge of the input
signal and ignores everything else
(other counters may react to the positive going edge). Every standard counter is sensitive to the edge of a signal
rather than to a steady-state logic level.
Note that the output is fed back
into the input. Feedback of some sort
is normally necessary for every type of
counter. This feedback determines the
maximum counting speed of the
counter. No digital switch can act
instantaneously. Therefore, there will
be a small delay from when the input
edge is presented to the counter and
when it appears at the output. The
same is true for the inverter.
Additionally, there is
some
small
time
required for the flip-flip
to accept a change at
the Data input. This is
called set-up time.
Lets suppose that
all of these times
FIGURE 1. The circuit for a
simple one-bit counter. It
is sensitive to the clock
edge rather than to its
steady-state value. Also,
the input signal does not
have to have evenlyspaced edges. The feedback is an important consideration for all counters.

ProgrammableLogic.qxd

10/3/2006

4:52 PM

summed together equal 50 nS. This

means that the counter will not count
properly if two negative going edges
occur within 50 nS. This is another way
of saying that the maximum counting
speed is 20 MHz. This idea of feedback
delay is an important concept that will
be revisited often. It is the main speed
limiting factor in counter design.
Figure 2 shows three simple, onebit counters connected in series. This
configuration is called an asynchronous
ripple counter because the output from
one one-bit counter ripples on down
the line of counters. Note that the
output of the three counters together
creates the standard binary counting
sequence. This is very useful. This also
means that the maximum possible
number of states is created with
this counter. This is also useful. (The
maximum number of states is 2^N
where N is the number of bits used.)
Its asynchronous because the outputs change at different times. Theres
a slight delay from the falling edge to
the output of A. Then, theres another delay for B and another for C.
These delays may be short, but they are
very troublesome. If you want to read
the counter, you will have to wait until
the count ripples all the way through
the last bit. For a counter of 20 bits, this
means perhaps 600 nS or a maximum
counting frequency of 1.6 MHz. This
is very different from the 20 MHz
counting rate above. Additionally, these
delays vary according to temperature

Page 25

and supply voltage. This is not useful.

Counter vs. Divider

Counting speed is usually measured by the time it takes from applying
an input edge until all of the counter
outputs are stable. So its important to
note that while the multi-bit counter
above will operate properly at 20 MHz,
it cant be read at that rate. This
defines the difference between a
divider and a counter. A divider reduces
an input frequency by some factor.
In most instances, the delay is not
important. Counter ICs are often used
as dividers as well as counters. In fact,
the circuits can be identical.
However, the counter function
presents a value associated with the
number of input edges detected. A
counter must be read whereas a
divider isnt read. This reading of the
counter value is why the outputs of the
counter need to be stable. An unstable
value is not readable or useable. For
the rest of this article, we will examine
only counters. (Theres a future article
on dividers and timers.)

Asynchronous vs.
Synchronous Counters
As shown in Figure 2, an asynchronous counters bits change at slightly
different times. A synchronous counter
changes all of its bits at the same time.
A simple way of determining if a count-

er is synchronous or asynchronous is to
examine how the bits are clocked. If all
the bits are clocked with the same signal, then the counter is synchronous. If
different signals clock different bits,
then the counter is asynchronous.
Since the outputs of an asynchronous counter change at slightly
different times, serious glitches can be
created when trying to decode particular states. For example, suppose you
are decoding the zero-state (000) of a
three-bit counter like the one shown in
Figure 2. Presume that the counter is at
001 and another clock is detected. The
low-order bit will change first, causing
the output to go to 000 until the next
flip-flip can respond. After a few
nanoseconds, the next bit will change
creating the proper value of 010.
These few nanoseconds can cause a
devastating effect on your system by
making it think its at state 000 when its
not. Additionally, finding this glitch of a
few nanoseconds is not always easy. In
short, be extremely careful when decoding the output states of any type of
asynchronous counter. They bite.
There is an interesting property of
counters that use a binary sequence. If
you invert the outputs, the counting
sequence is reversed. That is, they
FIGURE 2. Three simple counters are
cascaded to create a three-bit ripple
counter. The timing diagram illustrates
the binary pattern that is generated
which is a very useful feature. This is an
asynchronous counter because different
clock signals are used for different bits.

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Page 26

FIGURE 3. This is a four-bit synchronous counter (all

the bits are clocked with the same signal). This is
still a ripple counter because AND-gate C must
wait until all of the preceding gates and flip-flops
have settled before it can provide the proper signal
to the last flip-flop. Note that toggle flip-flips have
internal feedback that is not shown.

count down rather than up. If both

the inverted outputs and non-inverted
outputs are used, the up/down count
relationships are locked as complimentary values (always summing to all
ones). This feature can be very useful.
As noted previously, Figure 2 is an
asynchronous ripple counter. Figure 3
shows a synchronous ripple counter.
Note that there is only a single clock
signal going to all the flip-flips. (This
toggle flip-flop will change state on the
falling clock edge only if the enable
signal is high.) This means that there is
a very small delay between when
the counter is clocked and when the
outputs become stable. Additionally,
this delay is virtually identical for each
bit. That is, all the bits change synchronously or at the same time.
However, the maximum speed is
not much better than Figure 2. This is
because there is still a signal that has to
ripple down through a number of
flip-flops and gates. This is the enable
signal to the last flip-flip. It must wait
for every gate and flip-flip preceding it
to become stable. This is evident
through the series-connected AND
gates. So while this approach provides
an easy-to-read counter, it does little to
improve the useable speed of the
counter. (Note as a divider, this design
TABLE 1. The counting sequence for a
four-bit Johnson counter. Only eight of
the 16 possible states are used. Note
that each output has the same pattern
but the pattern is delayed relative to
other bits. This is a useful feature.

26

SERVO 11.2006

is distinctly inferior to Figure 2.)

An important point to note is that
the signal needed to allow a flip-flop to
toggle is the same as the carry signal
in the standard binary counting
sequence. For example, the third bit
changes on the count after 0011 (0011
to 0100). Thus, Figure 3 is sometimes
called a ripple carry counter.
There is a partial solution to the ripple problem. This is the Look Ahead
counter. Instead of waiting for the AND
gates and previous flip-flops to settle,
the idea is to predict when a flip-flop
will change and anticipate it, or look
ahead in the count. So, if the first two
bits are high, then on the next count,
the third flip-flop should change. This
look-ahead method allows a full clock
period for the counter to settle.
Fundamentally, this involves decoding the previous state of the counter
(this was detailed in an earlier article).
The problem is that every preceding bit
of the counter must be decoded in
order to provide a proper signal to the
working bit. This is workable for a few
bits. But when the counter is 20 or 30
bits long, this approach is usually not
practical. Most typically, long binary
counters are made up of a series of
look-ahead counters of eight bits or
less. This is a compromise between
complexity and speed.

Johnson Counters
A Johnson counter also known as
a ring counter is a synchronous
counter with a non-binary sequence. Its
basically a shift register with feedback
as shown in Figure 4. Johnson counters
have a lot of nice features. The first
feature has already been noted its
synchronous. This is seen by the
common clock line. The second is that

COUNT

OUTPUT A

OUTPUT B

OUTPUT C

OUTPUT D

0 (INITIAL STATE)

ProgrammableLogic.qxd

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4:52 PM

its very fast. There is no ripple characteristic. The single feedback inverter is
actually very similar to a one-bit counter
(Figure 1). The counting sequence
(shown in Table 1) only changes one bit
at a time. This is useful because fewer
transitions means less power and less
power-supply noise generation. This
sequence also allows a simple two-input
gate to decode any particular state,
regardless of the length of the counter.
The bad news is that it only counts
a fraction of all possible states.
Specifically, it can only count to 2N states
(where N is the number of bits). So it you
want to count up to 1,000, you will need
500 flip-flops. Clearly, this is not practical
for large counters. Additionally, if something should happen and a flip-flop
change inappropriately (due to noise, for
example), that change can be propagated forever. It just keeps on going around
and around and around ...
However, Johnson counters are
extremely useful for controlling state
machines or sequential operations.
Additionally, their outputs show a
constant relationship to each other.
This relationship can be defined as a
phase angle since each output is
actually the same but delayed by some
amount (relative to each other).
The amount of phase delay

Page 27

depends upon the number of bits in

the counter and which output-bit is
used. A three-bit Johnson counter can
automatically create three-phase
signals similar to a three-phase power
line. Multiple-pole motor signals can be
generated very easily. And the motor
speed can be controlled by simply
changing the input frequency.

The Linear Feedback

Shift Register
The Linear Feedback Shift Register
(LFSR) is a poorly known type of counter. It has many good qualities and one
large bad feature. As shown in Figure
5, the LSFR appears to be very similar
to the Johnson counter. Like a Johnson
counter, its extremely fast with a simple feedback path (no ripple), its synchronous, it can be arbitrarily long with
no loss in performance, and it changes
only one bit at a time. Unlike a Johnson
counter, it produces nearly a full complement of binary states. Specifically, it
can produce (2^N)-1 counts (where N
is the number of bits). This is exactly
one less than the complete binary set.
Thus, an eight-bit LSFR counter has 255
states rather than the 256 states for a
binary counter. The one state missing is
the stuck state where the counter

FIGURE 4. A four-bit Johnson counter, or

ring counter, is synchronous, simple, and
fast. It doesnt count in a binary pattern
(see Table 1) and uses only a fraction of
all the possible binary states. It is very
useful for controlling state machines
and/or motors.

refuses to function. In Figure 5, the

stuck state is all zeros. Should this state
be encountered, the counter will maintain the all zero state forever. Note if an
XNOR gate is used instead of the XOR
gate in Figure 5, the stuck state is all
ones. In normal operation, the LSFR
automatically skips the stuck state.
Figure 5 shows a single gate feedback. For longer counters, a number of
bits must be XORed (or XNORed)
together. But this number is small. For
counter lengths up to 40 bits: 23 use
two bits for feedback (like Figure 5), 14
require four bits, and only one employs
six bits (thats the 37-bit counter).
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to
identify exactly what bits should be
used for the feedback. If the wrong
ones are chosen, the counter may not
FIGURE 5. The four-bit LSFR counter
is synchronous, simple, and fast.
It incorporates all the binary states
except one stuck state. In this case, the
stuck state is 0000. For larger counters,
its operation is not obvious and the
feedback choices are not intuitive. It
counts in a pseudo-random pattern.
However, this can be very useful for
encryption and decryption.

SERVO 11.2006

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Page 28

SIZE (N)

FEEDBACK
BITS
3, 2

4, 3

23

23, 18

5, 3

24

24, 23, 22, 17

6, 5

25

25, 22

7, 6

26

26, 6, 2, 1

SIZE (N)

FEEDBACK
BITS
22, 21

22

TABLE 2. The feedback bits for

various-length LSFR counters.
This assumes that an XNOR
feedback gate is used. Also, the
bit number starts at 1 (rather
than 0).

sequences are completely

different. Table 2 shows the
8
8, 6, 5, 4
27
27, 5, 2, 1
XNOR feedback bits for
counters of three bits to 40
9
9, 5
28
28, 25
bits (from the Xilinx 1994
10
10, 7
29
29, 27
data book). Additional LSFR
11
11, 9
30
30, 6, 4, 1
references are provided at
12
12, 6, 4, 1
31
31, 28
the end of the article.
13
13, 4, 3, 1
32
32, 22, 2, 1
The bad feature is that
14
14, 5, 3, 1
33
33, 20
the counter has a non-binary
counting sequence. Worse,
15
15, 14
34
34, 27, 2, 1
the sequence can appear to be
16
16, 15, 13, 4
35
35, 33
completely random and is not
17
17, 14
36
36, 25
at all predictable. Different
18
18, 11
37
37, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
feedback choices yield differ19
19, 6, 2, 1
38
38, 6, 5, 1
ent counting patterns. XOR
20
20, 17
39
39, 35
and XNOR feedback also
21
21, 19
40
40, 5, 4, 3
results in different counting
sequences. Nor is there any
produce the full complement of states.
obvious relationship between the countSometimes there is more than one
ing patterns of short LSFR counters verset that will produce the maximum
sus long LSFR counters. However, there
number of states. But the counting
are many applications where random

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numbers are useful. This is seen in data

encryption and decryption, for example.
You can buy all sorts of binary
counters. There are a number of
Johnson counters available. However,
there are no LSFR counters that I am
aware of. This doesnt mean that they
arent important or useful. The LSFR
has unique properties and its easy to
implement (even in software ... how
about a white noise generator for your
micro?). While the LSFR is uncommon,
understanding it and knowing when to
apply it is useful.

Conclusion
This has been a brief discussion on
various counter types. Many details and
topics have been omitted because of
space. Additionally, there are many
methods to deal with the problems of
various counters that are not discussed.
Nevertheless, counters are required in
the vast majority of digital designs. Being
able to choose a proper counter can be
critical in making a successful design.
Conversely, using the wrong counter can
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SERVO 11.2006

Full Page.qxd

10/4/2006

2:09 PM

Page 29

Nov06NewProd.qxd

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Page 30

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SERVO 11.2006

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any rotating shaft. Offered in custom sizes to fit shafts
from 1/2 up to 10 O.D., they can be made in one- or
two-piece clamp-type styles and incorporate a wide range
of target patterns.
Suitable for use with all popular sensors, Stafford custom rotary encoder collars are machined from aluminum
and can incorporate round, square, or threaded bores and
can be anodized to match existing equipment. Designed
to operate in the presence of oils and coolants, they can
also be supplied with sensor mounting assemblies to
match application requirements.
Stafford custom rotary encoder collars are priced
according to configuration and quantity. A standard
encoder product line featuring 11 common sizes is also
offered. Literature and pricing are available upon request.
For further information, please contact:

Stafford
Manufacturing
Corporation

PO Box 277
North Reading, MA 01864-0277
Tel: 8006955551 Fax: 9786574731
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.staffordmfg.com

SOFTWARE
Run Many GPS Applications
Using One GPS

ranson Technology has released Franson GpsGate 2.0,

a Windows and PocketPC utility that lets you run
several GPS applications using a single GPS. New features
in GpsGate 2.0 are the ability to share a GPS over
ActiveSync or Bluetooth. There is support for Garmin
software and GPS receivers. GpsGate 2.0 will let you
connect Google Earth to a normal GPS, something that
otherwise isnt possible.
Serious GPS users often have several applications
that they want to run simultaneously. Its usually
necessary to shut down one application before beginning
another. With Franson GpsGate, you can share one
GPS among several applications. Simply create additional

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virtual serial ports, and any GPS applications can connect

to them.
With Franson GpsGate, power boaters and sailors can
access their navigation systems and, at the same time, use
other GPS software. Car drivers will benefit by being able
to switch between their route-planning software and
drivers journal. Amateur pilots can simultaneously access
their flight plans and weather data.
Franson GpsGate has a built-in simulator. Define a set
of waypoints and Franson GpsGate will simulate a GPS
traveling between those waypoints.
Franson GpsGate also has a built-in logger. Its easy to
log and play back real-time GPS data. You can save realtime scenarios, and use them for analysis, demonstration,
or software development back in the office.
In addition to sharing, simulating, and logging GPS
functions, Franson GpsGate can be used to perform a
number of specialized GPS-related functions. For example,
many NMEA GPS applications cannot communicate with
the Garmin GPS 18 because it is a USB device. Franson
GpsGate lets you connect your USB hardware and GPS
software. Franson GpsGate can be used by people on
a LAN, with several mobile Windows computers and a
single GPS device.
Every month, more and more GPS applications are
being released for both the Windows and PocketPC
platforms. With Franson GpsGate, you can assign each
application to a virtual serial port and run them simultaneously, using a single GPS.
Franson GpsGate Standard for Windows or for
PocketPC costs $29.95(US) for a single-user license.
Franson GpsGate Express, a light version of Franson
GpsGate Standard, is available for $9.95(US) for either
platform. You can download free 14-day trial versions.
An OEM version of Franson GpsGate Express is
available. The OEM kit allows software and hardware
developers to make their offerings more valuable by
letting other GPS applications coexist with mapping
software. Developers can extend GpsGate using the new
GpsGate SDK.
For further information, please contact:

Franson
Technology

Arkovagen 45
Johanneshov 121 55
Stockholm
SWEDEN
Tel: +46 8 612 50 70
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://franson.com/gpsgate

Show Us What Youve Got!

Is your product innovative, less expensive, more functional,
or just plain cool? If you have a new product that you
would like us to run in our New Products section, please
email a short description (300-500 words) and a photo of
your product to:

[email protected]

Extreme Robot Speed Control!

6
6
6
6
6
6
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$399

6
6
6
6
6
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Scorpion Mini

2.5A (6A pk) H-bridge

5V - 18V
1.25 x 0.5 x 0.25
Control like a servo
Optional screw term.
Only 5.5g

6
6
6
6
6
6
6

14V - 50V
Dual 80A H-bridges 150A+ Peak!
Adjustable current limiting
Adjustable speed slew rate
Temperature limiting
Three R/C inputs - serial option
Many mixing options
Flipped Bot Input
Rugged extruded Aluminum case
4.25" x 3.23" x 1.1 - Only 365g

$79.99
Scorpion HX

Dual 2.5A (6A pk) H-bridges

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Four R/C inputs
Mixing, Flipped Bot Input
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$119.99
6
6
6
6
6
6

Scorpion XL

Dual 13A H-bridge 45A Peak!

5V - 24V
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Three R/C inputs - serial option
Mixing, Flipped Bot Input
Only 28g

OSMC - Monster Power H-bridge

$199

6
6
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14V - 50V and 160A over 400A peak!

3.15 x 4.5 x 1.5
Control with Stamp or other Micro
3 wire interface
R/C interface available

All Robot Power electronic

products are proudly

MADE IN

THE USA

Introducing Dalf
Advanced dual motor
drive with closed-loop
control functions
Only $250
Embedded Electronics, LLC along with our exclusive reseller Robot Power are
proud to introduce a feature rich, customizable Dual Motor Controller: Dalf.
Designed to work out of the box or to host your application specific code; Dalf
makes it simple to create a complete turn-key brain for your application with
full-closed-loop motion control. Just take a look at these features!

Motion Control Functions

Application Support

6 PIC18F6722 CPU running at 40MHz

6 60k+ FLASH available
6 Serial bootloader, no programmer needed
6 Serial command/monitor in both terminal
Closed-Loop Features
and high-speed binary API mode
6 Closed-loop control of two motors
6 Full PID position loop
6 I2C slave command interface
6 Trapezoidal path generator
6 Firmware implented in C andASM
6 Adjustable slew rate for smooth transitions 6 C source for main loop and utility routines
6 Non-volatile storage of PID parameters
provided free
6 Step-Response PID motor tuning support
6 Linkable device driver function library
6 Quadrature encoder support for each motor provided for building custom applications
6 Terminal mode for interactive tuning and
6 Extensive documentation with Owners
debugging
Manual and Getting Started Manual
6 Windows GUI under development
provided on CD
6 Custom code development services
Open-Loop Features
available (contact EE)
6 Two R/C command modes (3 input
channels)
I/O Connections
6 Two open-loop pot control modes
6 Two RS-232 serial ports
6 Interactive terminal control of motors
6 36 GPIO
6 Adjustable slew rate
6 I2C master and slave ports (2 ports)
6 Two motor drive outputs
6 Two quadrature encoder inputs
For more Dalf information visit
6 Two Hall-effect current sensors inputs
www.embeddedelectronics.net 6 Six 10-bit A/D
6 Two channels of cooling fan control
6 Standard ICD connector
Drives all sign-magnitude brushed DC motor
drives such as the OSMC

www.robotpower.com

Also from Robot Power

Kits, parts, schematics
Planetary gearmotors

Phone: 253-843-2504
[email protected]

SERVO 11.2006

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on

iti
d
E
g
n
i
ld
e
W
l
a
i
Spec
Featured This Month
32 What Happened to the
Combat Zone?

