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Vol. 5 No. 11 SERVO MAGAZINE TOUCH BIONICS • KILLER ROBOTS • HUMANOIDS • ANDROID ARMS November 2007
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TOC Nov07.qxd 10/10/2007 4:58 PM Page 4

PAGE 62

Columns Departments
08 Robytes by Jeff Eckert 06 Mind/Iron
Stimulating Robot Tidbits

10 GeerHead by David Geer 07 Bio-Feedback

2007 FIRST Robotics Competition Winners
18 Events Calendar
14 Ask Mr. Roboto by Pete Miles
Your Problems Solved Here
20 New Products
56 Robotics Resources
by Gordon McComb
Learning Robotics From the World’s 31 Robotics Showcase
Robotics Labs
46 Robo-Links
62 Twin Tweaks
by Bryce and Evan Woolley
Welcome to the (WowWee) Family 72 SERVO Webstore
68 Different Bits 82 Advertiser’s Index
by Heather Dewey-Hagborg
Neural Networks for the PIC Microcontroller
Part 3 — Hebbian Learning

76 Appetizer by Bryan Bergeron

ENTER WITH CAUTION!

The Black Widow Contest Winner

78
22 The Combat Zone
Then and Now by Tom Carroll
Humanoid Robots

4 SERVO 11.2007
TOC Nov07.qxd 10/10/2007 5:20 PM Page 5

11.2007
VOL. 5 NO. 11

Features & Projects

28 AUTOFLEX 2.0
by Brian Cieslak
A new and improved autonomous
programming tool for FIRST robots.

32 Killer Robots Are

Our Friends PAGE 32
by Brett Duesing
A look inside the mechanics of
combat robots.

36 Do You Want it Now?

by Fred Eady
Get instant gratification with the
Firgelli PQ-CIB controller hooked up
to their linear actuator.

42 Control a TOPO 1 PAGE 42

by Robert Doerr
Breathe new life into an old robot.
PAGE 47
47 Building an Android Arm
by Mark Miller
Part 2: Putting it all together.

51 GPS
by Michael Simpson
Part 2: Take a look at the Etek EB-85A,
Copernicus, and Holux GPS modules.

PAGE 36

SERVO Magazine (ISSN 1546-0592/CDN Pub Agree

#40702530) is published monthly for $24.95 per year by
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SERVO 11.2007 5
Mind-Feed Nov07.qxd 10/10/2007 9:54 AM Page 6

Published Monthly By
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PUBLISHER
In the commercial robotics world, demonstration, product launch, and Larry Lemieux
publisher@servomagazine.com
all eyes are on the recent iRobot related events that generate press and
vs. Robot FX patent infringement industry interest. ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/
lawsuits, in which iRobot is seeking to The next phase — the “Peak of VP OF SALES/MARKETING
prevent Robot FX from selling any Inflated Expectations” — is marked by Robin Lemieux
display@servomagazine.com
more Negotiator robots. While there over-enthusiasm and unrealistic
are a number of facets to the case expectations. In reality, there may be EDITOR
destined for the tabloids, one some successful applications of the Bryan Bergeron
undisputed part of the story is that technology, but there are more techedit-servo@yahoo.com
the suit comes on the heels of a failures than winners. The only CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
competition between Robot FX and enterprises making money at this Jeff Eckert Tom Carroll
iRobot for a $280M contract with the stage are conference organizers Gordon McComb David Geer
Pete Miles R. Steven Rainwater
US military. Robot FX won the and magazine publishers. Following Michael Simpson Kevin Berry
contract. Whether iRobot — maker of this over-hype and user/investor Fred Eady Brett Duesing
the popular Packbot — gets another frustration from unmet expectations, Brian Cieslak Mark Miller
crack at the contract, the suit is technology-based products enter the Robert Doerr James Baker
Chad New Bryce & Evan Woolley
important in that it marks an “trough of disillusionment.” Because Heather Dewey-Hagborg
important milestone in the growth of the press usually abandons the topic
the military robot industry. and the technology, this is the end for CIRCULATION DIRECTOR
To follow my reasoning, consider many products. Tracy Kerley
subscribe@servomagazine.com
the Gartner Hype Cycle, a popular Products that survive the trough
model of technology-based products, of disillusionment – which may last MARKETING COORDINATOR
first proposed by the Gartner Group months, years, or decades – are kept WEBSTORE
(www.gartner.com) in 1995 (see alive by companies that understand Brian Kirkpatrick
sales@servomagazine.com
Figure 1). According to the model, the technology’s applicability, risks,
the first phase of a Hype Cycle is and benefits. The “slope of WEB CONTENT
the “technology trigger,” marked by enlightenment” marks the time when Michael Kaudze
website@servomagazine.com
a significant breakthrough, public there is practical, commercially-viable
application of the PRODUCTION/GRAPHICS
GARTNER HYPE CYCLE technology – that is, Shannon Lemieux
FIGURE 1 Joe Keungmanivong
some companies enjoy
VISABILITY

cash flow. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Finally, the product Debbie Stauffacher
and underlying technology
Copyright 2007 by
reach the “plateau of T & L Publications, Inc.
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of stable, accepted, We are not responsible for mistakes, misprints,
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Mind-Feed Nov07.qxd 10/10/2007 9:55 AM Page 7
“slope of enlightenment,” external events — such as lawsuits
— serve as useful indicators. I’d like to propose this is the
lawsuit point (shown in red in Figure 1) between the ‘trough
of disillusionment” and “slope of enlightenment.”
Historically, companies producing products aren’t
bothered as long as they’re in an academic lab or smoldering
in a company barely making a profit on the technology.
However, as soon as the technology — and market — are
mature enough to generate significant, sustainable revenue,
then holders of patents (and their attorneys) take notice. The
motivation for a suit may be strictly monetary. Some patent
holders develop and hold on to a patent with no intent of
developing a product. Instead, they hope that a technology
will become viable before the term of their patent ends. A
suit may be motivated by competition from a rival in the
marketplace. In some cases, a suit is simply to establish the
right of a company to compete in a given market.
The iRobot–Robot FX suit suggests that the military
robotics industry has survived the trough of disillusionment
and is well on its way to the slope of enlightenment. There
have been lawsuits in medical robotics, a sign that the
robotics industry is making progress in this area, as well.
How long before we see major lawsuits for home robots
or assistive robots is unclear. However, when we do see
lawsuits, it’ll be a sign that the field is maturing. Hopefully, the
robotics companies involved in these suits will be financially fit
enough to not only survive but thrive in the new economic
environment. SV
Dear SERVO:
Regarding the 09.2007 issue beginning on page 67, “Twin
Tweaks — Robot vs.Wild” ... the problem stated was that the
automotive steering vehicle had trouble making tight turns.
The Wooleys solved part of the problem quite accurately with
the Ackermann steering geometry, but you still have a solid
rear axle (wheels, axle, and drive gears acting as a single unit).
Thus, driving both rear wheels with relatively equal force
when you try to turn, the front end gets pushed and you wind
up going in a wider radius than the front wheels are set for. In
the process of turning, the rear wheels want to slip because
the outside wheel is traversing a larger arc than the inside
wheel. If you’re going in a straight line, like drag racers do, a
solid rear end is great. But if you want to make some turns,
then you need a differential. And they almost had it — looking
at the photo on the bottom of page 69 titled ‘Vex Differential.’
You need to cut the axle in two (a loose sleeve joining the two
ends will allow independent motion and still keep the axles
relatively concentric) and put a bevel gear on each axle end so
that they mesh with the third bevel gear that’s attached to the
differential carrier. This will allow continuous power to be
applied to both rear wheels, irregardless of each wheel’s
speed.You guys are doing great — hang in there.You’ll never
know what you can do until you push your limits.
— Phillip Potter
continued on page 75
SERVO 11.2007 7
Robytes.qxd 10/9/2007 7:56 AM Page 8
Robytes
Autonomous Refueling
Demonstrated
The AARD system performs
“better than a skilled pilot.”
Photo courtesy of DARPA.
The Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA, www.
darpa.gov) has added to its bag
of aeronautical tricks with the
Autonomous Airborne Refueling
Demonstration (AARD) program,
through which it has demonstrated
the first-ever robotic system to refuel
airplanes in flight.
In a recent series of tests, the
AARD was fitted to a NASA-owned
F/A-18 Hornet fighter and operated
out of California’s Edwards Air Force
Base. Using inertial, GPS, and video
measurements — along with some
special guidance and control
techniques — the AARD managed to
poke a refueling probe into a 32-inch
basket while traveling 250 mph
at 18,000 ft above the Tehachapi
Mountains. Some tests were conduct-
ed in straight-and-level flight, under
a range of turbulence conditions that
involved as much as five feet of
side-to-side movement of the drogue
(the small windsock at the end of the
refueling hose).
In its most successful configura-
tion, the AARD hit the target in 18
out of 18 attempts. It also managed
to make the connection when the
707-300 tanker and F/A-18 were
executing a turn, which is not usually
attempted with a human pilot. In
the tests, the fighter was operating
8 SERVO 11.2007
autonomously; the pilots shown in
the photo were on board “for safety
purposes.”
UAV for Farmers
Most of the glory in the UAV
arena goes to exotic military and
security aircraft, but a fleet of
miniature planes may soon create a
buzz over the fields and forests of the
heartland, providing surveillance for
farming, environmental monitoring,
and forestry.
MicroPilot, Inc. (www.micro
pilot.com), based in Stony Mountain,
Manitoba, offers a range of UAVs,
autopilots, and software products,
including the MP-Vision airplane.
Earlier this year, MicroPilot’s Crop
Cam division (www.cropcam.com)
introduced a version that has been
configured specifically for agricultural
operations.
The CropCam AUV is a GPS-
guided craft that covers a
preprogrammed flight pattern over a
quarter section (160 acres) and
takes digital photos along the way.
With an overall length of four feet
and a wingspan of eight feet, the
six-pound plane can climb to 2,200
feet and complete a survey in about
Image taken by a CropCam AUV.
Photo courtesy of Cropcam, Inc.
by Jeff Eckert
20 minutes. Guidance is provided by
a Trimble GPS unit, and you can
choose among three Pentax camera
models to get up to eight megapixel
resolution for stills and 640 x 480, 30
fps, in video mode.
Power is provided by a 0.15 cu in
engine that draws from a six-oz tank,
but it appears that you can also get
one that is driven by an Axi brushless
motor and lithium polymer batteries.
Rumor has it that it will run you
about $7,000.
Bionic Hand Now Available
The i-LIMB Hand looks and
acts like the real deal.
Photo courtesy of Touch Bionics.
The Touch Bionics’ (www.touch
bionics.com) i-LIMB Hand, formally
introduced in July at the 12th World
Congress of the International
Society for Prosthetics and
Orthoticsin Vancouver, Canada,
looks like a great innovation for
patients who are missing a
hand through accidents, acts
of war, or birth defects.
Designed to look and operate
like the real thing, it is said to
be the world’s first commercial-
ly available prosthetic device
with five individually powered
digits.
The device operates on an
intuitive control system that
uses a traditional myoelectric
signal input to open and close
its fingers. Myoelectric controls
Robytes.qxd 10/9/2007 7:57 AM Page 9
use electrical signals generated by
muscles in the remaining portion
of a patient’s limb, with the signal
being picked up by skin-mounted
electrodes. Not shown in the photo is
the available “cosmesis” covering,
which makes it appear more lifelike in
use. The device is already being fitted
to patients in many clinics in the US
and Europe.
Build Your Own ROV
The ROV-in-a-Box kit comes
more or less complete.
Photo courtesy of !nventivity LLC.
It’s not pretty, but at least it’s
pretty cheap. Designed for ages 12
and up, the ROV-in-a-Box kit from
!nventivity (www.nventivity.com)
sells for $249.95 and includes all of
the required parts (frame, motors,
light, camera, tether, controller,
and battery), plus an instruction
manual. It also comes with
propellers, switches, connectors,
“buoyancy devices” (presumably the
chunks of plastic foam shown in the
photo), and pretty much everything
else. All you have to provide is PVC
cement, tools, and a video monitor.
According to the vendor,
independent left and right props give
it good controllability and zero-radius
turning, and the light is bright
enough to allow night missions.
See the company’s website for a six
minute video.
Interactive Boybot
Zeno — a 17-inch mechanical boy —
walks, talks, and interacts
on a personal level.
Photo courtesy of Hanson Robotics.
He looks quite a bit like the
Japanese comic book character
Astro Boy, but the new Zeno bot
Robytes
from Hanson Robotics (www.hanson
robotics.com) is actually named
after the inventor’s son. Zeno’s
main claim to fame is how well he
imitates human facial expressions,
but he also walks, talks, and can
learn to recognize individual human
beings (using a camera located
behind one of his eyes) and address
them by name.
Like other Hanson creations (recall
the familiar talking Einstein bot), Zeno
is based on AI capabilities that help
him learn and interact with his
environment, a complex range (62, to
be precise) of facial and neck
expressions, his somewhat weird
Frubber™ polymer skin, and the ability
to develop a unique personality.
According to Hanson, Zeno and his
pals can be used in education,
psychiatry, military training, and
character development for animation.
Some people find him adorable,
and others have described him as
“creepy,” so you’ll have to judge for
yourself. Zeno is still a prototype, but
the plan is to have a commercial
version on the market in two years for
about $300. SV
SERVO 11.2007 9
Geerhead.qxd 10/9/2007 7:53 AM Page 10
by David Geer
2007 FIRST Robotics
Competition Winners
The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)
Robotics Competition pits high school robotics teams against each other
(and themselves!) with a different robot kit and task each season.
n 2007, the Worcester Polytechnic
I Institute
Massachusetts
(WPI) supported
Academy
Mathematics and Sciences at WPI (or
of
MASS Academy, Team 190) won the
FIRST Robotics World Championship
in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on
April 14. Team 190 designed and
constructed the winning robot —
Goat-Dactyl — early in the season.
Goat-Dactyl is a wheel-locomotive
robot with sensors for autonomous
control and R/C for remote. Team 190
designed the robot to accomplish
specific, competition-related tasks as
part of the FIRST 2007 competition.
The robot completes the tasks as part
of a game in competition and collabo-
ration with other teams’ robots.
This year’s competition game —
Students with Goat-Dactyl competition
robot and control console queuing up
before a match. The driver is thinking
about strategy. Dan Jones, robot
operator, is in the foreground and
Colin Rody, driver, is in the background.
10 SERVO 11.2007
Contact the author at geercom@alltel.net
called “Rack ‘N’ Roll” — tested the
students’ and their robots’ ability to (1)
hang inflated colored tubes on pegs,
configured in rows and columns, on a
10-foot-high center “rack” structure;
(2) program a robotic vision system to
navigate the robot; and (3) “lift” other
robots more than 12 inches off the
floor, according to Brad Miller, a Team
190 member.
The leaders of the competition
formed the aforementioned rack
structure out of eight columns with
three pegs each on which robot teams
could place their tubes.
“Every other column had a green
light. The teams calibrated their
robots’ cameras to track the light.
Six robots took the field during a
match. Officials assigned the robots
Goat-Dactyl, mouth wide open, just
before completing the lift of alliance
partners. Dan Jones, operator, operating
the controls in the background.
to either the blue or red alliance
for competition. The teams earned
points by hanging their alliance-colored
tubes on one or more of the rack
pegs,” says Miller.
According to Miller, each hung
tube was worth two points unless it
was contiguous (either vertically or
horizontally) with another hanging
tube of your alliance color. “The
total point count in this case was
equal to two raised to the power
corresponding to the length of the
matched tube row or column (e.g., one
tube = two points, two tubes = four
points, three tubes = eight points ... a
full circle of eight tubes = 256
points!),” Miller explains.
Team 190 made the Goat-Dactyl
robot from a kit that every team had to
adhere to. The kit includes parts for the
robot’s pneumatic and electrical
systems, as well as a choice of motors.
The robot itself consists of four
CIM FR801-001 motors, which drive
the robot.
The large, broad metallic gripper
that is the primary capability of the
robot opens and closes with the aid of
an RS-540 gear motor (Banebots). Two
Globe 409A587 motors actuate the
robot’s ramps.
The team machined both the
Photos are courtesy of Brad Miller,
Team 190 member.
Geerhead.qxd 10/9/2007 7:53 AM Page 11
chassis and gripper elevator from
scratch. They used 6061 aluminum
C-channel and Lexan materials. They
cut the lifting ramps via laser out of
5052 aluminum sheet metal. They
used sheet metal in gauges ranging
from .02” to .065” in thickness.
Team 190 folded the aluminum
ramps over, dimpled them with holes,
and then riveted everything together.
The gripper top is Lexan; the gripper
bottom is fiberglass.
The pneumatics included a
Thompson compressor, accumulator
tanks from Clippard, solenoid
valves from SMC and Parker, and
Bimba actuators.
The actuator specs included three
1.5” bore by 3” stroke cylinders per
side of the robot, which presented
sufficient force to lift competing
robots off the floor by more than
a foot. The robot also featured a
.75” bore by 8” stroke cylinder for
grabbing onto and lifting the large
inflated rings.
Both of these maneuvers were
useful for competition scoring.
Computer Controlled
Each team is constrained to a
kit that includes two PIC 18F8722
microprocessors. One is the slave and
one is the master processor. The
master processor controls the motor
and communications and interfaces
with the human operator.
The slave contains all the original
programming from the team’s coders.
The robot passes some data between
the master processor and the slave to
process the actuators’ values.
Team 190 coded the robot’s
program in the C language. The
coders used both the Microchip
tools that come with the kit, and the
Eclipse IDE.
While teams in the FIRST competi-
tion can stick with Microchip’s tools
that come with the kit, they are free to
use other programming tools.
“Our students use Eclipse as the
development environment (IDE) for
their in-class projects and are very
familiar with it. So, we adapted some
Team 190 hanging a tube on the
middle section of the rack.
work developed by other teams to
make a development environment
that suited us. Eclipse has a huge
number of collaborators so even
though it’s free, it is much higher
quality than many of the commercial
products,” says Miller.
Team 190 also uses a software
library named WPILib, which is a
development framework that supports
the standard FIRST devices like speed
controls, the CMU camera, and gyros,
for example.
Command and
Control
Team 190, as other teams, built a
custom control system for interfacing
with the competition-specified
operator interface. That interface is the
controls that enable the drivers and the
robot to “talk” to each other.
The FIRST supplied controller
connects with joysticks, switches,
potentiometers, and other control
hardware. The controller transmits
Team 190 members Dan Jones, operator,
(back) and Paul Ventimiglia, mechanical
lead (front) making last minute repairs
on the robot between matches.
GEERHEAD
Team 190 putting a tube on the
rack despite blocking attempts by
a robot from the red alliance.
“control positions” to and from the
robot. This enables the robot’s driver to
manipulate the robot in competition
while designing a unique set of
controls for their purposes.
Team 190 used two joystick
controls for driving, and a separate
control box of “arcade buttons”
and switches to control the tube
manipulator and robot-lift functions,
according to Miller. Two operators
handle the robots, one controlling
the drive and the other controlling the
manipulator and peripheral functions.
The robot has many sensors,
which help automate tasks such as
lowering the robot’s lifts and
raising the tube manipulator to
SELECTING ALLIES
During selection for team allies
before competition, Team 190
chose teams with compatible designs
and tactics.
“Through our excellent scouting
and “intelligence” program, we were
able to pick teams that we knew
would make our alliance strong. Little
did we realize that they would also
make us look good, as well,” says Brad
Miller, a Team 190 member.
From among all the possibilities,
Team 190 ended up collaborating with
teams that all had maroon team shirt
colors similar to their own.
“Denying that matching team shirts
was one of our selection criteria, we
nonetheless took this as a good
sign and have since celebrated this
occurrence by producing “Don’t Mess
With Maroon” championship shirts,”
says Miller.
SERVO 11.2007 11
Geerhead.qxd 10/9/2007 7:54 AM Page 12

GEERHEAD

other robots, compete better than

RESOURCES
other robots, and to stay within
Worcester Polytechnic Institute cost limitations.
www.wpi.edu/index.html

WPI FIRST Robotics Resource Center The Answers

http://first.wpi.edu
In response to these goals and
WPI Robotics Engineering Major limitations, Team 190 worked on
www.wpi.edu/Academics/Majors/RBE lowering their bot’s weight while
attaining its overall goals.
Goat-Dactyl using its tube gripper to WPI Winning Robotics Team 190 “Our original robot-lift design was
lift a tube during competition. http://users.wpi.edu/~first double the acceptable weight. We
went through many different design
pre-specified heights. while staying within competition limits. approaches, including using aluminum
The goals for the robot were to The major constraints for the robots honeycomb surfaces or making our
endow it will the best abilities to win include weight — 120 lbs and under — own foam-core sheets, before finally
the game set before all the robots total size, the ability to recognize settling on a unique sheet-metal box
structure which was dimpled for
The robot’s tube gripper is mounted on Team 190 between finals matches, on improved strength. This same approach
an extension mechanism (an elevator) the field resetting the robot to play was used in nearly all aspects of the
that it uses to get it to the right height again while being overlooked by
after it grabs the tube and sets it to head ref, Aidan Browne. design,” says Miller.
the proper angle. The tube gripper lays in front of
the robot to grab tubes from the
ground and catapult them high in the
air to rack them up for scoring. (The
tube gripper is in the front of the robot
that can grab tubes from the ground
and lift them to any height on the rack
for scoring.)
“Two of the unique features of
the gripper are: It can grab tubes
on the fly, without requiring the
robot to come to a stop to pick them
up; and second, it closes and lifts
using a mechanism driven by a
single pneumatic actuator. Usually
Precision CNC two motions like this would require
two actuators, but due to some
Machining clever design, only one is needed,”
When you’re serious about hardware, you need serious tools. Miller explains.
Whether milling 0.020” traces on prototype PCBs or cutting ½” The team mounted the tube
steel battle armor, this CNC mill can do it all. Weighing in at more
than 1100 lbs, the PCNC can deliver the hardware end of your gripper on an extension mechanism
combined hardware & software projects. (elevator) to get it to the right height
Tormach PCNC 1100 Features: after it grabs the tube and sets it to
Q Table size 34" x 9.5" the proper angle, Miller further
Q R8 Spindle 1.5 hp variable speed to 4500 RPM explains. The gripper is empowered
Q Computer controlled spindle speed and direction by a single air cylinder that both
Q Precision ground ballscrews closes the robot’s claw and raises the
Q Digitizing and tool sensing support tubes up to a 55 degree angle in a
Q 4th axis and high speed spindle options single motion.
“In addition,” says Miller, “the
3 Axis Mill top digit of the claw is a four bar
$6800 Mill includes Control, CAD and CAM articulated linkage that curls around
software. Optional stand, coolant system,
plus shipping computer and accessories are extra. the tube, giving us maximum
wrap, while allowing it to fit within our
Product information and online ordering at www.tormach.com starting box.” SV
12 SERVO 11.2007
Full Page.qxd 10/10/2007 11:40 AM Page 13

SERVO 11.2007 13
MrRoboto.qxd 10/9/2007 10:34 AM Page 14

Our resident expert on all things

robotic is merely an Email away.
roboto@servomagazine.com

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

Q . It is my understanding that
the HSR-8498HB servos that
are used in the Robonova
humanoid robot have position
feedback capabilities, so I bought a
couple of them from Tower Hobbies.
I have been trying for several days
now to figure out how to get position
data from these servos.
From what I have seen on the
Internet, all I have to do is send the
servo a 50 microsecond pulse, and
it will return a position signal that is
similar to the regular pulse width
to move the servo. I am missing
something here. Can you help me?
— Pete Senganni
A . The key to doing this is to use
a pullup resistor on the signal
line. This is required for
bi-directional communication since
the signal line is an open collector.
Figure 1 shows a simple schematic for
connecting an HSR-8498HB servo to
a BASIC Stamp. Here, I used a 1K ohm
resistor as a pullup resistor on the
signal line. Without the resistor,
you will not receive a signal back
from the servo. Figure 2 shows a
sketch of the PWM (Pulse Width
Modulation) control signal timing that
is required for this servo to return its
current position.
To obtain the current position of
the servo, you need to send a 50 µs
pulse to the servo then wait for a
minimum of 2 ms before measuring
the width of the return pulse. The
critical element required to measure
the pulse width is to make sure that
the servo signal line that is connected
to the microcontroller is changed from
an output signal line to an input signal
line immediately prior to measuring

Figure 1. Connecting an HSR-8498HB servo to a BASIC Stamp for positional bi-directional control.
+5V

SOUT VDD
SIN VIN +4.8 - 6.0V SERVO POWER
ATN 1 KΩ
VSS RES
BASIC STAMP 2
FAMILY

P0 P15 SIGNAL
P1 P14 4.8-6.0V SERVO
P2 P13 GND
P3 P12
P4 P11
P5 P10
P6 P9
P7 VSS P8
HSR-8498HB SERVO AND CABLE

14 SERVO 11.2007
MrRoboto.qxd 10/9/2007 10:34 AM Page 15

the pulse width. Or there will be V HI

no return signal from the servo (that
you can see).
The following BASIC Stamp
sample code is all that is needed to
measure the position feedback from GND
50µs
the HSR-8498HB servo. This code 500 - 2500 µs
sample assumes that the signal line is
2µs (MINIMUM)
connected to P15 on the BASIC Stamp.
The Delay_50us constant of 63 is the
conversion factor for a 50 µs time
OUTPUT FROM OUTPUT FROM
delay on a BASIC Stamp 2px. This delay MICROCONTROLLER SERVO
constant will be different for different TO SERVO TO MICROCONTROLLER
Stamps. The “tmp*8/10” is a
conversion factor to convert the Figure 2. PWM signal for position feedback for the HSR-8498HB servo.
PULSIN value back to microseconds
on a BASIC Stamp 2px (again this the right), the position will change have about half the normal output
conversion factor will be different for on the debug window. Notice what I torque. It is best to read the servo
different BASIC Stamps). said here — when the servo horn is torque once every several position
manually turned. Whenever the updates, such as once every five
Tmp VAR WORD position is being read, the power to the update cycles (or once every 100 ms).
Position VAR WORD
Servo_Pin CON 15
internal motor of the servo is turned This will begin to minimize the amount
Delay_50us CON 63 off, which allows the servo horn to be of servo jitter and torque loss due to
easily rotated by hand. This is actually reading the servo position.
READ_PWM: a good feature to have when you are For those that are not familiar with
LOW Servo_Pin posing a humanoid robot for teaching the HSR-8498HB servos, these servos
PULSOUT Servo_Pin, Delay_50us
PULSIN Servo_Pin, 1, tmp new body positions. The drawback to are specifically designed for robotic
Position = tmp*8/10 this, however, is that the motor loses applications. They look quite a bit
DEBUG CRSRXY, 0,0,DEC5 POS power for a moment when the position different from standard R/C servos.
PAUSE 5 is being read. This may cause some Figure 3 shows a photo of two of
GOTO READ_PWM
servo jittering in some closed loop them. One of the nice features of these
position control applications. servos is that they can be reconfigured
Because of the pullup resistor, the The HSR-8498HB servo does for different applications, which
logic state of the Servo_Pin will be require the position command pulse to includes a “bearing” joint at the
high when it is not driven. Since be updated every 20 ms, like regular bottom of the servo case, so that the
the PULSOUT command on a Stamp analog servos. If you continually read main servo horn isn’t supporting the
toggles the current state of the output the servo’s position once between entire weight of the robot when the
pin, it is manually set LOW prior to each position update cycle (i.e., once servo is used as a joint.
sending the 50 µs pulse to the every 20 ms), the servo will jitter, and Figure 3 shows one of these servos
servo, so the servo will
recognize the 50 µs Operating Voltage 4.8V-6.0V Figure 3. HSR-9498HB servo configurations;
positive pulse. On a No-load Speed @ 4.8V 0.26 sec/60° traditional servo configuration (left); RoboNova
BASIC Stamp, the
No-load Speed @ 6.0V 0.20 sec/60° servo-bracket configuration (right).
PULSIN command auto-
matically changes the Stall Torque (4.8V) 84 oz/in (5.2 kg-cm)
pin’s state to an input Stall Torque (6.0V) 103 oz/in (7.4 kg-cm)
state, so nothing spe- Idle Current Draw 8 mA
cial needs to be done to
No-load Current Draw, 200 mA
measure the incoming Running
pulse from the servo.
Stall Current Draw 1200 mA
This program will
continually read the Pulse Range (~180°) 600-2350 µs
position of the servo Centering Pulse 1500 µs
and display the results
Dimensions 1.57” x .78” x 1.85”
on a debug window. (40 x 20 x 47 mm)
When the servo horn is Weight 1.92 oz (54.7 g)
manually rotated back
and forth (from left to Table 1. HSR-8498HB specifications.
SERVO 11.2007 15
MrRoboto.qxd 10/9/2007 10:35 AM Page 16
In Figure 3, you may have
noticed that wires to the
servo are all black, and not the
traditional yellow-red-black
colored wires in other Hitec
servos. This can make
determining the signal wire
from the ground wire a bit
challenging. The signal wire is
actually dark-gray in color, but
it can be difficult to see. The
signal wire is the wire closest
to the two tabs on the side of
the connector housing (see
Figure 4). The power wire is in
Figure 4. Closeup view of the connector for the center, and the ground
the HSR-8498HB servo — the control signal wire wire is on the other side of
is dark gray in color located next to the side tabs the connector.
on the connector. One of the advanced
features of these servos is
configured to look like a standard that they can also be controlled and
R/C servo, and the other servo is programmed via RS-232 serial
configured for a robotic knee joint. communications. In fact, 127 of these
Each servo comes with an accessory servos can be daisy-chained together
package with the different configura- on one signal line. In addition, the
tion options. Table 1 shows the serial communication protocol can
specifications for this servo. allow changing the proportional and
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16 SERVO 11.2007
derivative gains and dead bands on
the servo, servo ID, battery status,
position, current draw, and turning the
servo on and off.
The servos that I used for this
answer had an older firmware version
which doesn’t allow for the serial
communication. The minimum
firmware revision must be at least
v1.10. There is a little sticker on the
inside of the servo’s bottom plate
which identifies the firmware version. I
have sent my servos back to Hitec to
have the firmware version upgraded.
Next month, I will continue this topic
with a discussion on how to use serial
communications to control this servo.
For more details about the PWM
position feedback signals and the
serial communication protocol, go to
the Hitec Robotics website (www.
hitecrobotics.com) and look under
the download page for the “Pulse of
HMI Protocol” subject. There you will
find a file called “HMIprotocol.pdf,”
that will keep you busy until next
month. SV
Full Page.qxd 10/10/2007 11:42 AM Page 17
Events.qxd 10/9/2007 11:28 AM Page 18
Send updates, new listings, corrections, complaints, and suggestions to: steve@ncc.com or FAX 972-404-0269
Know of any robot competitions I’ve missed? Is your
local school or robot group planning a contest? Send an
email to steve@ncc.com 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
— R. Steven Rainwater
N ov e m b e r
3 DARPA Urban Challenge
The former George Air Force Base, Victorville, CA
Autonomous ground robots compete against
each other in a simulated urban environment to
complete a waypoint-following course.
www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge
10-11 Canadian National Robot Games
Ontario Science Center, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Events include novice, advanced, and master
mini-Sumo, full-size autonomous and RC Sumo,
fire-fighting, line-following, photovore, a walking
robot race, and a search and rescue contest.
http://robotgames.ca
16-17 All Japan MicroMouse Contest
Tsukuba International Conference Center,
Tsukuba, Japan
Includes Micromouse, Micromouse Expert level,
and Micro Clipper events.
www.robomedia.org/directory/jp/game/
mm_japan.html
17 DPRG RoboRama
Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas, TX
The usual assortment of events including Quick
Trip, T-Time, wall-following, line-following, and
can retrieval. An outdoor waypoint-following event
known as the Long-Haul will also be included this year.
www.dprg.org
23-24 Hawaii Underwater Robot Challenge
UH Manoa Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex,
18 SERVO 11.2007
Oahu, HI
ROVs built by university and high school students com-
pete in this event, which is part of the MATE (Marine
Advanced Technology Education) series of contests.
www.marinetech.org/rov_competition
24 ROBOEXOTICA
Museumsquartier, Vienna, Austria
A competition for “cocktail robots” that includes
events such as serving cocktails, mixing cocktails,
bartending conversation, and lighting cigarettes.
www.roboexotica.org/en/acra.htm
24 Roaming Robots Grand Final
Kent, UK
Remote-controlled vehicles destroy each other.
www.roamingrobots.co.uk/events_calendar.htm
30 ARADBOT
Santiago, Dominican Republic
Autonomous robots compete in line-following and
mini-Sumo events.
www.aiolosrd.com
30 Texas BEST Competition
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
Students and corporate sponsors build robots from
standardized kits and compete in a challenge that
changes each year.
www.texasbest.org
December
7-8 South’s BEST Competition
Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum, Auburn
University, Auburn, AL
Regional BEST teams from multiple states compete
in this regional championship.
www.southsbest.org
8 Penn State Abington Robo-Hoop
Penn State Abington, Abington, PA
Autonomous robot basketball event in which
robots must pick up foam balls and shoot or dunk
them into a basket.
www.ecsel.psu.edu/~avanzato/robots/con
tests/robo-hoops
Full Page.qxd 10/10/2007 11:44 AM Page 19
Nov07NewProd.qxd 10/10/2007 4:56 PM Page 20

New Products

N E W P RO D U C T S
feedback loop in Switch-Mode Power Supplies (SMPSs)
CONTROLLERS & PROCESSORS that use microcontrollers for general system intelligence
and control. The integration of the PWM’s SMPS input and
2 MHz Pulse-Width Modulator output interface via its voltage comparator, battery-
voltage, and current-sense amplifiers — plus its 1A

M icrochip Technology,
Inc., now offers the
MCP1631 2.0 MHz, high-
MOSFET driver — enable designers to use this single device
to perform many different functions in their designs. The
result is a smaller design footprint and lower overall cost.
speed pulse width modula- Additionally, the MCP1631 is controlled by an easily-
tor (PWM). The highly inte- programmable microcontroller, meaning that exact charge
grated device contains a 1 profiles for a variety of battery-charging systems can be
ampere integrated MOSFET accurately met, while closing the feedback loop with the
driver, high-speed compara- speed and precision needed for safe charging and long bat-
tor for over-voltage protection, and both battery-current tery life. The PWM’s UVLO and over-temperature protection
and voltage-sense amplifiers in one small package. features enhance the safety of battery-charger designs.
Protection features, such as under voltage lock out (UVLO) High-voltage versions of the MCP1631 PWM are
and over-temperature protection, come standard with the available (Part # MCP1631HV), which operate from 6V to
PWM, which is capable of charging multiple battery 16V and include a linear regulator (LDO). The standard
chemistries, including Li-Ion, NiHM, NiCd, and Lead Acid. versions of the device operate from 3V to 5.5V, and do not
The MCP1631 PWM provides a means to close the include a LDO. Possible applications include handheld

Robot Controllers Programmable Robot Kits

Wiring Robot Controller
· Atmel ATMega 128 INEX MicroCamp Mega8
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· The Wiring Programming Language · No soldering required
· Supports In-system Programming via ISP connector
The Wiring language provides a simplified subset of
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classes, objects, pointers (while still making them Includes eveything you need to build a simple mobile
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More New Products on the way! devices with little or no prior electronics knowledge.
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Kit $37.95 / Assembled $41.95 $89.95
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20 SERVO 11.2007
Nov07NewProd.qxd 10/10/2007 4:57 PM Page 21
medical, consumer, and industrial electronic devices that
require power management and SMPS technology, with a
focus on battery charging. Examples include intelligent
power supplies, smart battery chargers, RF remote
devices, handheld scanners, parallel power supplies, and
AC power factor correction.
For further information, please contact:
Microchip Website: www.microchip.com
MOTOR CONTROLLERS
Robot Controller
Board That Does it All
E fficient Computer Systems, LLC
announces the BOTLOGIC Controller.
This 4 x 6 inch board controls up to 32
RC servos; 24 of these servo channels
have load sensing circuitry to allow
robots to detect the amount of force
being applied by each servo. This servo
feedback will help a robot sense when
a leg has touched the ground, as well
as how much of the robot’s weight is
New Products
on each leg. When used with a gripper, it will help
detect when the gripper has touched an object and
how much force the gripper is actually applying to an
object. Twenty user inputs are available for connecting
to bumper switches or other sensors, allowing your
robot to explore its environment. Also on-board is a three-
axis accelerometer which is perfect for today’s balancing
BOTs. The built-in SD card interface can be used for load-
ing new programs into the robot, as well as storing data
and sound files to use with the built-in audio recording
and playback circuitry. User messages or diagnostic data
can be displayed on the 2 x 16 character LCD. High
current LED drivers can deliver power to up to six
externally mounted high brightness LEDs to illuminate the
environment, show system status, or just look cool. The
three two-amp solenoid drivers can be used to power
accessories such as motors or fans. The daughterboard
connector allows for future expansion or custom
add-on features.
Control your robot with the optional wireless
interface to a PC or through most wireless/wired
Playstation 2 Gamepad controllers. Development tools
are available for both Basic and C.
For further information, please contact:
Efficient Computer Website: www.BOTdeveloper.com
Systems, LLC
SERVO 11.2007 21
CombatZone.qxd 10/9/2007 10:28 AM Page 22

Featured This Month

Participation
22 Being a Safety Jerk
by Kevin Berry The December edition of Combat
Zone will be “All Armor.” We
solicited articles from builders across
23 Rules for First Time the spectrum, from antweights to
Participants by Kevin Berry superheavies, from newer builders
to seasoned pros. Like our “Welding
Feature Special” and “Heavy Power”
editions, this is intended to be a
23 Updating the British Fleet resource for builders who want to
by James Baker create tougher, nastier bots. Which
is really what the sport is all about! — Kevin Berry

Technical Knowledge
26 Building a Lightweight
Launch Bot by Chad New
PARTICIPATI N
Events Being a Safety Jerk
25 Results — Aug 11 - Sep 11 ● by Kevin Berry
27 Upcoming — Nov & Dec
I n my opinion, there is no
tougher job at an event than
being the Safety Officer (except
for Event Organizer, that is).
Most of the builders are your
friends, they’ve worked hard to
get ready, and are very posses-
sive of their designs. You — as
the person in charge of keep-
ing people from getting hurt
— have a real responsibility
to do the right thing.
The first step when
asked to be a Safety
Officer is to have a discus-
sion with the EO. You
need to understand their
tolerance for “gray areas” in
the rules. For example, if the rule
says a bot must “spin down” in 30
seconds, what do you do with a
“33 second” bot? Do you insist
they meet the 30 seconds, are
you allowed to use judgement,
or do you refer this to the
EO? Understanding the rules of
engagement is an important step
in avoiding misunderstandings.
The next step is to communi-
cate with the participants ahead
of time, if possible. Let them know
you are going to be tough on
enforcement, so they aren’t
surprised during check-in. EOs
vary widely on safety, so someone
coming from an “easy” event to a

22 SERVO 11.2007
CombatZone.qxd 10/9/2007 10:28 AM Page 23
“tough” one might be shocked or
angry if they are denied entry.
The final step during actual
safety checks is to make sure to be
calm, level-headed, and non-involved.
That means making the rules the bad
guy, not the Safety Officer. “I’d like
to overlook that weapon twitch, but
the rules say ‘no movement,’ and it’s
underlined, so you’re going to have
Rules for First Time Participants
S tarting in any new sport, club,
or activity brings with it some
uncertainty, hesitancy, or just plain
lack of knowledge. Robot combat is
certainly the same way, especially
when coupled with the concept of
instant destruction of your hard-built,
first creation!
Like anything in life, the best
approach is a combination of humble
demeanor and regular, thoughtful
questioning. Veteran builders
represent a cross section of society:
from casual participants to intense
competitors; tolerant to impatient;
non-technical to deeply specialized.
No matter how tolerant or patient,
nobody wants to reply to a post or
email like this one: “I want to build a
robot and I don’t know how. What
UPDATING THE
BRITISH FLEET
Evolution of a Rob t Army
● by James Baker
A s in the USA, the sport of robot
combat lives on in the UK,
despite the continued absence of
newly televised events on the scale of
Robot Wars and Battlebots. This
sport survives only for the efforts of
those few dedicated event organiz-
ers. On both sides of the Atlantic,
to fix it.” Another tack is personal,
but not threatening. “If you or
someone else gets hurt, I’m going to
feel terrible about it, even if you say
it’s not my fault. Let’s work together
to fix that.”
Sooner or later, though, you are
going to have to “86” a bot. Before
I do that, I consult with the EO,
even if we have reached an earlier
● by Kevin Berry
do I do?” The first answer to this
type of question is “do the research!”
There are several good books, many
team and club websites, and locators
for nearby competitions that are
available to first time builders.
Next, lay out a design. Even if
you aren’t sure exactly what you are
doing, give it a try. Builders are much
more likely to give advice if it’s in
context of a potentially buildable bot,
rather than a mythical dream
machine. “I laid out this bot using
the Whyachi gearboxes, but I really
can’t afford them. Anyone got
experience with less expensive
alternatives like modified HF drill
motors?” This kind of question will
be much better received and — more
importantly — get a better answer.
these events sustain robot
combat. In turn, it is the
robot builder and their
machines that sustain the
event organizers and their
A selection of robots from the
Xbotz fleet. The current update
aims to use just two speed
controller types across all
of the robots.
understanding. Good will is 90% of
running an event, and spending the
EO’s good will ought to involve them.
In the long run, out of the frenzy and
emotion of an event, it’s easy to see
that if the rules are known, builders
should follow them, and our sport
prides itself on a clean safety record.
No builders, staff, or spectators hurt.
Period. SV
Builders are busy people and really
don’t want to spend a lot of
time educating people who won’t do
their homework.
Finally, try to meet some builders
in person. Sure, we’d all like to take a
bot to our first event, but maybe
a better approach is to go as a
volunteer, get access to the pits,
spend time with participants, and
learn, learn, learn! There has never
been an event held that has had
enough willing hands, skilled or not.
I know after getting eliminated
in the very first fight of a three
day event, my son and I spent
the next two sweeping the box
and wrangling bots, and had a
hugely successful introduction to
the sport. SV
SERVO 11.2007 23
CombatZone.qxd 10/9/2007 11:15 AM Page 24
The 30 lb robot “Bug” with electric grabber,
uses a Scorpion XL for drive and an
Mtroniks Viper for the grabber.
events. The more combat robots
available to event organizers, the
stronger our sport becomes.
My teammates and I (Team
Xbotz) keep a robot battle fleet big-
ger than most, but as in the military,
even the biggest fleet needs to be
kept up-to-date and at the sharp
edge to survive.
The Xbotz fleet has been
fighting regularly for a couple of
years now, and to be honest, are
starting to look very tired. The
technology they use is now seven
years old in some cases, so a major
Our 220 lb robot “Wheely Big Cheese” with
250 lb driver James Baker. This robot lost
five lbs just by swapping to a Sidewinder.
24 SERVO 11.2007
“Wheely Big Cheese” climbs
the fence at a school science fair.
update of all the robots is now being
undertaken. This article hopes to give
a little insight into the efforts of one
team to stay competitive, but also
practical, as running an active fleet
this big is a huge drain on time and
resources, but I personally think it is
really worth it. We are still building
new machines, as well.
For whatever reason, be it arena
configuration, available components,
or a wider statement of national
stereotypes, the past has shown that
the majority of British robots lacked
the horsepower of their American
cousins, relying instead on good
control and agility to bring their
weapons to bear, but leaving them
visibly slower.
By far, the most popular drive
solution for robot combat in the UK
was the Bosch 750 watt, 24V motor
with 4QD speed controllers. This was
a good solution for us, and it was
rare to see someone successfully
use more powerful drive systems.
All of the currently active Xbotz
heavyweight robots originally used
4QD speed controllers.
It is a big job to completely
overhaul a heavyweight fighting
robot, but to update a whole fleet
The 30 lb robot “Tantrum” uses NiMH
batteries and a Scorpion XL for drive, with
separate NiCd cells for the weapon motor.
Our 60 lb walking artbot “Venom” with
electric crushing pincers uses a single
Robot Power Scorpion XL and R/C switchers.
of heavyweights, featherweights,
hobby weights, and artbots within a
realistic timescale and budget
required a very clear decision-making
process. We decided that the
upgrades must all be reliable; easy to
use; offer a packaging, weight, or
size advantage; and be good value
for the money. We also decided
that logistically, having all the robots
on common components where
possible would be a huge advantage.
This is mainly so we can carry fewer
spares.
First upgrades on the list were
chassis, armor, and weapons, but
those subjects are a whole other
article, so we can skip those for now.
Second on the list were drive sys-
tems — namely motors, gearboxes,
batteries, and speed controllers. The
wheels are fine as they are.
All the robots have good, well-
proven drive systems already, so
rather than change the motors and
gearboxes, it made more sense to us
to update the speed controllers and
batteries only.
Speed controllers are one area
of your robot you must get right, or
you will always struggle in the arena.
We did not want to take advice and
Our other 220 lb robot “Edgehog” has swapped
4QD speed control and Hawker batteries for a
Robot Power Sidewinder and NiCd cells, saving
over 20 lbs. This was used for extra armor.
CombatZone.qxd 10/9/2007 10:28 AM
Another 220 lb robot “Carnage” uses a Robot
Power Sidewinder for both drive motors and
another for both weapon motors. The Lead
Acid batteries have been replaced with NiCd
packs, saving 10 lbs.
then regret it later, so we tried sever-
al controllers’ head to head. I was so
impressed with one particular speed
controller; I became the European
agent for the company that makes
them. The Robot Power Sidewinder
looked really good on paper, and
during testing it exceeded our require-
ments by a long way, so we now
use them in all of our heavyweights
and one of the featherweights.
We had a similar experience with
the smaller bots, identifying the
Robot Power Scorpion XL as — by far
— the best controller for all of the
sub-30 lb machines, and the artbots,
except one. We used a Robot Power
Scorpion XXL (a modified XL) for this
one robot, as it needed the extra
power the XXL offers.
The Robot Power Sidewinder
was the mainstay of the UK champi-
onships this year, stepping in to
keep many robots running when
their regular controllers failed. One
key feature to this was that the speed
controller being removed from a
robot was always bigger than
the Robot Power option, so it
always fit. The space saved in our
RESULTS — August 11th - September 11th
R obot Battles held their annual
Labor Day event at Dragon*con
in Atlanta, GA. Results were not
available at press time, but will be
featured in an upcoming issue. Go to
www.robotbattles.com for more
information.
T he UK Heavyweight
Championships, presented by
Roaming Robots, were held August
Page 25
axe-bot Edgehog was unbelievable;
swapping a laptop-sized electronics
box for something so small gave us
room to make much needed weapon
modifications.
Batteries are also an area where
you cannot afford to get it wrong or
your robot is going to struggle. All
Xbotz heavyweights ran Hawker
sealed lead acid batteries prior to the
overhaul, which always served us
well, but a switch to nickel cadmium
cells was an easy upgrade, allowing
us to lose weight and gain voltage.
Two of the smaller bots now use
these also, with the remainder of the
fleet running nickel metal hydride
cells. We considered lithium based
power, but decided on the NiMH
mainly because of the lower cost.
Our third area to look at was
radio control. All Xbotz robots use
40 MHz Futaba systems, and we
EVENTS
28th-31st at Haven Hafan y Môr
Holiday Park, North Wales. Go to
www.roamingrobots.co.uk for more
information. Results are as follows:
● Heavyweight — 1st: Big Nipper; 2nd:
Terrorhurtz; 3rd: Iron Awe 5.
● Annihilator — Tilly Ewe 2.
A Scorpion XL is at the heart (literally)
of our 30 lb artbot “Hellraiser.”
saw no reason to change that. The
new 2.4 GHz technology is very
impressive, but the 40 MHz
equipment has always done the job
for us, so the money was better
spent elsewhere.
The updates to the fleet are
progressing well, with the robots done
to date showing improved speed and
agility. Wheely Big Cheese, for
example, is completely transformed.
The whole Xbotz army of robots will
be updated before the 2008 season
starts, with detailed information
about each robot, and each event we
attend available on our website
(www.xbotz.com) plus an online
shop for European builders, thanks
to www.leafish.co.uk.
See www.robotcombat.com
or www.robotpower.com for infor-
mation about the speed controllers
we use at Team Xbotz. SV
● Featherweight — Little Flipper 2.
R obots Live presented a show on
September 1st-2nd
Sportspace Hemel Hempstead. Team
at
Wind Power took home 1st place
in the Feathers and Heavies, and
Team Big Nipper took home 2nd
in both weight classes. Go to
www.robotslive.co.uk for more
information. SV
SERVO 11.2007 25
CombatZone.qxd 10/9/2007 10:29 AM Page 26
TECHNICAL KN WLEDGE
Building a Lightweight Launch Bot
T hese days, it seems that the
trend within combat robotics is
for people to build two basic types of
robots. They are either a super
powerful KE spinner which tries to
destroy everything in its path or
super tough wedge type robots
made to withstand the punishment
from the spinning robots. Some
robots will deviate from this trend,
but for the most part, the majority
fall into these categories.
In the half dozen years that I
have been involved with this sport, I
have mainly built sub-light robots,
which are robots that are less than
30 pounds. I have always wanted to
build a pneumatic robot capable of
launching another robot into the
roof; however, due to the weight
restrictions on the sub-light classes, I
was never able to build a robot that
could achieve my goal.
One day after seeing videos
PHOTO 1. After many
weeks of design,
the final CAD
emerged.
26 SERVO 11.2007
● by Chad New
of various UK pneumatic robots, I
decided it was time to build a full size
60 pound lightweight robot. This
robot would be something different
than the norm; a robot that could
(hopefully) take the abuse from
the powerful KE robots and send
the wedge type robots flying out of
the arena.
In this build report, I will give
a description of how my 60
pound ‘launch bot’ “Rocket” became
a reality.
The Design
In today’s game, there are many
robots that wield weapons that
can destroy an opponent in short
order, especially in the lightweight
class. For this reason, I enlisted the
help of my friend Bryan Ruddy to
help me CAD and design this
robot. After much talking, we agreed
on a list of things that had
to be achieved for this robot to
be successful.
We both agreed that the
robot should be centered on the
flipping system, be highly maneu-
verable, have an armor system
which could stand up to the
tough KE robots, and — most
importantly — be able to shoot an
opponent to the roof! After a few
weeks of CADing, this is
what we came up with
(Photo 1).
Drive
The drive on Rocket
uses four BaneBot 42 mm
16:1 (www.banebots.
com) gear motors
upgraded with the 775
PHOTO 2. Parts cut and systems
installed, the frame is now ready
for wiring and final assembly.
sized motor. This drive package
mounted to 3” wheels gives a great
balance of speed and pushing
power. Also, the placement of the
motors and shape of the base
plate were designed for optimal
maneuvering and to eliminate
scrubbing of the wheels. When
mounted correctly, I have found the
BaneBot units to be very durable and
work extremely well.
Armor
Other than the pneumatic
system, the armor arrangement is my
favorite part of this robot. It was
designed to take and repel the
attacks from other robots, as well as
facilitate self-righting by letting the
arm contact the ground at all times.
All of the sides are sloped in order to
reduce the amount of surface area
that other robots might be able to
get a hit on. The armor is very
low to the ground making it difficult
for vertical spinning robots to grip
and damage.
Also, the armor is mounted to
the base plate on a system of custom
rubberized shock mounts which
allow the armor shell to move and
somewhat flex when hit. Made from
1/8” titanium, the shell is extremely
durable and has also been designed
to allow various attachments to be
added, depending on the opposing
robot; all of which have yet to
be debuted.
Electronics
Rocket utilizes some of the best
electronics available in order to free
up weight and improve durability.
Control is handled by the new
Airtronics M11 2.4 GHz system
(www.airtronics.net) which they
CombatZone.qxd 10/9/2007 2:44 PM Page 27