33 Event Results
33 Robot Battles at Dragon*Con
2006 Results

by Charles Guan

34 Welding for Real Beginners

by Bill Bottenberg

36 Welding Titanium
by Paul Reese and Robert Wilburn

39 Welding Tools and

Accessories

by Jeff Vasquez

Product Reviews
39 Lincoln SP-125 Plus MIG
Welder

by Jeff Vasquez

40 Lincoln Precision TIG-185

Welder

by Jeff Vasquez

WHAT HAPPENED
TO THE C MBAT
ZONE?
C

limb back down off the ceiling, faithful readers. Next month, the
usual format for Combat Zone will return. And, rest assured, this
isnt just a case of change for changes sake. For the September
2006 issue, I put out a call to the combat community for an article on
welding safety, which Steven Nelson quickly produced. However, for the
first time since SERVO started Combat Zone, we were deluged with
requests for articles. All on welding. We reserved the November
Combat Zone (just in time for Christmas lists) for a special edition on
welding. Welding is a basic shop skill for building bots, like soldering
and using machine tools. The community appears to be hungry for
advice on techniques and equipment. So we put out a more general call
for articles.
Some of the best welders in our game responded with a range of
articles, for welders ranging from complete newbies (like yours truly) to
veterans wanting to expand their skills. Since my own experience was
gained on a farm, using a rusty arc welder and clothes hanger wire,
gobbing and dripping wads onto even rustier equipment, youll notice I
didnt contribute anything to this issue!
Builders and lovers of robot combat, the Combat Zone is your
resource. If there are other topics youd like to see discussed, please
email them to SERVO. Well try to accommodate any reasonable
requests and, lets face it, the unreasonable ones are always good for
a laugh! (Not that we would, of course. Well, not much anyway. We
are human, evidence to the contrary not withstanding.)
Kevin Berry

32

SERVO 11.2006

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EVENTS
RESULTS August 14 - September 11

aturday Night
Fights 2.1 was
held in Pasadena,
CA on August
26th. All bots
were antweights.
Results are as
follows:

spinner, Diginati; 3rd: TRIPolar, full

body spinner, Brain Damage.

Antweight Dark Pounder,

spinner, Dark Forces.

ouse of
S l a c ke r s
was held in
Glen Rock, NJ on September 2nd.
Twenty-two
bots
participated.
Results are as follows:

Beetleweight DM-E, spinner,

Discover Magnetics.
Hobbyweight Scoopula, wedge,

Slaughterhouse.

1st: Unblinking Eye, spinner,

Hammer Bros; 2nd: Corrosive,

spinner, Think Tank; 3rd: VDD-kit,
spinner, Think Tank.

ound of Pain
11, House of
Pop was held in
Nashua, NH on
August 19th. Twentyone bots were
registered. Results are as follows:
Beetleweights 1st: Ripblade,
spinner, Sawzall; 2nd: Pressure
Point, claw, JandA; 3rd: Scrambled
Eggs Revenge, spinner, Timber
Wolf.
Hobbyweights 1st: Darkblade,

spinner, Sawzall; 2nd: LTFD,

wedge, Red Dawn; 3rd: Acute Pain,
wedge, Ministry of Bad Ideas.
Featherweights 1st: DE Ripper,

drum, JandA; 2nd: Oni Goroshi,

Antweights 1st: Sweet

Revenge, spinner, Slackers United;
2nd: Yelo, drum, Pinq; 3rd: Box
#5, spinner, Danger Zone.

Beetleweights 1st: Primus,

beater, Danger Zone; 2nd: D12,
wedge, Headbangers; 3rd: Dancer,
drum, Crazy Dad.
Hobbyweights 1st: Rants Pants,
wedge, Not-So-Boring Robots; 2nd:
George, wedge, George Hotz; 3rd:
Ray, wedge, Ray Barsa.

he Texas Cup
was held on
September 9 in
Carrolton, TX.
Forty-five bots
were registered. Results are as
follows (only first place listed):

Lightweight Spinner Bait Jr,

wedge, Teamxd.
Middleweight Sub Zero, flipper,
Hammertime. SV

In perhaps the most

unusual matchup in
recent Robot Combat
history, a biplane
flown by Kyle Rickaway
fights a mock battle LW
flamethrower Texas Heat.
Destruction at Robot Battles: Nuclear
Kitten sends Lollerskates back to the pits
as a robot kit.

UK Ant DM-150, spinner,

Discover Magnetics.

Robot Battles at Dragon*Con 2006 Results

by Charles Guan

ver Labor Day

weekend, the
place to party if
youre a botter is
at the Robot
Battles
event,
held
annually
alongside the Dragon*Con sci-fi and
comic convention in downtown
Atlanta, GA. Here, the competition is

more show than hardcore tournament, and the event is a blend of

arena full-weapon destruction and
an elevated-stage sumo contest
where innovation and driving skill
dominate. This years results are as
follows:

Hobbyweight Test Bot 4 goes on a short flight

after contacting the flywheel-driven flipper of
Omegaforce 2.0.

Antweights 1st: Lab Rat,

pneumatic flipper, Lab Rat Revolt;

SERVO 11.2006

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2nd: Emoticon, lifter, Hockeyrunner

Robotics.

2nd: Dagger articulated pusher,

Blade Robotics.

Beetleweights 1st: Chisel,

Featherweights 1st: iRobob,

pusher, Blade Robotics; 2nd:

Nuclear Kitten. vertical disc, Team
Test Bot.

pusher, Wave Racing; 2nd: Scimitar,

flywheel flipper, Blade Robotics.

Hobbyweights 1st: Probulator,

pneumatic ram, Evil Robots, Inc.;

Hobbyweight
Rumble

Omegaforce 2, flywheel flipper,

Dales Homemade Robots.

Featherweight Rumble
Stewiebot, hammer, Hockeyrunner
Robotics.
Mark your calendars for next
year, because the Robot Battles
event is now headed for its 18th
year in 2007 and is only getting
bigger. Check out the website at
www.robotbattles.com. SV

WELDING F R REAL
BEGINNERS
by Bill Bottenberg

hen I first started building

robots, the only tools I owned
were basic hand tools. At some
point, it became apparent that
welding would be a handy capability for my bot building efforts. The
following gives my experiences in
learning to weld as a low budget,
low tech garage (bedroom actually)
builder.
Its been a couple of years and
my welding equipment hasnt really
changed just added a few things
along the way. This article includes
discussion of the Harbor Freight (HF)
Hobby Arc 110 welder, HF autodarkening helmet, other related
safety gear, and consumables.

220V. The switch incorporates a

locking feature such that it cannot be
switched to a different voltage. The
large knob in the center allows you to
adjust the output current. At 110V,
max is 70A and thats what mine is
set to most of the time. The indicator
window on the top gives the welding
rod diameter based on output
current setting. Again, at 70A, the
machine says to use a 5/64 inch rod
and thats what I use. At 220V, you
can use up to a 3/32 inch rod.
Arc welders of this type may also
be referred to as stick welders and
buzz boxes.

Description

Circuit breakers and extension

cords can be an issue with this
welder. I had my electrician install a
dedicated 20A circuit because 15A
breakers will open under extended
use and any significant length of
extension cord can make it difficult
to strike an arc (tough enough for a
beginner). Other things that can
help make your job easier are a
bucket of water for cooling hot
work pieces (put it outside the
reach of your welder electrodes), a
chemical fire extinguisher (welding
sparks seem to have an incredible
attraction to flammable materials),
and other personal safety gear

Figure 1 shows a picture of the

Hobby Arc 110. The selector switch in
the upper left corner allows you to
select input voltages of 110V or
FIGURE 1. Hobby Arc
110 and other welding
equipment.

34

SERVO 11.2006

Setup

as discussed later.

Safety Gear
The Hobby Arc comes with a
handheld welding shield. Save
yourself the frustration and get a real
welding helmet. As you can see in
Figure 1, this is a bottom of the line
HF auto-darkening solar powered
welding helmet. Mine still works fine.
Its showing some wear and tear
but considering the abuse it takes,
nothing that wouldnt be expected.
The solar power is used to lighten the
mask so if it stays dark after welding,
try wiping off the faceplate. Looking
into a bright light can also cause it to
darken (makes sense). Also in Figure
1, you can see some HF welding
gloves. I wear cotton clothing to
avoid melting anything into my skin.
My aprons got a couple of small
holes but nothing has gotten
through to me yet.

Other Helpful Items

A slag chipping hammer is
handy and a serviceable one comes
with the Hobby Arc. Its also a
combination steel wire brush. Real
welders tell me an air tight storage
container for storing welding rods is
a good idea. A set of welding Vice
Grips (or equivalent) is pretty much a

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necessity. Heavy duty side cutters are

good for snipping off bad pieces of
welding rod.

FIGURE 2. Rough weld

showing flux and spatter.

Operation
Cool. Youve got your welder,
your flaming paint job welding mask,
a nice place to weld, and youre
ready to try things out. Your Hobby
Arc has a ground clamp and an
electrode holder. Welding doesnt
work without a complete circuit, so
clamp your ground clamp to your
work piece, preferably in an out-ofthe-way position. Put a welding rod
in your holder (bare wire end goes in
the holder). Check that your work
area is clear of flammable objects.
With the electrode holder in your
hand, turn on the welder. Use a fairly shallow angle and drag the tip of
your electrode across the work piece
to start an arc. If you were successful
in striking an arc, youre now
welding. Try to keep the tip of the
electrode submerged in the molten
pool and use small circular motions to
move across your work piece. Youll
want to move the rod to a more vertical position when actually welding.
If everything went according to
plan, you should now have something that looks like Figure 2. The
black crud is the slag from the
welding rod flux. Use your chipping
hammer to knock that off and with a
bit of wire brush work, you should
have a product similar to that shown
in Figure 3. Even more cool, you just
welded two pieces of steel together!
Theres probably a good chance
all did not go well the first time. If
you welded the welding rod to your
work piece, use your side cutters to
cut it off and start over. The flux is
brittle so you need to be careful not
to knock it all off when youre cutting
the rod. In my first attempts, I managed to create lots of sparks but not
much actual welding. Keep trying. It
doesnt take long to get the hang of
striking an arc reliably. Im told that
difficulty striking an arc can sometimes be attributed to damp welding
rods (remember that watertight

FIGURE 3. Weld after chipping

hammer and wire brush.

container we mentioned earlier?).

In Figures 2 and 3, note the
slightly beveled edges in the joint.
This helps get penetration through
the work piece. In my humble
opinion, it also helps to keep me on
track when welding. Its not real
obvious in these pictures, but after
grinding the bevels, I used my wire
brush to clean all the scale and rust
from the work area. Shiny metal is
best and easiest to weld.
The example in Figure 3 is a
classic butt joint. Two pieces of metal
butted together at the edges and
welded. You will commonly find
yourself welding two pieces at right
angles to each other. This is a little bit
trickier but not too bad. You need to
add a little more of a sweeping
motion to get better penetration of
the vertical piece. As with most
things, its always good to practice a
bit on some scrap material to see
how things are going to go. Probably
welding thin material to thicker
material is most difficult. This will
take some practice. Dont think thats
specific to stick welding
There are many kinds of welding
rods. If youre using a Hobby Arc, use
the amp guide to get the right diameter rod. I use a 6013 rod, but 6011
will work fine, if not better. There are
other options. The folks at your local
welding supply can probably give you
some idea of the best material for
your welder and for the job you need
to do. The 6013 was recommended
because of the relatively thin gauge
(0.065) steel I was planning to weld.
As with many other materials, if
youre planning on hardening the
work piece, weld it first and harden
it later.

Many will tell you, and rightly so,

that for proper welding you need to
spend some money on a bigger MIG
wire feed welder. I have neither the
money, space, or power capability in
my garage to handle one of these. I
love building robots but sometimes
compromises have to be made. I
think the Hobby Arc 110 is well
worth the money invested. Its saved
me many times the original cost in
hiring a welding shop for small
projects. For big stuff, I use the
Hobby Arc to tack things together
and then take the job to a proper
welding shop for the finish welds.
As far as welders go, this unit is
small and lightweight. I take it to
all events now because its no real
trouble to drag around and finding
adequate power is usually not an
issue. At our last event, we used it to
attach some makeshift wedge skirts
to a front end reinforcement angle
(darned spinner still got a wheel).
Broken off screw? Just put a spot
weld on it. You can grind it off the
weld almost as fast as removing a
screw. Once your welder becomes a
familiar tool, Im sure youll find
many ways to make use of it.

Cost
So whats this all going to cost?
Using current prices from the Harbor
Freight website (www.harbor
freight.com), the Hobby Arc 110 is
going for $129.99 (mine cost $99.99
on sale). A solar-powered autodarkening mask is $69.99 (on sale at
the time of this writing for $49.99).
Welding rods can usually be
purchased by the pound at a local
welding shop. I buy a good handful

SERVO 11.2006

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which is about five pounds at $2-$3

a pound. McMaster Carr (www.mc
master.com) also sells welding rods
if you do any bot business with them.
Harbor Freight welding gloves are
currently $9.99 and perfectly useable. That adds up to approximately

$210 at Harbor Freight as an initial

equipment investment. Another $10
for welding rods (a few come
with the welder but not enough to
actually accomplish anything) and
youre good to go!
For you beginning builders who

are considering this welder because

of cost, go ahead and get it. Its
simple, its cheap, and it works. You
might need a little more time to
develop the necessary skills, but
if I can do it, anybody can. Let the
welding begin! SV

WELDING TITANIUM
by Paul Reese and Robert Wilburn

Titanium
The use of titanium in todays
combat robots is more of a rule than
an exception. While there are still
excellent examples of winning robots
that do not employ titanium components, the vast majority of builders
have come to realize the significant
advantages this metal offers. It
exhibits high strength with a density
just over one-half that of steel. Still,
fabrication techniques such as welding and machining often present
challenges to teams considering its
use. Frequently, the simplest solution
is to farm this work out to a machine
shop with an established reputation
in working with titanium. Team
Whyachi Robotics in Dorchester, WI
is an excellent example of such a
resource.
However, building a combat
robot at home and performing most,
if not all, of the work in the garage
still holds a certain fascination to
many people and speaks to the roots
of this sport. Many teams routinely
weld steel and aluminum using both
the MIG and TIG process. Welding
titanium is another operation that
Argon bottle with tee and dual regulators.

36

SERVO 11.2006

can be successfully performed at

home with the proper equipment
and techniques. It can be cheaper in
the long run than outsourcing the
job and nothing can replace the
convenience of being able to weld
components on-the-fly whenever
the necessity arises.

added to the puddle and is generally

a similar composition to the parent
metal. Techniques for TIG welding
titanium differ from those of steel
primarily in the shielding gas and
cleanliness requirements.

The TIG Process

When TIG welding steel or

aluminum, the gas supplied by the
torch provides adequate protection
from atmospheric contamination. A
typical flow rate for 1/4 steel might
be 13 cubic feet per hour (CFH or
ft3/hr), whereas titanium will require
upwards of 25 CFH or more. Hot titanium has an affinity for gases such as
oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen and
will readily absorb these gases from
the atmosphere unless precautions
are taken. This is true not only for the
molten puddle, but for any part of
the material above 900F. Impurities
caused by these gases will result in
embrittlement and the weld will be
prone to cracking. The combat arena
is no place to discover a brittle
weld that was compromised due to
insufficient shielding.
For the ultimate in protection,

TIG or Tungsten Inert Gas is

also called Gas Tungsten Arc
Welding (GTAW) and is sometimes
referred to as Heliarc. It is the most
prevalent process for permanently
joining titanium. A torch with a tungsten electrode is connected to a
power source and shielding-gas supply, usually argon. The material to be
welded, or work, is grounded to the
power source. An arc is initiated
between the tungsten and the work,
providing sufficient heat to melt the
work material. The shielding gas
flows from the torch, around the
tungsten, and bathes the molten
puddle in a protective blanket
of inert gas which prevents contamination from the atmosphere.
Additional filler material can then be
Torch with 3/32 tungsten, large
gas lens, and #12 ceramic cup.

Shielding Gas

Welds in a titanium attachment for 60 lb Ground

Zero made from 1/4 6AL-4V alloy.

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Titanium tooth bolted and clamped in

preparation for welding.

inert gas welding chambers are

sometimes utilized where the entire
project is contained in a rigid box or
flexible tent which is filled with
argon. Although effective, they can
be somewhat cumbersome and
are usually unnecessary. Sufficient
shielding can be provided by more
conventional means.
For example, you should equip
your torch with the largest possible
cup size (#12 = 12/16 = 3/4) to
allow the gas the widest possible
area of coverage around the puddle.
A gas lens can provide for a less
turbulent flow and reduce the
chance of atmosphere mixing with
the argon. Keep the tungsten close
to the puddle because a long arc
length promotes turbulent flow. As
you move the torch forward, the
just-welded area behind the torch is
still extremely hot and needs to be
protected by shielding gas.
Depending on the thickness of
the titanium, the underside of the
weld may need protection, as well. A
secondary supply of argon is required
to provide these auxiliary sources of
shielding gas. Tapping off of the
main torch regulator is not
recommended. However, a tee can
be used on the output of the argon
bottle to feed two independent
regulators: one for the torch gas
supply and one for the auxiliary or
back-up supplies.

Trailing Shield
To provide adequate argon
coverage of the hot titanium behind
the torch, a trailing shield can be

One of Ground Zeros completed

titanium teeth with S7 steel cutters.

employed. As its name implies, this

device attaches to the torch and trails
behind the puddle for several inches
as you weld. A back-up gas supply is
connected to the trailing shield,
flooding the heat-affected-zone with
argon until the material is no longer
susceptible to the absorption of
atmospheric gases. The argon flow
rate to the trailing shield depends on
many factors, but it is usually significantly higher than that of the torch;
40+ CFH is not uncommon.
Trailing shields are commercially
available, but they can also be fabricated from aluminum or copper.
These materials are easy to form and
withstand the heat generated by the
welding process. A short section of 2
diameter copper pipe cut length-wise
will result in two half-pipes that can
be used as the basis for an improvised
trailing shield. Multiple gas fittings
along the length will improve the
dispersion characteristics. If a teammate is available during the welding
process, he or she can manually position the trailing shield independently
and chase the torch as you weld
instead of attaching it to the torch.
The underside of the weld can
also be protected by similar devices.
A grooved backing bar or half-pipe
can be used for this purpose.
Alternatively, metallic foils or tapes
may be shaped into a canopy and
affixed to the bottom side of the
titanium and flooded with argon. All
of this can drain a 125 cubic foot
argon bottle rapidly.
In all cases, the gas lines feeding
the torch, trailing shield, and backside
cover should be purged prior to

Variety of interchangeable titanium teeth for

Ground Zero (60 lbs) and KillJoy (120 lbs).

initiating the arc to rid the lines of any

atmosphere. An argon blanket
should be covering the work before
welding begins. Many welders have
pre-flow and post-flow settings that
can automatically start argon flow to
the torch prior to arc start and continue flowing gas for a set period after
the arc is extinguished. Post-flow
should be no less than 10 seconds to
protect the hot titanium. The auxiliary
gas sources must be controlled
manually. Adequate ventilation is
important for safety but you should
avoid welding where drafts are
present, if possible. This includes
outdoors or in your garage with the
door up. It isnt worth risking an inopportune breeze at the wrong moment
blowing away your shielding gas.