modified for me by adding a PHOTO 4. The

button which can be pressed armor mocked up
onto the frame
when I want the flipping arm ready to be sent
for welding.
to be activated. This button
allows me to focus on driving
the robot while giving the flip-
ping control to a team mate.
The battery is a 5,000
mAh 14.8V Li-Poly made by
Thunder Power (www.thun PHOTO 3. Rocket putting the
derpowerrc.com). This pack LW wedge ‘Homer’ into orbit.
was able to free up a lot of
weight, allowing a better distribution paintball tanks, also with an inline robot able to right itself. I believe that
for other items. The speed control is buffer tank to allow for gas expan- once I fix this problem, Rocket will be
Robot Power Sidewinder; which may sion. This arrangement gives Rocket a serious contender in the lightweight
be overkill; however, it gets the job over 20 shots at getting its opponent class. I also hope that by building an
done well. The guys down at out of the arena. With the massive exciting pneumatic robot, it will spur
BaneBots built and designed me a amount of force that this system interest in other types of robots, not
custom voltage booster/timed switch produces, the arms were made from just the powerful KE spinners and
to operate the valve for the cylinder. .6” titanium with a .5” S7 steel push- brick wedges. I strongly encourage
The valve requires very high voltage ing plate. Overall, I believe this to be everyone to go after their goals
and only needs to be open for a one of the best and toughest flipping because you never know what might
fraction of a second; this device takes systems in the lightweight class. come out of them! SV
care of that task.
Conclusion
Flipper
After Rocket’s first event at
The flipping system uses a RoboGames 2007, I found a flaw
custom-made pneumatic cylinder in the design where the armor will
capable of withstanding C02 at rub against the arm when invert-
pressures greater than 800 ed, thus not allowing the arm to
PSI. Activation of this cylinder is retract into the body making the
controlled by a large solenoid valve.
PHOTO 5. Shined up and with new
Feeding this system is two 20 oz stickers, Rocket, ready for its first event.

EVENTS
UPCOMING — November and December

H ORD Fall
2007 will
be presented
their website at www.ohiorobot
club.org.
Hadden Sports Complex December
1st in Nottingham, England. Go to
www.roamingrobots.co.uk for
by the Ohio
Robot Club in R oaming Robots will present an
event at the Maidstone Leisure
more details.

Brecksville, OH
on November
3rd. This event is for Fairy, Ant, and
Centre in Kent, England, on
November 24th, and at the Harvey R oboChallenge will present their
Thinktank Christmas Special
December 28th-29th in Birmingham,
Beetle weight combat robots. It will England. Go to www.robochalle
be held at the Cuyahoga Valley nge.co.uk for more details. SV
Career Center (CVCC) (south east of
Cleveland). For complete details
including rules, safety forms, release
forms, maps, and local hotels, see

SERVO 11.2007 27
Cieslak.qxd 10/9/2007 11:25 AM Page 28

AUTOFLEX 2.0
New and Improved Autonomous
Programming Tool for FIRST Robots
by Brian Cieslak

I
n the March ‘06 issue
of SERVO Magazine, I
introduced you to a
program called AutoFlex — a
tool used for developing
autonomous routines for FRC
(First Robotics Competition)
robot controllers.

The program was created by

members of FRC Team 1675 when
they realized that they were going to
the FIRST (For Inspiration and
Recognition of Science and
Technology) National Championships
in Atlanta, GA without any
autonomous functionality for their
robot. Without having access to the
robot until the event, they needed a
way to quickly program the robot
to perform some task during the
autonomous period. The solution was
to create a program that would allow
the team’s driver to teach the robot
what it had to do during the
autonomous period by recording the
driver’s commands as he drove
through the autonomous routine.
Training took place on the practice
field before the matches started.
At the beginning of the match, the
robot would repeat the commands
that it was taught.
In 2005 during the Triple play
competition, the robot scored two
tetras during each autonomous
period. During the 2006 Aim High
competition, the robot could drive
Photos courtesy of FRC Team 1675 —
The Ultimate Protection Squad.
28 SERVO 11.2007
up to the goal and shoot an entire
magazine of balls through the hole
(most of the time).
The original program was a little
cumbersome and complicated to use.
While the driver commanded the
robot through the routine that was
to be recorded and then played it
back during the autonomous mode,
a programmer — with a laptop
connected to the robot via a serial
cable — chased (or was chased by) the
robot as he captured data. The
data then had to be loaded into a
file and the whole program was
recompiled and reloaded into the
robot. From the sidelines, this was fun
to watch, but those actually involved
in the process were often quite
stressed and in peril.
Autoflex has been simplified and
updated to version 2.0 to take
advantage of the internal EEPROM
memory available in the FRC robot
controller. Commands are now written
directly to the EEPROM memory. No
FIGURE 1. Team 1675’s first robot
programmed with Autoflex for the
FIRST Triple Play competition would
know one tetra from the goal and
cap the second during the
autonomous period.
more laptops and cables, editing data,
and reprogramming. Programmer
stress levels have been greatly reduced!
Imagine This!
During practice, you set your
robot on the playing field, click a
button on the operator interface and
start driving. Then you set your robot
back to the starting point, connect a
dongle to the competition port of the
operator interface and flip the dongle
switch to autonomous and the robot
will replay the practice session you
just recorded. Don’t like what you
see? Just reset the dongle switch
back to the off position and just click
the program button again to re-record
another session until you get it
right. Neat, eh?? Your robot is
Cieslak.qxd 10/9/2007 11:25 AM Page 29
ready to run during the autonomous
period, all in about 15 minutes.
Getting Started
A .zip file can be downloaded
from the FRC Team 1675 website (see
Web Links sidebar) that includes a
version of the FRC default code with
AutoFlex included. I/O mapping for the
default program is as follows:
Joystick 1 - Y axis to PWM_1
Joystick 2 - Y axis to PWM_2
Joystick 1 - X axis to PWM_5
Joystick 2 - X axis to PWM_6
Set your robot to program mode
and download the FRCAutoFlex.hex file
using the IFIdownloader program
available from the IFI website (www.
ifirobotics.com).
Attach a programming dongle to
the competition port of the operator
interface (instructions on how to make
your own are also available from the IFI
website) and set the autonomous
switch to the open position. You are
now ready to start programming
your robot for autonomous operation.
The FRCAutoFlexCode.hex program
records four inputs: joystick 1 x-axis,
joystick 1 y-axis, joystick 2 x-axis, and
joystick 2 y-axis.
Click the trigger on the port 1
joystick to start recording. You now
have 15 seconds to drive through your
autonomous routine. After 15 seconds,
the robot stops recording commands
even though it lets you keep driving.
To replay what you just recorded,
‘close’ the autonomous switch on the
dongle. Watch out! Your robot will
start to execute the code you just
recorded. The robot will play 15
seconds of commands and then
stop until you open the autonomous
switch again.
Once you are satisfied with the
autonomous routine you’ve recorded,
place a jumper on the ‘digital
input 1’ pins. This write protects
your autonomous program
from being accidentally erased
if you click the trigger while
driving around.
That’s the basic operation.
Now you are an
expert.
For the
Beginning
FIRST
Programmer
If you are just
learning to program
a FIRST robot, a
sample project that
FIGURE 2
is fully functional is
included in the zip
file you can download from the Team shown in Figure 2. Also add the
1675 website that can serve as a tem- #include”AutoFlex.h statement at the
plate to get you started. The program- beginning of the file.
ming kit that comes with your robot
includes a disk with the MPLAB-IDE 3) Open the user_routines.c file. Add a
programming environment and the call to the function autoflex_recorder()
C18-Complier Version 2.4, as well as to the Process_Data_From_ Master_
the downloader program. You will uP() function as shown in Figure 3.
need these tools to compile and down- Also add the #include”AutoFlex.h”
load your program to the robot. statement at the beginning of the file.
Adding Autoflex to 4) Open the main.c file. Add a call to
Your Existing Code the function rewind_autoflex_
playback() to the main()function as
Adding AutoFlex to your existing shown in Figure 5. Also add the
code is simple if all the calls to your #include"AutoFlex.h" statement at the
control functions (motor control, beginning of the file.
manipulator arm, etc.) are made from
the Default_Routine() function found FIGURE 4. Team 1675’s Aim High robot
in the User_Routines.c file. would drive up to the goal and shoot
You must do the following (refer most of its 10 balls through the hole.
to the sample code provided):
1) Copy the following files to your
project folder, then open MPLAB and
add them to your project:
a) AutoFlex.c
b) Autoflex.h
c VEX_eeprom.c
d) VEX_eeprom.h
2) Open the user_routines_fast.c
file. Add a call to the function
autoflex_playback() to the user_
autonomous_code() function as
FIGURE 3
SERVO 11.2007 29
Cieslak.qxd 10/9/2007 11:25 AM Page 30
FIGURE 5
5) Configure Autoflex.h to reflect your
robot system. Sections that you
may want to consider changing include
the following:
a) Determine how many inputs you
want to capture and which ones.
//add defines here to assign
//commands to user controls that
// you want record/
#define AUTO_COMMAND1 p1_x
//left Joystick x
#define AUTO_COMMAND2 p1_y
//left Joystick y
#define AUTO_COMMAND3 p2_y
//right joystick y
#define AUTO_COMMAND4 p2_x
//right joystick x
//#define AUTO_COMMAND5
//uncomment to add another input
//#define AUTO_COMMAND6
//uncomment to add another input
// Number of inputs we plan to
//record
// Default is set up to save 4 inputs.
//You can save up to 6
// inputs. You can define two auto
//command lines above.
// then change the number of
FIGURE 6. Autoflex was used to program
a large claw-like manipulator during the
autonomous period at the beginning
of the Rack-n-Roll competiton.
30 SERVO 11.2007
Web Links
For Autoflex files
http://team1675.com/
teamdownload.html
For competition
port dongle
www.ifirobotics.com/
oi.shtml
//inputs on the line below.
#define NUM_OF_INPUTS 4i
b) You can determine what you want
to use as the ‘Record Button.’ The
default is port 1 trigger Button.
//define the mechanism that will
//act as the record button.
//In this example port trigger is a
//button on the OI.
// that you would press to the
//forward position to start recording
#define \
AUTO_BUTTON_REV_THRESH \
(unsigned char)100 // used by Vex
#define \
AUTO_BUTTON_FWD_THRESH \
(unsigned char)154 // used by Vex
#define \
AUTO_NEUTRAL_PWM_VALUE \
(unsigned char)127
#define AUTO_RECORD (p1_sw_trig)
//port_1 trigger to start recording
c) You can adjust the length of time
you want to record commands by
changing the TIME_LIMIT value.
Default is 150 tenths of a second
(or 15 seconds). The maximum value
of TIME_LIMIT depends on the
number of inputs you are trying
to save. The max number of
command values that can be saved
is 1,024. To determine the max time
available, use the following formula
Contact the Author
Brian Cieslak is a mentor for FIRST
Team 1675, The Ultimate Protection
Squad. He can be contacted via
email at K9WIS@yahoo.com.
(1024/ number_of_inputs) - 1 =
max_tenths_of_seconds. For exam-
ple: (1024/4 inputs)-1 = 255, so
TIME_LIMIT could be set to 255
tenths_of_seconds. (25.5 seconds).
// The length of the autonomous
routine in tenths of seconds
#define TIME_LIMIT 150
d) You can assign which digital port
you want to use for your WRITE_
PROTECT jumper. If you don’t want
to write protect your autonomous
code or you have used up all your
digital ports, re-define WRITE_
PROTECT to ‘1.’
// if jumper in place then do not
//record (assuming jumper pulls pin
//low)
#define WRITE_PROTECT \
(rc_dig_in01)
e) Since an FRC robot uses a
longer timing interval than VEX
robots during autonomous opera-
tion, uncomment the #define FRC 1
line to adjust the timing if you are
adding Autoflex to a FRC robot.
No More Excuses
to Sit Idle!
When I attended FIRST Regional
competitions in Milwaukee, WI and
Cleveland, OH and the FIRST National
Championship in Atlanta, I was
surprised by how many robots sat idle
during the autonomous segment of
the match. Our team started touting
the benefits and simplicity of the
Autoflex program there and enabled
several teams to compete during that
15 second period at the beginning of
the match. Even sending the robot out
to a defensive position is better than
just sitting there.
I do want to emphasize, though,
that Autoflex is not a substitute for a
well thought out autonomous program
that uses sensors and feedback
algorithms. To be truly autonomous,
the robot must be aware of and react
to its environment. So programmers,
you are not off the hook.
See you in the ‘Pits.’ SV
ShowcaseNov07.qxd 10/10/2007 6:15 PM Page 31

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SERVO 11.2007 31
Duesing.qxd 10/10/2007 12:33 PM Page 32
A look inside the
mechanics of combat robots
by Brett Duesing, Strategic Research
W
hat gratitude could you
feel for these ruthless
gladiators — these
brutish, soulless beasts who
breathe fire, wield axes, and ram
each other until one of them lies
dismembered?
Combat robots undoubtedly
satisfy a deep boyish urge to wreck
stuff. But a closer look into the
sport of combat robotics reveals
something more. The escalating
war of robots produces some
surprising spoils. As you enter a
technological future dominated by
satellites, wireless gadgets, and
hybrid cars, you may have these
evil-natured robots to thank.
Life After BattleBots
The sport of combat robotics first
entered the public consciousness
through the BattleBots show on
Comedy Central, which aired five
tournaments from 2000 to 2002.
32 SERVO 11.2007
“As far as the
sport goes, some robot
builders argue whether not being on
TV anymore is good or bad,” says Billy
Moon, leader of Team Moon Robotics.
“On one hand, the show gave the
sport a lot of recognition. No matter
where we go, inevitably people have
seen one of those shows.”
The sport received so much
attention that it briefly became a piece
of pop-culture currency. The trappings
of BattleBots — the glitzy graphics and
overexcited announcer commentary —
also gave the broadcast a veneer
of manufactured hype. During the
show’s reign, fighting robots were
parodied on The Simpsons and the
Tonight Show.
In the five years since the last
BattleBots aired, much has changed
about bot bouts. The events organized
under the new national Robotic
Fighting League (RFL) are austere
and down-to-business. Design and
strategy has taken center stage.
“I think overall it’s been good to be
out of the spotlight,” says Moon. “It’s
eliminated the people who just wanted
to get on TV. It’s let the sport progress
the way it should.”
Moon started building robots for
himself when he was only 10. Now, at
the age of 46, he works at Cisco
Systems as a Distinguished Engineer,
the highest rank of technical
professional. Only a couple of
dozen multi-disciplined “Ninja-Class”
engineers work for the firm, taking on
special projects that require the most
out-of-the-box solutions. During his
professional career, Moon has created
more than 200 new patents, at an
average rate of one every six weeks.
Moon is also a popular guy in the
Duesing.qxd 10/10/2007 8:48 AM Page 33

office on “Bring your Kid to Work Day,”

when he will bring in many of his
team’s remote-controlled creations
for a parking lot demonstration.
Weekends are spent building and
fighting robots with the rest of Team
Moon, a small coterie of family
members and engineering colleagues.
Team Moon began competing
in combat robots six years ago, at
the height of the BattleBots craze. Its
early heavyweight robot, Vladinator,
dominated many of the televised
tournaments. Now active in the larger
and independent RFL, as well as
the yearly (untelevised) BattleBots The Team Moon robot fleet.
contest, Team Moon operates about engineering software, digitally simulat-
a half dozen robots competitively, ed, and CNC cut. of CNC can be likened to the first per-
each ranking near the top of their sonal computers, where the technolo-
weight class. The Devil’s Workshop gy finally became practical for an indi-
Most contests are double elimina- “What’s nice about robotics is that vidual in cost, size, and performance.
tion tournaments of three-minute it’s a full system: mechanical, electronic, And with the advent of easy-to-use
bouts, where two robots of the same and artificial intelligence,” Moon says. CAM (the software which converts
weight class fight to disable each other. “You have to know a little bit of CAD files into machine cutting paths),
The operator controls include a “tap- everything when you’re building a CNC technology is becoming closer
out” button for when the operator robot, and that to me is very satisfying.” in practice to just sending a Word
wishes to surrender the match and For robot builders fascinated document over to a printer. Of course,
save its fighter from further damage with performance, strength, power, in this case, the printer is carving out
or humiliation. Most fights end with mechanical motion, and the grating three-dimensional steel parts.
this forfeit button, where one robot sound of metal-on-metal it is appropri- “I’m far from being a machinist
obviously dominates. ate that the most advanced addition to myself,” admits Moon. “The Tormach is
If the three-minute bell rings, their workshop is, in a sense, a robot an excellent example on how easy CNC
judges award points to the contenders itself — a robot that uses mechanicals, machining is getting. If we can use it,
based on aggression, strategy, and electronics, and programming. then anyone can do it. The technology
damage. Typically, it takes two people The biggest addition to the Moon the way it is now, it’s very affordable
per robot to steer the action with workroom has been a CNC mill, which compared to taking your parts to a
radio controls — one to drive the bot cuts metal pieces automatically from machine shop every time.” In contrast
around the rink, and the other to fire the computerized part models. Moon to factory-sized CNC mills that bottom
its weapons. purchased one of the first “personal out at around $30,000, the PCNC 1100
Weapons on super-heavy weight CNC” machines on the market. The costs under $7,000.
robots (around 340 lbs) are not kidding new mill, put out by Tormach, Inc., is “My older boy actually took in a
around anymore. In a three-minute able to precision-cut the thick titanium weeks’ course over the summer to do
match, the offensive maneuvers — armor, but is smaller and more afford- the CAM programming using a
consisting of kinetic thrusts, spinning able than the historically huge factory software package called CAMWorks,”
blades, or bursts of flame — push out equipment. The “personal” in the trend
up to 200,000 joules of energy, Team Moon wooden design models.
pumping from 2,000 amp, 30 volt
reserves of electric power.
“You might think a good armor
would be 1/4 inch thick 4130 or 4340
steel,” says Moon. “Most weapons
now will cut through that like butter.”
Since the sport has left the TV
spotlight, more responsive engines and
more sinister hardware have emerged.
The top competing machines are
now developed through advanced
SERVO 11.2007 33
Duesing.qxd 10/10/2007 8:49 AM Page 34
Team Moon’s ax-wielding Eugene
fights the spinning menance called
the Shrederator, designed by Team
LOGICOM. The matchup creates
sparks as the two combat robots
contend for the 2006 national heavy-
weight title of the Robot Fighting
League. Photo courtesy of Sam Kronick.
says Moon. “He’s interested enough
that he’s actually making a few parts
on the Tormach machine, which is an
amazing thing to do for a high school
kid. My objective for getting him to use
tools has surpassed my expectations.”
Robots Making Robots
Six years ago, a Team Moon robot
34 SERVO 11.2007
A robot named Goosfraba
utilizes a flame-thrower as
part of its arsenal. A larger-
sized combat bot can exert
as much as 200,000 Joules of
energy during a single three-
minute bout. Photo courtesy
of Sam Kronick.
began as a cardboard
model, then a wooden one.
The physical prototypes
were tested and tweaked
manually, before the metal
parts were finally fabricated.
“It took us about a year to
design it and about six
months to build it, because
we had to do so much stuff
by hand.”
Now, the shop can push
out the most modern
machines in half the time,
thanks to an automated
design process that is in
many ways more advanced
than that of some commer-
cial manufacturers. Robots
are now fully designed in SolidWorks, a
3D solid modeler. For his newest cre-
ation — called Eugene — Moon used a
mechanical simulation software
(Cosmos) for various mechanical parts,
like stress analysis of the assembly, or
repair exercises, which used volumetric
data to ensure clearances inside the
machine for different sizes of tools.
The majority of the robot parts are
very complex in construction, having a
lot of curves and circles that bend in
more than two dimensions. “For our
purposes, we would benefit from
having a CNC machine where we could
CAM these difficult shapes, where the
machine would do a lot of the
thinking, rather than trying to do
it manually. The Tormach was a
really good choice for us
because it was specifically
designed for CNC, whereas a lot
of smaller mills are conversions
of a manual machine. There’s a
lot more you can do from
day one with a mill that is set up
for CNC.”
Despite its small size, the
one-ton Tormach mill maintains
Billy Moon and his son Will
working on Star Hawk.
its cutting power — enough to craft the
thick titanium armor — due to the
rigidity of its base and table, which are
made of cast iron. The mill’s four-axis
spindle automatically carves the
complicated three-dimensional curves
— ones which would be impossible to
cut by hand — in a matter of minutes.
The high rate of innovation in the
sport of fighting bots can be seen first-
hand in the evolution of pieces on the
mill. Given the ability to make a few
iterations, robot parts and assemblies
evolve into stronger and more effective
devices. In the past, this was impossi-
ble. Complex parts needed to be
ordered at a local machine shop, which
would take a few days or weeks of
waiting. Now that Team Moon can cut
their own parts in the garage, they can
speed up the construction process,
while enhancing the design. At-home
CNC capabilities give the team the
ability to refine the robot design as it
goes along.
“Even two years ago, there were
some parts we had to send to a
machine shop. I made a mistake during
design about the size of the sprocket
for this standard go-cart wheel,” Moon
says. “I’d have this little support piece
on the inside of the sprocket ring to
give a little extra support. In order to
get the piece made at a machine shop,
I really have to order 10 of them
to make it worthwhile, because of the
set-up costs.
“So I’d order 10, get them back,
and the support wasn’t as strong as it
could have been,” Moon recalls. “It’s
just not cost-effective to go make
another one again. I’d just have to live
with it, and remember to change it
next time we ordered parts. Today, I’d
just machine another one. The
Tormach mill gives us quick turnaround
on rework, which has been invaluable.”
The Spoils of Robotic War
Do the rapid innovations seen in
robot construction have any uses
beyond the arena? Given the robots’
warlike disposition, the first thought
that springs to mind might be military
or police applications. According to
Moon, there has been military interest,
particularly in the area of defensive
Duesing.qxd 10/10/2007 8:48 AM Page 35

Will Moon and his friend Patrick

Vanderbee sitting on their bot “The Wall.”
armor. Some in the military have seen
the sport’s potential as a training tool
for both mechanics and strategic
thinking. British Air Force cadets take a
course in building robots and fight
them on the UK bot circuit, the FRA.
The biggest impact of combat
robotics may be in the commercial
realm. “There are a lot of parts we
have designed and we ask manufactur-
ers to build for us, which actually may
have a lot of use for people,” says “There are a number of industries
Moon. “For example, electric motors. very dependent on batteries. Some
We are very demanding on our motors. battery makers have given us
We have the highest packed, highest experimental batteries to test out,”
quality motors money can buy. They Moon says. “The batteries we need for
have to be super rugged, deliver con- our robots are just unbelievable. We Moon and his younger son David
stant power, and be very lightweight. need batteries that we can completely bending some titanium. David is
Five years ago, that was just an odd drain in three minutes. I need to cool using the blow torch and Moon is
operating the press.
request. Today, having a high perform- them down, and then recharge them
ance electric motor is a very interesting within 25 minutes before they go out traditional tools to the next generation,
thing if you’re a manufacturer of again for another three-minute drain. the advanced science of robot war
hybrid cars. What would it take to build We need that level of cycling. Five years imparts kids with the relevant high-tech
a hybrid car? You’d need a lightweight, ago, it was impossible. I have batteries skills for later professional or
high-efficiency electric motor that’s now that can perform like that.” entrepreneurial success: computer
pretty rugged.” “If you can do that with your modeling, CAM programming, and
Because he is an engineer of Ninja battery technology, then you can build CNC machining. Now that these
status, Moon is fortunate enough to power plants for electric cars; you can building technologies have come down
work with suppliers who give him build laptops and cell phones that can to a personal level of use and afford-
test parts in exchange for feedback. charge in a couple minutes and then ability, the future is wide open. SV
Team Moon often gets prototypes of last all day. If the demand is great
early technology that is inaccessible to enough, somebody will build it.” Team Moon Robotics
normal consumers. Whatever the future is for bot-
“There have been a lot of manu- tested technology, the more intangible, Team Moon Robotics is one of the
facturers that we work with closely,” but perhaps greater, impact of the world’s top competitors in robotic
Moon says. “One of them has taken sport may be on future generations. fighting, participating in several events
motors that were first developed by Robots have brought fathers and sons each year. In the 2006 Robot Fighting
combat robots into the wheelchair together, teaching the youth not League Championship, the team
business. Another vendor was in just about competition, but how to placed five robots in the top three of
satellite communications, and needed be mechanically self-reliant. Rather their respective events. The Moon
motors to move the parts on satellites. than the passing on the old skills of family lives in Cary, NC.
Now it has a whole line of
motors, based on what Eugene. Broken Eugene. Photo
they’ve learned from combat courtesy of Sam Kronick.
robots.”
Batteries are also a big
factor in hybrid cars. Any
electric car designed for
practical use has to contend
with limitations of battery
life, reliable power delivery,
and time it takes to recharge
at a stop at the gas station —
or rather, your future road-
side “power plant.”
SERVO 11.2007 35
Eady.qxd 10/9/2007 3:16 PM Page 36

Do You Want it Now?

by Fred Eady
Instant gratification comes in many forms. This
month, instant gratification comes in the guise of a
simple collection of electronic components designed
to provide multiple control input interfaces to a high-
powered miniature linear actuator. For a robomagician
like you, instant gratification is a Firgelli PQ-CIB
controller hooked up to a Firgelli PQ12 linear actuator.