Surface Preparation
Cleanliness is also critical to reliable titanium welding, as even small
amounts of impurities will result in
brittle welds. The area to be welded
and the filler material should be thoroughly cleaned with a lint-free cloth
and acetone or isopropyl alcohol.
Pickling of titanium in nitric acid is
sometimes mentioned in literature to
remove scale. This is difficult, dangerous, and is often not required for
most titanium with a decent surface
finish. Plasma or torch cutting titanium will leave an edge with significant
impurities that must be dressed by
grinding and cleaning prior to welding. Edges resulting from water-jet
cutting require minimal attention.
Grinding wheels or stainless-steel
wire brushes can be used to prepare

SERVO 11.2006

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Titanium Tooth with S7 steel cutters for

KillJoy; weight = 2 lbs, 11.4 oz.

surfaces for welding, but they should

not be used on other metals to avoid
the transfer of foreign material onto
the titanium.

Filler Material
It goes without saying that the
titanium used in most combat robots
is almost exclusively 6Al-4V grade 5
alloy. It is roughly twice as strong
as commercially pure (CP) grade 2
titanium with the same weight.
Conventional wisdom is that the filler
material should normally match the
composition of the parent metal.
However, many experts recommend
the use of CP rod (ERTi-2) with 6Al4V parent metal to produce welds
with lower hardness, higher ductility,
and reduced brittleness. These
characteristics are often more desirable than ultimate tensile strength,
especially where extreme impacts
and high shock loads will be encountered. Moreover, when the 6Al-4V
parent material melts and combines
with the CP rod, the puddle is
effectively alloyed to some degree by
the parent material.
Although there is no substitute
for proper shielding gas, the use of
CP rod can provide a higher degree
of tolerance for a limited amount of
atmospheric contamination while still
producing a weld with reasonable
ductility. It takes practice, but the hot
end of the filler rod should not be
removed from the argon shield while
welding to prevent oxidation of the
tip. Rods 3/32 in diameter work
well for 1/4 titanium while other
diameters are available to suit various
applications. The tungsten electrode

38

SERVO 11.2006

A 3/4 custom-made titainum bolt

ready to weld.

in the torch will often be the same

size as the filler rod, but the smallest
tungsten that will carry the required
current provides better arc control.
Thoriated tungsten (2%) should be
used for titanium.

Post Weld Examination

The color of the weld can
provide clues to the amount of
atmospheric contamination in the
shielding gas or reveal insufficient
coverage. A relatively shiny bead
with a silver to straw color indicates
successful shielding with minimal
impurities. Light blue, gray, or white
is indicative of increased contamination and will result in a brittle weld.
Interpreting weld quality solely from
color can be challenging even to
experienced welders. Deposits or
build-up near the tip of the tungsten
electrode are another indicator of
atmospheric intrusion into the argon.
X-Ray inspection, hardness testing,
and dye penetrant examination are
other techniques for evaluating weld
quality, but are somewhat impractical for home use.

Welder Selection
TIG welders vary widely in price
and offer different capabilities.
Transformer based machines are
large and heavy while inverter based
welders are smaller and lighter. A
DC-only unit can be used to weld
titanium and steel, but not
aluminum; aluminum requires AC
output. Harbor Freight Tools offers
an inexpensive 130 amp DC inverterbased TIG welder for less than $300.

Welding the head onto a custom-made

3/4 titainum bolt.

A high quality name brand ~200 amp

AC/DC Inverter welder will run
$2,000 to $3,000 or more. Like most
things, you usually get what you pay
for. The Lincoln Invertec V205-T, the
Miller Dynasty 200 SD/DX, the Esab
Handy TIG 180, and the Thermal Arc
Pro Wave 185TSW are just a few
examples of quality AC/DC inverter
welders. All are capable of welding
up to 5/16 titanium and steel, as
well as 3/16 aluminum. They are
ideal for building combat robots and
can easily be transported due to their
sub-50 lb heft. Some will even run on
110 VAC in a pinch, but all require a
220 VAC source for serious work.
Likewise, a water-cooled torch isnt
necessary for occasional light duty
use, but will be required for extended operation at high current.

Summary
Welding titanium is not difficult.
There is nothing mysterious or exotic
about it. It can be performed at
home with readily-available materials
and equipment. With careful
planning and proper attention to
shielding and cleanliness, it is as easy
to weld as mild steel. By most
accounts, aluminum is considerably
more difficult. Whether you are an
experienced TIG welder or new to
the process, there is no reason to shy
away from the advantages titanium
can bring to your design. SV
Paul Reese and Robert Wilburn are Team
O-Town Robotics (www.teamotown.com).
Paul can be reached [email protected].
For more information, contact the Titanium
Information Group (www.titaniuminfo
group.co.uk/).

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WELDING TOOLS AND

ACCESS RIES
by Jeff Vasquez

kay, so now you have this cool

welder. Now what? As always,
there is more stuff to buy!
To start with, youll need some
type of table to weld on. I bought a
piece of 24 by 30 steel plate that is
1/4 thick. Then I welded a scrap
piece of tube to the bottom so my B
& D Workmate would have something to grab onto. I also drilled and
tapped some strategically-placed
holes so that I can bolt down jigs and
clamps. I simply place the plate on
the Workmate and tighten the
clamps. This gives me a strong
portable table to work on.
Some of the other accessories
and tools that you will need include
welding gloves, welders pliers, an

electric grinder, stainless steel wire

brushes, and a helmet. Get the best
helmet you can afford preferably
an adjustable auto darkening one.
Auto darkening makes it much easier
to weld as you can have the helmet
down and see through the glass, but
as soon as there is a spark, the
helmet darkens to protect your
eyes. You dont get second chances
with your eyesight so take care of
your eyes!
I emphasize stainless wire
brushes because they dont contaminate the areas that you are cleaning
as cheap wire brushes would. Also,
mark the brushes steel, alum,
etc., so you dont cross-contaminate
one with the other. Last, but not

Regardless of the type of welding that you do,

these clamps and jigs will come in handy. I
drilled and taped some holes in the table top to
secure the jigs and screw-down type clamps.

These are just a few of the must have

accessories you will need to start welding
safely. Get the best helmet you can afford
preferably with an adjustable auto darkening
lense. MIG, TIG, GAS, etc., all put out different
amounts of light and require different
amounts of darkening.

PR

least, get yourself a copy of The

Welders Handbook by Richard Finch.
It is full of useful information and
explanations with a lot of pictures
and diagrams. I refer to it constantly.
You can never have too many
clamps! Get yourself a good selection of ViceGrip type clamps of all
sizes and types. You will be surprised
by how much you use them. Another
useful accessory are magnetic right
angles. They can be used to hold, line
up, and square up pieces of metal.
You will find that along with the
clamps, corner jigs or straight jigs are
very useful. Simply stated, these jigs
in conjunction with the clamps hold
the metal so you can weld the pieces
accurately and safely. SV
I needed something for the WorkMate to
grab onto, so I welded a piece of scrape
square tube to the bottom.

DUCT REVIEWS
Lincoln SP-125 Plus MIG Welder
by Jeff Vasquez

am going to tell you what you

want to know right at the start.
The Lincoln SP-125 Plus and its newer
brother the SP-135 Plus are awesome
machines that I would recommend

to anyone looking for a versatile,

high-quality MIG welder that is
affordable. When I was looking to
buy a MIG welder to start building
for Battlebots, I did a lot of research

into exactly what I would need and

came to the conclusion that a small
110 volt MIG welder would be
sufficient to get me going building
frames and such. After checking

SERVO 11.2006

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You cant start them too young with adult

supervision, of course! My son Matthew (Got
Robots? shirt) and his friend Dillon take a
break from restoring Dillons dads old
Mustang. Dillons dad bought his SP-135 on
my recomendation!

online and at the local welding

supply, I decided on the Lincoln
SP-125. The newest version of the
SP-125 is the SP-135. Everything
about it is the same except it now
puts out 135 amps.
As supplied from the box, the
Lincoln comes with everything youll
need to weld with flux core wire and
with gas shielding. The only thing
youll need to buy is a tank of
shielding gas as the regulator and
hoses for the gas are included. I
would highly recommend buying the
Plus model as it includes the cart
which makes moving the rig and
handling the gas bottle and tool
storage a cinch. With this little gem
youll be able to weld all kinds of steel
and even aluminum with the optional
aluminum welding kit, although I
welded aluminum without it.

What is MIG welding you ask?

MIG welding or wire feed welding
is an ingenious way to make welding
fast and simple. To weld, you simply
place the gun over the work with
about 0.375 inches between the tip
and the spot you want to weld. When
you pull the trigger on the gun, it
activates the positively-charged wire
electrode and the shielding gas. The
wire feeds out of the gun and
contacts the metal to be welded
which, in turn, causes a short circuit
and an arc. Shielding gas keeps
impurities out of the weld while the
wire electrode melts onto the base
metal and the whole process starts
over, about 60 times per second. This
is very simplistic but it works!
This unit allows you to weld with
either solid wire and gas (as
described above) which makes really
nice and neat welds or with gasless,
flux cored wire which is effective for
thicker metals but far more messy
(and the welds are not as attractive).

My SP-125 Plus with the cart. As you can

see, the cart comes in handy for storage and
holds a bottle of shielding gas quite nicely.

The upside to the latter is you dont

need shielding gas as the flux is
already in the wire.
The only complaint that I have
with the unit is that the dials to
adjust the wire feed speed and
voltage move too easily. It is easy to
accidentally change the settings by
either moving the machine or
inadvertently brushing them with a
welding glove. A little more tension
on these dials would be helpful.
With tools and equipment, I
have always found that you get what
you pay for and the Lincoln is no
exception. The list price for the
SP-135 Plus is about $800, but Ive
found it for much less on the
Internet. Speaking of the Internet,
for more info, look at www.
Lincolnelectric.com. If you want a
high quality, 110 volt MIG welder,
you wont be disappointed with this
unit! SV

Lincoln Precision TIG-185 Welder

by Jeff Vasquez

he Lincoln Precision TIG 185

comes with everything needed to
start TIG welding (tungsten inert gas
welding) except for a bottle of shielding gas (argon usually), welding
gloves, helmet, welding rods, etc. I
would highly recommend getting the
optional cart as it makes life much
easier. The unit lists for about $2,300,

40

SERVO 11.2006

but I bought mine new online for

much less money with the cart!
One thing to remember about this
machine is that it runs on 220 volts as
most TIG welders do. You will need at
least a 50 amp circuit. Adding this
circuit to your home is an expense
which must be taken into account.
The unit also comes with a cheat

sheet which Ive found to be invaluable. Simply find the kind (butt, lap,
fillet, etc.) of weld you want and the
type and thickness of the metal, and
the magic card tells you the type
(DC+, DC-, or AC) of current, amount
of current, cup orifice, filler rod diameter, tungsten electrode diameter, etc.
While this info is very helpful,

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TIG welding is not for beginners. TIG

welding is analogous to gas welding.
It is said by the experts that if you
can weld with gas, you can weld
with anything and it is true. Not so
much because its difficult but more
so because of the skills and technique involved. With gas welding
(oxy/acetylene, etc.), you are using a
hot flame to heat the metal. With
TIG welding, the principle is the same
except you are using electricity.
Basically, you are passing a current
though the tungsten electrode in the
torch to a base metal. The result is
much like a spark plug in an engine
and heat is produced. You then feed
the welding rod into the molten
metal puddle and you have a weld.
To weld with a TIG machine you will
have the torch in one hand, the welding rod in another, and one foot on
the amptrol pedal. This pedal
allows you to vary the current (up to
the set maximum) during the welding process. You can see why TIG is
not for beginners! That being said,

The Lincoln Precision TIG-185 in all its glory.

The optional cart comes in handy to hold the
amptrol pedal, the ground cable, etc. The torch
hangs on the side. The black cup holder on
the top flips up for electrode storage. As you
can see, everything is clearly laid out for ease
of operation.

since I had experience with a MIG

welder, I was able to have a friend of
mine who knew how to TIG weld
pretty well get me started with some
basic demonstrations and info.
Back to the machine! My
Precision TIG-185 has been flawless
and done everything I have asked of
it. I have welded mild steel,
chromemoly, aluminum, and titanium up to about .250 inch. Thicker
metals will require more power than
this machine can offer; 99% of the
time the SP-185 is powerful enough
for everything that I want to do. It is
a truly versatile machine that has
given me years of flawless service. It
has enough bells and whistles to
satisfy expert welders doing complicated welds on difficult metals, yet is
easy enough to use with the basic
controls that even a hack like me can

lay down some nice beads. Some of

the features include high frequency for an easy starting arc and post
flow control which lets the gas flow
for a set time after you stop welding.
This aids in minimizing weld contamination. The Pulse TIG Control pulses the current which is useful when
working on thin metals. These are
just a few of the features of the 185.
The Lincoln Precision TIG-185 is
a great machine that I would
recommend to anyone who needs a
TIG welder. For more info, see
the Lincoln Electric website at www.
Lincolnelectric.com. SV

SERVO 11.2006

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XPort Botball Controller

Gives Good Game

by JennyGrigsby, JorgeVillatoro, and MatthewOelke

o a novice, the world of robotics can be a bit overwhelming. The

processors, the building equipment, and the potential programming
involved can send a new user screaming into the night. The Xport
Botball Controller and its kit would be pretty intimidating, too if it didnt
have the familiar elements of a Game Boy and LEGO bricks.

We Got Game (Boy)

The XBC uses a Game Boy (GB) as
the main processor. Why? Because of its
low price, ease of use, color LCD, and a
powerful ARM 7 processor. The element
of cool it adds doesnt hurt either. The
GB isnt hacked or modified. In a way,
the GB thinks the Xport board is a game
when it is plugged into the cartridge
slot. A user can unplug the Xport, pop
in Mario, and concentrate on saving the
princess. When the Xport consisting
primarily of a FPGA and Flash memory
is plugged into the GB, the result
yields a powerful robotic processor that
uses the Interactive C programming

44

SERVO 11.2006

environment. Interactive C is widely

used today by robotics professionals,
hobbyists, educators, and students.

The Xport Botball

Controller
The Xport Botball Controller comes
by its name because it was primarily
designed for the Botball Educational
Robotics Program. For the past two
years, it is the only processor that the
national robotics program has used.
The XBC is distributed to teachers every
year in the standardized Botball kit. The
teachers, in turn, implement the kit
and the Botball challenge into their

classrooms. The students take over

from there designing, building, and
programming original autonomous
robots that compete across the country
in regional Botball tournaments.
Because Botball is a task game, the
XBC is starting to get noticed. The XBC
allows middle school and high school students to create incredibly smart and capable robots. A student-built Botball robot
can sort different colored objects into various scoring positions using color tracking
and vision the same way many industrial
assembly processes work. A student-built
Botball robot that can maneuver
autonomously on the game board mimics
robot systems like the Roomba and MER

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The bot going

over the ball.

Introducing ...
the bots.

rovers with servos and gear motors.

The XBC is currently gaining
national and international attention in
the Botball Program and through its use
in the NASA Robotics Alliance Project
annual summer robotics web course.
University programs are utilizing the
XBC for classroom, research, and competition activities. The XBC was used to
run the Core Sample Handling System
for the Mars Astrobiology Research and
Technology Experiment (MARTE). The
MARTE project developed drilling
equipment and programming to extract
and interpret the data from rock
samples drilled from Mars surface.

Back-EMF Motor
Control
The XBC uses closed-loop motor control that makes use of motion feedback.
Back-EMF provides motion feedback to
the XBC without incurring extra cost and
mechanical complexity, like encoders, or
the programming complexity and unreliability of dead reckoning with time. The
Back-EMF is based on the electromotive
force that occurs in electric motors and
some generators and is in direct proportion to its velocity. It is easily measurable
by simply cutting power to the motor
and measuring the voltage with an
analog-to-digital converter.
Since the XBC can measure the
back-EMF as well as the amount of
time a motor has been running, it can
simply integrate the velocity and divide
by time to find the distance traveled. In
Interactive C, the distance traveled is

measured in ticks, or parts of a rotation of a motor. Ticks can be converted

to common measurements by dividing
by the number of ticks in a revolution
of a motor and multiplying by the circumference of the wheel. When armed
with that information, it becomes
possible to specify the distance and
velocity for a motor to turn, thus
creating an incredibly accurate robot.

Vision and Color

Tracking
In order to keep Botball game
development up-to-date with current
robotic technologies, a vision system
had to be developed that gave the
robot the ability to see and track
objects during the game without
raising the overhead cost.
The XBC can see and track up to
three different colors at one time. It
does this by using lookup tables inside
the FPGA to carry out color pixel
filtering. Each selected color uses its
own lookup table. This provides the
maximum amount of flexibility when
selecting color models. The user can
select a color with a narrow hue range
and designate a broad luminance
range. As a result, the color models are
strong even with changes to lighting.
Another useful vision feature is
the built-in blob tracking. The XBC is
capable of tracking blobs of color and
returning information on them. Some
of the values returned are X coordinate
of the center of the blob, Y coordinate
of the center of the blob, the area of

the blob, and the locations of the

major and minor axis of the blob.
The user interface is very simple.
During a Regional Botball Workshop
(each regional program begins with a
two-day professional development workshop where educators and students
are taught how to use the equipment)
middle school students, high school
students, and their teachers are able to
instruct their robots how to play Red
light, Green light within a few hours.

In the Works
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a technology that is
gaining popularity among small device
users, because it allows the user to
easily connect their devices together, or
connect to a computer. This makes
Bluetooth perfect for robotic communication applications over short
distances. The Bluetooth chip that is
available for the XBC allows it to
connect wirelessly to any computer
with a Bluetooth chip, and future plans
include direct communication between
XBC units. This connectivity allows for
many new applications that may
require more than one processor, or
more than one set of wheels. An example might be a robot that offloads the
entire heavy processing work to a
remote brain, while maintaining control
over the more primitive functions such
as navigation and obstacle detection.
While the current release of
Interactive C does not support
Bluetooth, the soon-to-be-released Beta
SERVO 11.2006

45

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Get ready
to fight!

Everyone, take
your starting
positions ...

7.0.l release will. Users will be able to

connect their XBC through Bluetooth
to a desktop and write code to use the
Bluetooth chip as a serial communications port.

Kits and Equipment

There are several choices to make

when purchasing the XBC. You can get
just the controller, the controller with
the camera, or the controller
with the camera and GB. Each
Grab it!
processor comes with the built in
NiMH battery pack, serial cable,
and an AC adapter.
Different kits are also
available that include the XBC.
The XBC Robot Starter Kit is the
most popular (and the one
being used for the NASA robotics course). It includes all the
electronics,
LEGO
Technic

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SERVO 11.2006

pieces, and a CD with step-by-step

instructions on how to build a working
autonomous robot.
LEGO Technic allows the builder
the ability to make mistakes that
arent permanent. All you have to do
when you encounter a structural
problem is take your robot apart and
start over. That, of course, is half
the fun!

Whats to Come?
Short term Botballers can expect
another Botball season to use the XBC,
and more home users and academic
programs will incorporate it into their
hobbies and experiments.
Long term As middle school
and high school students continue to
study robotics and the wide range of
practical applications it uses science,
technology, engineering, math,
project management, and leadership
their ability in these areas when
they reach college and beyond will be
as highly developed as their Botball
robots. SV

BASIC AND ADVANCED

FEATURES
Four motor ports
Four servo ports
Eight analog ports
16 digital ports
One camera port
Onboard power
Back-EMF PID motor control
Vision system with blob tracking

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by Bryan Bergeron

ur eyes, optic nerves, and optic lobes constitute the most developed
and information-dense human sensory system. Even so, there are other
life forms with superior acuity, field-of-view, or spectral sensitivity.
Articulated, single-lens eyes endow birds of prey with phenomenal visual
acuity and field-of-view, and fixed, compound eyes provide many insects
with omnidirectional vision that extends into the UV spectrum.

Robot vision has benefitted from

biological inspiration, including this
biodiversity. For example, the anatomy
of robot imaging systems ranges from
cameras with limited field-of-view
mounted on pan-tilt mechanisms (see
Figure 1), to fixed cameras combined
with a fisheye lens, catadioptric omnidirectional mirror, or even lens clusters
patterned after insect eyes [1].
Although the image processing capabilities of the most advanced robots cant
yet compete with those of a common
housefly, powerful CCD and frame
grabber technologies are affordable
enough for developers to add rudimentary vision capabilities to virtually any
robot platform. This article explores
omnidirectional robot vision options
and describes the construction of
an inexpensive omnidirectional mirror
system for autonomous and teleautonomous robots.

tele-autonomous robot with remote

imaging capabilities. The technology
that makes this possible is the CCD
or Charge Coupled Device, such as
the OV6620 Omnivision CCD in the
popular CMUCam (see Figure 2). The
CMUCam, which uses a glass lens
instead of an inferior pinhole, captures
16.7 frames per second at 80 x 143
resolution.
Images are captured by a CCD and
can be transmitted to a monitor and
used as a visual navigation aid,
processed with machine vision
algorithms locally, or processed by
algorithms executing on a PC. Local
processing, such as the
color tracking and servo
control supported by
the CMUCam2+ (see
Figure 3), provides a
low-cost introduction
to autonomous robot

vision. The PC option, while more complex and expensive, enables a robot to
leverage processing power beyond
what can be supported by onboard
computers.
The typical field-of-view supported
by small CCD cameras, such as the
CMUCam, approximates the human
field-of-view about 40 degrees. As
such, its common to mount a small
CCD camera on a tilt-pan head. This
solution is straightforward, but it incurs
a space, weight, and power penalty for
FIGURE 1. The CMUCam2+ on a
pan-tilt head a popular and
affordable robot vision
option for autonomous
and tele-autonomous
robots.

Robot
Vision
A
miniature,
wireless
pinhole
camera,
a
9V
battery, and a dab
of adhesive can
transform a remotecontrolled carpet
roamer
into
a

FIGURE 2. CCD element used

in the CMUCam. The circuit
board measures 28 x 41 mm.

SERVO 11.2006

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Omnidirectional Robot Vision

FIGURE 3. CMUCam2+ circuit
board showing onboard image
processing hardware.

include multiple fixed cameras,

upward-pointing fisheye lenses, and fixed omnidirectional
mirrors. Rotating mirrors,
which are used successfully
with IR laser rangefinders, are
expensive and impractical for
small robots.

the supporting structure, servos,

and controller circuitry. Moreover,
while vision systems with this configuration may be useful for relatively slow
crawlers and carpet roamers, they are
ill-suited for applications requiring
speed and stealth. In addition, because
of the physical limitations imposed by
wiring and servo construction, tilt-pan
heads typically provide significantly less
than 360-degree horizontal coverage.
Consider the robot shown in
Figure 1, which is an early version of a
robot designed to play laser tag against
humans. Despite a capable CMUCam
2+ and lightweight CrustCrawler tiltpan head powered by a pair of highvelocity Airtronics 94358Z servos, the
robot was easily defeated. The noise
generated by the servos and obvious
direction of the video camera were easily read by the opponents. The solution
was to replace the mechanical,
directional vision system with a system
based on a non-mechanical omnidirectional design.

Omnidirectional
Vision Technologies
Robot
omnidirectional
(360
degree horizontal) vision options

48

Multiple Cameras
Multiple cameras, each
assigned a particular field-ofview, offer the benefit of quiet
operation and high resolution,
at the expense of often
considerable computational overhead.
A workable option is to use an inexpensive multi-channel onboard frame
grabber, such as the uCFG from Digital
Creation Labs ($100), and four CCD
cameras outfitted with wide angle
lenses. The major challenge is how to
switch between or merge the four
video channels with the limited computational resources available on most
robot platforms.
Fisheye Lenses
Fisheye lenses wide-angle lenses
on steroids are compact, readilyavailable, and (for someone versed in
optics) relatively easy to configure.
Simply mount the lens on the camera
or CCD assembly perpendicular to the
ground and high enough above the
robot body to avoid visual obstructions.
The Nikon FC-E9 lens converter ($260),
designed for the Nikon Coolpix,
provides a field-of-view of 190 degrees.
This and other fisheye lenses require
appropriate mounting and optical
adapters for use with a CMUCam or
similar camera.
For low light conditions and
greater resolution, a more capable
fisheye lens, such as the AF DX FisheyeNikkor 10.5 mm f/2.8G ED ($540) is a

better solution. The lens is designed

for Nikon digital SLRs and can be
combined with a mega pixel CCD to
create a high-resolution, omnidirectional image capture system.
Readers interested in photography
might consider purchasing a fisheye
lens that can serve their photographic
and robotics needs. However, for everyone else, the fisheye lens has several
limitations that should be considered.
Aside from the monetary investment, a
limitation of the fisheye is that the
majority of picture elements are typically wasted imaging the ceiling or sky.
Obstacles, targets, and other interesting detail along the horizon are
compressed along the periphery of the
image. Furthermore, because the
lens points upward, the robot body
obstructs the view of floor conditions
and obstacles near the robot that may
be problematic.
Mirrors
Mirror-based
omnidirectional
imaging is increasingly popular among
roboticists because its a relatively
inexpensive, lightweight, and powerful
option. The basis of operation is simple
enough if youve ever used one of
the convex mirrors commonly placed
above pinch points in store isles,
building corridors, or parking garages,
youve experienced mirror-based
omnidirectional vision first-hand.
Construction is also straightforward
simply mount the mirror an appropriate
distance above the lens of an upwardpointing camera.
The omnidirectional properties of
a mirror-based system are a function of
mirror geometry. Spherical, semispherical, parabaloid, hyperboloid, and
conical geometries are the most popular in robotics (see Figure 4). Spherical
and semi-spherical mirrors are useful
when its important to image the
immediate vicinity of the robot in great
detail, such as when a crawler must
navigate unknown terrain. Conical mirrors, which
FIGURE 4. Spine view of
popular mirror geometries, from
left to right: Spherical; SemiSpherical; Parabaloid; Hyperboloid;
and Conical.

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Omnidirectional Robot Vision

FIGURE 6. Original image captured from
the 39 mm parabaloid mirror (left) and
unwarped image reprojected onto a
cylindrical surface (right).

provide virtually no close-range

imagery and instead emphasize
images on the horizon, are more
appropriate for wheeled robots that
operate on level terrain with obstacles
on the horizon. Parabaloid mirrors
devote pixels to both the immediate
vicinity and the horizon, and can be
used with virtually any robot platform.
Parabaloid mirrors (see Figure 5)
produce images with less extreme variations in near to far image resolution
than either conical or spherical mirrors.
Even so, the raw image is much more
distorted than the image produced by a
typical semi-spherical security mirror.
This isnt a problem if the goal is, for
example, to identify the direction and
distance to a target of a specified color.
However, if the aim is to employ
machine vision algorithms to identify
recognizable features in the environment, then the image should first be
unwarped and projected onto a virtual
cylindrical surface, as shown in Figure 6.
There is a variety of unwarping
software available for real-time robotics
navigation and offline applications. The
software used to create Figure 6 is a
Photoshop Action that can be downloaded from 0-360.com. The software
is designed for their proprietary
parabaloid mirror ($595), but it works
reasonably well with any Parabaloid
surface. For example, the chromeplated mirror used in Figures 5 and 6 is
sold on Amazon as a silver
chime egg ($5/pair).
Regardless of the mirror
geometry, the unwarping
operation is a straightforward
mapping process, as illustrated
in the unwarping of the image
from a conical mirror in Figure
7. The image reflected from
the area near the apex of the
cone is not only compressed
FIGURE 7. Unwarping an image
from a conical mirror (top left)
can be visualized as mapping
raw triangular slices onto
rectangular slices on a
cylindrical panoramic surface.

relative to the
original scene, but the
image is distributed over relatively few
pixels on the CCD. Conversely, the
image reflected from the area near the
base of the cone is stretched, and the
pixel-to-image ratio is relatively high. As
a result, horizontal resolution and
image quality are best from the area
near the base of a conical mirror. Note
that the resolution along the vertical
axis from base to apex is constant
with a conical mirror. This is not true of
parabolic and hyperbolic mirrors.
As noted earlier, mirror geometry
defines the field-of-view. Furthermore,
there can be significant variations in
the field-of-view within a given
mirror geometry. For example, Figure 8
illustrates the effect of conical mirror
geometry on the resulting field-of-view.
The squatter the cone, the more the
mirror approximates a flat mirror, and
the area surrounding the robot is
imaged. Similarly, the more acute the
cone angle, the more the field-of-vision
encompasses the area at and above
the horizon.
Beyond the basics of mirror geometry, there are several more variables
related to the mirror and camera that
should be considered. CCD resolution,
camera lens aperture and field-of-view,
mirror-lens distance, mirror reflectivity

FIGURE 5. Chromeplated 39 mm
parabaloid mirror
mounted in a twoinch Plexiglas tube.

and size, mirror

height,
and
robot platform
size are all critical, interrelated
variables. A first-surface glass mirror
will reflect more light than a mirror of
stainless steel, while the reflectivity of
a chrome-plated aluminum mirror is
somewhere between the two. As a
result, an omnidirectional image system built around a stainless steel mirror
will require greater ambient light levels.
A camera lens with a shorter focal
length will allow a closer mirror-lens
distance, which makes for a more
compact, sturdy camera system.
However, a wide robot body generally
requires a greater camera-mirror
distance to show the area in the
vicinity of a robot, especially with a
spherical or semi-spherical mirror.
The basic photographic principles
of minimal working distance and
depth-of-field apply to imaging the
mirror surface. Depth-of-field, which

FIGURE 8. Fieldof-view (FOV)

as a function of
cone geometry.

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Omnidirectional Robot Vision

FIGURE 10. Raw materials for a lightweight
cone mirror silver
Duralar and a 65 mm
diameter plastic funnel.

FIGURE 9. Omnidirectional cone imaging

system installed on the robot.

should be sufficient to capture the

image from the full surface of the
mirror, can be increased by stepping
down the lens aperture. Unfortunately,
the CMUCam and CMUCam2+ have
fixed aperture lenses. However, unlike
a simple pinhole camera, working
distance (close focus) can be adjusted
by rotating the lens.

Conical Mirror
Omnidirectional
Vision System
Readers with a miniature CCD

camera can add omnidirectional vision

capabilities to their robot by creating a
conical mirror assembly (see Figure 9)
for about $10 in supplies a tennis
ball container, plastic funnel, and sheet
of Duralar and a few hours at the
bench. The following discussion
assumes a CMUCam2+, but cameras
such as the CMUCam or a miniature
pinhole camera work with minor
modifications.
The raw materials required for the
cone mirror are a sheet of silver Duralar
and a small plastic funnel. Duralar or
comparable paper-backed mirrored
surface can be found at most art
supply stores, and plastic funnels of
various sizes and shapes are available
at cooking supply and hardware stores.
Look for a funnel with a 65 mm diameter rim the diameter of a tennis ball.
If you cant find one this small, you can
cut down a larger funnel.
Prepare the funnel by removing
the pouring spout from the funnel and,
using medium-grit sandpaper, remove
the small ribs, mold lines, or other
imperfections on the surface of the
funnel. Clean the funnel surface and
set it aside.
The Duralar has to be glued or
taped to the funnel, creating a silver
cone. Using the template available
on
the
SERVO
website
(www.servomagazine.com;
see Figure 11), print out the
cone overlay on plain paper and
cut out the pattern. Try it out
for size on the prepared funnel.
Adjust the print size and wedge
angle so that the cone comes to
a clean point with about 1/4
overlap at the seam. When youre
satisfied with the fit, tape the paper

FIGURE 11. A 125 mm diameter Duralar

template. Duralar limits are in blue.

50

SERVO 11.2006

pattern to the back

of the Duralar and
cut to size. Be
careful
not
to
scratch the Duralar
surface during handling.
Apply a thin coat of rubber
adhesive to a few points on the funnel
and corresponding points on the back
of the Duralar. Mate the points after
five minutes. Use the minimum amount
of glue possible to avoid staining or
crinkling the Duralar. Its a good idea to
test the effect of the adhesive on a
piece of scrap Duralar before gluing.
An alternative approach is to use
double-sided tape. Whatever method
you use, make the overlap area as
smooth as possible. If youre handy
with a blade, do away with the overlap
altogether and butt the edges of the
Duralar prior to gluing.
Create a 70 mm disc out of 3/4
(20 mm) packing foam or other
low-density spacer material and glue it
to the base of the cone mirror. The purpose of the disc is to push the mirror
from the tube distortion near the cap
end of the tennis ball tube (see Figure
9). Set the mirror assembly aside to dry.
The next step is to mount the camera and create a supporting structure
for the mirror. A CD-ROM happens to
fit the CMUCam2+ lens snugly, and
mounting the camera board on the
disc requires only four quick holes and
1/4 standoff hardware. With camera
mounted, youll need a clear, colorless
support tube. A clear tennis ball container will accommodate the funnel
and is lightweight. Using a sharp blade,
cut the pressurized container cleanly
about 115 mm from the cap end. Keep
the peel-off lid intact. The metal lid
helps maintain the rigidity of the tube.
Place the mirror and tube assembly
over the camera lens. Using the
constant streaming function of the
CMUCam2+, adjust the focus so that
most of the mirror is in focus. You
should see something like the image in

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Figure 12. Objects will be distorted and
stretched toward the periphery of
the image.
Because the CCD element is rectangular, there is an unavoidable waste of
pixels if the entire mirror is imaged. The
field-of-view in Figure 12 sacrifices part
of the mirror surface in exchange for
higher resolution image on the area of
the mirror that is imaged. To image
more of the mirror imaged, cut the support tube at 120 mm or use thinner
backing material. Secure the base of
the tube to the CD-ROM or other
mount. The aluminum base of a lamp
assembly is used for the lower attachment in Figure 9. A second tennis container cap bolted or glued to a CD-ROM
also makes a sturdy, lightweight base.
Variations
Components other than a
CMUCam2+, 67 mm funnel, and 20
mm foam backing for the mirror will
probably require a different tube
length. Fortunately, the real-time
imaging available with a CCD camera
supports interactive experimentation.
Feel free to try different materials,
mirror geometries, and support
structures. Christmas tree baubles and
chrome-plated cabinet pulls (see
Figure 13) provide an inexpensive and
workable introduction to mirror-based
omnidirectional
robotic
vision.
Experiment with different shapes, finishes, and materials until you get a feel
for the features associated with each.
At only 33 g, the Duralar cone
assembly is light enough to be used
with virtually any robot base. The
downside of Duralar is lower reflectivity relative to chrome or silvered glass.
Chrome-plated metal, while less reflective than mirrored glass, can withstand
the hazards of mobile robot activity.
There is a modest weight penalty,
however. For example, the 108 g
chrome egg shown in Figure 5 requires
relatively heavy Plexiglas tubing for
support; 3 o.d., 0.1 thick Plexiglas
tubing incurs a weight penalty of 19 g
per inch, while 2 o.d. tubing is a little
less burdensome at 13 g per inch.
An advantage of rigid Plexiglas
over thin-walled plastic container is

FIGURE 12. Original image from CMUCam2+

and Duralar cone. Note target in red shirt,
about six feet from the robot. The Duralar
seam is at eight oclock.

more stable camera-mirror placement.

Plexiglas tubing is also more likely to
withstand
inevitable
crashes.
Borosilicate glass tubes available
through science supply houses
provide superior optical properties,
although they are less resilient and
heavier than Plexiglas.
My current omnidirectional robot
vision system is based on the
CMUCam2+, a 2 o.d. borosilicate
tube, and a chrome-plated aluminum
cone mirror. The mirror, which is sold
as a motorcycle bar end ($40/pair), is
perfect for imaging human targets six
to 20 feet from the robot base.
The real fun begins when you
integrate the omnidirectional vision
system with your autonomous or
tele-autonomous robot. The conical
imaging system works as-is with the
CMUCam2+ color tracking software.
Instead of directing the tilt/pan head,
use the servo signals to drive the drive
servos or H-bridge, depending on your
robot design. Full documentation on
the CMUCam2+ color tracking routines
is available from Seattle Robotics (see
Resources sidebar).
A tele-autonomous robot with a
wireless pinhole camera and conical
mirror is also a reasonable experimental system for a tele-autonomous robot.
After a few minutes of working with
the raw omnidirectional view, most
readers will find the distorted view easy
to interpret without unwarping
software.

mirror. As a point of reference,

Neovision sells the H3S a 200 g, 28
mm hyperbolic stainless steel mirror for
about 850 Euros. Seiwapro offers a
variety of similarly priced precision
spherical and hyperbolic silvered glass
mirrors with Sony camera mounts.
The H3S and Seiwapro mirrors are
popular among robot vision researchers
because the mirror surface equations
are published. For example, Neovision
lists the H3S surface equation as:

z2
x2 + y 2

=1
789,3274 789,3274

REFERENCES
[1] Franceschini, N., Pichon, J., and C.
Blanes, From insect vision to robot
vision. 1992. Philosophical Transactions
of the Royal Society of London B(337):
p. 283-94.
[2] Zivkovic, Z. and O. Booij, How
did we build our hyperbolic mirror omnidirectional camera practical issue and
basic geometry. 2005, University of
Amsterdam, Intelligent Autonomous
Systems, IAS-UVA-05-04.

From Here
Readers with deep pockets
might consider replacing the
affordable
but
limited
CMUCam 2+ with a mega
pixel, large aperture video camera and a specially fabricated
metal or first-surface glass
FIGURE 13. A chrome-plated
cabinet pull makes an
inexpensive, high-reflectivity
semi-spherical mirror.

SERVO 11.2006

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RESOURCES
Seattle Robotics
www.seattlerobotics.com
CMUCam and wide angle lenses
Acroname
www.acroname.com
CMUCam2+
LP Music Collection
wwww.lpmusic.com
Silver Chime Eggs; LPM324; Garfield
NJ 07026. Also available through
Amazon.com
JDA Custom
www.jdacustom.com
Chrome-plated aluminum cone bar
ends
0-360.com
http://0-360.com
Photo Unwrapping Action for
Photoshop and Photoshop Elements

Digital Creation Labs, Inc.

www.digitalcreationlabs.com/uCFG
.htm
uCFG Microcontroller Frame Grabber
eStreetPlatics
eStreetPlastics.com
2 and 3 Plexiglas Tubes

can be shared among researchers using

the mirror. Published surface equations

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Easy to connect by 0.1" pitch headers to suit standard IDC connectors.
Integrated Type-B USB connector.
On-board unique serial number in EEPROM and custom programmable
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Both USB enumeration information and microcontroller can be reprogrammed to suit customer needs.
Module powered by the USB from the PC.

Just some of our range of USB and MP3 modules...