The PQ12 Linear

PHOTO 1. The PQ12 linear actuator is
very compact. It measures 36.5 mm at
its longest extent, 22 mm at it shortest
extent, and is only 22 mm thick. The
maximum extended stroke is 20 mm.
The Firgelli PQ-CIB controller is
designed exclusively to drive the Firgelli
PQ series of miniature linear actuators.
In a previous issue of SERVO, you saw
just how easy it was to build and code
a Firgelli L12 linear actuator driver
hardware module from scratch. Doing
the same for the PQ12 series of linear
actuators is almost effortless, as well.
However, if building electronic devices
from scratch is not in your mechanical-
ly-inclined forte or if you don’t have
time to solder and need a complete
and proven linear actuator platform in
a hurry, the PQ-CIB controller is your
best solution.
In the linear motion discussion
that will follow, we’ll take a look at
the PQ-CIB controller hardware and
firmware. We’ll also perform a preflight
walk-around on the PQ12 miniature
linear actuator. In the course of our
talks and walks, we’ll outline some
PIC-based firmware and some very
basic PIC hardware to drive the
PQ-CIB controller. This article is all
about moving stuff. So, let’s get a
linear move on.
36 SERVO 11.2007
Actuator
The PQ12 linear actuator you see in
Photo 1 is formally known as a PQ12f.
The “f” in the PQ12’s moniker signifies
“high-force.” The high-force PQ12f can
generate a force of 15N when the actu-
ator is moving at 7 mm/s. A peak force
of 18N can be realized when the actua-
tor is moving a bit slower at 6 mm/s.
The PQ12f is more than twice as power-
ful as its faster first cousin the PQ12s.
The “s” here means speedy with the
PQ12’s linear actuator being able to
extend and retract its actuator at 27
mm/s. That’s over twice the maximum
stroke speed of 12 mm/s provided by
the he-man PQ12f. And, by the way, the
forces and speeds I’ve just outlined are
good for both retraction and extension.
The PQ12 linear actuators both
interface to their control circuitry by way
of a Flex-PCB cable. A 1 mm pitch
FFC/FPC connector can be used to
access the PQ12f’s Flex-PCB cable edge
contacts. However, you may also choose
to solder lead wires into the solder holes
of the PQ12’s cable. There’s no reason
to jeopardize your PQ12 Flex-PCB cable
as you can obtain a Hirose FH21 five-pin
1 mm FFC/FPC connector from Digi-Key.
Unless you specialize in wire and
printed circuit board (PCB) interconnects,
the acronyms FFC and FPC are a foreign
language you don’t speak. In a nut shell,
FFC stands for Flat Flexible Cable. FFC
cable consists of thin rectangular copper
conductors that are laminated between
two layers of polyester insulation. A stiff-
ener is attached to the cable end to give it
the strength needed for connector mating
Eady.qxd 10/9/2007 3:17 PM Page 37

PHOTO 2. The integrated battery pack

is designed to be detached from the
controller. The PQ-CIB controller comes
ready to rock out of the box. All you
have to do is add some battery power,
attach a PQ12, and move the slider to
activate the PQ12’s plunger.
and unmating. Due to the way FFC cables
are constructed, they are best suited for
straight one-to-one connections. Then,
there is FPC, or Flexible Printed Circuit,
cable. The idea behind FPC cable is
identical to the FFC cabling concept except the conductors of FFC the position of the
cabling are etched. This makes FFC cabling the choice for custom PQ12f’s actuator.
applications that may also need an odd cabling geometry. These The PQ12f’s actua-
cabling technologies have been around since the 1970s. So, tor drive motor
unless you were born just recently, you’ve seen lots of FPC and requires a power
FFC cables. You just didn’t know what to call them. supply voltage of +5 FIGURE 1. This is pretty simple
Unless we only want to completely extend and completely VDC and draws a maximum stuff for such an accurate
retract the PQ12f’s actuator, we’ll need to have total control current of 250 mA. This and powerful device. With
over how far to allow the actuator to move and complete makes the PQ12f perfect the help from a very fast PIC
microcontroller, we will have
control over which way the PQ12f’s actuator will move. The as a powerful replacement absolutely no problem in
mini-schematic of the PQ12f’s internals shown in Figure 1 tells for +5 VDC hobby servos in keeping up with the position
us that the PQ12f is logically identical to the L12 linear applications that require the of the PQ12f’s plunger.
actuator we talked about in the previous issue of SERVO. That’s hobby servo to emulate a linear actuator.
good in the sense that if you read about the L12, your learning
curve will be zero as far as the operation of the PQ12f is PQ-CIB Controller Overview
concerned. Whether or not you know anything about the
Firgelli L12 linear actuator, it’s rather obvious from Figure 1 The PQ-CIB controller was designed for Firgelli by the BCIT
that the PQ12f’s internal potentiometer is the key to sensing Technology Centre. My PQ-CIB controller is shown in Photo 2.

V+ BATTERY HEADER

R2 R3
1
2
3

10K Q5 Q6 10K
STD30PF03L STD30PF03L SCREW TERMINALS

V+
BATTERY + 6
Q1 Q2 +5VDC RC INPUT 5
IRLML2402 IRLML2402 4-20mA INPUT 4
H1 H3 0-10V INPUT 3
2
C6 R7 1
R4 R5 10K
10K 10K CON2
1.0uF D2

Q3 Q4
IRLR3714 IRLR3714 BAS70 V+ +5VDC
MT1 5
4 IC2
MT2 MCP1700T5002E/TT
H2 H4 3
2 IN OUT
+5VDC 1 LED1 D3
GND

FH21 C2 C5
R6 1.0uF 1.0uF
0.27 ICSP 1N4004
MCLR
1
PGC 2
PGD 3 R12
4 1K
+5VDC IC1 5 NOTES:
1. D3 IS
REVERSE POLARITY PROTECTION DIODE
1 VDD RA0/AN0 13
C1 12
.1uF RA1/AN1
RA2/AN2 11
3 H1
R14 RA4/AN3 RC INPUT
RA5 2
1.0M

4 10 MOTOR FEEDBACK R11 10K

MCLR/Vpp RC0/AN4 4-20mA INPUT
RC1/AN5 9
8 0-10 VOLTS INPUT C3
RC2/AN6 H4 R10 .1uF
RC3/AN7 7
6 H3 249
RC4 H2
RC5 5
+5VDC
14 VSS 10K
R8 10K
PIC16F676 INT EXT
SCHEMATIC 1. There should not
C4 R9
2.2uF 10K be anything here a robobuilder
like you does not understand.
1
2
3

This is simple PICology mixed in

POT SELECT with basic DC motor control.

SERVO 11.2007 37
Eady.qxd 10/9/2007 3:17 PM Page 38
At first glance, the four MOSFETs mount-
ed at the top of the PQ-CIB controller PCB
stand out. I don’t know about you, but to
me they are screaming H-BRIDGE! A look
at Schematic 1 shows us that the PQ-CIB
controller is, in fact, mostly an H-bridge.
Everything else is done with firmware that
resides within the Microchip PIC16F676.
The PQ-CIB controller firmware accepts
4-20 mA, 0-10 VDC, hobby R/C, and 1 kHz
PWM input signals, which all can be used
to move the PQ12’s actuator.
Photo 3 is a reconnaissance view of
the PQ-CIB controller sans battery pack. At
the top left edge of Photo 3, you can see
the FH21 FFC/FPC cable socket. If you
backtrack to Figure 1, you can easily figure
out how the linear actuator FH21 cable
connector is laid out. Pin 1 of the FH21 FFC/FPC is located at
the bottom of the FH21 FFC/FPC cable socket. Note that the
FH21 FFC/FPC cable socket pins out all of the odd numbered
signals on the left and the even numbered signals on the right.
You can check this against the pin layout shown in Figure 1.
The PQ-CIB controller’s PIC16F676 comes prepro-
grammed with the necessary stuff to accept all of the signals
I ran down earlier. However, you’re reading this because you
and I are two peas in a pod. You’ll want to program the
PQ-CIB controller with your own driver firmware eventually.
So, a five-pin PIC programming interface is positioned
directly below the FH21 FFC/FPC cable socket.
All of the various inputs — which are rendered mutually
exclusive by the firmware — are handled at the screw
terminals that lie directly below the five-pin PIC programming
interface. The PQ-CIB controller firmware is continually
scanning the inputs and locks in on the first valid input type
it encounters. Once the PIC16F676’s linear actuator
controller firmware gets a valid input, it reverts to using that
input type exclusively until the PQ-CIB controller is reset.
The PQ-CIB Controller Hardware
Schematic 1 tells the tale. The PQ-CIB controller is an
H-bridge under the control of a PIC16F676. The simple
layout, a socketed PIC16F676, and use of large 1206 SMT
components make the PQ-CIB controller easy to repair, just in
case you happen to accidentally cause the PQ-CIB controller
to release some magic smoke.
The use of firmware to replace hardware is evident in Photo
3. We all know the pitfalls of driving H-bridge configurations
directly. You don’t want to turn on the wrong MOSFETs when
driving a motor. Normally, some sort of gating logic would be
placed between the PIC H-bridge outputs and the MOSFET gates
to prevent the inadvertent activation of the incorrect pair of
MOSFETs. However, the folks at Firgelli and BCIT put together
some firmware to safely drive the PQ12 linear actuators without
the need for the extra PIC-to-MOSFET gate logic.
The portion of the PQ-CIB controller you see in Photo 3 is
designed to be separated from the battery pack for use in a
38 SERVO 11.2007
PHOTO 3. The PQ-CIB controller is perforated
at the battery pack edge to allow you to
separate the battery pack and the main
controller electronics. The idea is to allow
you to use the PQ-CIB controller as a linear
actuator controller out of the box and into
your project.
real-world linear actuator project. Once the
battery pack is jettisoned, the remaining
PQ-CIB controller electronics can be
powered from an external power source.
To obtain external power, we simply move
the jumper from BATTERY to EXT PWR.
You can see this jumper block clearly at the
bottom of Photo 3. The demonstration
potentiometer is also discarded and discon-
nected when the battery pack is separated
from the PQ-CIB controller electronics.
With the demo slider absent, we must
move the POT/EXT jumper to EXT to utilize the 0-10 VDC input.
That’s all we need to say about the PQ-CIB controller
hardware. If you’re a robonewbie and H-bridge sounds like
something from a Latin text book, check out the H-bridge
article that Peter Best did in the July ‘06 issue of SERVO. Let’s
take a scenic tour the PQ-CIB Controller firmware.
The PQ-CIB Controller Firmware
The PQ-CIB controller firmware’s main program loop polls
the three inputs (R/C, 4-20 mA, 0-10V/PWM) and determines
the input type. Once the input type is determined, the
firmware then vectors to the input’s service function and loops
there, processing the input until a reset occurs. While servicing
the selected input, the PQ-CIB controller firmware also moni-
tors the linear actuator for stalls. As you might have already
deduced, the PQ-CIB controller firmware uses the PIC16F676’s
timers and analog-to-digital (A-to-D) converter heavily. From
the “flavor” of the source code, I would say the PQ-CIB
controller firmware was written using the CCS C compiler.
Another good clue that leads me to believe that CCS C
is the compiler of choice lies in the opening declaration code:
*********************************************************
#include <16F676.h>
#include <firgelli.h>
#include <math.h>
#use delay(clock=4000000) // 4 MHz system clock
*********************************************************
The #use delay statement is a CCS-specific clock definition
compiler command. Since there’s no external crystal or oscilla-
tor on the PQ-CIB controller PCB, the only logical conclusion is
that the PIC16F676 is running on its internal precision 4 MHz
oscillator. That gives us an instruction cycle time of 1 µs.
The R/C input is the only input that uses the PIC’s inter-
rupt on change feature coupled with an interrupt handler. If
you’re not familiar with how R/C hobby servos work, here’s
some quick schooling. An R/C transmitter emits a chain of
pulses with each pulse aimed at a specific R/C servo. The R/C
receiver decodes these pulses and routes them to the target
servo. Typically, an R/C hobby servo actuator will operate
Eady.qxd 10/9/2007 3:18 PM Page 39

over a range of 180°. A pulse width of 1.5 ms will cause
the servo to center its actuator at 90°. To rotate the servo
actuator to 0°, a 1.25 ms pulse is transmitted. Sending a 1.75
ms pulse will cause the servo to rotate its actuator to the
180° position. Thus, a hobby servo system operates in
response to the width of the pulse coming into the servo.
The pulse width measurement is defined when the pulse
is logically high and the PQ-CIB controller firmware takes
advantage of that fact. The PQ-CIB controller firmware will
begin a pulse width measurement when it detects a low to
high transition on the R/C input. When the pulse transitions
from high to low, the value in TIMER0 — which is also called
RTCC in the source code — is read and loaded into the vari-
able RC_In_Voltage. The manipulation of TIMER0, or RTCC, is
triggered by the PIC’s interrupt on change mechanism. Here’s
the code that makes up the RC input interrupt handler:
Prescaling the TIMER0 clock by 4 means that TIMER0 will
increment every four instruction cycles, or once every 4 µs.
Once everything I/O is set up and the A-to-D converter
and TIMER0 mechanisms are primed, the PQ-CIB controller
firmware begins its input scanning. The first order of the input
scanning business is to turn off the linear actuator motor and
hide for a second or so to avoid picking up some noise:
*********************************************************
void ScanInputs( void )
{
unsigned long In_Voltage = 0, In_Current = 0;
unsigned long waiting = 0;
MotorOff(); // Motor off and delay to avoid
// false signal on start up
delay_us(500000);
delay_us(500000);
*********************************************************

********************************************************* The scanning firmware is contained within an endless

#INT_RA loop. The A-to-D converter is called upon repeatedly to read
void isr()
{ the 0-10V/PWM and 4-20 mA loop analog inputs. If 16
if(input(PIN_A5)==1) A-to-D converter ticks are collected from an analog input in a
{ sample period, there’s voltage on that particular input. Here’s
set_rtcc(0xF0); //preload timer
} the code snippet form the ScanInputs function that hunts
down incoming voltage or current:
if(input(PIN_A5)==0)
{ *********************************************************
//read the timer and load into a variable do{
RC_In_Voltage = get_rtcc(); delay_us(500);
} waiting=0;
In_Voltage = GetADCResult( InputV );
In_Current = GetADCResult( InputC );
} //if there is a voltage or PWM signal detected
********************************************************* if ( In_Voltage > 0x10 )
{
V_PWM_I_SourceAp(InputV);
Every PIC program requires that the programmer set up }
the PIC’s I/O structure. The firmware driver for the PQ-CIB //if there is a current signal detected
else if (In_Current > 0x10 )
controller is no exception. Note that A-to-D definitions and {
TIMER0 prescale definitions are included within the defacto V_PWM_I_SourceAp(InputC);
I/O initialization code: }
*********************************************************

//******************************************************* The ScanInputs function will invoke the V_PWM_I_SourceAp

//* Main program - sets ports and registers function if either the voltage or current analog inputs produced
//******************************************************* a voltage. The argument of the V_PWM_I_SourceAp function
void main( void )
{ call is used to determine which analog input to use as a basis for
OUTPUT_A(0x00); // clear port A moving the linear actuator motor.
SET_TRIS_A(0x2B); // A5, A3,A1,A0 = Input The R/C input not only has its own interrupt handler, it
// A4,A2 = Output
also has a special function that is called when voltage is
OUTPUT_C(0x00); // clear port C detected on the R/C input:
SET_TRIS_C(0x07); // C5:C3 = Output,
// C2:C0 = Input *********************************************************
else
SETUP_ADC(ADC_CLOCK_INTERNAL); {
SETUP_ADC_PORTS(sAN4|sAN5|sAN6); // AN4 FB, do
// AN5 4-20ma, AN6 0-10V {
waiting++;
//internal clock used with a prescaler of 4 if(input(PIN_A5)==1)
SETUP_COUNTERS( RTCC_INTERNAL, RTCC_DIV_4 ); {
RCSourceAp();
// enable GLOBAL interrupt }
ENABLE_INTERRUPTS(GLOBAL); }while (waiting<500);
// function to determine source type }
ScanInputs(); }while(true);
} }
********************************************************* *********************************************************
SERVO 11.2007 39
Eady.qxd 10/9/2007 3:18 PM Page 40
The V_PWM_I_SourceAp function works on the premise
that if the motor feedback voltage is greater than the input
voltage, the actuator will retract. On the other hand, if the
motor feedback voltage is less than the input voltage, the
actuator will extend. Obviously, if the feedback and input
voltages are within a preset hysteresis window, the motor
will not move.
Like the ScanInputs function, the V_PWM_I_SourceAp
function is a never ending do-while loop. The linear
actuator’s feedback voltage from its internal potentiometer
wiper is continually read and compared against the voltage
of the selected voltage control input:
*********************************************************
void V_PWM_I_SourceAp( unsigned int Input )
{
unsigned long In_Voltage = 0, FB_Voltage = 0;
unsigned long Previous_FBv = 0;
unsigned int Direction = 0, FB_count=0;
unsigned int OK_to_ext = 0x01, OK_to_ret = 0x01;
do
{ }
FB_Voltage = GetADCResult( FBVolts );
do
{ {
//store the previous FBv for stall condition
Previous_FBv = FB_Voltage;
In_Voltage = GetADCResult( Input );
FB_Voltage = GetADCResult( FBVolts );
if((abs(In_Voltage - FB_Voltage))
< hysteresis)
{ {
MotorOff();
Direction = Stopped;
} delay_us(30);
*********************************************************
Note that a copy of the linear actuator feedback voltage
is stored in a keeper variable every time that the linear
actuator feedback voltage is read. The keeper variable is
compared to the next feedback voltage reading to check for
a stalled actuator condition. Basically, if the new feedback
voltage is equal to the keeper variable value, the actuator
motor must be stalled. Here are the firgelli.h definitions for
40 SERVO 11.2007
the A-to-D inputs used in the V_PWM_I_SourceAp function:
*********************************************************
#define InputV 6
#define InputC 5
#define FBVolts 4
*********************************************************
And, if you’re wondering about the hysteresis value, it is
also defined in the firgelli.h file:
*********************************************************
#define hysteresis 0x03 //(FYI 0x10 = approx. 0.175V)
*********************************************************
All of the inputs are tested against the linear actuator’s
feedback voltage using an algorithm that looks like this:
*********************************************************
if((abs(In_Voltage - FB_Voltage)) < hysteresis)
{
MotorOff();
else if((FB_Voltage > In_Voltage) &&
(OK_to_ret== Yes))
OK_to_ext=Yes;
MotorRetract();
delay_us(10);
}
else if((In_Voltage > FB_Voltage) &&
(OK_to_ext== Yes))
OK_to_ret=Yes;
MotorExtend();
}
*********************************************************
The OK_to_ret==Yes statement is related to the stall
sensing code. Note that as the contents of the function are
executed, the OK_to_ret variable is loaded with the Yes
value, which is also defined as 0x01 in firgelli.h. If a stall
condition is sensed, the stall code will equate the OK_to_ret
variable to No, which is defined as 0x00 in firgelli.h. The stall
code is executed within every input function:
SCREENSHOT 1. Play with the values
of CCPR1L and bits 4:5 of CCP1CON to
change the duty cycle. Changing the
value of PR2 will alter the period of
the PWM signal. Changing the period
also changes the frequency as the
frequency is equal to 1/period.
Sources
Saelig — www.saelig.com
Cleverscope
Firgelli — www.firgelli.com
PQ12; PQ-CIB Controller; L12
Custom Computer Services, Inc.
www.ccsinfo.com
CCS C Compiler
Eady.qxd 10/9/2007 3:18 PM Page 41

********************************************************* I’ll supply the entire PQ-CIB controller firmware package to you
if((Direction==Extend)||(Direction==Retract))
{ via the SERVO website at www.servomagazine.com.
if((abs(Previous_FBv - FB_Voltage))<0x01)
{
FB_count++; Extend and Retract
//count threshold indicates a stall condition
if(FB_count>0xA0)
{ You have everything you need to move the actuator of a
FB_count=0x00; PQ12, almost. Here’s some PIC code you can play with to
MotorOff(); generate the kHz PWM signal for the PQ-CIB controller:
if(Direction==Retract)
{
OK_to_ret=No; *********************************************************
} TMR2ON = 0;
else if(Direction==Extend) CCP1CON = 0x0F;
{ CCPR1L = 0x4F;
OK_to_ext=No; T2CON = 0x02; //prescale=16
} PR2 = 0x9C;
Direction=stopped; TMR2ON = 1;
} *********************************************************
}
else I used the code above with a PIC18F2680 running at 10
{
FB_count=0x00; MHz to generate the Cleverscope shot you see in Screenshot 1.
} Now, change your PIC clock to 4 MHz and run this code:
*********************************************************
*********************************************************
Recall that earlier I pointed out the use of firmware by TMR2ON = 0;
the PQ-CIB controller to replace hardware. Well, here are the CCP1CON = 0x0F;
core functions that are used to command the H-bridge: CCPR1L = 0x5F;
T2CON = 0x02; //prescale=16
PR2 = 0xFF;
********************************************************* TMR2ON = 1;
void MotorOff(void) *********************************************************
{
OUTPUT_LOW( PIN_C3 ); As you can see in Screenshot 2, the update rate is a bit
OUTPUT_LOW( PIN_C4 );
OUTPUT_LOW( PIN_C5 ); faster than 50 Hz, but this 250 Hz, 1.5 mS PWM pulse train
OUTPUT_LOW( PIN_A4 ); will center an R/C servo and the actuator of your PQ12. Fiddle
delay_us(10); with the CCPR1L value and bits 4:5 of CCP1CON to change the
}
duty cycle of the waveforms I’ve shown you. The CCP1CON
void MotorRetract(void) bits are the least significant bits of the PIC18F2680’s 10-bit
{ PWM resolution range. If things go as they should for you, the
MotorOff();
OUTPUT_HIGH( PIN_C3 ); PWM waveform will be present on RC2.
OUTPUT_LOW( PIN_C4 ); We can stop now because you do have everything you
OUTPUT_LOW( PIN_C5 );
OUTPUT_HIGH( PIN_A4 ); need to put a Firgelli PQ12 linear actuator to work in your
} next robotic project. Feel free to email me at fred@edtp.com
if you have any questions or comments. SV
void MotorExtend(void)
{
MotorOff(); SCREENSHOT 2. R/C servos want to see a pulse every 20 mS,
OUTPUT_LOW( PIN_C3); which equates to a 50 Hz PWM signal. This shot is updating
OUTPUT_HIGH( PIN_C4); every 4 mS. I tied this signal to my PQ-CIB controller and my
OUTPUT_HIGH( PIN_C5); PQ12 jumped to center stroke.
OUTPUT_LOW( PIN_A4);
}
**************************************