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Development Module (2nd
Gen). 1000k baud (RS232) and
3000k baud. (RS422 / RS485)

USB Plug and Play Parallel

8-bit FIFO Development Module
(2nd Gen). Up to 8 Million bits
(1Megabyte) per second.

Integrated module based on the FTDI

FT2232C Dual Channel USB UART /
FIFO IC. Features two Multi-purpose
controllers that can be congured in
several different modes.

VS1001 chip. Converts

clocked serial data (MP3) to
stereo audio out. Suitable for
driving headphones.

Visit our website www.orteches.com

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52

SERVO 11.2006

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Unwarping software written for

HS3 hyperbolic surface, for example,

Precision parabolic/hyperbolic mirrors

and camera assemblies:
Neovision Industrial Vision Systems
www.neovision.cz
0-360.com
http://0-360.com
Kaidan, Inc.
www.kaidan.com
360 OneVR
Neuronics
www.neuronics.ch
V-Cam360,
Panorama Eye, Seiwapro Co., LTD.
www.accowle.com/english/index.html

can also be used to create a virtual

mirror t within a 3D rendering package,
such as AutoCAD, for testing room
coverage at different mirror heights
and mirror-camera distances. Of course,
the surface equations for a conical or
spherical mirror are easily defined.
Readers interested in machine
vision can experiment with the
Photoshop Actions software discussed
earlier. Owners of Matlab can explore
the listing provided by the Intelligent
Autonomous Systems of University of
Amsterdam [2]. A wealth of unwarping
software and omnidirectional imaging
systems are described on The Page of
Omnidirectional Vision, which is
hosted by the GRASP Laboratory at the
University of Pennsylvania.
Furthermore, robotic omnidirectional vision isnt an either-or proposition. Its a simple matter to add an
omnidirectional mirror and inexpensive
pinhole camera to enhance an existing
robot design based on a normal lens
and tilt/pan head. The omnidirectional
camera can act as an early warning system of sorts, giving you time to swing
the tilt/pan head around to a potential
threat or obstacle. Whatever your final
configuration, once you experience
omnidirectional vision, youll find it difficult to go back to the visual confines
of a standard imaging system. SV

FURTHER READING
Horn, B., Robot Vision. 1986,
Cambridge: MIT Press.
Shih-Schon, L. and R. Bajcsy, SingleView-Point Omnidirectional Catadioptric
Cone Mirror Imager. IEEE Transactions
on Pattern Analysis and Machine
Intelligence, 2006. 28(5): p. 840-5.
Center for Machine Perception,
Czech Technical University Prague.
cmp.felk.cvut.cz/demos/Omnidirecti
onalVision.html
Chahl, J. and M. Srinivasan,
Reflective surfaces for panoramic
imaging. Applied Optics, 1997. 36(31):
p. 8275-85.
The Page of Omnidirectional Vision.
www.cis.upenn.edu/~kostas/omni
.html

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Real Time Operating Systems

TO THE RESCUE
A Review of FreeRTOS.org
by Phil Davis

couple of months ago, I wrote

an article for the Appetizer section of SERVO and there I talked
at length about the need for better and
more sophisticated tools when it comes
to architecting your robot program.
Most of us take our BASIC Stamps or
even Atmel Mega32s and hope to
crank out some basic or C code with
the idea of breathing Artificial Life into
our bots. Its true! We have these
grandiose ideas about the end state of
our machine: it will avoid all obstacles,
climb stairs, obey voice commands and,
of course, recognize all by facial image.
The desire to have all of these
features in our bots is admirable, but
like anything else, we need the tools to
achieve this.
You see, the big guys building the
mainframe computers and the super
mini computers have known this for a
long time. They started out just like us,
in that they would write code directly
on top of the hardware, but over time,
they realized that to do more they
needed a better tool set underlying the
code they wrote. So, primitive operating systems were born. Of course, over
the years these have evolved to become
very sophisticated, like the well-known
UNIX or LINUX operating systems or
main()
{
InitializeHardware();

the ubiquitous Microsoft Windows.

There is a reason why these OSs
exist and why they continue to evolve;
because they lift our programming
above the hardware and provide a level
of abstraction for us to program in.
Consequently, we can write more scalable, complex, and able programs.
So, it is with all this in mind that I
wanted to talk further about
FreeRTOS.org a small, tight, and fast
Real Time Operating System from
www.FreeRTOS.org. You may have
noticed that part of the name has the
word free, yes; this super OS is, in
fact, free.
Lets dig into this OS in depth
through the presentation of a hypothetical example:
The Problem
Consider a simple robot that is
designed to move around a space,
avoiding obstacles that are placed
randomly in the same arena. The robot
is connected via a radio link to a
base station which can update the
control parameters used by the robot
(maximum speed, etc.), and ask the
robot to send it status information.
The software required to operate
this robot has several characteristics.
main()
LISTING 2.
{
Calling a
InitializeHardware(); subroutine

twice
/* Loop forever. */
within the
for( ;; )
same loop.
{
ControlMotors();
ProcessCollisionSensors();
ProcessRadioComms();
ProcessCollisionSensors();
}

/* Loop forever. */
for( ;; )
{
ControlMotors();
ProcessCollisionSensors();
ProcessRadioComms();
}
}

54

LISTING 1. A basic super loop.

SERVO 11.2006

For example, controlling the speed

and direction of the motors requires
periodic processing at known intervals,
while responding to collision avoidance
sensors and radio communications
requires a fast response to events that
can occur at any time.
How might the software for this
system be designed?
The Super Loop Solution
The super loop is the most basic
potential solution and is demonstrated
in Listing 1. In this solution, the
program is split into functional blocks
each of which is allocated to a
subroutine. The microcontroller simply
loops around continuously, processing
each subroutine in turn.
This type of design can work for
small systems, and indeed many small
embedded software programs are
written in exactly this manner.
There are, however, several shortcomings. In particular, the variation in
the time it takes to execute one cycle of
the loop can be the source of many
problems. This variation occurs when
different paths are taken through the
subroutines. As a consequence:
The time taken between an input
changing and the software reacting to
the change will vary. Worse still, the
variation range will change if the
software is modified. In the worst case,
a momentary change in a sensor input
may go unseen.
Code cannot rely on a fixed execution
period. Many algorithms such as the
digital filters that are often used in
motor control applications will rely
on a fixed execution period.

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Subroutines that handle events will be executed whether

or not the event occurred wasting processing time and
therefore power.
These all mean the design will not scale well should the
scope of the application be increased, but simple modifications can be introduced to alleviate these issues. To give
some examples:
Interrupts (an automatic program jump to a special
subroutine that is triggered by a change in an input
state) can be used to ensure momentary changes in
inputs are not missed.
A timer can be used to make the loop execute with a
fixed frequency.
The order and frequency with which each subroutine is
executed can be changed. For example, Listing 2
shows ProcessCollisionSensors() being called twice
within the loop. Executing ProcessCollisionSensors()
more frequently in this manner might prevent it from
missing a momentary input.
While these solutions are simple and sufficient for
small systems, they will ultimately suffer from the same
shortcomings when used within a more complex or
expanding application. A more scalable solution would
permit the timing and sequencing information to be
abstracted out of the application software which is
where the use of a real time kernel such as
FreeRTOS.org can assist.

An Alternative Approach
Using FreeRTOS.org

void ProcessRadioComms( ...... )

{
/* Has any data been received from the radio link? */
if ( IsDataAvailable() )
{
/* Data is available, so process it. */
DecodeReceivedData();
LISTING 3. vProcessRadio
ProcessDecodedMessage();
Comms() organized as a
}
subroutine.
}

/* What was a subroutine is now a program that never exits. */

void RadioCommsTask( ...... )
{
/* Loop forever. */
for( ;; )
{
/* Has any data been received from the radio link? */
if( IsDataAvailable() )
{
/* Data is available, so process it. */
DecodeReceivedData();
ProcessDecodedMessage();
LISTING 4. ProcessRadio
}
Comms() reorganized as
}
a mini program.
}
int main( void )
LISTING 5. Creating the tasks
{
and starting the real time kernel.
InitializeHardware();
/* Create each task using the functions provided
by the FreeRTOS.org kernel. */
vTaskCreate( ControlMotorsTask );
vTaskCreate( RadioCommsTask );
vTaskCreate( CollisionSensorsTask );
/* Once all the tasks have been created, the FreeRTOS.org
kernel can be started. */
vTaskStartScheduler();
/* Once the scheduler has been started the tasks will be
executing, so the program will never reach here. */
}

As an alternative solution, each subroutine presented in

Listing 1 is changed into a mini program in its own right.
Each mini program is structured so that it never exits. For
example, ProcessRadioComms() might have taken the form
depicted in Listing 3 when originally written as a subroutine,
but be converted to the form depicted in
Listing 4 once rewritten as mini program.
The application functionality is now split
into a set of independent mini programs. To ControlMotorsTask
achieve all the functionality at once, each RadioCommsTask
mini program will have to execute simultaneously which is what FreeRTOS.org allows
you to do. Each mini program is called a task,
and executes under the control of the
FreeRTOS.org kernel as in Listing 5.
A standard microcontroller is only capable ControlMotorsTask
of executing a single program at any one time.
RadioCommsTask
The separate tasks are therefore not really
executing simultaneously. The FIGURE 1. Providing the
FreeRTOS.org kernel provides the illusion of simultaneous
illusion of simultaneous execution execution.

by rapidly switching each task on to and off of the processor.

Figure 1 demonstrates this concept. In this diagram, time
moves from left to right, with the task that is executing at
any given time being highlighted by the color of the line. For
example, the RadioCommsTask is executing between times t1
and t2, a so-called time slice.
All available tasks appear to be executing ...

t1

t2

Time

tn

but only one task is ever executing at any time.

t1

t2

Time

tn

SERVO 11.2006

55

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FIGURE 2. The highest priority task is

starving the lower priority tasks of
processing time.

ControlMotorsTask
RadioCommsTask

occur sporadically.

CollisionSensorsTask

t1

t2

Time

tn

abstraction we set
out to achieve. We
must first introduce
prioritization.
/* This time a priority is assigned to each task
as it is created. */
Each task is
vTaskCreate( ControlMotorsTask, MediumPriority );
assigned a priority.
vTaskCreate( RadioCommsTask, LowPriority );
The FreeRTOS.org
vTaskCreate( CollisionSensorsTask, HighPriority );
kernel will not
execute a task if
vTaskStartScheduler();
}
another task has a
higher priority and
is
also
able
to
execute.
In other words,
Prioritization
a low priority task will never prevent a
So far, organizing our program as
higher priority task from executing.
a set of separate tasks has allowed a
The priority assigned to a task
higher level of abstraction to be used in
becomes an important design decision
the program design.
and directly affects the execution pattern of the tasks but the execution
Partitioning the software into a set
pattern is now the responsibility of the
of separate tasks allows the software
FreeRTOS.org kernel. It has been
to be more modular with fewer
abstracted away from the application
interdependencies.
code itself and therefore, to some
extent, the application designer. This
Time slicing has made the execution
results in a simplified and more scalaa degree more predictable for
ble software design.
example, the CollisionSensorsTask is
FreeRTOS.org does not place any
guaranteed to execute every third time
practical limits on the number of differslice, no matter what the other tasks
ent priorities that can be used within
are doing.
an application, or the number of tasks
that can share the same priority. This
However, we have not yet
makes it a very flexible system. Figure 1
obtained the timing and sequencing
depicts the execution pattern that
would be obtained if each task
were assigned the same priority.
The assignment of priorities to
Suspended
tasks will be dependent on the system requirements, input/output
characteristics, and hardware architecture. For our example, let us
make some assumptions about the
behavior we require:
Ready
Running
int main( void )
{
InitializeHardware();

Blocked

56

SERVO 11.2006

LISTING 6. Assigning a priority

to each task as it is created.

1. The radio communications task

must respond sufficiently fast to
ensure the buffers used to store
received data do not become full,
but the buffers are
FIGURE 3. Task states quite large and comand possible transitions. munications events

2. The collision sensors task must

react very quickly to any change in
input conditions as a collision could
be imminent.
3. The motor control task requires
periodic processing at an accurate and
constant frequency.
Given these assumptions, it would
seem prudent to assign priorities as
depicted in Listing 6.
So far, I have only hinted that a
task can exist in more than one state:
The FreeRTOS.org kernel will not
execute a task if another task has a
higher priority and is also able to
execute. Why would we want to make
a task unable to execute?
If a task was always able to
execute, then only the highest priority
task would ever run. In our case, the
CollisionSensorsTask would execute
permanently to the detriment of the
ControlMotorsTask and RadioComms
Task (Figure 2).
FreeRTOS.org allows a task to exist
in one of the four states demonstrated by Figure 3.
So far, we have seen the Running
state (when the task is actually executing) and the Ready state (where the
task is able to execute, but is not
currently executing). For our application to execute efficiently, we need to
introduce the Blocked state. (See the
FreeRTOS.org website for information
on the Suspended state.)
While in the Blocked state, a task is
waiting for something to happen. That
something could be:
Waiting for a fixed time period to
elapse. The FreeRTOS.org function
vTaskDelay() can be used for this purpose.
Waiting for an absolute time. The
FreeRTOS.org function vTaskDelayUntil()
can be used in this case.
Waiting for a queue or semaphore

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event. Queues and semaphores are

mechanisms that permit communication with a task.
By way of demonstration, lets
revisit our task RadioCommsTask, this
time placing the task into the Blocked
state when there is no processing to
perform.
In Listing 7, the task indicates that
it wants to wait for a period of
MAX_DELAY for data to arrive on the
queue named RadioQueue. If no data
is available, it will enter the Blocked
state. When the task leaves the
Blocked state, the received data will
have been placed in the ReceivedData
buffer.
An interrupt routine is used to
automatically
place
data
into
RadioQueue as it arrives. This is all the
interrupt has to do, so it is very short.
By the time the interrupt has completed, RadioCommsTask will have transitioned from the Blocked state to the
Ready state and will execute immediately if no tasks of higher priority are
able to do so (Listing 7).
Modifying ControlMotorsTask so it
blocks too results in a very simple structure. It simply blocks until an absolute
time is reached the time at which it
should start its next execution cycle.
See the comments within Listing 8
for details.
Ideally, the CollisionSensorsTask
will take a similar structure to Listing 7
blocking waiting for a sensor input to
change. If the hardware does not
permit the sensor inputs to generate
interrupts, it can instead take the
structure of Listing 8, but using a very
short delay period to ensure it scans its
inputs frequently.

Results

void RadioCommsTask( ...... )

{
Buffer ReceivedData;
/* Loop forever. */
for( ;; )
{
/* Read received radio data from a queue. The task will
enter the Blocked state if no data is available. */
if( xQueueReceive( RadioQueue, ReceivedData, MAX_DELAY ) )
{
DecodeReceivedData();
LISTING 7. RadioCommsTask()
ProcessDecodedMessage();
transitioning to the Blocked
}
state when no processing is
}
}

necessary.

void ControlMotorsTask( ...... )

{
Buffer ReceivedData;

LISTING 8. ControlMotorsTask()
transitioning to the Blocked
state when no processing is
necessary.

/* Loop forever. */
for( ;; )
{
/* Delay until it is time for the next control cycle. */
vTaskDelayUntil( LastExecutionTime + 20 );

/* When execution reaches here the task will have transitioned from
the Blocked state first to the Ready and then the Running state
because the time at which we asked to unblock has been reached. */
PerformMotorControlFunction();
}
}

one complete cycle. No other tasks execute within the same time period. Once
it has completed one cycle, it enters the
Blocked state again to wait for the time
at which it should once again execute.

causing RadioCommsTask to leave the

Blocked state. It starts to process the
data, but this time ...
... at time t6, ControlMotorsTask
wants to start its next execution cycle.
Now both ControlMotorsTask and
RadioCommsTask want to execute.
ControlMotorsTask has the higher
priority, so preempts RadioCommsTask
and starts executing immediately.

At time t3, some data is received

from the radio link causing the
RadioCommsTask to leave the blocked
state so that it can process the data. At
t4, all the data is processed and there
is nothing for RadioCommsTask to do,
so it blocks.

ControlMotorsTask eventually completes the processing necessary for that

control cycle and again enters the
Blocked state t7. RadioCommsTask is
once again the highest priority task
that wants to execute and completes
its processing before it too blocks at t8.

So far, the execution pattern has

been simple. Only one task has ever
wanted to be executing at any given
time. What happens when this is not
the case?

So how might our program now

execute? Figure 4 demonstrates a possi At time t5, more radio data arrives
ble execution pattern. In Figure
4, 13 points in time are highlighted and labeled t1 to t13:
ControlMotorstask
Between times t1 and t2,
ControlMotorsTask executes

This

demonstrates

how

the

RadioCommsTask
CollisionSensorsTask

FIGURE 4. Sample execution pattern of

blocking prioritized tasks.

t1

t2

t3

t4

t5 t6

t7

t8

t9

t11
t10
t12

t13

SERVO 11.2006

57

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FreeRTOS.org kernel controls the

execution pattern to guarantee the
timing of the higher priority task. The
lower priority RadioCommsTask was
forced to wait until ControlMotorsTask
had Blocked. ControlMotorsTask can
itself be forced to wait for
CollisionSensorsTask,
as
shown
between times t9 and t13.
Figure 4 highlights one other
consequence of this scheme. For large
periods of time, there are not tasks

that want to execute they are all in

the Blocked state. During these periods, the FreeRTOS.org kernel can be
configured to place the microcontroller
into a power down (sleeping) state,
saving valuable battery power.

Getting Started With

FreeRTOS.org
FreeRTOS.org is provided as a set of
C source files that can be downloaded

Tough Enough for Varsity

Engineering Games
GEARS-IDS

Vexed by the Limitations of your Robot Kit?

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designed by an educator for teachers and students.
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relieving regulator with gauge, electronic solenoid, shut off valve and reservoir.
Round Stainless Steel Axles, bronze bearings, #25 pitch sprockets and chain,
Delrin gears, precision-machined aluminum wheels and stainless steel hub adapters.
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The GEARS-IDS open platform gives you the power to choose!

Select additional mechanical, electrical and pneumatic components from any source.
Embrace various microprocessor architectures including Parallax BASIC Stamp.
Utilize salvaged or surplus motors using GEARS supplied motor mounts.
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Approved by high schools and colleges across the country.

Gears Educational Systems, LLC
105 Webster Street, Hanover, MA 02339
781.878.1512 www.gearseds.com

58

SERVO 11.2006

from www.FreeRTOS.org for inclusion

in your software. These source files
define a rich set of subroutines some
of which we have used in this example:
vTaskCreate(), vTaskDelayUntil(), and
xQueueReceive(). These and many
others are documented on the
FreeRTOS.org website.
Each type of microcontroller
supported by FreeRTOS.org (there are
many) comes with an example
application. An easy way to start with
FreeRTOS.org is to first experiment
with one of these examples, then
modify the example to take out the
example code and replace it with your
application code. This way, you start
with something that is already
working. You may want to consider
additional tools such as the GNU GCC
compiler for C which is also available
free-of-charge.
More information, tutorials, and
source code can be found at
www.FreeRTOS.org.
One of the great things about
FreeRTOS.org is that its free, with support being provided by users through a
support forum. However, for those of
you who may be interested in incorporating FreeRTOS.org into your own
commercial product, Wittenstein is
offering a fully supported version along
with licensing: www.highintegrity
systems.com/freertospro.html

Conclusion
Using FreeRTOS.org enabled us to
organize our application as a set of
prioritized separate tasks. This provided
a greater level of abstraction and
removed the necessity for the application to directly concern itself with
sequencing and timing. Prioritization
provided a degree of determinism in
the execution pattern of the software
components to which we assigned a
high priority.
If I can find the time, in future
articles, I would like to give some
practical examples of simple programs
performing some well-known functions
such as obstacle avoidance or Mini
Sumo wrestling. So, stay tuned. SV
FreeRTOS and FreeRTOS.org are
trademarks of Richard Barry.

Full Page.qxd

10/4/2006

2:53 PM

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Producedby

Founding Sponsor

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The International Technical

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December 12-13, 2006
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Association Co-Sponsors

Smith.qxd

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How to

Convert Cordless
Drill Motors for Use
in Robot Drives
M

any robots use small DC motors

and a gearbox to reduce the RPM
and to increase torque. One popular
way of doing this is to use the combined
gearbox and motor from a cordless drill.
These typically have a 12V-18V motor
attached to a 36:1 planetary gearbox.
There are two main sources for suitable drills. Harbor Freight (www.harbor
PHOTO 1

PHOTO 2

60

SERVO 11.2006

freight.com) and Homier (www.homir.

com). Harbor Freights Model 91396
and Homier 02899 are suitable. Avoid
drills that have hammer features and
remember, the cheaper the better. It
should not be necessary to pay more
than about $25 per drill. Various voltages
are available but the drills tend to use
standard 550-sized motors, so even if the
voltage of the one you get is not
really suitable, the motor can be
replaced by another more suited
to your application.
Output speed is usually
about 500 RPM at the rated
voltage. They are powerful
enough for a pair to run a 12
lb combat robot (the robots
that took the first three places
in the 12 lb class in the 2006
RFL National Championship all
used cordless drill parts).
The drill used in this article
is the Harbor Freight 91396 (see
Photo 1) set which came with an
18V battery, a small flashlight,
plus some assorted drill bits and
screwdriver bits. The first thing
to do is charge the battery per
the manufacturers instructions.
Youll need to remove the
PHOTO 3

by Peter Smith
chuck from the drill (see Photo 2)
before disassembling the rest. The
chuck is locked in place by a small, lefthand threaded, screw inside the chuck
itself (see Photo 3). If you are really
lucky, you can remove this Phillips #2
screw using a screwdriver (remember
to turn clockwise to loosen a left-hand
thread), but they are usually too tight.
There are two methods which will
work to remove it. The first is to use
another drill to start drilling out the
screw. The heat and torque applied by
the drill bit will loosen the screw and it
will come out rather than be bored out
by the drill. The downside of this
approach is that you need a second drill
and that the screw itself will be damaged. The second method and the
one that I use is to get an impact
driver. The driver must be able to
loosen or tighten screws (many of the
cheaper ones only loosen right-hand
thread screws and will only make the
left-hand threaded screw on the drill
even tighter!) McMaster Carr part
5610A2 (www.mcmaster.com) will
do the job. I needed to use a 1/4 socket and an extension piece to get it to be
PHOTO 4

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PHOTO 5

PHOTO 7

PHOTO 6

able to reach the screw (see Photo 4.)

Set the driver to turn clockwise and
with the chuck held securely in a vice,
give the back of the driver a sharp tap (or
two) with a hammer and the screw will
be loose enough to easily remove. Keep
the screw (see Photo 5) for later use.
The chuck is threaded onto the
gearbox using a conventional righthand thread. This will usually be too
tight to remove by hand, but there is
an easy way to remove it. Fit the newly
charged battery into the drill and place
a large hex key (see Photo 6) in the
chuck. Set the drill in reverse, spin it up,
and then allow the end of the hex key
to strike a solid object (like a vice or
workbench). The shock will loosen the
chuck and it will come off easily.
I would advise the use of safety
glasses and an absence of spectators
for the above procedure and dont do
it next to anything breakable!
There are two screws on the front
face of the drill under where the chuck
was attached. Remove these screws
and then the adjustable torque mechanism can be removed (see Photo 7).
The device varies on the make and
model of drill, but all the parts can be
discarded. Next, remove the screws
that hold the two halves of the drill
together and lift off the top half (see
Photo 8). The motor and gearbox (see
Photo 9) can then be lifted out of the
other half of the case. The wires can be

cut and everything else (apart from

that left-hand screw) can be discarded.
There are eight openings around
the front face of the gearbox (see Photo
10). These are used by the torque
adjustment mechanism and we will
now use them to lock the outer ring of
the gearbox. The outer ring (see Photo
11) has a series of bumps around one
end. If you look into the holes at the
end of the gearbox and slowly rotate
the shaft, you can see them pass by.
To allow the gearbox to transmit
power from the motor to the output
shaft, it is necessary to stop the outer
ring from moving. This is done by adding
10-24 by 3/16 setscrews (see Photo 12)
into every second opening (see Photo
13). The setscrews self-tap into the holes
and you should ensure that they engage
the gaps between the bumps on the
outer ring. Do not over-tighten the
screws as you are likely to distort the
gearbox and cause premature wear or
failure. All that is required is that the
outer ring is stopped from rotating.
The motor/gearbox is now ready for
use in your robot. It can easily be mounted by cutting a hole in the side wall of
you chassis that matches the front block
of the gearbox and a support that fits
around the motor itself (see Photo 14).
You can get wheels that fit directly onto
the shafts from www.cncbotparts.com
(look under Handihubs) and are secured
by the left-hand threaded screw. SV

PHOTO 8

PHOTO 9

PHOTO 10

PHOTO 11

PHOTO 13

PHOTO 14

PHOTO 12

SERVO 11.2006

61

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by Dave Calkins

ROBOGAMES
PREP:
Androids!

ets face it. When people think

robots, they think androids. Even
we jaded robot builders who
have homes, offices, and garages filled
with motors, wheels, platforms,
microchips, and sensors even we want
an android for a robot far more than a
wheeled platform. Its just ... cooler.
Well camper, if its an android you
want, get off your duff and build one!
Or at least buy one and get modding.
There are now tens of thousands of
humanoid robots walking around this
planet, and you dont need to have
Hondas budget to afford one. You now
can have a working humanoid robot for
under a thousand bucks. Heck, my first
two-wheeled sumo cost as much as a
low-end android costs these days!
If youre patient and willing to fail
a few times before you succeed, you
can build any robot. All robot builders
fail a few times. If youre patient, have
built a few servo-based robots, are
willing to fail a lot, and want to really
impress every person you meet, youre
ready to move up to androids.

SPECIAL OFFER
Special offer to all SERVO readers:
If youre reading this, you can get
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off the normal price. This is your
chance to buy a biped today and start
preparing to win some medals! Go to
http://robolympics.net/servo to get
your special price.

62

SERVO 11.2006

But before you start, youve got a

few decisions to make:
First, are you going to buy an android,
or make your own?
Second, in which events will you
compete?
Lets start with the second decision.
That may seem odd, but its very important. You need to decide what events
you really want to compete in first.

Events
RoboOne
This is what started it all. Terukazu
Nishimura started Robo-One in 2002.
The name is a play on the kickboxing
style K-1 (I guess R-1 was a little too
oblique). In the beginning, the robots
were prone to falling over and very
shaky (it seemed like every bot had
Parkinsons disease). Nowadays, the
robots can do cartwheels, toss balls and
books around a table, and are efficient
enough to last for almost an hour before
the batteries need to be replaced.
RoboOne events have evolved
quite a bit since they began. In the
beginning, there was just wrestling.
This is still the mainstay of RoboOne.
Its certainly incredibly fun. If you like
combat robots, RoboOne takes the
wheels off and makes the whole sport
even more enjoyable. The basic
concept is very much like boxing a
three-minute match, trying to knock
the other guy down for 10 seconds.

The other major event in RoboOne

is demonstration. This is the ballet of
robotics. You program your android to
make the best moves possible. Ive
seen RoboOnes spin on their heads
like break-dancers, do cartwheels,
complex dance routines you name it.
And thats the goal of this event you
get to write the rules. You can make
your robot do whatever tricks you
want. Just make sure that your moves
are better than everyone elses. This
event is really the premier showcase
event at ROBOGames. If you want to
show off, this is the best place to do it.
Other RoboOne events include the
toss (throwing a ball at a target and seeing how close you can get to the center),
the eagle which is a James Bond style
obstacle course, and the stairs, which is
the third most popular event after
wrestling and demonstration. All you
have to do is climb up and down six stairs.
HuroSot
HuroSot stands for HUmanoid
RObot SOccer Tournament, which is a
division of FIRA the Federation of
International Robot-soccer Association
(a play of FIFA.) Of the three android
events, HuroSot is the only fully
autonomous event, and certainly the
most difficult. There are four sub events
within HuroSot: the robot dash, in which
the bots must run forward about three
feet, stop, and run backwards to the
starting line; the obstacle run, where
robots have to run around a small
maze-like course; the penalty kick, which

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Well camper, if its

an android you want,
get off your duff and
build one! Or at least
buy one and get
modding.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3
Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 4
Photo 7

PHOTO 1. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAL!

your android.

PHOTO 2. Building a working android is quite possibly the

proudest thing you can do!

PHOTO 5. I cant stand on my head, how does the Pirkus do it?

PHOTO 3. A HuroSot free kick match. Look, the goalie has

a real tough job.
PHOTO 4. A little tip: PDAs make for excellent brains for

PHOTO 6. The android soccer match is way better than

Nintendo or X-Box.
PHOTO 7. This little guy is controlled with a cell phone! The
things they come up with these days ...
SERVO 11.2006

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ROBOGAMES Prep
is one-on-one robot soccer (you must
play both goalie and kicker); and the lift
and carry which tests how much weight
your robot can hold without falling over.
Android Soccer
Android soccer was invented for
those control freaks (such as myself),
who dont want to wait for the robots
to perform autonomously. You want the
robot to be remote controlled, and do
as its told, dammit! Just like real soccer,
there are high points and low points.
Having four or five robots surround the
goal and try to make a play is incredibly
exciting and tense the crowd really
gets charged up! And just like real
soccer, more often than not, the goalie
makes the save or the kicker misses the
net, and no one scores. But when someone does score, the crowd goes wild.
It is, of course, possible to
compete in all three competitions. No
one has ever done it, but you could
certainly be the first!
Once you know which events youll

compete in, its time to decide what

robot to use. There are excellent robots
available on the market. The RoboNova,
Pirkus, Plen, KHR-1, KHR-2, HRP-2m,
Manoi, and others can all be purchased
on-line. Some come assembled, some
are kits, some are as cheap as $850. All
of these are competitive out of the box.
Which isnt to say that they cant be
made significantly more competitive by
modding them. Matt Bauer, Tony Ohm,
Dan Albert, and I all significantly modified our RoboNovas before last years
event. Matt added gripper hands, a camera, swiveling hips and more batteries in
the feet (which also lowered the bots
center of gravity and improved its
walking ability). Tony had the biggest
changes, adding eight servos total, to his
hips, thighs, and wrists. Dan and I both
converted ours from infrared (which is
really ineffective for most robots) to
Zigbee wireless for communications and
used Sony Playstation controllers for
control. This didnt make the robots any
stronger or more articulate, but we did

ANDROID EVENTS RULES SUMMARY

HuroSot
Robot must be fully autonomous.
Robots are grouped into three sizes:
small (up to 50 cm/19-3/4 tall with a
14 cm/5-1/2 foot); medium (80
cm/31-1/2 tall, with a 20 cm/7-3/4
foot); and large (150 cm/59 x 35
cm/13-3/4).
Robots may have sensors, but all
sensing must be human equivalent
(for example, vision is okay, but sonar
is not.).
Humans may not touch the robots
during play.

Android Soccer

three, but practically, its easier to have

one human per robot.
Robots must follow human soccer
rules no hitting, and certainly no
flopping.

RoboOne

Robots can be autonomous or R/C.

Like soccer, you can use almost any
freq to control.
Robot maximum height is 37 cm/15.
Robots feet length can be no
greater than 60% of leg height, and
foot width can be no more than 40%
of leg height.

Robots are R/C. You can use 75

MHz, WiFi, IR, or Bluetooth. You can
use any kind of controller (Playstation,
PC, joystick, etc.).

Wrestling is won by one robot

knocking the other off its feet for 10
seconds. If your robot falls down by
itself, it is not considered knocked out.

Robot maximum height is 37 cm/15.

The above are rule summaries.

Complete rules for all events are at
http://robolympics.net/events you
should check each rule set for exact
details.

3-on-3 competition You get a total

of three robots to play. You can, in
theory, have one person controlling all

64

SERVO 11.2006

greatly improve the ability to communicate with the robots and if youre
robot isnt getting your commands, it
doesnt matter how powerful it is.
The other option is, of course, to
build your own android from scratch. If
you want to go this route good for
you! This is the best way to learn, and
youll certainly be cooler than all the
people who bought kits. Before you
start building your robot, here are some
tips on building successful androids:
Focus on perfecting the robots walking ability. Your robot should be able to
walk four feet or 10 steps without
falling down. Nothing else matters if
you cant do this.
The more you can spend on servos,
the better. The $10 HS-300s wont work.
Theyll strip and youll have to throw
them out. Get the highest torque servos
you can possibly afford for the legs, and
the second best for the arms. The newer
digital servos can give you as much as
333 ounces of torque per square inch at
six volts (but the 125 oz/in digital servos
will work). Saving money on cheap servos will end up costing you more money
when all the servos die and you have to
throw them out and buy new ones.
Use aluminum for the frame, unless
you can afford titanium and know how
to bend it. Steel is too heavy, and
almost any plastic (include polycarbonate) isnt strong enough to withstand
the forces on it.
Make the foot as long and wide as
the rules will allow. Generally, that
means the foot length is 60% of the
leg length or 30% of the body length.
Its certainly possible to make it smaller
(including eliminating the foot entirely
and balancing on a single point), but
its generally easiest to have a big foot.
Once youve perfected your robots
ability to walk and balance without
falling down, work on increasing the
speed. If you can move even a little
faster than the other robots, youre at
a huge advantage. This is immediately
negated the second you fall down.

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Photo 8

Photo 9
PHOTO 8. Some HuroSot
builders and their androids.
PHOTO 9. Winning a medal at
ROBOGames is the ultimate glory.
PHOTO 10. Modifying a
RoboNova makes for an excellent
fighter (note the extended legs,
hips, and arms).
Photo 10

Get good gyros or accelerometers,

and make your robot able to constantly maintain its balance (this is called
proprioception or kinesthesia). Many
androids dont have a sense of up or
falling and will often walk while
laying flat on their backs (thus, going
nowhere). Give your robot a cochlea!

Photo 11

modifying a kit isnt required, but it

will make your robot much more
competitive.
Androids are some of the most
challenging and rewarding robotics
projects out there. Going to a robot
competition not only lets you meet

PHOTO 11. Italy better watch out.

other robot builders, but it will also

force you to improve your android well
beyond what youd do if you were just
working against yourself. If you want
to see robotics grow to its full potential, theres nothing like an android to
push you beyond your limits. SV

Be able to self-right. Make your robot

self-aware so that it can stand up again
immediately when it does fall down.
Use an electronic compass in-line
with your walking program to keep a
constant bearing so youre not drifting
off course.
If you buy a robot platform (e.g., a
RoboNova), all of the above advice still
applies.
So how do you proceed? Well, first
figure out what both your time and
money budgets are. If youre an experienced robot builder, you can probably
go ahead and build one from scratch. If
you havent built many robots, or you
dont have a lot of time, you should
start with a kit and modify it. Again,
SERVO 11.2006

65

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Send updates, new listings, corrections, complaints, and suggestions to:

[email protected] or FAX 972-404-0269
Only 10 more robot competitions
on the calendar for 2006! Theyre
spread out all over the world, so you
shouldnt have any trouble finding one
nearby to attend. November and
December bring events in Alabama,
Hawaii, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and
Texas, as well as in Austria, Canada,
Japan, and Spain.
Of particular interest in November
is the All Japan MicroMouse Contest. If
you have a chance to catch this one,
youll be amazed at these speedy little
maze-solving robots.
Know of any robot competitions
Ive missed? Is your local school or
robot group planning a contest? Send
an email to [email protected] and tell me
about it. Be sure to include the date
and location of your contest. If you
have a website with contest info, send
along the URL as well, so we can tell
everyone else about it
For last-minute updates and
changes, you can always find the
most recent version of the Robot
Competition FAQ at Robots.net:
http://robots.net/rcfaq.html

18-19 Eastern Canadian Robot

Games
Ontario Science Centre,
Ontario, Canada
Multiple events including firefighting robots, sumo, BEAM
photovore, BEAM solaroller, a
walker triathalon, and art
robots.
www.robotgames.ca

24-25 Hawaii Underwater Robot

Challenge
Seafloor Mapping Lab,
University of Hawaii,
Manoa, HI
ROVs built by university and
high-school students compete
in this event, which is part of
the MATE (Marine Advanced
Technology Education) series
of contests.
www.mpcfaculty.net/jill_
zande/HURC_contest.htm

24-26 All Japan MicroMouse

Contest
Nagai City, Yamagata, Japan
Includes
Micromouse,
Micromouse Expert level, and
Micro Clipper events.
www.robomedia.org/direc
tory/jp/game/mm_japan.
html

R. Steven Rainwater

N ov e m b e r
12

18

68

AESS National Robotics

Contest
Barcelona, Spain
Sumo, mini sumo, and other
events for autonomous mobile
robots.
http://aess.upc.es/cosurs
robot
DPRG RoboRama
The Science Place, Dallas, TX
Events include Quick-Trip,
line-following, wall-following,
T-Time, and Can-Can.
www.dprg.org/competitions
SERVO 11.2006

December
1-2

Texas BEST Competition

Moody Coliseum, SMU,
Dallas, TX
In
the
Texas
BEST
Competition, students and
corporate sponsors build
robots from standardized kits
and compete in a challenge
that is different each year.
www.texasbest.org

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SERVO 11.2006

69

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Tune in each month for a heads-up on

where to get all of your robotics
resources for the best prices!

Finding and Entering

Robot Competitions
Y

ou may remember the combat

robot craze a few years ago. At one
time, there were three TV programs
broadcasting the mayhem from battles
around the world. Combat competition
was one of the fastest robotics genres,
and looked unstoppable. But if you go
by the TV shows alone none of which
are still on the air except in reruns you
might think this whole notion of
battling bots has gone the way of the
Pet Rock. To the casual observer, robot
competitions have all but ended.
That, of course, is far from the
truth. Television has a way of altering
our perception of reality. Though the
fad of the televised robot war-style battles has come and gone, competitions
are alive and well, from the lowly linefollower to the smash em, crush em
fights of remotely-controlled stainless
steel bots. Just because its not on TV
doesnt mean its disappeared!