The H-bridge MOSFET components

would have to fail for any illegal MOSFET
turn-ons to occur. You can take the MOSFET
commands and map out which MOSFETs
are on for retract and extend operations.
Since MotorOff turns all of the MOSFETs
off, we can logically conclude that a logical
high will turn on a MOSFET in the H-bridge.
Okay, we’ve taken a look at all of the
building block code that makes up the
PQ-CIB controller firmware package. This
walk-through was by no means a line-by-
line journey. So, with thanks to Firgelli and
the folks at the BCIT Technology Centre,
SERVO 11.2007 41
Doerr.qxd 10/10/2007 8:24 AM Page 42
Breathing new life into an old robot ...
by Robert Doerr
I
really enjoy working on the older
personal robots from the ‘80s. It’s
fun to keep them running and I am
always looking at ways to enhance
them while keeping the original robot
intact. Recently, a friend asked me to
fix up his old Androbot TOPO robot.
This revived my interest in a project
that I have been thinking about for
quite some time. I wanted an easy way
to use my own TOPO robot without
setting up an entire Apple II+ system to
support it.
Another reason is that the original
RF transmitter modules required to
run the robot usually get lost. Without
the transmitter, TOPO can’t do
anything. For the most part, this has
42 SERVO 11.2007
caused a lot of TOPO robots to
become nice display pieces instead of
working bots.
Background Information
on TOPO
Back in the early ‘80s, Androbot
manufactured and sold TOPO robots.
There were a few different versions,
but for the most part there were two
distinct varieties. The early ones
(TOPO I) are RF based control (open
loop), which allows just the remote
control movements of the main drive
motors. These have a single white
button on the head, silver trim, and
red/green LEDs near the wheels
and on the body, which show the
direction of movement. The later
TOPO II/III robots switched to a
bi-directional I/R link (closed loop),
had some smarts onboard, and could
talk. These had a red button on the
head where the I/R transceiver was
located, black trim, a black cutout
for a speaker, and red LEDs near
the wheels. Some of the other LEDs
were eliminated.
The TOPO III is basically the
same as the TOPO II, but eliminated
the rest of the LEDs and had a slightly
different body which replaced the
fold down arms with a mount that
could accept optional drink and
food trays.
Doerr.qxd 10/10/2007 8:24 AM Page 43
This article focuses on the original
TOPO I robot. All references to TOPO in
the rest of the article apply only to this
original RF based version.
Original Control System
One nice thing about the way the
RF control is on the TOPO is that it
seems to be patterned after a standard
27 MHz radio control that would be
used for model planes. The main board
has an LM1872 and logic ICs to receive
and decode all the signals. It converts
them to ones similar to what a stan-
dard R/C receiver would produce.
These then go to the rest of the
circuitry onboard which acts like a pair
of R/C to H-bridge controllers. It also
has some drivers for the lights, but
that’s about it.
The whole thing acts just like a
standard R/C receiver with a pair of
R/C to H-bridge controllers all on a
single board. Standard R/C to H-bridge
controllers are common as they are
used extensively in combat robots (I
used them in my Battlebots) and can
be driven from microcontrollers, like
the BASIC Stamp.
The standard setup to run the
TOPO I is a bit involved. It requires a
custom Apple I/O card with an
AM9513 timer chip to simulate the
regular R/C signals which then drove
an external custom 27 MHz RF
transmitter. To complicate matters, the
I/O board only seemed to work with an
Apple II+ and not the more common
Apple IIe system. The driver software
was written in machine language with
a portion in Basic.
To control the robot, you would
run a program on the Apple to drive it
around with the computer’s joystick, or
you could write your own Basic
programs and call the driver code to
control the movements. It is not the
easiest thing in the world to set up and
it leaves a bit to be desired in accuracy
of the movements!
A little known fact is that the
receiver in the robot will also accept
standard R/C signals provided the
transmitting channel is correct and
they are in the right format. This is
what this article is about.
Breathing New Life Into
an Old Robot
After some research, it seems
that all the TOPO robots used 27.145
MHz as their operating frequency.
That crosses over to Channel A4 in
the R/C world. TOPO uses Channel
1 as an analog channel for the left
wheel and Channel 2 as an analog
channel for the right wheel. The
other channels are unused.
Since I didn’t want to alter the
robot at all (in case I want to set up
the old Apple II+ again), I needed Screws to remove the joystick.
to perform any required modifications
on the transmitter side. We really only The Radio Modification
need two channels, but most two and
three channel radios map these to a With the radio powered off,
single stick and would not do the remove the four screws on the back of
proper mixing for a dual drive system. the radio and pull off the back cover.
Instead, I wanted to try a dual stick They show how to do this in the
radio for tank style steering. manual, as you may need to pull off
It turns out there aren’t too many the back cover if you want to adjust
27 MHz dual stick radios available, but the tension on the joysticks. The
I did find one that was perfect. It is the modification is straightforward. You
Futaba 4VWD-AM four channel radio don’t have to touch the main board
on Channel A4. If Channel A4 isn’t or alter the RF section at all. This is
available, you can order the radio on important since doing that may make
any 27 MHz frequency along with an the radio broadcast out of spec and
A4 crystal set, then change the crys- may cause issues with the FCC.
tals. Without knowing for sure if this What we want to do is just
was going to work, I went ahead and change what potentiometer goes to
purchased one from Tower Hobbies. each channel. In our case, we just
With shipping, the radio runs around want to swap Channel 1 and Channel
$120 plus a little extra for batteries. 3. We do this at the joysticks
Luckily, this whole project turned themselves. Three screws hold each
out to be easier than I thought it jotstick assembly. There is a fourth
would. First, I had to make sure that screw near the top center, but it’s a
TOPO was operating the way it should fake one so don’t try to take that one
and that it had a fresh battery charge. out! Unscrew each of the joystick
Then, I set up TOPO on blocks up off
his wheels, turned on the The wires to swap on the joysticks.
Futaba transmitter, and
then turned on the robot.
The wheels moved slightly.
I moved the right stick up
and down and the right
wheel moved (but in the
wrong direction). Moving
the right stick left and right
made the left wheel go
forward and backward.
The left stick needed to
control Channel 1 instead
of Channel 3. This was a
fairly easy mod to make.
SERVO 11.2007 43
Doerr.qxd 10/10/2007 8:25 AM Page 44
assemblies but do not remove them
completely. We just need to lift them
up a bit for clearance to unsolder and
swap the wires.
Once that is done, unsolder the
three leads on Channel 1 (right/left
on right stick) and Channel 2
(up/down on left stick). Solder wick
works well if you don’t have any
special de-soldering equipment. There
is a plastic housing holding the three
wires together for each channel so
the leads won’t get mixed up. Just
reroute each set of wires to the other
joystick and solder them back in
place. The spacing is set up so it will
only go in one way.
Once that is complete, screw the
joystick assemblies back in place and
re-install the back cover. If you
unplugged the power lead to set the
back cover off to the side, then make
sure to plug that back in before putting
the cover back on.
Now when you turn on the radio
and turn on TOPO, the right stick
should make the right wheel move
and the left stick should make the
left wheel move. The directions
Upgraded board
plugged into the
TOPO main board.
44 SERVO 11.2007
Servo will most likely
reversing
switches. be backwards
though. This is
easily corrected. On the
front of the transmitter,
there is a set of switches
that control the direction
of travel for each of
the servo channels. Just
flip the switches for
Channel 1 and Channel 2
to REV. The transmitter
should now move the wheels
in the proper directions with the
correct joysticks.
If there is any movement of the
wheels when the joysticks are
centered, then adjust the trim tabs on
each joystick until the wheels stop with
the sticks centered. When properly
adjusted, all of the LEDs should be off
and will light when the wheels move.
That’s it!
With this, you now have a large
remote control robot that you can
easily turn on and use at any time
without the grief of setting up a whole
Apple II+ system to support it. This
makes it much easier if you just want to
take TOPO somewhere to drive it
around. The biggest benefit is for those
people that have a TOPO robot and
have never been able to use it. Now
you can finally see it do something and
have some fun with it!
Ideas for Further
Enhancements
There are some other things that
you can do with the robot to easily add
more features. This can be done by
using the extra two channels (3 and 4)
on the radio to control extra devices. It
can make TOPO a bit more interesting
than just taking him for a spin. You
could use small servos in these ports
for other things.
Perhaps you may want the head
to move. You could use one of these
extra channels for that purpose.
Another option is to use an R/C switch
to control other devices. Some that
I’ve used with excellent results are
made by Team Delta. Once a certain
threshold is reached on the channel, it
can turn on a relay or other device.
One in particular has two relays on
board. If one of these were plugged
into Channel 4, then moving the
left stick side to side will energize
the appropriate relay. This could be
connected to a module with canned
phrases so when driving the robot
around via the remote, it can say a
few things. Get creative and have
some fun!
Some Plug-in Enhancements
There are a couple ways to
proceed. First, you can just use the
Futaba receiver that comes with the
radio. The first two channels (1 and 2)
will remain empty while Channels 3
and 4 are open to use. You don’t even
have to touch the original TOPO
mainboard if you use a separate
battery pack for the receiver. With
this setup, the original receiver on the
robot handles the drive and the Futaba
receiver handles the extra stuff.
Another option which I chose to
use leverages some of the untapped
Upgrade board only.
Doerr.qxd 10/10/2007 8:26 AM Page 45
TOPO I electronics.
potential of the original robot. The
LM1872 receiver chip on the main
board normally decodes four channels
(two analog and two digital) but
with a couple extra ICs, it can actually
decode eight channels. This is the
way that it was done on the TOPO
main board. They just happen to
be routed to an unused eight pin
expansion connector at J2 on the
main board.
The connector J2 (starting at pin
1) provides +24V, GND, CH5, CH6,
CH7, CH8, CH3, and CH4. Since
Channels 1 and 2 are dedicated to the
main drive motors, those are not
routed to the expansion connector.
These extra channels respond to the
Futaba radio and are available. Since
we’re using a four channel radio, only
Channels 3 and 4 work.
I did look at all the signals with the
scope and it appears that the Futaba
radio actually transmits six
channels. It may be possible to
modify the radio (depending
upon its chipset) and add a cou-
ple extra switches or controls to
leverage the extra channels but
I’ll leave that up to you to exper-
iment with. Finding all these
signals on J2 was fantastic. It
makes it easy to expand the
robot without the need for
another receiver in the robot. I
just made a small adapter that
plugged into J2. The 24V from
pin 1 and the ground on pin 2
goes to a couple of voltage
regulators to generate +5V
and +12V power for servos, solid-state
switches, and other devices.
There are also some filtering caps
to help condition the power. The
signals for Channels 3 and 4 on pins 7
and 8 can be routed to a three-pin
header to connect to a standard servo
or solid-state switch module. To test it,
I connected a pair of regular Futaba
R/C servos to these two extra channels.
Sure enough, moving the joysticks side
to side on Channels 3 and 4 controlled
the servos perfectly.
One really cool idea is to try
something like the SpeakJet (SpeakGin)
chip in its R/C mode. That way, just
by moving the joysticks from side to
side the robot can say a few things
while moving.
For those that may want to do a
little more with TOPO, there is another
The original Apple II + I/O
card and transmitter.
J2 expansion
connector.
gem that I found while going over the
main board. It is the odd jumper
installed on connector J3. This is where
the decoded signals for Channels 1 and
2 connect to the drive system. By
removing that jumper, it is possible to
isolate the receiver section from the
drive system and feed your own signals
to the drive electronics.
You need to feed the R/C signal
into pin 7 for the right motor and in pin
8 for the left motor. The ground signal
can come from J2, as well as any
required power. Since these are
standard servo style signals, a regular
receiver on a completely different
frequency can be plugged in here. This
References
Robot Workshop
www.robotworkshop.com
Author of this article and
service/repairs/upgrades of old robots
Robot Gallery
www.robotgallery.com
Information about the early personal
robots including Androbot robots
Tower Hobbies
www.towerhobbies.com
Supplier of Futaba four Channel
AM radio
Team Delta
www.teamdelta.com
R/C switches and relay modules
Parallax
www.parallax.com
BASIC Stamp modules
SERVO 11.2007 45
Doerr.qxd 10/10/2007 6:49 PM Page 46

is great If you want to drive around
two robots independently since all the
TOPO robots I’ve seen come on the
same frequency.
A more interesting option is to use
a small microcontroller (such as the
BASIC Stamp) to send the R/C style
signals to the original TOPO H-bridge
circuitry for controlling the robot. This upgrades and modifications can be
would give TOPO some sort of brain done without altering the original
of his own. Going this route, you robot. That way, you can always
wouldn’t need any transmitter at all. go back to the way it was made.
I think that is important since
Final Thoughts these are classic robots and worth
being preserved. Just something to
If done carefully, many of these keep in mind. SV

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46 SERVO 11.2007
Miller2.qxd 10/9/2007 10:09 AM Page 47
Building an
ANDROID
ARM
Part 2
Last time, the main drive systems
were built in detail. Now we are ready
to put the arm together.
Mounting the
Wrist Motor
The SMS-40 stepper motor uses
a square flange with four mounting
holes. These holes are for 6-32 size
machine screws. You can mount the
motor using a small 1/2 inch x 1/4 inch
piece of aluminum stock and drilling
and tapping holes in it that match the
motor hole pattern along one edge
(two holes). This will rigidly secure the
motor to the stock and, in turn, can be
drilled and attached to the forearm
plate. Carefully align the gears on
the motor and wrist, and attach. You
can use 1/4 inch long screws for
both attachments.
Remember to properly mesh these
gears using 110 lb paper strip to assure
a perfect fit. Test the rotation by turning
the motor gear with your fingers, mak-
by Mark Miller
ing sure there is no bind-
ing or interference. Figure 1
shows the proper mounting
relationship on the assembly. You will
also note that the through shaft into the
wrist is not obstructed by the motor,
maintaining access to the end effector.
Other materials/methods could
also be employed to mount the wrist
motor. Feel free to experiment.
The Elbow Joint
Figure 2 shows the resin joint sys-
tem that I use in all my designs, howev-
er, you may design and fabricate your
own from a variety of materials. Keep
in mind the material should not be of a
flexible nature and should utilize suffi-
cient surface area to make the joint
mechanically “tight.” Between each
joint half shown is a 1-1/4 inch round
FIGURE 1
fender washer that provides a wear
surface and smooth precise motion
throughout the range of joint move-
ment. These joint halves are secured to
the forearm metal plate using two
8/32 x 1/2 inch machine screws, drilled
and tapped into the resin. The lower
bicep joint half is fastened in the same
manner. You will note in the photo, the
bicep plate has been sanded to fit the
joint half, making a shapely finished
appearance. Figure 3 shows the com-
pleted joint ready for final assembly.
The center 1/4-20 bolt holding the
two joint halves is clearance-holed in the
forearm portion and tapped into the
bicep portion. This manner of construc-
tion allows the joint to be preloaded
FIGURE 2
SERVO 11.2007 47
Miller2.qxd 10/9/2007 10:10 AM Page 48
FIGURE 3
(tensioned) to remove any play between
the parts, yet smoothly transition in a
full range of motion without drag.
The Shoulder Joint
To replicate the shoulder’s motion,
a three axis system was devised, consist-
ing of three distinct components. Figure
4 shows the right angle nature of the
first joint component from the bicep.
This is a 90 degree angle from the inside
of the bicep which will face toward the
body. This joint will allow the arm to
move in and away from the body (as in
raising your elbows up even with your
shoulders). This joint can be manually
“locked” into position or motorized with
a pusharm system later, if desired. Figure
5 shows the mating joint surface added
FIGURE 6
48 SERVO 11.2007
FIGURE 4
to allow rotation of the arm forward or
back. The joint is assembled as all others
with a single 1/4-20 bolt and fender
washer in between. Figure 6 shows
the final assembly from the outside,
while Figure 7 is the backside. It is now
ready to be mounted to a test stand for
further work.
Getting Things
Moving
You will find it considerably easier
to do the next operations if the arm is
fastend temporarily to a test stand. The
one shown in the photos was made
from wood scraps. The arm is attached
at the new shoulder joint by drilling
and tapping into the shoulder hub and
securing the joint to the stand,
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 5
supporting the arm at a right angle, as
shown in Figure 8. To move the arm at
the elbow, a circular disc of aluminum
was used with an OD of 1-3/4 inches.
It is 3/4 inches thick and secured to the
bicep out shaft from the gearing with
two set screws and right angles to
each other for maximum holding force.
Figure 9 shows the installed disc. You
could also use a pulley, instead.
For maximum joint movement, a
machine screw has been tapped near the
outer edge of the disc, from which a drag
arm will be mounted extending down to
the forearm. This, in effect, will be a
simplified crankshaft-type drive system.
You can select the best distance
from the forearm joint you wish to
mount the drag arm with the following
in mind: The closer you place the drag
FIGURE 8
Miller2.qxd 10/9/2007 10:13 AM Page 49
FIGURE 9
arm to the elbow joint, the more range
of motion you will receive. However,
this is at the cost of overall torque
available at the wrist. The photo
depicts the drag arm (1/2 inch wide,
.062” thick aluminum stock) located at
2-1/2 inches from the joint center,
allowing a two pound load to be car-
ried at the wrist. You can experiment
for best results for your application.
Figure 10 shows the drag arm link
connected to the forearm with a short
stub of 1/2 inch aluminum drilled and
tapped at both ends for 8-32 machine
screws. I used a piece of brass tubing
under the drag arm screw so the threads
were not riding against the metal surface
itself. After attaching, run the motor to
test for binding or other problems. You
will note the whole joint is very rigid and
precise with excellent repeatability. There
should be no slop in the assembly.
The bicep disc also makes an
excellent place to mount an encoder
which will allow you to keep track of
the arm’s position. You may note —
due to the offset crank-style design —
the arm can be set in continuous
motion in either direction without the
need for stops or limit switches.
A Simple End
Effector
A simple claw-type gripper can be
FIGURE 10 FIGURE 11
fabricated from 1/4 inch Lexan materi-
FIGURE 12
al as shown in Figure 11. This one was
made so one side of the gripper is fixed
(upper in photo) and the lower portion across the fingers. This is a very simple
(with a small protruding leg near the gripper made from scrap. You can
joint) opens. These have been drilled purchase a conventional servo-type
and tapped into the custom wrist hub gripper from several sources that
using 6-32 screws. may be more suited for your purpose.
To make the movable side open, a The power leads from such a gripper
small piece of piano wire was run can be fed through the wrist tubing,
through the wrist joint tubing and as well.
pushes against the protruding leg on Driver circuitry for the wrist and
the claw. I drilled about 1/4 inch into bicep motors can be mounted in any
this leg so the wire would not jump out leftover space on the arm. There is
during wrist rotation. As a simple plenty of open flat area on the
actuator, the tubular pusher solenoid aluminum plates to mount some stand-
mounted in the foream opens the claw offs and the circuitry.
to its maximum (about 1-1/2 inches)
when powered. Exterior Covering
The connection between the
solenoid plunger and the piano wire is The covers shown in Figure 14
a small leftover Lexan cutoff epoxied to were made from a fiberglass layup over
both. The wrist can operate while the a cardboard tube. Cutouts were made
claw opens and closes. This is
detailed in Figure 12. A return
FIGURE 13
spring is mounted across the flat
part of the claw to keep it in
tension while unpowered. The
spring has the maximum
amount of tension that the sole-
noid is capable of overcoming.
You can experiment and
easily determine this tension for
your solenoid. Figure 13 shows
the tensioning return spring
SERVO 11.2007 49
Miller2.qxd 10/9/2007 10:13 AM Page 50

joint, which has been

FIGURE 14 secured by cross-drilling a
cotter pin through the
joint material and the
shaft. The pin will also
serve as a quick release
to remove the arm from
your robot.
Figure 15 shows the
orientation of this new
network in relation to the
existing arm. The shoul-
der-to-body mount is now
accomplished by a single
1/4-20 bolt tapped into
the third joint component,
and allows the entire arm
FIGURE 15
to rotate front to back of
the body to which it is
for clearance and then painted. Other to objects and pick them up or re-place attached. This axis can also be motor-
possibilities include styrene sheet or them. The basic system of motor gear ized using a drag arm/motor system
other thin bendable plastics, wood, or combination is again repeated for the mounted on the body to this plate, or
even the cardboard tube itself (which I bicep/elbow joint. Since this joint is it can simply be postioned and tight-
thought about after using it as a mold). supporting not only the load of the ened in place parallel to the body. This
Those heavy mailer tubes can be cut arm itself plus any payload, the output motion, for instance, would allow both
easily, sprayed with polyurethane, then shaft should be increased to at least “hands” to touch each other in front of
sanded and fished, as desired. Use 1/4 inch shafting. Everything else is the body for manipulating or passing
common circuit board standoffs to exactly the same. If you need more an object from one hand to the other.
hold the shield in place from the lifting power, additional reduction can
aluminum plate. This also adds rigidity be made accordingly. Armed and Ready
to the arm’s overall structure. This new gear/motor reduction is
mounted to the third joint component I am currently offering the basic
Shoulder Rotation of the shoulder. You will need to mechanical components of the arm,
Motorization remove the arm from its building stand including all the joints, aluminum
to install this feature. plates, hardware, etc., for $35 plus
Adding this motor system allows The 1/4-20 tapped hole previously shipping F.O.B. Florida. You supply the
the arm to move front to back of the holding the arm to the stand can be motors and gears, end effector compo-
body. In combination with the elbow redrilled out to a full 1/4 inch to allow nents, driver electronics, etc. Specify
joint, it allows for the arm to reach out the shaft to slide into the shoulder left or right arm when ordering. The
supplied components will be largely
PARTS LIST assembled when they reach you. Drill
holes for your specific motor mounting
ITEM SUPPLIER/PART NO. and gears, and go! Contact me at
GEARS theandroidman@aol.com. I really don’t
• Set 92657 American Science and Surplus run a business, I do mostly research,
• Set GR-86 All Electronics (www.allelectronics.com) but have built many of these arm
designs and have extras as new,
MISCELLANEOUS unused surplus that I am willing to part
• K & S Metals Available at your local hobby shop with. You can also just do it yourself
• Resin joints, humanoid robotic components, including a complete kit of parts from scratch.
(mechanical structure) to build this arm, email Theandroidman@aol.com The key to the success of a tight,
smooth working joint is surface and
surface area. A combination of materi-
STEPPER MOTORS
als that smoothly move against each
• Elbow and shoulder Electronic Goldmine/KP4M4-G14781
other for low friction, and plenty of
(www.goldmine-elec.com)
surface contact area to journal against
• Wrist motor Alltronics/SMS40-2401-A (www.alltronics.com) is the real milestone. Experiment! SV
50 SERVO 11.2007
Simpson.qxd 10/9/2007 11:29 AM Page 51
by Michael Simpson
Etek EB-85A
The Etek EB-85A module shown
in Figure 1 is the most accurate GPS
that I have ever tested. It supports up
to 32 parallel channels with WAAS
enabled. The downside is that WAAS
is not enabled by default, so you must
send commands to the module in
order to activate this feature. Once
the module is powered down, it loses
these settings.
Let’s take a quick look at the
feature set of the Etek EB-85A:
• 32 channel receiver
• Built-in antenna
• High sensitivity: -158 dBm
• 1-5 Hz update rate
• Selectable baud rate from 4800 to
115200
• 9.8’ positional accuracy/8.2’ with
WAAS
• Hot start: 1 second
• Warm start: 33 seconds
• Cold start: 36 seconds
• 55 mA power consumption to acquire
and 30 mA for tracking
• 3.3–5 volt operation
• Outputs NEMA 0183
• Small foot print: 30 mm x 30 mm x
8.6 mm
• Eight-pin interface cable included
• Free Mini GPS utility available
GPS PART 2
Currently, there is no develop- purple, then orange.
ment board available for the Etek
EB-85A, but the Copernicus evaluation • STEP 2: Break off the black and red
board works perfectly. I recommend leads as shown in Figure 3. Then
the following steps in order to connect break off the white and green leads as
the EB-85A to the Copernicus board. shown. Place a piece of black tape on
the remaining leads.
• STEP 1: Start by cutting the white
connector off the end of the included • STEP 3: Only four leads are needed
cable. Strip about 1/8” of
the insulation from each of FIGURE 1
the connected wires, then
connect the wires to an
eight-pin male header as
shown in Figure 2. I recom-
mend using heat shrink on
each of the leads as shown.
Be sure to connect the
wires to the header in the
following order: red, black,
white, green, yellow, blue,
FIGURE 2 FIGURE 3
SERVO 11.2007 51
Simpson.qxd 10/9/2007 11:29 AM Page 52

board between two pieces of

FIGURE 4
FIGURE 6
to connect the EB-85A to the
Copernicus board. These are shown in
Figure 4. Connect the appropriate leads in Figure 6. Make sure the patch
to the board as shown in Figure 5.
• STEP 4: Place a small piece of
double stick foam tape on the DB9
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 7
connector marked Port A. Attach
the EB-85A to the foam tape as shown
antenna is facing up.
• STEP 5: As outlined in Part 1 of this EB-85A as shown in Figure 9. You
series, I sandwiched the evaluation
FIGURE 8
plastic shown in Figure 7. This will
make the board more durable and
easier to test.
The Etek EB-85A module
defaults to 34800 baud, so keep
this in mind later when we test the
module. Since the EB-85A can be
powered by a 5V source, you may
use the alternative interface shown
in Figure 8. This is simply a 5V reg-
ulator and EZRS232 driver available
from Kronos Robotics. Schematic 1
shows the actual hookup.
Testing the ETEK
EB-85A
You have a couple of choices
available to you in order to test
your interface. First, you can down-
load the free Mini GPS software
available from the Sparkfun web-
site at www.sparkfun.com/data
sheets/GPS/MiniGPS_1.32.zip.
Use the port marked Port B on
the evaluation board to interface with
the module.
This software was specially
designed to monitor and control the
can also use it to turn on the WAAS
feature as shown in Figure 10.
You can use the QuickTerm
and Satellites software included in
the project download shown in
Figures 11 and 12. Remember, the
EB-85 does not power up with the
WAAS feature enabled. Both these
programs send the commands to
enable WAAS. I have also included
the ZeusPro source code used to
make these applications. The func-
tion ‘turnonwaas’
is used to send
the commands
to turn on the
feature. Be sure to
download the MTK
Packet manual
from Sparkfun.
This manual lists
all the commands
used to configure
SCHEMATIC 1 the EB-85.

52 SERVO 11.2007
Simpson.qxd 10/9/2007 11:30 AM Page 53

Copernicus GPS Module

I have used the Copernicus evalu-
ation board so much that it only
seems fair that we have a look at the
Copernicus GPS module. It was meant
to plug into the evaluation board, but
with a bit of bending you can plug the
board into a standard breadboard.
Just keep in mind that you will need to
create a 3.3V interface.
Let’s take a quick look at the
feature set of the Copernicus:

• 12 channel receiver
• External antenna connector
• High sensitivity: -152 dBm
• NEMA 0813, TSIP, and TAIP protocols
supported
• Cold start: 39 seconds
• 28.5 mA power consumption
• 3.3–5 volt operation
• Small foot print: 30 mm x 30 mm x
8.6 mm
• Free GPS utility available
You may have noticed that the
Copernicus module does not
support WAAS. It is rumored that a
WAAS firmware upgrade will be made
available in the near future.
• STEP 1: There’s not much to the
installation of the Copernicus module.
You simply slip the module into the eval-
uation board as shown in Figure 14.
• STEP 2: I recommend you sandwich
the board between two pieces of
plastic as we did earlier. You will also
need to connect an external antenna
to the module as shown in Figure 15.
The Copernicus module does not
come with a built-in antenna.
FIGURE 10 FIGURE 11
e-339488/Copernicus_Monitor_ FIGURE 13
V1-02-07.exe.
Use the port marked Port B on
the evaluation board to interface with
the module.
The software called Trimble GPS
Monitor (Figure 16) is quite extensive
and comes with its own manual.
The monitor allows you to log
GPS data and monitor key data points
such as satellite signal strength as
shown in Figure 17. It also has a real
time plotter shown in Figure 18.
I have created a special version of
the QuikTerm and Satellites programs
for the Copernicus module. The
FIGURE 14

Testing the Copernicus

Module
Again, you have a couple of
choices available to you in order
to test the Copernicus interface.
First, you can download the free
Copernicus Monitor software available
from the Sparkfun website at http://
trl.trimble.com/dscgi/ds.py/Get/Fil FIGURE 12 FIGURE 15

SERVO 11.2007 53
Simpson.qxd 10/9/2007 11:31 AM Page 54
FIGURE 16
Copernicus module does not display
some of the NEMA messages we need
by default. The two programs included
in the download send special com-
mands to the module to enable the
needed messages. Again, I have includ-
ed ZeusPro source code so you can
modify and create your own programs.
Holux GPSlip236 Receiver
Last month, I briefly mentioned
the Holux GPSlip236 shown in Figure
19. Due to its versatility, I feel a
more detailed look at this receiver is
warranted.
The GPSlim236 has several things
FIGURE 17 going for it. Take a look at some of
the features:
• USB/Serial interface
• Bluetooth interface
• TTL Interface
• SiRF III chip set
FIGURE 18 FIGURE 19 FIGURE 20
54 SERVO 11.2007
• Supports both SiRF binary and Nema
0813 formats
• Built-in (replaceable) Li-ion battery
gives 10 hours of operation
• Can be powered by 5V
• On/Off switch with LED indicators
• Home and auto adapters/chargers
included
• Compatible with PC, laptop, tablet,
PocketPC, Smartphones
• WAAS compatibility
• Built-in antenna
• External antenna connector
While the features list shows
WAAS compatibility, I have yet to see
this feature manifest itself with any
application. Even the GPS viewer
software that has an option to turn
this feature on fails to do so. What
does this mean? Forget about WAAS
on this device. Even without WAAS,
this receiver outperformed most
others I tested.
The two easiest ways to commu-
nicate with the GPSlim236 is via the
optional USB cable or a Bluetooth
dongle shown in Figure 20. The small
USB connector is not a true USB
interface. To connect the module to
your PC using USB, you need a special
proprietary USB cable which is not
included with the receiver. The actual
output format of the mini USB
connector is asynchronous serial at
38400 baud at a TTL level. This makes
it perfect for interfacing to a
microcontroller, or as an option,
you can build an RS-232 interface
as shown in Figure 21. Notice how
I used SchmartBoard jumpers as
interconnects.
The antenna connector can be
connected to the Sparkfun adapter as
shown in Figure 22. This allows you to
Simpson.qxd 10/9/2007 11:31 AM Page 55
connect the same antenna that we
used on the Copernicus and other
modules tested previously.
Just like before, I have included a
QuickTerm and Satellites version of
the test software along with source
code for use on the GPSlim. The
receiver comes with some test
software on the included CD for both
the PocketPC and desktop.
So, what is all the fuss about
concerning this receiver? Bluetooth.
With the Bluetooth interface, you can
connect this receiver to Pocket PCs
and Smartphones that do not have
serial interfaces.
If you decide you would like to
pick up one of these little gems, just
visit the Amazon website at
www.amazon.com and do a search
on GPSlim236.
What’s Next?
I ran out of room this month, but
next month we will look at creating
a data logger that all the modules
can use. A data logger is extremely
important as it will allow us to collect
data that we can use to help us test
various aspects of our project without
having to resort to testing in the field.
FIGURE 21
FIGURE 22
Parts List
The following is a breakdown of
sources for all the components need-
ed for Parts 2 and 3 of this project.
SPARK FUN ELECTRONICS
Etek EB-85A GPS Module
www.sparkfun.com/commerce/
product_info.php?products_id=8266
Copernicus Module
www.sparkfun.com/commerce/
product_info.php?products_id=8146
Copernicus Evaluation Board
www.sparkfun.com/commerce/
product_info.php?products_id=8145
Nine-Pin Serial Cable
www.sparkfun.com/commerce/
product_info.php?products_id=65
6V AC Adapter
www.sparkfun.com/commerce/
product_info.php?products_id=737
External Antenna with SMA connector
www.sparkfun.com/commerce/
product_info.php?products_id=464
We will also start looking at the
various microcontroller interfaces for
each of the modules. Be sure to check
SMA to MMCX adapter cable
www.sparkfun.com/commerce/
product_info.php?products_id=285
KRMICROS
ZeusPro
www.krmicros.com/Development/
ZeusPro/ZeusPro.htm
KRONOS ROBOTICS
5V Regulator
www.kronosrobotics.com/xcart/
product.php?productid=16304
EZRS232 Board
www.kronosrobotics.com/xcart/
product.php?productid=16167
SCHMARTBOARD
Jumpers 5” Yellow
www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?
a=11&id=42
Jumpers 3” Red
www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?
a=11&id=41
forupdates and downloads for this
article at ww.kronosrobotics.com/
Projects/GPS.shtml. SV
SERVO 11.2007 55
RoboResources.qxd 10/10/2007 4:53 PM
Tune in each month for a heads-up on
where to get all of your “robotics
resources” for the best prices!
Learning Robotics From
the World’s Robotics Labs
Y ou’ve heard the saying, “Imitation
is the sincerest form of flattery.”
It’s true even for robotics. For even
the expert builders, many of the
best ideas are cribbed from other
people’s designs. Any given robot is
98% the same as all the other
robots; it’s the 2% that makes your
creation special.
Not only is this natural (in any
endeavor), it’s to be expected. Progress
is based on the many small steps taken
by others before us. It’s up to us to
incrementally improve upon the ideas,
making our own innovative stamps.
Biorobotics is dedicated to the advancement of the field of robotics
using insights gained through the study of biological mechanisms.
56 SERVO 11.2007
Page 56
If you’re been reading this
magazine for any length of time,
you’ve discovered all sorts of new ideas
you can try out. It’s a great source of
inspiration. If you’re looking for
still more ideas, here’s yet another
source: the university research labs
that publish their designs and results
on the Internet. Many of the concepts
and constructions designs we take
for granted today were born in
these labs. Over time, the concepts
have become part of the general
robotics culture.
In this column, we’ll review several
dozen of these labs. Some of the
sources are the official Web pages of
the robotics labs at public and private
schools and universities; other sources
include informal clubs at various
schools, as well as government
resources. These resources are
often rich in details, always free, and
often overlooked.
RHIT Robotics Team
www.rhitrobotics.org
According to the site, the task of
RHIT is to design, build, and maintain
an aerial vehicle which is capable
of interacting with its environment.
Annual competition. Sponsored by
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology,
in Terre Haute, IN.
Australia Telerobot
http://telerobot.mech.uwa.edu.
au/Telerobot/index.html
Telerobotics from the down under.
BARt-UH
www.irt.uni-hannover.de/irt/asr
BARt-UH is a bipedal autonomous
walking robot designed at the
University of Hannover in Germany.
Web page is in English.
Biorobotics
http://biorobots.cwru.edu
Bots at the Biologically Inspired
Robotics Lab at Case Western Reserve
University. According to the site, the
lab “is dedicated to the advancement
of the field of robotics using insights
gained through the study of biological
mechanisms.”
RoboResources.qxd 10/9/2007 11:09 AM
Bruno Jau Robotic Hand
http://uirvli.ai.uiuc.edu/tlewis/
pics/hand.html
Finally, a robot that will give you
a hand.
Carnegie Mellon — The Robotics
Institute
www.ri.cmu.edu/home.html
All about the Robotics Institute at
Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh, PA.
Carnegie Mellon University:
Minerva
www.cs.cmu.edu/~minerva/
tech/index.html
Minerva is an autonomous tour
guide — “we’re walking, we’re walking,
we’re stopping ...”
Case Western Reserve
University — IGERT
http://neuromechanics.cwru.edu
About the Neuro-Mechanical
Systems program at Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.
Cognitive Architectures
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/
cogarch2
Online articles compare a variety
of current proposed cognitive architec-
tures and a workable structure for
classifying and comparing future pro-
posed cognitive architectures. See also:
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/cogarch0/
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/cogarch0/
subsump/
Cool Robot of the Week
http://robotics.nasa.gov/archive
/crw_archive.php and
http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/tele
robotics_page/coolrobots.html
According to the website, “The
honor of being listed as ‘Cool Robot Of
The Week’ is bestowed upon those
robotics-related websites which portray
highly innovative solutions to robotics
problems, describe unique approaches
to implementing robotics systems, or
present exciting interfaces for the dis-
semination of robotics-related informa-
tion or promoting robotics technology.”
Page 57
Be sure to check out the archives:
1996 archive:
http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics
_page/coolrobots96.html
1997 archive:
http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics
_page/coolrobots97.html
1998 archive:
http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics
_page/coolrobots98.html
1999 archive:
http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics
_page/coolrobots99.html
2000 archive:
http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics
_page/coolrobots00.html
2001 archive:
http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics
_page/coolrobots01.html
2002 archive:
http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics
_page/coolrobots02.html
Cornell Robotics and Vision
Laboratory
“Cool Robot of the Week.”
www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/Projec
ts/csrvl/csrvl.html
Past and current projects at Cornell
Robotics and Vision Laboratory in
Ithaca, NY.
DEMO — Dynamical &
Evolutionary Machine
Organization
www.demo.cs.brandeis.edu
From the site: “DEMO attacks
problems in agent cognition using
complex machine organizations that are
created from simple components with
minimal human design effort.” From
Brandeis University in Waltham, MA.
See also The Golem Project,
www.demo.cs.brandeis.edu/golem
Field Robotics Center
www.frc.ri.cmu.edu
Carnegie Mellon University.
Research into sun-synchronous
navigation will discover, express, and
exhibit the importance of reasoning
about sunlight as it pertains to robotic
exploration.
Franklin Institute’s Robotics
www.fi.edu/qa99/spotlight2
Robotics at the Franklin Institute
SERVO 11.2007 57
RoboResources.qxd 10/9/2007 11:10 AM
in Philadelphia, PA.
Georgia Tech Intelligent
Systems & Robotics
http://robotics.gatech.edu
The goal of the Intelligent Systems
and Robotics group at the College
of Computing at Georgia Tech is
to understand and design systems
which use intelligence to interact
with the world, making computer
controlled systems more autonomous
and ubiquitous.
Georgia Tech Mobile Robot Lab
www.cc.gatech.edu/ai/robot-
lab
According to the website, the
Mobile Robot Laboratory’s charter is to
discover and develop fundamental
scientific principles and practices that
are applicable to intelligent mobile
robot systems.
Hexplorer 2000
http://real.uwaterloo.ca/~robot
/www/index.xml
The Hexplorer is a six-legged walk-
ing robot at the University of Waterloo,
located in Ontario, Canada.
Construction details and programming
overview are provided. See also the
main page for the Motion Research
Group at http://real.uwaterloo.ca.
Image Science and Machine
Vision Group
www.ornl.gov/sci/ismv
The Image Science and Machine
Vision Group is currently involved
in three programmatic areas:
measurement and controls for indus-
try, biological sciences, and surveillance
and security.
Intelligent Systems and
Robotics Center (ISRC)
www.sandia.gov/isrc/home.html
Among other projects, ISRC
contemplates robots for warfare and
national security. Research includes
Surveillance And Reconnaissance
Ground Equipment (SARGE), Miniature
Autonomous Robotic Vehicle (MARV),
Accident Response Mobile Manipulator
System (ARMMS), and a Robot That
Makes Up Acronyms (RTMUA).
58 SERVO 11.2007
Page 58
Iowa State University Robotics
Club
http://nukelab1.student.ias-
tate.edu/wiki/Main_Page
Iowa State University. Project
Cybot is a unique combination of
a continuous senior design project and
a club open to all students at ISU.
IRIDIA Projects and Activities
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/Projects
Artificial intelligence white papers
and project summaries. From IRIDIA,
the Artificial Intelligence research
laboratory of the Universit Libre
de Bruxelles.
JPL Rover and Telerobotics
www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov
If it walks on another celestial
body — like Mars — and is launched by
NASA, JPL built it. Here you can read
about JPL’s past, present, and future
projects. Be sure to check out the
Robotic Vehicles Group page.
Laboratory for Perceptual
Robotics (LPR)
www-robotics.cs.umass.edu
University of Massachusetts
Perceptual Robotics lab.
LEGO: Distributive Intelligence
with Robots
www.ceeo.tufts.edu/me94
How they got LEGO Mindstorms
robots to work together. Demonstrations
include: Whistling Brothers, Travel by
Beacon, and Wandering Cyclops.
Machine Intelligence
Laboratory
www.mil.ufl.edu
The goings-on at the Machine
Intelligence Laboratory, at the
University of Florida in Gainesville, FL.
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
http://web.mit.edu
This is the main website for
the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA.
Links on the main page take you to
various labs and research centers
at the campus. Spend some time on
this one.
MIT: Artificial Muscle Project
www.ai.mit.edu/projects/
muscle/muscle.html
The Artificial Muscle Project at the
MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
plays around with linear actuators
using a substance known as polymer
hydrogel. This material is said to
have characteristics similar to human
muscle.
MIT: Leg Laboratory
www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab
The Leg Lab is world-renowned for
its designs of various single- and
multi-pedal robots. Movies are available
for many of the designs.
MIT: Logo Foundation
http://el.media.mit.edu/logo-
foundation
Informational page about the
Logo programming language, original-
ly developed by professors at MIT.
MIT: MindFest
www.media.mit.edu/mindfest
MindFest is a yearly gathering
of LEGO-heads. You can see pictures
of past events, and read up on
upcoming ones.
Mobile Robots at
Loughborough
www.lboro.ac.uk/depart-
ments/el/robotics
There are lots of robots at the
Department of Electronic & Electrical
Engineering at Loughborough
University in England.
Mobility and Robotics Systems
http://telerobotics.jpl.nasa.gov/
tasks/tmr
Here you’ll find detailed descrip-
tions of the activities of the Mobility
and Robotic Systems Section, as well as
related robotics efforts around the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. Approximately
100 engineers work on all aspects of
robotics for space exploration and
related terrestrial applications.
NASA
www.nasa.gov
The main home page of the
National Aeronautics and Space
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Administration — the outfit in the US
that launches the Space Shuttle and
the occasional robot.
NASA JPL: Mars Pathfinder
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/
index1.html
Informational site about the Mars
Pathfinder mission. The mission may be
over, but the interest in it is not. See
also www.nasa.gov/mission_pages
/mer/index.html for current Mars
exploration details.
Navy Center for Applied
Research in Artificial
Intelligence
www.nrl.navy.mil/aic/index.php
The Navy Center for Applied
Research in Artificial Intelligence
(NCARAI) has been involved in both
basic and applied research in AI since
its inception in 1982. NCARAI, part of
the Information Technology Division
within the Naval Research Laboratory,
is engaged in research and develop-
ment efforts designed to address the
application of artificial intelligence
technology and techniques to critical
Navy and national problems.
Poly-PEDAL Lab
http://polypedal.berkeley.edu/
twiki/bin/view/PolyPEDAL/Web
Home
The Poly-PEDAL Lab studies motion
in animals and insects. The walk (gait)
and balance studies often help in
designing legged robots.
Robotics and Intelligent
Machines Laboratory
http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.ed
u/wiki/pmwiki/pmwiki.php
Research and activities at the
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Laboratory at the University of
California at Berkeley.
Robotics Group at Columbia
University
www.cs.columbia.edu/robotics
Research in robotics — both mobile
and stationary — at Columbia
University in New York, NY.
Robots at Space and Naval
Warfare Systems — SPAWAR
www.nosc.mil/robots
A look at robotics at SPAWAR
(Space and Naval Warfare Systems
Center) in San Diego, CA. Most of the
robots are for military, urban defense,
or other applications where weapons
systems — both lethal and non-lethal —
are involved.
Sandia Intelligent Systems &
Robotics Center
www.sandia.gov/isrc
The Intelligent Systems and
Informational page about the Logo programming language,
originally developed by professors at MIT.
Robotics Center (ISRC) is a world leader
in creating miniature to macro-sized,
teleoperated to autonomous vehicles
for military and industrial applications.
From environmental clean-up to
the battlefield, the ISRC is expert in
developing unique intelligent mobile
systems.
Side Collision Warning System for
Transit Buses
www.ri.cmu.edu/projects/project_
324.html
Just imagine the collision system
on a big robot instead of a bus. From
Carnegie Mellon University.
Stanford Robotics Laboratory
www.robotics.stanford.edu
How robots live at the Robotics
Laboratory in Stanford, CA. See also
Stanford’s autonomous helicopter
work at http://sun-valley.stanford.
edu/projects/helicopters/helicop
ters.html.
Talking Heads
www.haskins.yale.edu/fea-
tured/heads/heads.html
This website provides an overview
of the rapidly growing international

Polypod
http://robotics.stanford.edu/
users/mark/polypod.html
Polypod is a bi-unit modular
robot.This page presents work done in
1993 and 1994. Work on the next gen-
eration, called “PolyBot” started mid
1998 at Xerox PARC as part of the
modular robotics project under the
smart matter theme.