Examples of Robotics
Competitions
Before looking at some of the
more popular robot competitions (or
challenges, as they are often referred
to when in an academic setting), lets
explore a few reasons why youd want
to bother in the first place. Basically, it
all comes down to applying robotics
technology and programming to
achieve a stated goal, while at the
same time having a little bit of fun.
Building a robot tends to be an openended effort, and pitting the current
version of your robot against someone

70

SERVO 11.2006

elses can help you improve your

design, skill, and knowledge.
Most non-builders associate combat fights as robotic competition but, in
fact, there are far more non-destructive
programs out there. Some like the
Trinity Firefighting contest held each
year in the spring in Hartford, CT are
world famous. But most are ad hoc
games set up by local robotics user
groups. The competitions/challenges
are varied, and often reflect the
personalities and skill levels of the group
members. The Dallas Personal Robotics
Group, which meets weekly in Dallas,
TX, is one of the more active groups
that regularly holds competitions. A rundown of their events are good examples
of what you might find elsewhere:
Mini Sumo. Robots that fit a certain
weight and size standard (must fit in a
100 mm square) face off in a miniature
circular sumo arena. The idea is simple:
Your robot must push the other robot
out of the arena. Sounds simple
enough maybe, but this isnt a remote
controlled event like most robot
combat. Your bot must identify the
opponent, work to push the opponent
off the area, while at the same time
know not to cross outside the boundaries, or else it will be disqualified.
Quick Trip. A variation of the path
navigation problem, where a robot
must travel within a preset area. The
path is a simplified straight line back
and forth, but dont be so quick to
think this is easy. If the robot veers off

course, or confuses the relay lines, its

disqualified. A variation on the theme
popular with the group is T-Time, which
has a more complicated path to follow.
Line-Following. One of the easier
challenges in its simple forms, linefollowing demonstrates the ability of a
robot to identify a contrasting line on
the floor, and trace it from start to end.
Generally, the robot that can complete
the course in the fastest time possible,
without losing the line completely,
wins. This is a great competition for any
group because the complexity of the
test area can be changed to enhance
the challenge for more experienced
builders. Some groups have pre-marked
tiles they lay down on the ground, so
that the course changes each time.
Wall-Following. Another navigation
competition, using sensors of some
kind to detect walls. The goal is to get
the robot to travel from point A to point
B by using the physical wall of a room.
Can Retrieval. The robot must locate
and retrieve one or more empty 12ounce beverage cans.
Additional competitions that are
fairly common include mazes, where a
robot must successfully solve a maze;
ball collecting, wherein the robot finds
a pool, tennis, or ping pong ball and
brings it back; and soccer, where a fully
autonomous robot plays traditional
soccer (football for outside the US).
Some of competitions are group

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sports, where a team of robots

compete against another team.

Finding a Competition
As already noted, most robotics
competitions are sponsored by local user
groups. There are other choices if youre
a student in school. A nationwide (and
international) event called FIRST (For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science
and Technoogy), brings school groups
together to compete in general robotics
and LEGO-based challenges. Many
colleges and universities that offer a
robotics or mechanical engineering program support their own competitions,
and sometimes work with sister schools
to put on major events. Youll want
to talk with your faculty advisor to
determine if your school offers a formal
robotics competition program. If they
dont, consider helping them start one.
In many urban areas of the country, you can find at least one robotics
user group, and these groups are the
natural springboards for competitions.
Many group meetings are held in
business parks, school auditoriums, or
someones home. Monthly meetings
are the most common, and they tend
to be informal, with show-and-tell and
member presentations, along with
occasional announced competitions.
Once youve found a group, you can
determine which competitions they regularly support. If one interests you, be sure
to get a list of the competition rules, so
that if you enter your bot, it wont be
immediately disqualified if it weighs too
much, is too large, or has some other
feature that isnt allowed. Talk with other
members about the competition, and ask
for pointers and feedback. Though it is a
competition, most user group members
are there to share ideas, and are more
than willing to help out a potential winner in the next challenge. Only the most
hardcore of competitors keep the secrets
to themselves, and you can usually
identify those fairly quickly. Let them
have their fun while you have yours.
If theres no user group near you,
consider starting it yourself. All it takes
is a desire and at least one other member. Meetings can be held wherever it

is convenient. At my local user group in

San Diego, CA, weve sometimes met
at a nearby electronics store when our
regular meeting place has been
unavailable. Once the group is formed,
you can create competitions, and invite
other members to participate.

Sources
Here is a list of many national and
international competitions, including
those that are only open to full-time
students. Ive also thrown in a number
of local user groups. Web pages or
message boards for the local groups are
provided, along with their general
location. Do note that user group home
pages can change fairly frequently,
especially if the group doesnt have its
own unique domain name. If a groups
page is no longer available, you may still
be able to find it using a Google search.

Art & Robotics Group (ARG)

www.interaccess.org/arg
Canada, Ontario, Toronto
User group, discussion board, and
latest news on the artistic side of
robotics.

Atlanta Hobby Robot Club

www.botlanta.org
Georgia, Atlanta

Battlebots
www.battlebots.com
Just to show combat robotics is
not dead!

Botball
www.botball.org
Regional competitions, which also
include a workshop and construction
seminars. The specific challenges vary
each season.

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Club

www.roboticsclub.org
Carnegie Mellon University

Central Illinois Robotics Club

circ.mtco.com
Illinois, Peoria
Says the site: The Central Illinois
Robotics Club was founded ... in an

effort to promote, educate, explore, and

compete in the field of hobby robotics.
The club is located in the greater Peoria
area and meets monthly.

Chicago Area Robotics Group

www.chibots.org
Illinois, Chicago
Very active slate of competitions.

Connecticut Robotics Society

www.ctrobots.org
Connecticut, Hartford
As per the website: We are a
unique group of friends, experimenters,
and mad scientists who meet monthly
in Hartford, Connecticut ... Our
interests are in electronics, mechanics,
fun, and the sciences involved in
automation and homebuilt robots.

DARPA Grand Challenge

www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge
Major US-sponsored competition
that involves a serious quest to demonstrate a fully autonomous outdoor vehicle that can travel hundreds of miles.

Dallas Personal Robotics Group

(DPRG)
www.dprg.org
Texas, Dallas
Projects, tutorials, articles. The
DPRG also sponsors the well-received
RoboRama competitions. Events
include line-following, sumo, firefighting, and others. See www.
dprg.org/dprg_contests.html.

Denver Area Robotics Club

www.ranchbots.com
Colorado, Denver

HomeBrew Robotics Club

www.hbrobotics.org
California, San Jose

KISS Institute for Practical

Robotics (KIPR)
www.kipr.org
In the words of the website: KISS
Institute for Practical Robotics (KIPR) is
a private non-profit, community-based
organization that works with all ages
to provide improved learning and skills
development through the application
SERVO 11.2006

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of technology, particularly robotics.

We do this primarily by providing
supplementary, extra-curricular, and
professional development classes and
activities. KISS Institutes activities
began in 1993. KIPR also sponsors the
annual Bot Ball tournament for middle
and high school students.

Robot Competition Wiki

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_
competition

Nashua Robot Club

nashuarobotbuilders.org

California, Fullerton

International School Robotics

Club. This is for high-schoolers and
middle-schoolers who are interested in
robotics.

New Hampshire, Nashua

San Diego Robotics Society

www.sdrobotics.org

Triangle Amateur Robotics

triangleamateurrobotics.org

Phoenix Area Robot

Experimenters
www.parex.org

California, San Diego

North Carolina, Raleigh

San Francisco Robotics Society

of America
www.robots.org

Trinity Firefighting Content

www.trincoll.edu/events/robot

Arizona, Phoenix

Portland Area Robotics Society

www.portlandrobotics.org
Oregon, Portland
From the site: The Portland Area
Robotics Society is a club formed to help
those interested in learning about and
building robots. The club involves professionals, amateurs, students, college
professors, engineers, artists, hobbyists,
and tinkerers. PARTS will help explore all
aspects of robotics for its members, and
work toward expanding communication
between robot enthusiasts. PARTS
members share ideas, experience, and
enthusiasm for building robots.

General page on various robotic

competitions. Regularly updated.

Robotics Society of Southern

California
www.rssc.org

The Trinity Firefighting Contest is

an annual national event that tests
the skill of robots to locate and put out
the fire of a small candle in a model of
a building.

Seattle Robotics Society

www.seattlerobotics.org

Twin Cities Robotics Group

www.tcrobots.org

Washington, Seattle
SRS has a major presence on the
Internet, and publishes the Encoder, an
online technical journal on amateur
robot building.

Minnesota, St. Paul

Twin Citites Robotics Group is
self-described as a loose affiliation of
people interested in robots, located in
the Twin Cities metro area. The site
hosts a number of useful resource
pages, includes articles (identified by
skill level), useful links, and colorful
photos of the monthly meeting showing people and robots in action.

Southern Oregon Robotics Club

www.sobotics.org
Southern Oregon
Sponsors RoboMaxx and other
competition events.

Robotics soccer. So far, there are

no Beckhams in the robotics field, but
theyre getting close!

The Robot Group

www.robotgroup.org

Useful generic information on all

types of robot competitions.

RobotBuilders.Net
www.robotbuilders.net
Umbrella website for various
specialty Internet-based robot building
clubs. Some competition events are
supported.

B-9 Club
Robot Club
R2-D2 Builders Club
The Drone Room (Silent Running)

72

SERVO 11.2006

Titan Robotics Club

www.titanrobotics.net

California, San Francisco

The San Francisco Robotics Society
of America also sponsors the annual
Robot Sumo conference.

Robocup
www.robocup.org

Robot Competititon FAQ

robots.net/rcfaq.html

robotics enthusiasts. Visit to get ideas

about competitions, and to help find
local groups.

Texas, Austin
From the website: The Robot
Group was founded in the spring of
1989 by a small group of Austin, TX
artists and engineers who shared a
common vision: utilizing technology to
provide and explore new mediums for
art. Through the synergy of fusing art
and technology, The Robot Group has
stimulated the public into a playful
interest in high technology, and art now
has new vehicles for effecting culture.

The Robotics Club of Yahoo (TRCY)

groups.yahoo.com/group/the
roboticsclub
Major Internet-based group of

Union College Robotics Club

www.vu.union.edu/~robot
New York, Schenectady

US FIRST
www.usfirst.org
Parent site to FIRST, For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science
and Technology. Supports numerous
competitions and challenges across the
country. FIRST and FIRST LEGO
Leagues are both international events
(www.firstlegoleague.org).

Vancouver Island Robotics

www.vancouverislandrobotics.
org
Canada, Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island Robotics sponsors workshops and day camps. SV

RobolinksNov06.qxd

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Page 73

Electronic Parts & Supplies

Since 1967

For the finest in

robots, parts, and
services, go to
www.servomagazine.com
and click on
Robo-Links to hotlink
to these great
companies.
SERVO 11.2006

73

BookstoreNov06.qxd

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dy
Mind Cany
s
For Toda t
Roboticis

7:40 AM

Page 74

The SERVO Store

Amphibionics
by Karl Williams

This work provides

the hobbyist with
detailed mechanical,
electronic, and PIC
microcontroller
knowledge needed
to build and program
a snake, frog, turtle,
and alligator robots.
It focuses on the
construction of each
robot in detail, and then explores the world
of slithering, jumping, swimming, and walking robots, and the artificial intelligence
needed to make these movements happen
with these platforms. Packed with insight
and a wealth of informative illustrations.
$19.95

Robot Builder's Bonanza

Third Edition

by Gordon McComb / Myke Predko

Everybody's favorite
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on how to build and have a universe of
fun with robots. Projects vary in complexity so everyone from novices to advanced
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Among the many new editions, this book
features 30 completely new projects! $27.95

SERVO CD-Rom

Are you ready for

some good news?
Along with the first
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The Official Robosapien

Hacker's Guide
by Dave Prochnow

The Robosapien robot

was one of the most
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The brief manual
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basic movements and maneuvers the
robot's real power and potential remain
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This timely book covers all the possible
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50 Model Rocket Projects

for the Evil Genius
by Gavin D. J. Harper

CNC Robotics

by Geoff Williams

CNC Robotics gives

you step-by-step,
illustrated directions
for designing, constructing, and testing
a fully functional CNC
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exactly, because you designed it. Written by
an accomplished workshop bot designer/
builder, this book gives you all the
information youll need on CNC robotics!
$34.95

74

SERVO 11.2006

Yes, as a matter of fact,

it IS rocket science!
And because this book
is written for the popular Evil Genius format,
it means you can learn
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and growing hobby
while having run
creating 50 great
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instructions. $24.95

We accept VISA, MC, AMEX, and DISCOVER

Prices do not include shipping and
may be subject to change.

123 PIC Microcontroller

Experiments for the Evil Genius
by Myke Predko

Microchip continually
updates its product
line with more capable
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Experiments for the Evil Genius uses the
best parts, and does not become dependent on one tool type or version, to accommodate the widest audience possible.
Building on the success of 123 Robotics
Experiments for the Evil Genius, as well as
the unbelievable sales history of
Programming and Customizing the PIC
Microcontroller, this book will combine the
format of the evil genius title with the following of the microcontroller audience for a
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PIC Basic Projects

by Dogan Ibrahim

Covering the PIC

!
BASIC and PIC BASIC
NEW
PRO compilers, PIC
Basic Projects provides an easy-to-use
toolkit for developing
applications with PIC
BASIC. Numerous
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clear and concrete
examples of how PIC
BASIC can be used
to develop electronics applications, while
larger and more advanced projects describe
program operation in detail and give useful
insights into developing more involved
microcontroller applications. $29.95

Robot Companions
by E. Oliver Severin

Inside Robot
Companions, youll
find all the details,
plans, and information you need to
make a robot partner
part of your daily life,
at a price you can
afford. Author E.
Oliver Severin, originator of some of the
technologies that make robots friendly,
useful, and educational, shows you how to
find or build your own robot helpmate
either from commercial kits or an assembly
of separate, off-the-shelf parts. $24.95

BookstoreNov06.qxd

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Page 75

Mind Cand
For Today y
Roboticis s
t

To order call 1-800-783-4624 or go to our

website at www.servomagazine.com
Nuts & Volts CD-Rom

Heres some good

news for Nuts &
Volts readers!
Along with all 12
issues of Nuts &
Volts from the
2004 calendar
year, the 2005
issues are now N E W !
available, as well.
These CDs include all of Volumes 25 and 26,
issues 1-12, for a total of 24 issues (12 on
each CD). These CD-ROMs are PC and Mac
compatible. They require Adobe Acrobat
Reader version 6 or above. Adobe Acrobat
Reader version 7 is included on the discs.
$24.95 Buy 2 or more at $19.95 each!

Robot Builder's Sourcebook

by Gordon McComb

Fascinated by the
world of robotics,
but dont know how
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JunkBots, Bugbots, and

Bots on Wheels

Teach Yourself Electricity and

Electronics Fourth Edition

123 Robotics Experiments

for the Evil Genius

Learn the hows and

whys behind basic electricity, electronics, and
communications without formal training. The
best combination selfteaching guide, home
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and electronics has
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Great for preparing for amateur and commercial licensing exams, this guide has been
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ranging from DC and AC concepts to semiconductors and integrated circuits. $34.95

If you enjoy tinkering in

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through the 123 experiments found in this
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book. More than just
an enjoyable way to
spend time, these
exciting experiments also provide a solid
grounding in robotics, electronics, and programming. Each experiment builds on the
skills acquired in those before it so you develop a hands-on, nuts-and-bolts understanding
of robotics from the ground up. $25.00

by Stan Gibilisco

PIC Microcontroller Project Book

by John Iovine

The PIC microcontroller is

enormously popular both
in the US and abroad. The
first edition of this book
was a tremendous success
because of that. However,
in the four years that have
passed since the book
was first published, the
electronics hobbyist market has become
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are now comfortable shelling out the $250
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PIC Basic (the regular version sells for $100).
This new edition is fully updated and revised
to include detailed directions on using both
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better served in different situations. $29.95

Check out our online bookstore at

www.servomagazine.com for a complete
listing of all the books that are available.

Linux Robotics

by D. Jay Newman

If you want your robot

to have more brains
than microcontrollers
can deliver if you
want a truly intelligent,
high-capability robot
everything you need
is right here. Linux
Robotics gives you
step-by-step directions
for "Zeppo," a super-smart, single-boardpowered robot that can be built by any
hobbyist. You also get complete instructions
for incorporating Linux single boards into
your own unique robotic designs. No programming experience is required. This book
includes access to all the downloadable
programs you need, plus complete training
in doing original programming. $34.95

ach
$ 2 0o fe
f if y o u

by Dave Hrynkiw / Mark W. Tilden

From the publishers

of BattleBots: The
Official Guide comes
this do-it-yourself
guide to BEAM
(Biology, Electronics,
Aesthetics,
Mechanics) robots.
They're cheap, simple, and can be built
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complete with full-color photos. Get ready
for some dumpster-diving! $24.99

by Myke Predko

1 5 % t w o or
or
buy
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From HomoSapien to RoboSapien

Before R2D2 there was R1D1

SERVO Magazine T-Shirts

Get your very own limited-edition SERVO Magazine T-shirt. Shirts come
in sizes S, M, L, and XL, and are available in either black or white.
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SERVO 11.2006

75

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12 SERVO HEXAPOD KITS

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MANUFACTURER

HexCrawler 19.56 15.75

3.5

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6062
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Crustcrawler
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HexRod HD

Joinmax
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EH2C-KT

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SERVO 11.2006

BrainMatrix.qxd

10/5/2006

2:30 PM

Page 77

by Pete Miles

Upcoming topics include SBCs and H-bridges, sensors, kits, and actuators. If youre a manufacturer of one of these items, please send your
product information to: [email protected] Disclaimer: Pete Miles and the publishers strive to present the most accurate
data possible in this comparison chart. Neither is responsible for errors or omissions. In the spirit of this information reference, we encourage
readers to check with manufacturers for the latest product specs and pricing before proceeding with a design. In addition, readers should not
interpret the printing order as any form of preference; products may be listed randomly or alphabetically by either company or product name.

Pr
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Parallax
Servo
Controller

16

BS2
Included

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Parallax USB Board of

Education

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Parallax USB Board of

Education,
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JM-CB-1000

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0.23 hips,
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Mini Hexapod Project

AH2C-KT

Walking Stick Project

SERVO 11.2006

77

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10/3/2006

4:51 PM

Page 78

Why Its Great to

be the BEST
by Dr. George Blanks, with Steve Marum and Ted Mahler

or six years now, I have volunteered my time with a non-profit

robotics competition based in Dallas,
TX called BEST Robotics, Inc. Its an
all-volunteer group of hundreds of folks
at 31 competition sites (hubs) in 14
states ... and growing. This fall, around
675 schools over 11,000 students
will participate in the six-week-long
competition, which is underway.
I thought the BEST way to
present what this competition is all
about was to submit a welcome letter
that appears in the front of our annual
report, which can be downloaded at
www.bestinc.org ...

One answer can be seen in a small

piece of the event that often goes
unnoticed. In this tiny slice of time, a
students actions become a microcosm
of the entire reason for BEST. It happens only in the frantic few minutes
before a round of competition starts.
Those final few seconds when all eyes
are on them, the crowd noise is
deafening, and the time pressure is
mounting. It happens when that
student makes the sudden realization
that their robot is not working.
What happens then reflects everything that student has learned in BEST.
In that pressure cooker environment,
young students walk through a
cognitive detective process worthy of
any NASA mission controller. Without
their adult mentors to help, under time
Why do we do this? Why do teachpressure and under emotional strain,
ers, mentors, and hundreds of BEST volthey encounter a remarkable 60unteers devote countless hours of their
second life lesson.
personal time to this program? What is
Most push through. They do it
it about BEST that is worth the effort?
because in the proceeding six weeks of
design,
test,
and
redesign, they have
Steve Marum and Ted Mahler
Co-founders of BEST Robotics, Inc.
learned a skill. They
have learned how
to break the problem
barrier.
Breaking the problem barrier is the realization that a problem is
not an endpoint, but
only an answer not yet
found. Being able to
break the problem
barrier divides students
who can from those

Why Do We Do
Our BEST?