Robotics and Computer Vision

Laboratory
www-cvr.ai.uiuc.edu
The way they see things as the
Robotics and Computer Vision Laboratory
at the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL.
SERVO 11.2007 59
RoboResources.qxd 10/9/2007 2:02 PM
effort to create talking heads
(physiological/computational/cognitive
models of audio-visual speech), the
historical antecedents of this effort,
and related work. Links are provided
(where possible) to the sites of
many researchers and commercial
entities working in this diverse and
exciting area.
Tarry Walking Machines
www.tarry.de/index_us.html
According to the page, the Tarry
walking machines which were devel-
oped and built by the Department of
Engineering Mechanics at the University
of Duisburg. Good detailed look at hexa-
pod designs. Recommended reading.
Toy Robots Initiative
www.cs.cmu.edu/~illah/EDU
TOY
The Toy Robot Initiative aims to
commercialize robotics technologies in
education, toys, entertainment, and
art. Operated out of the Mobile Robot
60 SERVO 11.2007
Page 60
Programming Laboratory in Carnegie
Mellon’s Robotics Institute.
Union College Robotics Club
www.vu.union.edu/~robot
Schenectady, New York.
University of Edinburgh AI
Machine Vision Unit
www.ipab.inf.ed.ac.uk/mvu
Overview of the Machine Vision
Unit at the University of Edinburgh
(that would be in Scotland).
University of Michigan Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu
People and projects at the AI lab
at the University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor.
University of Michigan Mobile
Robotics Lab
www.engin.umich.edu/
research/mrl
Among other things, special
research goes on here in the fields of
robot navigation. Be sure to read the
details of the Mobile Robot Positioning
and Obstacle Avoidance research. The
book Where am I? (in print, CD-ROM,
and electronic download) published by
the university’s Johann Borenstein, is a
classic and is required reading in many
mechatronics courses. See also Dr.
Borenstein’s home page where he
provides links to many more online
robotics resources at www-personal.
engin.umich.edu/~johannb.
University of New Hampshire
Robotics Lab
www.ece.unh.edu/robots/rbt_
home.htm
The research emphasis of the
Robotics Laboratory in the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering
at the University of New Hampshire
is the application of fast associative
memories and other neural network
learning techniques (such as CMAC
neural networks) to problems in
RoboResources.qxd 10/10/2007 1:15 PM
control, pattern recognition, and
signal processing.
University of Reading
Department of Cybernetics
www.cirg.reading.ac.uk/home.htm
The Cybernetic Intelligence
Research Group studies intelligence
and its real-life applications.
University of Southern
California Robotics Research
Laboratory
www-robotics.usc.edu
Robotics research at USC spans a
large number of labs and projects.
These include:
• USC Robotics Research Lab
• Interaction Lab (control and learning
in multi-robot and humanoid systems)
• Computational Learning and Motor
Control Lab
• Laboratory for Molecular Robotics
• Robotic Embedded Systems Lab
• Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory
(reconfigurable robotics)
University of Toronto Robotics
& Automation
www.mie.utoronto.ca/labs/ral
University of Toronto Robotics
and Automation Laboratory and
Mechatronics Laboratory.
METALGEARHEADMOTORS Five times the speed, ten times the power and
USC Robota Dolls
www-humanoids.usc.edu/SH_
summary.html
Playing with dolls at the University
of Southern California. According to
6OLT0OWER Rechargeable battery and commercial grade charger.
the website, the ROBOTA dolls are
a family of mini humanoid robots.
They are educational toys and can
engage in complex interaction with
humans, involving speech, vision, and
body imitation.
USU ECE Center for Self-
Organizing and Intelligent
Systems
www.csois.usu.edu/index.php
Robot work at the Utah State
Page 61
University. Check out past and a series of fully autonomous vehicles
present projects, including the stair- (both air and ground). The goal is to
climbing robot and the omnidirectional have a fleet of robots that can work
wheel designs. cooperatively toward some predefined
goal without the slightest bit of help
Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group from any human crew. SV
http://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~warg
In the words of the website, The CONTACT THE AUTHOR
Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group [at the
University of Waterloo in Canada] is a Gordon McComb can be reached via
email at robots@robotoid.com
team of engineers who are developing
Tough Enough for Varsity
Engineering Games
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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.
Flexibility to use various controllers – even from your existing robot kit.
Utilize salvaged or surplus motors using GEARS supplied motor mounts.
Add your own sensors, cameras, electronics and GPS systems to our sturdy platform.
Approved by high schools and colleges across the country.
Gears Educational Systems, LLC
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SERVO 11.2007 61
TwinTweaks.qxd 10/9/2007 11:20 AM Page 62
T
he holiday season is almost here
— a time for family and fun. One
family gathering that would be
very interesting to see would be the
reunion of the WowWee robotics
family; the Robosapien clan. WowWee
robotics has produced some of the
coolest robotics toys around, and
we are proud to introduce two new
members of the tribe: Roboquad
and Robopanda.
Surf and Turf
The Roboquad looks like no
identifiable creature (a Gridbug from
hte movie Tron? - Ed.) It’s like a
ROBOQUAD.
62 SERVO 11.2007
THIS MONTH:
Welcome to the Family
four-legged, crab-like spider-like, wide-
eyed envoy from another world or the
most mysterious corners of ours. The
Roboquad is billed as the most aware
of the WowWee clan thanks to an
advanced vision system that relies on
“deep IR scanning.” After seeing the
Roboquad in action, we are inclined to
agree. The bot plods around like a
curious crab, and instead of relying
on touch sensors like its ancestor
the Robosapien, the Roboquad relies
completely on its keen sense of sight.
Another thing that the Roboquad
has on all of its WowWee relatives is
that it is by far the best dancer. With its
hip tunes and flashing lights, the
ROBOQUAD ALL BOXED UP.
Roboquad is ready for the clubs.
The Roboquad’s epic personality is
comprised of three elements that can
be mixed and matched with three
levels of intensity per element. Those
three components are: awareness,
activity, and aggression. Awareness
refers to Roboquad’s tendency to
pause, take a moment for reflection,
and scan with its IR sensors.
Roboquad’s impressive sensors can
discern obstacles up to six feet away,
and higher awareness levels will scan
more often and at the maximum range.
Conversely, lower awareness
means rarer scans at shorter range. No
matter what the Awareness setting,
the Roboquad can gather an
extraordinary amount of infor-
mation through its sensors. It
can tell if it is light or dark, and
will turn its headlights on in
the dark. The Roboquad can
even sense movements
and the shape of objects like
doorways or steps.
Activity refers to
Roboquad’s speed and
magnitude of reactions.
Higher activity levels mean
faster wandering and more
involved responses. For
TwinTweaks.qxd 10/9/2007 11:20 AM Page 63
example, a Roboquad set with a high
activity level might react to a sensed
obstacle by backing up, turning
around, and completely changing
course while a mellower Roboquad
with a lower activity setting might plod
around slowly and react to obstacles by
just taking a step back.
Aggression refers to the nature
and intensity of Roboquad’s reactions
when faced with input and obstacles.
A Roboquad with a high aggression
level might react by roaring and
lunging forward, while a more docile
Roboquad with a low aggression
setting might make a discouraged
sound and meekly back away.
Each of these personality compo-
nents have three levels of intensity that
correspond to different colors on the
remote — green for the first level,
orange for the second, and red for the
third. The personality components
mainly come into play during the
autonomous wandering mode, and the
three elements and their levels can be
recombined and reconfigured to create
literally hundreds of variations in the
Roboquad’s autonomous personality.
The Roboquad is programmable in
a way similar to other members of the
WowWee family — a sequence of
moves is inputted via the controller
while in program mode, and at the
push of a button the robot will repeat
that sequence of moves. The
Robosapien could run some fairly long
programs even with just a maximum
sequence of 15 moves. The Roboquad
can remember a sequence of up to 40
moves, and it has the capability for
greater customization than Robosapien
in the sense that each leg can be
controlled individually (or as a pair, if
you like). During the programming
process, the Roboquad will also
demonstrate each move as inputted,
which would be very helpful when
creating new gaits.
Cracking the Shell
of the Mysterious
Spider-Crab
Roboquad’s earliest ancestor, the
Robosapien, was renowned far and
Welcome to the Family
LOOK INTO MY EYES ... STRIKE A POSE!
wide for its hackability. Intrepid tinker- correct, that would mean the board is
ers would equip their Robosapiens with fairly small, and with the sophisticated
everything from cameras and surround sensor array and number of motors,
sound systems to tank tread bases. we would be inclined to believe that
After much deliberation, we have come board would be very busy indeed. This
to the regrettable conclusion that the was also the case with the Roboquad’s
Roboquad is not meant to have the close relative, the Roboreptile,
same hackability as its ancestors. and the busy board is not exactly
Our first hint was the sheer hacker friendly.
number of screws that holds the In the face of compelling evidence,
Roboquad’s exoskeleton together. we were forced to make the unfortu-
The Robosapien had one main body nate conclusion that the Roboquad
panel that was held in place by a very simply isn’t meant for hacking. Of
efficient number of screws, while course, we think that tenacious tinker-
the main shell of the Roboquad was ers will be able to surmount all of these
held in place by over a dozen screws. obstacles and do some crazy things to
Even after passing the trial of the the mysterious spider-crab, but the
screws, the body panels are assembled design of the bot certainly won’t make
in such a way to further discourage it too easy of an undertaking.
disassembly. The main body panel is
held down by the base of the neck, ROBOPANDA.
and the base of the neck can’t be
removed unless the rest of the neck is
removed. And so on.
We decided to try another plan of
attack, starting at the head instead of
the robot’s middle. The skull of the
Roboquad is held together by eight
screws, all of which were extraordinari-
ly tight. Even after removing all but a
few stubborn screws, the panels of the
Roboquad’s head still gave no signs at
all of wanting to split open. But if we
were able to open up the Roboquad,
what would we find?
If we were to submit to conjecture,
we might make the educated guess
that the Roboquad’s board is either
housed just above the black box on its
underbelly that holds the batteries or in
the head of the beast. If we were
SERVO 11.2007 63
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Twin Tweaks ...
ROBOPANDA CARTRIDGE.
Eats Shoots and
Leaves
The Robopanda is the other new
member of the WowWee clan and it
will immediately captivate audiences of
all ages with its charming androgynous
voice and animated movements.
Robopanda is a completely interactive
robotic companion — so interactive
that any activities cannot be one
sided because there is no remote to
accompany the robotic bear.
The Robopanda interacts with its
environment through touch sensors on
its feet, paws, back, belly, and head,
and a sound sensor. It takes a bit of
practice to become an expert as
to where all of Robopanda’s touch
sensors are, but in just a short while
the moments of head scratching that
follow the command “rub my belly if
you want to hear a story” will be a
thing of the past.
As a nice safety feature, the
Robopanda sports several pinch
sensors around its arms and neck to
prevent hapless children from pinching
their fingers. And even if kids don’t
grasp the danger of the pinch points,
they should certainly learn their lesson
from Robopanda’s tortured cries of
“please don’t hold my neck that way!”
Panda-monium
All WowWee toys are billed as a
fusion of technology and personality,
and the Robopanda is downright
emotive. Expressive blue eyes, moving
eyebrows, and an animated voice with
real human-like inflections are just the
64 SERVO 11.2007
THE ROBOPANDA SWITCH! OOOH! AAAH!
start. The Robopanda displays a wide
array of emotions and moods that
range from excitedly telling stories and
jokes to fitfully demanding his Teddy.
And while the Robopanda’s expressive
voice alone would have been plenty to
define all of these moods, it completes
the picture with playful movements of
its paws and ears.
The Robopanda can operate in any
of three different modes. Menu Mode
allows you to choose what Robopanda
does, whether it is to tell you stories or
jokes or play games like “Panda Says.”
Robopanda’s stories are packed full of
information about other animals, and
in addition to being educational, the
Robopanda tells them with enough
zeal to be undeniably entertaining.
Teaching an Old
Panda New Tricks
Training Mode allows you to teach
Robopanda tricks. Teaching the boister-
ous bear new tricks can be achieved in
just a few easy steps. First, you have
to choose where Robopanda will
remember the trick by pressing one of
his touch sensors. Later on when you
want Robopanda to perform a trick
(or if it prompts you), all you have to
do is press the sensor to which the trick
is assigned.
Second, you have to teach
Robopanda the trick itself. What a trick
actually is to Robopanda is basically a
remembered movement. You could
make Robopanda flap its arms like a
bird or give a karate chop — all
you have to do is physically
move Robopanda’s arms accordingly,
and it will remember the trick.
When we first started training our
Robopanda, we were a bit wary about
how much force we could use in
manipulating the Panda’s paws for the
trick. The bear is surprisingly robust,
and being too gentle will not
allow Robopanda to register the trick.
Nailing down the complexity of the
movements that the Robopanda can
remember is also a trial and error
process, but overall, the tricks feature
is a fun feature that paints that
much more of a complete picture of
interactivity. And don’t fret if you can’t
remember these steps — Robopanda
will cheerily guide you through them
every time.
Panda Expressive
Robopanda’s premier mode is
“Friend Mode,” and we have to admit
that the irrepressible robot makes an
entertaining pal indeed. You could
literally spend hours listening to
Robopanda excitedly recount its
dreams, demand foot massages, and
spout seemingly endless bits of panda
related trivia. We didn’t know that
Pandas are nicknamed Great Bear
Cats because of their cat-like eyes, and
we had never heard of Red Pandas
before either.
The Robopanda’s animated
conversations will at the very least give
you an edge in Trivial Pursuit: Jungle
Edition, and at the most pique your
curiosity about the Great Bear Cats
to the extent that you continue
researching the fascinating animals
long after Robopanda falls asleep
(which it will do from time to time). We
looked up the Red Panda on Wikipedia,
and we can assure you that it certainly
fits the description given by
Robopanda (“a lot smaller and a lot
redder than I am”), even though
Robopanda forgot to mention how
overwhelmingly precious it is.
Perfectly timed reactions give the
Robopanda the convincing illusion of
sophisticated artificial intelligence. It
will ask you questions, pause for just
long enough for you to give an answer,
then react in what always seems to be
a delightfully appropriate way.
TwinTweaks.qxd 10/9/2007 11:21 AM Page 65
Friend Mode is also where
Robopanda will demand its Teddy
either for hugs or a game of peek-a-
boo. The Robopanda can actually
identify its Teddy through radio-
frequency identification, and the chip
was so seamlessly implanted in the
stuffed animal that we would have to
cut open the hapless bear to find it —
though that does leave the compelling
possibility of switching Teddy’s chip
with a banana or a roll of toilet paper
and having Robopanda play peek-a-boo
with that instead.
Robopanda will rarely repeat itself
while going through its vast repertoire,
but that repertoire is essentially limited.
Such a limitation, however, does not
pose much of a threat to Robopanda’s
fun factor because its repertoire is
actually cartridge based, and the bear
bot comes with two cartridges. Each
cartridge comes with its own set of
stories, jokes, games, and panda trivia.
While this is exciting simply for the
promise of hours of panda fun, it also
opens the door to the possibility of
new cartridges being released in
the future. These future cartridges
could contain even more stories and
jokes and panda trivia, and ensure that
the fun of the Robopanda never
becomes obsolete.
The other side of the cartridge
potential is the possibility of hacking
the panda. Perhaps custom external
devices could be attached via the
connector for the cartridges. But what
about more traditional hacking by
opening up the Robopanda itself? The
Robopanda, unfortunately, also seems
to have been designed to discourage
hacking. On every segment of the
panda’s shell, we were able to remove
all but one or two screws, with the
troublesome screws simply being to far
inset into the shell to reach with our
screwdriver. And even if a hacker was
able to crack open the panda (as
terrible as that sounds), we think they
would have to be very careful with
their hacks indeed. Robopanda’s
primary functionality is in its speech, so
any electronics additions should be
careful to avoid compromising that.
Perhaps a mechanical hack would be
best, like adding wheels or treads to
the Robopanda’s feet so it could really
move around — ever so often
Robopanda will declare its intention to
crawl around, but unless it is on the
perfect surface it amounts to little
more than crawling in place.
From Homosapien
to Robosapien and
Beyond
One thing that is true of the
Robopanda, Roboquad, and all of the
WowWee family is that they are very
sophisticated in their simplicity. The
Roboquad is particularly surprising. Its
crab-like walk and multitude of variants
surely seem to be the result of a com-
plicated arrangement of motors and
gears, but in reality the endearing gaits
are achieved simply by one motor per
leg (the whole bot has six motors total;
four in the legs and two in its neck).
The exceptional cleverness that
makes the Roboquad so full of person-
ality is in the design of the bot itself.
It’s not surprising that this bot was
designed by Mark Tilden, the designer
of the Robosapien and father of BEAM
(Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and
Mechanics) Robotics. In their achieve-
ment of such a high caliber of sophisti-
cation and coolness, the Roboquad
and all of the WowWee robots seem to
be guided by similar principles as those
guiding BEAM robotics — simplicity,
efficiency, and elegance.
Many BEAM robots use solar
power, and even though the Roboquad
and Robopanda run on batteries the
efficiency of their design is in the same
ROBOPANDA TEDDY.
Welcome to the Family
spirit of economy. They use a
minimal number of motors to achieve
complicated movements, and the bots
are designed to take advantage of
reflexive motion to use less energy.
BEAM robots are also character-
ized by simple electronics that use
logic circuits as opposed to
microprocessors. We weren’t able to
get a look at the electronics of the
Roboquad or Robopanda, but if their
relatives are any indication, we imagine
that they are paragons of simplicity
and efficiency.
The A in BEAM is aesthetics, and
the WowWee bots have always done
well in this department. From the sleek
color schemes to the expressive faces,
the Roboquad and its ilk are works of
art as much as robotic toys.
The final element is mechanics,
and with sparse usage of motors and
creative reflexive motion, the WowWee
bots are mechanical works of art, as
well. Complex movements can be
achieved in a complicated way, but
achieving it in a simple way is far
greater of a challenge. The Roboquad
achieves its spider-crab gait though
four motors instead of the eight or 10
it easily could have used. And the
real trick with this whole thing is
that the Roboquad doesn’t sacrifice
any of its realism or charm by
using fewer motors — that is good
mechanical design.
As for the Robopanda, while it
might not meet all of those conditions
of BEAM robotics, we think that it will
still make an astounding contribution
to the world of robotics as a whole for
crossing that difficult boundary
THE FAB TRIO.
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Twin Tweaks ...

Recommended Websites Robopanda fulfills so effectively that
demands such human-like finesse? The
For more information, go to: deceptively difficult task is companion-
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www.roboquadonline.com funky sounds and flashing lights, is a
www.robopandaonline.com toy and not a companion. It can’t inter-
www.wowwwee.com act with us like a person can, through
conversation and delightful reactions.
between robotic toy and robotic The Robopanda does these things, and
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Many futurists, roboticists, and able bear, the essence of its success lies
regular folks imagine that in the near in the fact that it is indeed lovable.
future robots will be a part of our
everyday lives. For many others, Descending the
however, it is hard to visualize robots Family Tree
becoming so integrated into society. A
Roomba scurrying across the floor As the descendants of the
seems another thing entirely from an Robosapien become more numerous,
Asimo-like humanoid helping you carry they also seem to become more sophis-
the groceries. We think the disconnect ticated and self contained. A look at
comes from the expectation that the evolution of the WowWee remote
robots performing human-like tasks control is indicative of this trend. The
should be able to interact with us in Robosapien’s controller is populated by
human-like ways. We also think that copious amounts of buttons even
the Robopanda bridges that divide. though the number of buttons is
Then, what is the task that the mitigated by the color coded levels.
The Roboreptile and the Roboquad’s
remotes are much more sparsely
populated, and the Robopanda has no
remote at all.
The hackability of the bots also
follows this trend. The Robosapien was
a hacker’s dream, but now the
Roboquad and Robopanda seem to
specifically discourage hacking. This
trend might seem like a negative thing
to many tinkerers, but the other side of
this coin is an exciting advancement in
the robotic field, both technologically
and socially.
Technologically because these are
advanced robots with sophisticated
sensor arrays that are widely available,
and socially because they make the
seemingly science fiction inspired
vision of a future filled with robotic
companions seem much more realistic.
These are toys cool enough to tear kids
away from the video games, and they
are robots sophisticated enough to
garner the admiration of hobbyists and
professionals alike. SV

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DifferentBits.qxd 10/9/2007 11:17 AM Page 68

DIFFERENT
BITS
NEURAL NETWORKS FOR THE PIC MICROCONTROLLER
PART 3 — HEBBIAN LEARNING by Heather Dewey-Hagborg

In September’s column, we looked at feedforward neural networks and backpropagation

and discussed their uses for solving linearly inseparable problems. This month, we are going
to look at a more biologically plausible class of neural network models based on Hebbian
learning. This article will assume that you have been following along with the series and
are familiar with terms like input sum, activation, weights, and learning function.

H
ebbian learning is based on a
simple and intuitive principle:
connections between neurons
that tend to fire together increase in
strength. The converse of this is also
true: Neurons that rarely fire together
have weak connections. This means
that neurons become “associated” and
assist in each other’s activity. Hebbian
learning allows neural networks to
form simple behavioral conditioning. By
repeatedly presenting a set of input
and output patterns together to the
network, it will learn over time to
associate the input and other similar
inputs with the output.
The most basic Hebbian learning
networks have only two layers of
neurons, inputs, and outputs. They use
the same linear, hard-limiting activation
function as the perceptron neural
network from July’s column:
activation = sign(input sum)
In other words, if the input sum
is > 0, the activation is 1; otherwise,
the activation is -1. The input sum is
computed in the same way as always:
68 SERVO 11.2007
input sum = (input0 * weight0) +
(input1 * weight1) + …
And so on, for as many inputs as the
neuron has.
Learning can be either supervised
or unsupervised. So far in this column,
we have discussed only supervised
models of learning where we play the
role of teacher and effectively tell the
neural network the correct answer
repeatedly until it gets it right. Hebbian
learning can involve a teacher or can
work on its own without anyone telling
the network what is right and wrong.
Both forms of learning go through
the same cycle of sensing and updating
connection strengths, but the unsuper-
vised model computes weight updates
based on what values are present
together, whereas the supervised
version computes based on what the
output should be. The learning rule is
as follows:
weight change = learning constant
* desired output * input value
Or, in the unsupervised model:
weight change = learning
constant * neuron A activation *
neuron B activation
As you can see, connection
strength will only increase between
correlated neurons; neurons with acti-
vations of the same sign. For example,
if we want an output neuron to have
an activation of 1 and it has two inputs
— one input activated to -1 and the
other input activated to +1 — the
weight change will be positive
between the neurons with the same
sign, and negative between the
neurons with opposite signs.
EX: weight change = 0.2 * 1 * -1
weight change = -.2
weight change = 0.2 * 1 * 1
weight change = .2
Hebbian learning is often used in
neural networks that model psycholog-
ical theories. The most common
example of this is a form of Pavlovian
classical conditioning where an animal
(or robot) learns to associate two
DifferentBits.qxd 10/9/2007 11:17 AM Page 69

DIFFERENT BITS

FIGURE 1. Circuit
schematic.

SERVO 11.2007 69
DifferentBits.qxd 10/9/2007 11:17 AM
DIFFERENT BITS
stimuli, such as the sound of a bell and
receiving food. Hebbian learning is also
used in more complex hybrid neural
network models to simulate a variety of
psychological conditions and principles.
For more on this subject, check out
Computational Explorations in
Cognitive Neuroscience by Randall C.
O’Reilly and Yuko Munakata (ISBN:
0-262-65054-1) and Neural Networks
and Psychopathology by Dan J. Stein
BILL OF MATERIALS
• Breadboard
For microcontroller circuit:
• PIC16F877A microcontroller and
programmer
• 20 MHz ceramic resonator with built-in
capacitors (or equivalent)
• One pushbutton (for reset)
• One 10K resistor (for reset)
• One light emitting diode (status light)
• One 220 ohm resistor (for the LED)
For serial communication:
• RS-232 level shifter (MAX233 or similar)
• 1 µF capacitor (if using MAX233)
• Serial cable with receive pin available
for breadboard use
For input:
• Four one-bit digital input sensors, i.e.,
pushbutton/whisker switches, proximity
detectors, etc., and coordinating circuitry
For output:
• H-bridge chip for two motors, i.e., L293D
• Two motors
• Two capacitors
• Separate power supply for motors
70 SERVO 11.2007
Page 70
FIGURE 2. Hebbian robot
neural network diagram.
and Jacques Ludik (ISBN:
0-521-57163-4).
Microcontroller
Implementation
In this example, we will
create a breadboard proto-
type for a robot that learns to
map sensor inputs to outputs
for controlling motors. The
program is split into two
phases. First, the robot learns
the input/output mappings
you provide. Second, it begins a sense-
act cycle where it reads the values of its
sensors, processes those through its
neural network, and passes the output
values to the inputs of an H-bridge for
motion. At the end of this section, we
will discuss how you could expand the
example to create a robot that learns
from supervised instructions received in
real-time via a remote control.
Circuit
Wire up the PIC chip and MAX233
chip as usual (see July column for more
detailed instructions and pictures). For
my breadboard prototype, I just used
four pushbutton switches to simulate
thresholded proximity sensors. I
connected the switches between the
associated microcontroller pin and +5V
and then connected pull-down resistors
between that microcontroller pin and
ground. For motors, I used two
Solarbotics GM10 geared pager
motors running at three volts DC. For
wiring details, reference my schematic
in Figure 1. Feel free to use whatever
combination of sensors and
motors/motor drivers you prefer; the
point here is the learning algorithm not
the hardware.
Code
The code (which you can down-
load from the SERVO Magazine
website at www.servomagazine.
com) is broken down into three main
sections: setup/main loop, learning,
and motor commands. Let’s look at
the learning functions first.
• sign — Simply returns the sign
(positive 1 or negative 1) of the
floating point argument.
• getActivation — This function com-
putes the output neuron activations
based on the current set of inputs and
connection strengths.
• learn — This function applies the
Hebbian learning rule described above
to the neural network connections
based on the current inputs and
desired outputs.
weight change = learning constant
* desired output * input value
• calculateError — This function
computes the root mean squared error
of the network’s learning each iteration
and prints it to your serial monitor. This
gives you a sense of how quickly the
network is learning and provides a
troubleshooting measure.
The motor control functions are
relatively self explanatory. Each motor
has an enable pin and two direction pins
that specify whether it is turning forward
or backward; the motor commands set
these three pins appropriately.
• motor1_forward, motor2_forward —
Enable the motor and set one direction
pin high and the other low.
• motor1_backward, motor2_back
ward — Enable the motor and flip
the direction pin bits to the reverse
direction.
• motor1_stop, motor2_stop — Set the
enable pin low to disable the motor.
Finally, let’s look at the setup and
main loop functions.
• setup — Disable all the functions we
are not using, print a “Hello!” message
out the serial port, and turn on the
status LED. This function helps us
know that basic functions like pin
I/O and serial transmission are
working properly.
DifferentBits.qxd 10/9/2007 11:17 AM
• main — First, we run the setup
command. Second, we initialize the
connections array with small floating
point random weights. Third, the
neural network goes through its
learning phase which generally takes
less than 50 iterations. It prints what
iteration it is out the serial port and
then randomly chooses an input set for
training. It finds its activation, runs the
learning function, and computes the
current root mean squared error.
When the learning phase is com-
plete, the program switches to an infinite
loop of sensing, processing the input
array through the neural network, and
activating the output motors. The public
array outs[] holds the motor command
outputs from the neural network. A
value of +1 means motor forward, and a
value of -1 means motor backward.
After programming, you should
see the following behavior from
your circuit:
1) The status LED turns on and
the “Hello!” message prints to your
serial monitor.
2) Initial weight values print out the
serial port.
3) Documentation of the learning
process prints out showing you what
iteration and error level the network is
at. This completes almost too quickly
for you to notice.
4) The motors will start turning
forward and debugging information
will print out the serial port telling you
what input values are read and what
output values are calculated.
Evaluate the neural network. Test
it by changing the sensor values and
seeing how it responds. Does it act the
way you taught it to? How does it
respond to ambiguous input situations
that you did not explicitly program in?
Does it generalize well?
Next Steps ...
Having a robot that learns and is
Page 71
DIFFERENT BITS
able to generalize from what it has
learned to gracefully handle new
situations is great. But it would be
nice if you didn’t have to imagine a
bunch of situations beforehand and
program them explicitly. One solution I
have imagined for this is using a
remote control as an on-the-fly teacher
for an embodied robot. The robot
would start with the same randomly
initialized neural network as in this
program, but rather than defining a
set of inputs and correct responses,
the robot would go through a
learning cycle every time it received
a remote control instruction; the
instructions would function as
behavioral corrections. This is an
appealing idea because it allows
the robot to learn in a more natural
way, similar to a pet.
To implement this process, you just
need to change the main function by
deleting the learning phase and
adjusting the loop to check for serial
data after each move. If a command
has been received, the robot adjusts its
position and runs the learn function
with the new information loaded. The
learn function needs to be revised to
calculate the delta value based on the
actual output neuron values rather
than desired values:
delta = constant*(float) outs[k]*
(float) ins[j];
And finally, I would include a serial
interrupt function so that you don’t
have to lose instructions waiting for a
byte that never arrives:
#int_rda
void serial_isr() {
cmd=getc();
putc(cmd);
new=1;
}
Have fun experimenting with these
concepts! I would love to hear from
any of you that attempt to implement
or modify these algorithms in your
own projects. If you want to share your
successes (or frustrations) with me,
drop me a line at heather@servo
magazine.com. SV
SERVO 11.2007 71
WebstoreNov07.qxd 10/10/2007 9:51 AM Page 72