78

SERVO 11.2006

who cant. Each year, BEST helps

students push through that barrier.
Life is a set of problems. A broken
water heater, a flat tire, a tax form to
fill out, a jammed manipulator arm on
a robot driving on the surface of Mars,
two nations on the brink of war they
are all problems. Once the problem
barrier is broken, problems are
replaced with process.
BEST changes mindsets. BEST
places students in a situation that
conditions their mind. It is a situation
that flows from concept, to physical
structure, and finally to operational
use. Using robot design and competition, BEST presents an opportunity for
students to break the problem barrier.
BEST appears first as an almost
insurmountable problem and ends with
the accomplishment of a solution; in
the middle, a process. That process is
the key. Somewhere in that process the
problem barrier is broken and, in
these young minds, the perception of a
problem is changed.
Our country, our world, needs
these changed young minds. Young
minds that understand problems are
not endpoints, but undiscovered
answers waiting for the correct
process. Thats why we
do this. Thats why we
continue to do our
BEST. SV

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a n d

Then NOW
ROBOT VACUUM CLEANERS
AND LAWN MOWERS
b

ts Saturday morning and youve

slept in. The bed is soft and cozy
when you are awakened to the whir of
a motor off in the distance. You look at
your alarm clock and see the blue
8:00 shining back at you. Oh, yeah,
its time for my robot vacuum cleaner
to begin its daily ritual. Then, suddenly,
you hear a louder whirring noise
outside your window as your robot
lawn mower begins it weekly chore.
Dang, you mutter to yourself, Ive
got to re-program those things to start
later on Saturday; I need my sleep.
Ahh, the ubiquitous labor-saving
tools of the modern age! These two
appliances are the epitome of a robot
experimenters goal. Every homeowner
would like a lawnmower that can
decide when the grass needs to be
mowed, have it exit from its storage
area, and mow the lawn completely
without a persons involvement. It
must safely perform this task effectively in the midst of people, obstacles,
childrens toys, and pets. Todays
homemaker wants the same thing in a
vacuum cleaner for carpets and floors,
but operating within the ever-changing
environment of a home. Tall orders?
Possibly several decades ago.

Robot Vacuum
Cleaners Design
Dilemma
The first experimenter-built robot
vacuum cleaners that I remember all
used a Dust Buster type of batteryoperated, hand-held vacuum cleaner

mounted to a mobile robot base. These

early machines were more of an
experiment in functionality than actual
usefulness. It did not take experimenters long to discover that a vacuum
cleaners cleaning power was not just a
result of the vacuum level attained in
inches of water, but also the volume
of air moved in cubic feet per minute at
that lowered pressure. Weve all seen
the TV ad where the hand-held vacuum
cleaner is attached to a large funnel
and the spokesperson sucks a bowling
ball onto the funnel and lifts it up. This
in no way demonstrates the cleaning
ability of a vacuum cleaner as we could
easily do the same thing sucking with
our mouth. If the funnel had an effective area of only 20 square inches
touching the 16-pound ball, less than
one pound per square inch (or two
inches of mercury) of vacuum (out of
14.7 PSI) suction with your mouth
could allow you to lift the ball. Vacuum
cleaner design is a bit more complex
than just raw suction.
Figure 1 shows an early home-built
robot vacuum cleaner that was a work
of art, though a bit tall to clean under
most furniture. Frank Jenkins of the
Robotics Society of California demonstrated his home vac for our group 15
years ago. At 23 inches high and 44
pounds, HomeR was a bit larger than
todays machines, but contained over
80 sensors. It used an Ampro 386SX
board computer with four megabytes of
memory. It also had a Black and Decker
hand vacuum system built in for the
sweeping function and could find its
way back to a charging dock. This beau-

tiful machine may not have been able to

snake its way under a low coffee table,
but it was one of the most stunninglybuilt robots that I had ever seen.
Todays robot vacuum cleaner
designers have been backed into a
corner of sorts as they soon realized
that greater cleaning ability required a
larger motor. A larger motor required a
larger battery. Longer operating time
also required a larger battery. A smaller, practical size was certainly more
desirable for a typical homemaker. All
of these requirements were hard to
meet in a mobile robot. What was the
designer to do?
The first step was to reduce the
motors power requirements, thus
reducing the battery size and, therefore, the overall machines size and
Figure 1. This is Frank Jenkins
home-built robot.

SERVO 11.2006

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weight. Now, with less effective suction and cleaning power, the designer was left with slowing the robot vacuums speed down to have the nozzle
over a given area for a longer period of
time, or, devising an overall better
nozzle arrangement augmented with
rotating brushes or similar devices.
The designers of the best-selling
robot vacuum cleaners actually took
many more design aspects into consideration such as height above the carpet or
floor, number and location of nozzles;
shape of the air flow channels; shape,
speed, and location of brushes; number
of passes over an area, and many more
aspects. Then comes the navigation and
steering of the robot cleaner. Do you
just allow the machine to bump into
walls, reverse, and then go off in another direction like a sheep randomly eating
grass in a meadow? Eventually, the
machine finally covers the entire carpet
in a given room or does it?
Does it keep bumping into the
same chair and table legs, only to miss
many areas of the carpet? Does the
designer need to add optical or
ultrasonic sensors to allow the robot to
travel parallel to a wall without touching it? Does one need to add a higherlevel processor to bit-map a room? Do
you need to add sensors to detect
what parts of the carpet the machine
has covered by detecting carpet fibers
brushed in a specific direction? How
does the robot regain its original path
once it detects an obstacle and goes
around it? Detecting a full dirt bin,
orientation, low batteries, dangerous
overhangs, and getting permanently
stuck were other designer problem
areas. Todays robot vacuum manufacturers have solved these and many
Figure 2. The inside of the Roomba.

80

SERVO 11.2006

other design issues.

The iRobot Roomba

There is no doubt to all of us that
the iRobot Roomba is the run-away
best selling home robot ever, with
over two million sold and counting,
after its September 2002 debut. Back
then, everyone was talking about Dean
Kamens Segway Transporter, as this
other small New England company
quietly designed and produced what
many say is the first truly useful
consumer robot. This amazing product
that people have called a low-flying flying saucer, a Frisbee on steroids, and
even a bathroom scale that walks is in
millions of homes around the world.
The overall design and basic shape
and size were not iRobots biggest
hurdle; their problem was how to make
the robot vacuum affordable to be able
to be sold through major retail chains.
There were already some capable but
very expensive robot vacuum cleaners on the market. In the beginning,
they decided that they needed a simple
eight-bit processor and a small number
of parts that could be easily machined
or molded, much like toy manufacturers
who create amazing devices for
child-sized budgets. Uniquely enough,
iRobot did have experience with toy
manufacturing their disastrous My
Real Baby, a robot doll that failed
miserably in the toy market.

Roomba Design
Constraints
iRobot wanted the Roomba to be
effective on both carpeted and hard
floors. Designer Joe Jones wasnt after
Figure 3. The bottom of the Roomba.

a cool factor; he wanted as machine

that would do a job well. Jones the
lead designer for the Roomba
designed it with an undercarriage
containing the dirt collection pan and
the revolving brushes that rise or lower
according to the floor type. You may
remember him as the co-author of the
great book Mobile Robots
Inspiration to Implementation.
When Roomba encounters frictioncausing surfaces such as carpet, the
torque derived from the friction on the
brushes causes the assembly to rise a
bit, thus lessening the load torque.
When the load lessens such as on a
hard floor the brush assembly lowers. This seemingly complex action is
created by a simple string and friction
clutch arrangement to keep the cost
down. A single motor is used for the
brush assembly and the lifting/lowering system. Roomba utilizes a spinning
side brush to push dirt from edges into
the path of the main cleaning head
(see Figures 2 and 3).
The next generation of Roombas
uses the C programming language and
is compiled with commercially available
software.
A
16-bit
Freescale
Semiconductor MC9S12 processor
using only 2K bytes of RAM executes
the algorithms. Several years ago, they
came out with the Roomba Pro and Pro
Elite. The Roomba Pro Elite model
included a remote control that allowed
users to navigate the robot vacuum
around a room, set cleaning options,
and turn the Pro Elite on or off with the
touch of a button. The Roomba Pro
Elite also featured a MAX cleaning
mode for multi-room cleaning or hightraffic areas. The software featured
one or two virtual walls and a cliffavoidance detector that prevented the
robot from falling down stairs. These
newer generations are able to determine how large the room is and plot
the most effective cleaning tactic
based on the rooms layout, says Colin
Angle, iRobots CEO.
The current cheapest model
Roomba Red costs $150, though Ive
seen it on closeout sales for less than
$75. The Roomba Sage model has a
longer-lasting battery that charges
faster, for an additional $50. Roomba
Discovery goes for $250, has auto

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charging ability, and a larger trash bin,

or, for $50 more, it can charge while
hanging on the wall. Toss in an additional $30 ($330) for the Scheduler
and you get the ultimate Roomba
one that you can schedule for the
whole weeks worth of cleaning.
Buyers must remember that the
Roomba is not a deep-cleaning
machine, just a daily touch up device
to keep your house presentable. You
need to use a more powerful upright
for deep cleaning and shag carpeting.
Keep in mind also, that the Roomba is
not pet-friendly. It wont attack your
cat or dog, but its a pretty sure thing
that Fluffy will place it at the top of his
enemy list.

The iRobot Scooba

iRobots success with the Roomba
made the step to the floor-scrubbing
Scooba a natural direction to go. The
Roomba did a good job of removing
dust and dirt that was just lying on the
surface of a hard floor, but most dirt
adheres to floors and needs to be
scrubbed off. This scrubbing action
required a totally different type of cleaning system. As the company says: Meet
the Scooba Floor Washing Robot ... the
worlds first floor-washing robot for the
home that preps, washes, scrubs, and
dries your floor all by itself.
Unlike mop and bucket methods
that just spread dirty water around
your floor, Scooba uses a fresh Clorox
Scooba cleaning solution from start to
finish. Figure 4 shows a diagram of
how the solution is dispensed and
sucked up after its dirty. With the press
of a button, the robot will leave your
floors clean, dry, and ready to walk on.
Scooba is simple to use, and safe on all
sealed hardwood, tile, and linoleum
flooring. What impressed me is the

Scooba actually sucks up the dirty

water from the first cycles and deposits
it in another separate container that
is emptied later. Figure 5 shows the
interior of a Scooba.

Mowing the Lawn

on Autopilot
The desire for a robotic lawnmower has been around about as long as
the early vacuum cleaner ideas. Back in
the mid 80s at a Robot Institute of
America (RI/SME) conference, I took
this photo of a robot lawnmower that
was a bit more remote controlled than
computer controlled (see Figure 6).
Notice the toothed belt steering the
four wheels to make it move in all directions like a crab, yet still be facing the
same direction. It drew a substantial
crowd of onlookers; pretty good from
a bunch of industrial robot engineers.

Robot Lawn Mower

Design Issues
Designers of robot mowers face
some hurdles that arent encountered by
designers of robot vacuum cleaners. The
number one issue is safety. Cutting grass
is much more energy-intensive than
sucking dirt off a carpets surface, even
with revolving brushes to assist in the
task. Add to this many more square feet
of grass in the typical yard than indoor
carpeting and you have a need for a lot
more energy on board a mower.
Build a machine with one to three
spinning metal blades designed to cut
things and you have a potential hazard
to humans, animals, and property.
Mowers have already been labeled hazardous machines by many government
agencies and are required to have a
dead mans switch that stops the
Figure 5. The inside of the Scooba.

blade (and engine) when the handle is

released. This certainly does not stop
the operator from running over a pile
of small pebbles that can be slung in all
directions. So, keeping in mind the
stupid factor, the manufacturers
carefully evaluated the robot mower
design process.

The RoboMower from

Friendly Robotics
Lawn-tool company, Toro, markets
a Robomower under the brand name
iMow. Husqvarna a division of a
Swedish vacuum cleaner company,
Electrolux also sells a robotic lawn
mower, the Auto Mower. But it is the
Israeli company, Friendly Robotics, that
leads the pack and has sold over
50,000 RoboMowers since 1998. Udi
Peless and Shai Abramson two
Israelis with technical backgrounds
joined forces to produce the lawnmower back in 1995. Peless had already
enjoyed quite a bit of success with a
medical equipment start-up company
and used his knowledge of navigation
and control systems and Abramsons
software background to start the
company in a garage.
They were a bit overconfident in
their ultimate success, but several
million dollars and years later, they had
a gasoline-powered Lawn-Keeper
prototype in 1998. The first machine
they had for sale used a 16-bit, 20 MHz
Hitachi HS8 microcontroller to weigh
inputs from various sensors and send
controlling signals to the 150W drive
wheel motors and a 750W cutter
motor. They managed to sell 4,000 of
these mowers by 2001. Later models
changed the single cutter motor to
three 150W motors, thus saving 300
watts. As any robot experimenter can
Figure 6. An early robot lawnmower.

Figure 4. Scooba cleaning illustration.

SERVO 11.2006

81

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Figure 7. The RL1000 RoboMower

and its dock.

attest to, it was the development of

the software that offered them the
greatest challenge, not the hardware.
Friendly Robotics credits the
Roomba for boosting interest in its
robotic lawn mowers. Roomba has
given us a lot of forward momentum,
said Mike Dunigan, vice president of
sales at Friendly Robotics, USA. He says
that dogs, cats, and kids are safe
around the Robomower. Dogs bark at
it about an hour before they finally give
up on it, he said. Cats hide. A slight
pressure on any side of the
Robomower will cause it to turn
around, and the mowers blades shut
off in less than a second if the machine
is lifted off the ground.
The RL1000 RoboMower is the
top-of-the-line and retails for about
$1,800. It is designed to mow a lawn
all by itself (Figure 7). The mower
begins its chores automatically and
then navigates back to its docking
station when it needs recharging.
Designed for domestic lawns and gardens, it can handle any mowing task
that a traditional gas or electric mower
can handle, irrespective of the shape

Triple-ChamberMulching system
and the 5800RPM blade speed
double that of
a typical gas
mower. Grass is
cut into very small
clippings that are
buried in the
Figure 8. Mower blades.
Figure 9. The RoboMower RL850. roots of the lawn,
where
they
and slopes of the garden, obstacles,
decompose and act like a natural fertilizand type of lawn, says Dunigan. It
er. This results in a healthier and better
features a three blade, 53 cm (21 inch)
looking lawn, and eliminates the need to
powerful cutting system (see Figure 8).
collect and remove the clippings,
It is kept within a specific lawn area by
according to Dunigan. Figure 9 shows
using buried and electromagnetic fieldthe less-expensive RoboMower RL850
emitting Perimeter Switch wires as
a mower system that does not have
an invisible fence, much like dog
the automatic task time programming,
fences. When the RoboMower returns
auto-return to a docking station, and the
to the docking station, the perimeter
intelligent perimeter switch system.
You can obtain information for
switch turns itself off.
RoboMower is a dedicated
the robot vacuums and lawn mowers
mulching mower that mulches better
at either www.irobot.com or www.
than a traditional mower thanks to its
friendlyrobotics.com. SV
THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION STATEMENT OF SERVO MAGAZINE, Publication Number: 1546-0592
is published monthly. Subscription price is $24.95. 7. The complete mailing address of known office of Publication is T&L
Publications, Inc., 430 Princeland Ct., Corona,Riverside County, CA 92879-1300. Contact Person: Tracy Kerley. Telephone: (951)
371-8497. 8. Complete Mailing address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher is T&L Publications, Inc., 430
Princeland Ct, Corona, CA 92879. 9. The names and addresses of the Publisher, and Associate Publisher are: Publisher, Larry
Lemieux, 430 Princeland Ct., Corona, CA. 92879; Associate Publisher, Robin Lemieux, 430 Princeland Ct., Corona, CA 92879. 10.
The names and addresses of stockholders holding one percent or more of the total amount of stock are: Jack Lemieux, 430
Princeland Ct., Corona, CA 92879; Larry Lemieux, 430 Princeland Ct., Corona, CA 92879; Audrey Lemieux, 430 Princeland Ct.,
Corona, CA 92879; Robin Lemieux, 430 Princeland Ct, Corona, CA 92879. 11. Known Bondholders, Morgagees, and other security holders: None. 12. Tax Status: Has not changed during preceding 12 months. 13. Publication Title: SERVO Magazine 14. Issue
Date for Circulation Data: October 2005-September 2006. 15. The average number of copies of each issue during the proceeding
twelve months is: A) Total number of copies printed (net press run); 12,472 B) Paid/Requested Circulation (1) Mailed Outside
County subscriptions: 6,336 (2) Mailed In-County subscriptions: 0 (3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mail including Sales through
dealers and carriers, street vendor, and counter sales and other paid distribution outside USPS: 1,811 (4) Paid Distribution by other
classes of mail through the USPS: 0; C) Total Paid Distribution: 8,147; D) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution by mail and outside the
mail (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies: 106 (2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies: 0 (3) Free or Nominal Rate
Copies Mailed at other classes through the USPS: 0 (4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the mail: 1,180; E) Total Free
or Nominal Rate Distribution: 1,286; F) Total Distribution: 9,433; G) Copies not distributed: 3,039; H) Total: 12,472; Percent paid circulation: 86.37%. Actual number of copies of the single issue published nearest the filing date is September 2006; A) Total number
of copies printed (net press run) 13,377; B) Paid/Requested Circulation (1) Mailed Outside County subscriptions: 6,329 (2) Mailed
In-County subscriptions: 0 (3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mail including Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendor, and
counter sales and other paid distribution outside USPS: 1,842 (4) Paid Distribution by other classes of mail through the USPS: 0;
C) Total Paid Distribution: 8,171; D) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution by mail and outside the mail (1) Free or Nominal Rate
Outside-County Copies: 128 (2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies: 0 (3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at other classes through the USPS: 0 (4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the mail: 1,700; E) Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution:
1,828; F) Total Distribution: 9,999; G) Copies not distributed: 3,378; H) Total: 13,377; Percent paid circulation: 81.72%. I certify that
these statements are correct and complete. Larry Lemieux, Publisher - 9/27/06.

Advertiser Index
All Electronics Corp. .............................69, 73
AP Circuits .....................................................28
BEST Robotics Competition ........................67
BOBs/invents.net ........................................73
COMBOTS .....................................................53
CrustCrawler .................................................19
DynoMotion .................................................73
Electronics123 ..............................................69
Futurlec .........................................................73
Gears Educational Systems, LLC .................58
Graymark .........................................................7
Hitec ................................................................3
Hobby Engineering .....................................46
HobbyLab .....................................................69

82

SERVO 11.2006

IMService ......................................................28
Industrial Ventures .......................................65
Jameco Robot Store ................................2, 73
Lorax Works ............................................68, 73
Lynxmotion, Inc. ...........................................29
Maxbotix .......................................................73
Maximum Robotics ................................18, 73
Net Media .....................................................83
NU-BOTICS ....................................................69
Oricom ..........................................................73
Ortech Education Systems .........................52
Parallax, Inc. ...................................Back Cover
Plantraco .................................................69, 73

Pololu Robotics & Electronics .....................41

RoboteQ .......................................................13
RoboDevelopment Conference .................59
Robot Power .................................................31
Robot Shop ............................................42, 73
SchmartBoard ...............................................42
SCIENTIFICS ...................................................43
Scon Technologies........................................69
Snail Instruments...........................................73
Solarbotics.......................................................9
Solutions Cubed ...........................................23
Technological Arts .......................................73
Vantec .............................................................7
WiBotics ........................................................73

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Page 84
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Vol. 4 No. 11

SERVO MAGAZINE

WELDING RTOS TO THE RESCUE CORDLESS DRILL MOTORS XPORT BOTBALL CONTROLLER

November 2006

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