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continued from page 7

Response: You are quite right in pointing out that traditional
differentials use a twin axle, and that this does result in a more
efficient transmission of power to the back wheels while the vehicle
is turning. This is actually the way the new Vex differential kit
is designed to be used, as it comes with all of the requisite
components to build a diff just as you mentioned. Since we like to
do things a bit differently, however, we chose to show how the parts
could be used in another way and, as we stated in the article, the
fixed diff is an old school strategy to maximize power transmission
to the wheels while the vehicle is moving forward.The fixed diff does
have the potential to pose serious problems for turning, but we
think the slightly off-kilter geometry of the front end was the
primary culprit — as we drove the vehicle, we could see that it was
the front wheels that were scrubbing and not the back wheels that
were hopping.Thanks for reading!
— Bryce and Evan Woolley
Dear SERVO:
Alex Dirks of CrustCrawler wrote to you concerning what he
felt were incorrect statements that I made in my July Then & Now
column concerning servos used in many experimenter’s robots —
the types used with radio-controlled model airplanes to control
various wing and rudder surfaces. He referred to the following
statements that I made concerning their use with robot arms:
1) “The advantage of using R/C servos is the positional feedback.”
2) “Potentiometric feedback, as in R/C servos, allows the controlling
computer to know where each joint is positioned.”
mechanisms built into ANY standard servo today with the
exception of the AX-12+ and a few specialized servos used in
biped type robots.”
I have since spoken with Alex on the subject and we see
eye-to-eye. It turns out that we are both right. Here is a definition
that I saw on the PC Magazine website: (a servo is) “An
electromechanical device that uses feedback to provide precise
starts and stops for such functions as the motors on a tape drive
or the moving of an access arm on a disk.”
By nature, a servo is a feedback device and it uses the
internal pot to feedback positional data to the internal circuitry of
the servo. Because of this feedback, the model aircraft servo will
continually try to move the servo’s output shaft to the position that
the external microcontroller requested, and will only stop ‘trying’
when that point is reached. A stepper motor, by contrast, will
receive a series of pulses to move a certain number of degrees,
but may be jammed, and could stop at a point far from where the
microcontroller requested it to be.This positional feedback is what
I feel is an advantage over a stepper motor.
Alex was correct in stating that a typical model airplane
servo has no feedback to the outside world, including the
controlling microcontroller. The new Robotis AX-12+ and a few
high-end servos do, however, but not the typical hacked servo we
read about.
— Tom Carroll

Alex countered with the following: “There are no feedback

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: John Lemieux, 430 Princeland Ct., Corona, CA 92879;
Larry Lemieux, 430 Princeland Ct., Corona, CA 92879; Audrey 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
2006-September 2007. 15. The average number of copies of each issue during the
proceeding twelve months is: A) Total number of copies printed (net press run); 11,581
B) Paid/Requested Circulation (1) Mailed Outside County subscriptions: 6,069 (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: 1,644 (4) Paid Distribution by other classes of mail through
the USPS: 0; C) Total Paid Distribution: 7,713; D) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution by
mail and outside the mail (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies: 64 (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:
898; E) Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 962; F) Total Distribution: 8,675; G)
Copies not distributed: 2,906; H) Total: 11,581; Percent paid circulation: 88.91%. Actual
number of copies of the single issue published nearest the filing date is September
2007; A) Total number of copies printed (net press run) 10,544; B) Paid/Requested
Circulation (1) Mailed Outside County subscriptions: 5,976 (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:
1,575 (4) Paid Distribution by other classes of mail through the USPS: 0; C) Total Paid
Distribution: 7,551; D) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution by mail and outside the mail
(1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies: 0 (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: 300; E) Total Free or
Nominal Rate Distribution: 300; F) Total Distribution: 7,851; G) Copies not distributed:
2,693; H) Total: 10,544; Percent paid circulation: 96.18%. I certify that these
statements are correct and complete. Larry Lemieux, Publisher - 9/28/07.

SERVO 11.2007 75
Appetizer.qxd 10/9/2007 2:16 PM Page 76
The Black Widow Contest
Winner: ITESO’s Myoelectric
Prosthetic Hand
T he winning entry for Freescale
Semiconductor’s recent Black
Widow $10,000 Design Challenge — a
myoelectric prosthetic hand — is the
product of a team of electrical engineer-
ing students from ITESO graduate school
in Guadalajara, Mexico. This article,
based on an interview with team
members, introduces the concept of
yoelectric control and offers insight into
the challenges inherent in an expense-
and time-limited robotics project.
The Black Widow
Contest
The judges of the Black Widow
PHOTO 1. Prosthetic
hand connected via
surface electrodes to
the operator’s arm.
76 SERVO 11.2007
by Bryan Bergeron
Challenge considered entries on the
basis of creativity, design efficiency,
technical complexity, number of
Freescale devices used, and overall
application innovation and usefulness.
The contest required entrants to incor-
porate the MC9S08QG, MC9S08QD, or
MC9RS08KA families of microcontrollers
in their design. While the ITESO team
received $10,000 and considerable pub-
licity, all entrants received free technical
training and a discounted price for devel-
opment tools supporting Freescale’s S08
eight-bit microcontrollers. Registration or
the design challenge closed in April
2007, with more than 775 submissions.
For details of contest rules and informa-
tion on the next Black Widow Contest,
see www.freescale.com/blackwidow.
Winning Design
The winning design — shown in
PHOTO 2.
Close-up of hand
construction.
Photos 1 and 2 — is a myoelectric
prosthetic hand. The hand can open,
close, and rotate clockwise and
counterclockwise, as dictated by the
user. The unique aspect of the design is
the myoelectric control, which is based
on electrical activity in the muscles
in the forearm used for gross hand
movement. Although the design could
have relied on surface electrodes
placed over the smaller muscles within
the hand, using four pairs of electrodes
over muscles of the forearm enables the
robotic hand to be used by amputees.
The front-end circuitry detects,
amplifies, and conditions the
myoelectric signals before analog-to-
digital conversion. The digital signals
are then interpreted by the microcon-
troller, which controls the two motors
in the hand. A pair of Freescale
MC33887 H-bridges are used to drive
the hand motors. Grip strength is
controlled manually by a
potentiometer, enabling
the hand to apply
appropriate force to the
object being grasped.
Total development cost
for the hand was approx-
imately $1,800.
Lessons
Learned
According to the
ITESO team leader, Alan
Collins, the greatest
challenges associated
Appetizer.qxd 10/9/2007 2:16 PM Page 77

with developing the prosthetic hand

were limited time and team manage-
ment. Time was limited because the
students in the team — all of whom
were enrolled in a class
in Biomedical Electronics — were in
their last semester of studies.
Approximately three months were
spent in design and development,
with only one month for implementa-
tion and design changes. While work-
ing under the time constraints of a
school semester were trying, the
greatest hurdles were associated
PHOTO 3. ITESO team
with project and team management. members, left to right:
Team members had to put their Missael Maciel, Sergio
individual egos aside, agree to a Santana, Andres
shared vision, and work as a true Alvarez, Alan Collins,
Gabriel Herrera,
team instead of seven independent Ramon Guillen, and
designers. In the end, this may have Carlos Soto.
been more important than the
specifics of the technology. (www.iteso.mx), is shown above in design and development outsourcing
Photo 3. services. For more information on
Winning Team Alan Collins and Gabriel Herrera the myoelectric hand or the new
have recently graduated and formed a company, contact Alan Collins at
The winning team, a group of company (Nextia Embedded Systems) led_cr@hotmail.com. Special thanks
seven electrical engineering students that specializes in medical systems to Allie McCormick for arranging a
from ITESO graduate school at the (more specificly: embedded solutions telephone interview with Alan and
Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara for differently able people), including Gabriel. SV

SERVO 11.2007 77
Then&Now.qxd 10/10/2007 10:17 AM Page 78
Then NOW
HUMANOID ROBOTS
I n my many articles over the years,
I’ve managed to mention just a few
tantalizing tidbits about the progress
being made in humanoid robots, but
have just categorized that information
within the context of the particular
article that I was writing. In June ’06, I
wrote about the development of
walking robots in this column, however,
humanoid form goes quite a bit beyond
simple bipedal walking machines or
even the addition of a ‘head’ as the
center of information-gathering sensors.
The earliest robots were always
anthropomorphic or ‘man formed’ and
the plays and movies from the beginning
of last century depicted them in this way.
Of course, a human was inside a robot
suit so it was much easier to use an actor
to give movement to a human-sized
FIGURE 1. Gort the robot and
Klaatu the alien.
78 SERVO 11.2007
a n d
b y T o m C
bipedal creature that to engineer the com-
plex machinery required for the illusion.
Gort from the classic 1951 sci-fi film
The Day the Earth Stood Still (DVD avail-
able in Nuts & Volts webstore for $14.95;
www.nutsvolts.com) was actually Lock
Martin, a very tall doorman recruited from
Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood,
CA (see Figure 1). The rubber ‘Gort suit’
was so uncomfortable that Martin could
only stand it for 30 minutes at a time and
it was so restrictive to his movements that
he could not pick up the actors that he
was seen to ‘carry about.’ Wires and
moveable stands were used to support
the people out of sight of the camera.
As an active scuba diver in the ‘60s
and ‘70s, I can just imagine how
uncomfortable a rubber suit could be
after standing in the sun with a wet suit
FIGURE 2. Maria, the robot
in Metropolis.
a r r o l l
on after a dive. I’m not sure if it was any
more comfortable than the ‘Maria’ suit
worn by actress Brigitte Helm in the
earlier classic movie Metropolis, filmed
in 1927 (see Figure 2). Much later, Star
Wars producer George Lucas used
diminutive actor, Kenny Baker crammed
inside the body of R2D2 in 1977 (and all
later sequels) to give life to the ‘robot,’
as mechanisms of the day could not
produce the rocking motion and give
movement to all of its many functions.
Actor Anthony Daniels was similarly
stuffed into a gold robot suit not too
unlike the Maria costume of a half
century earlier to give motion to C-3PO.
In people’s minds decades ago, most
robots had to look like bipedal
humanoids and the only way to animate
these robots was to place a human inside
a robot suit. The cute little beeping,
rolling trashcan-looking R2D2 was the
exception to the humanoid appearance.
Why Humanoids?
What is the draw for experimenters
to build a humanoid robot rather that a
wheeled machine? They are more
expensive to construct, especially if
the designer uses a pair of legs for
propulsion instead of wheels. They are
more unstable and can be easily tipped
over, either accidentally or on purpose.
Reliability is another factor; one bad leg
joint or actuator out of many and the
robot is out of commission.
I’ve followed a series of postings on
the Seattle Robotics Society’s website
(www.seattlerobotics.org) entitled
“Legs not Wheels” for over a month.
Then&Now.qxd 10/10/2007 10:17 AM Page 79
There are strong feelings for both types
of robots and the reasoning is sound for
both camps. If you want to showcase
your robotics talents, your biped
humanoid robot walking across a table
and taking a bow is certainly a great way
to add a feather to your hat. Coolness
comes up strong as a reason for experi-
menters to want to build legged robots,
especially bipedal robots. They just reek
of coolness. Plus, humanoids look like the
creatures we are most familiar with — us.
Another strong point for humanoid
robots is the technical challenge
required to design and build a humanoid
robot. A designer of humanoids just
doesn’t make two legs cycle one in front
of the other. He must take into consider-
ation the center of gravity and balance,
natural resonance of the mechanisms
involved, foot design, kinematics,
synchronizing all of the joints and
actuators, hip and upper body position,
and a multitude of other factors.
The builder must also take into
account just where the robot will be used
— outside, indoors, on a table, in a
competition, or all of the above. Statically
stable gaits have been the easiest for
bipedal robot builders to achieve, though
a few experimenters have built running
robots. We must remember, however,
that many large companies have investi-
gated walking robots as a natural way for
a machine to traverse a specific area, and
have found out that legs are better for
certain tasks, while other applications
work better with wheels. General Electric
built several large walking robots that
ended up with no application, yet Boston
Dynamics built the Big Dog robot that
just might make it onto the battlefield in
the near future.
Humanoid Robots
Become a Reality
Despite all the movies and the many
decades of wishing that true humanoids
were among us, it wasn’t until Honda’s
series of almost human-sized robots
leading up to Asimo that humanoids
actually became a reality (see Figure 3).
The company spent uncounted millions
of dollars (billions of Yen) in research
and development of this amazing robot.
Certainly university labs had toyed with
the idea and Marc Raibert of Carnegie-
Mellon University had developed some
amazing one-legged walkers, but the
very expensive Asimo gave the world’s
robot experimenters the unofficial go-
ahead to develop their own creations.
Human-sized humanoid robots
proved to be quite expensive to
develop due to the many DOF (degrees
of freedom) or axes of motion required
to approximate human leg, body, and
arm motions, so small humanoid
walkers became very popular.
Quadruped and hexapod robots had
been the ‘walker of choice’ for decades
among robot experimenters.
The availability of numerous types FIGURE 3. Honda’s Asimo.
of model aircraft servos as the drive
source for each axis of the legs became he worked with NASA, JPL Labs, and
the final solution for the potential DARPA to develop energy efficient
humanoid robot designer. These servos robots for space and other harsh
were as cheap as $10-$15 per axis so environments. He formed his own com-
the transition to a bipedal humanoid pany to sell his very unique creatures
from the small table-top wheeled robot and then joined with WowWee Toys to
was a bit easier. sell his most noteworthy creation, the
Robosapiens and its offshoot creations.
Humanoid Robots Robosapiens make an ideal first
robot for those interested in humanoid
Become Available to designs. It comes ‘ready to roll’ right
Experimenters out of the box and is priced as low as
$100, with later improved models
It did not take long for the major under $200. The cost is low, not only
walking robot kit manufacturers to because of the mass production in Asia
make the leap from hexapod or but the simplistic mechanical design
quadruped robots to bipedal that makes use of just a few motors to
humanoids. Mark Tilden — long known perform many degrees of freedom
for his work with the Physics Division of motion to the arms and legs, much the
the Los Alamos National Laboratory — same as the old Armatron robot arm.
the UK born, ex-Canadian resident is Tilden’s humanoid robot can walk
best known for his tiny BEAM (Biology, at two different speeds, turn, dance,
Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics) and has two types of grippers (it
robots powered by the smallest solar reminds me of a robot lobster, in a
cells and capable of interaction with the way). It also has various sound effects
environment without even a simple (one is a caveman type of speech)
microcontroller. Quite a few of us are and 67 pre-programmed functions.
familiar with Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws
of Robotics, but Tilden has come up FIGURE 4. V2 Robosapiens.
with his own rules, uniquely suited to
his early robot designs and their need to
extract power from the environment:
1) A robot must protect its existence at
all costs.
2) A robot must obtain and maintain
access to its own power source.
3) A robot must continually search for
better power sources.
Through his work at Los Alamos,
SERVO 11.2007 79
Then&Now.qxd 10/10/2007 10:18 AM Page 80
FIGURE 5. The RS Media robot
from WowWee.
Robosapien can be programmed by
remote control with up to 84
program steps.
The second, more expensive and
larger ‘V2’ (24” tall) model has a color
vision system that recognizes colors
and interacts with people, can track
objects, and avoid obstacles (see Figure
4). It has true bi-pedal walking with
multiple gaits, can lie down and get up,
and has fairly articulate hands that can
grasp objects with articulated fingers.
The latest Robosapien RS Media is an
even more advanced robot than the V2
version (see Figure 5).
FIGURE 7. Futaba RBT-1.
80 SERVO 11.2007
Many Servos Required
for a Humanoid
As I mentioned earlier, the advent of
the inexpensive yet unique model
airplane servo made complex humanoid
construction possible for the robot
experimenter. Most fully articulated
humanoids require 16 to 20 or more
servos to approximate many of the
human joint actions, both with the legs
and the arms. Even at $15 per servo, this
amounts to $240-$300 just for the ser-
vos. Add a microcontroller, power pack,
basic sensors (visual, communications,
accelerometers, etc.), and the many
complex structural members and you can
begin to see why many kits top $1,000.
The builder can always make up
for some torque deficiencies in a
particular servo by applying coil springs
around the axis of joints affected by
gravity such as arms and legs to force
the joint rotation in a direction oppo-
site of the force of gravity. Of course,
this takes a bit of practice in selecting,
mounting, and loading the spring.
Top-of-the-line servos (such as the
Bioloid Dynamixel line) start at $44.90 for
the AX-12+ that can deliver up to 222 oz.
in. of torque, but these beauties are
anything but a typical servo. A standard
model aircraft servo with similar features
will cost almost as much without the
feedback to a microcontroller of angular
position and velocity, and of the torque
applied by the AX-12+. I’ve had several
conversations with Alex Dirks of
CrustCrawler about some of the features
of the Dynamixel actuators. The more
FIGURE 6. ROBONOVA kit.
expensive Dynamixel RX-28 and RX-64
smart actuators, costing $200 and $285
respectively, are significantly more sophis-
ticated in their onboard intelligence and
torque. For the serious humanoid
designer, they are worth the money
and are available at CrustCrawler (www.
crustcrawler.com) and other SERVO
advertisers. Humanoids can be expensive
and complex to construct; it really
depends on your design and budget limits.
Humanoid Kits
Many experimenters opt to start
from scratch, but many types of kits
are available. The Hitec ROBONOVA-I
was designed as a kit but is also
available pre-assembled (see Figure 6).
Designed for educators, students, and
hobbyists, the $899 ROBONOVA-I can
walk, run, do flips and cartwheels, and
even dance. It can be assembled in six
to eight hours with just a screwdriver.
The robot derives its individual joint
movements from 16 Hitec HSR-8498HB
digital servos designed specifically for
this robot. They feature over-voltage
and current protection, have tough
Karbonite gear trains, and are touted
to be easily programmed with the
feedback capability. The ROBONOVA-I
can be modified with additional servos,
optional gyros, accelerometers, speech
synthesizers, and even Bluetooth and
R/C transmitters and receivers.
At a shade under $1,400, the Futaba
RBT-1 is a bit more expensive experi-
menter’s humanoid robot (see Figure 7). It
tips the scales at about 900 grams and is
10” tall, but has 20 small servos, 11 of
which are the Futaba RS301CR high
torque metal gear servos for the leg move-
ments, and nine lightweight RS302CD
servos for the upper body. A three-axis
accelerometer system allows the robot to
sense motions, falling, etc., and it knows
when to pick itself up after a fall.
The robot’s RPU-11 controller con-
tains an ATmega 128 CPU that interfaces
with the various robot systems with an
RS-485 internal link and an RS-232C inter-
face to talk with an external Windows PC,
or through a 2.4 GHz wireless controller.
This little guy has a lot of degrees of free-
dom and should offer the serious experi-
menter a sophisticated research platform.
The third humanoid robot kit that
Then&Now.qxd 10/10/2007 10:19 AM Page 81

I’d like to discuss is the $899 Robotis

Bioloid Comprehensive Kit that can be
used to construct over 26 robots, includ-
ing a pretty sophisticated humanoid
robot (see Figure 8). What makes this
kit so appealing to me is that the kit
contains 18 of the Dynamixel AX-12+
smart actuators that total out to over
$800 alone if purchased separately.
This kit is great for learning
humanoid dynamics as the included
software, controller, AX-S1 sensor
module, battery, and charger, plus the
many types of quality industrial plastic
structural components allow one to
make some amazing things.

David Hanson’s FIGURE 8. Robotis Bioloid humanoid. FIGURE 9. Einstein-Hubo combo.

Humanoids
I would be remiss if I didn’t men-
tion the spectacular lifelike humanoid
robots created by David Hanson. David
Hanson has produced a unique style of
humanoid that very few other robot
builders have yet to do. The faces of his
robots mimic the appearance and move-
ments of a real human face. Outside of
a few robotic mannequins produced in
Asia, virtually all humanoid robots still
have abstract faces and expressions.
People have found that realistic
human facial features rendered on
robotic faces are pretty much creepy.
“That’s a view I completely reject. We
are naturally attracted to faces and
gestures,” says Hanson, president of
Hanson Robotics, Inc. “Robots don’t
just have to make the right expression,
they have to make the right expression
at precisely the right time,” he says.
Hanson began his interest in realistic whose mechanical properties allow the
robot faces when he studied art at the
Rhode Island School of Design and later
received a Ph.D. in Interactive Arts and
Engineering from the University of Texas.
His well-known renderings of
Albert Einstein’s head applied to a FIGURE 11. Abraham Lincoln animatronic figure.
Korean-designed humanoid robot
is a bit on the creepy side (see
Figure 9). I found his rendering of
Sci-Fi writer, Philip K. Dick (see
Figure 10) absolutely amazing as it
displays many thousands of
nuanced, believable facial expres-
sions. Many people steer clear of
very realistic human faces on
humanoid robots as the facial
features and subtle muscle movements open and closed air
are extremely difficult to produce, but cells in the Frubber
this is what draws Hanson to the task. skin is what allows
The Einstein robot head is actuated it to move much
by 33 servo motors and related linkages, like human skin.
and requires just 10W of power at 6V to The fact that it can
achieve its full range of expressions. be moved by small
People have compared his creations to the servos with little FIGURE 10.
many animatronic displays at Disneyland force makes it use- Hanson’s Philip K.
and other theme parks. They require many ful for humanoid Dick robot head.
kilowatts of electric power and even robot faces. It is so
hidden hydraulic and pneumatic power flexible that it can be stretched as much
sources to operate. The Abraham Lincoln as 900%, though damage may occur
exhibit is a great example. Created beyond 450% stretching. Figure 12
decades ago, it was quite lifelike but had illustrates how Hanson has mimicked
many motors, linkages, and power human facial expressions with his
sources under the stage which were fed Frubber-based robot faces.
through Lincoln’s feet (see Figure 11). Hanson is working with well-known
Hanson is convinced that the major Japanese robot designer, Tomotaka
contributor to the success of his robots is Takahashi to produce RoboKind, a robot
the special skin that he has developed. His
‘Frubber’ — a patented silicone elastomer FIGURE 12. Photo by Chris Buck of
Hanson’s robot’s facial expressions.
complex facial movements — is a foamed
platinum-based elastomer that contains
up to 70 percent air by volume. The
control of the size and distribution of the
SERVO 11.2007 81
Then&Now.qxd 10/10/2007 10:20 AM Page 82
that will be 14 inches tall with a body
designed by Takahashi and a head
designed by Hanson. These cartoon-like
robots will be able to walk around and
offer a range of facial expressions.
“Biped robots aren’t that unusual in
Japan. There are even soccer matches
for them,” says Hanson. “But our new
robot will be the only one capable of
complex facial expressions.”
A limited edition version of the
new robot will sell for about $10,000
Active Robots .............................................3
All Electronics Corp. ..........................31, 46
AP Circuits/e-pcb.com ............................60
AWIT ..........................................................46
CrustCrawler .............................................13
Electronics123 ..........................................31
Floatation Center — Art Gallery ..............77
Futurlec .....................................................46
Gears Educational Systems, LLC .............61
Hitec ..........................................................16
Hobby Engineering .................................46
82 SERVO 11.2007
and a standard model will cost about
$3,000. Hanson is also studying many
other more efficient power sources for
the appendages and facial movements
of his humanoids. He feels that
humanoids are the ideal robot design
to interact with people.
As with all my articles, I have only
scratched the surface of the many tech-
nologies that I discuss. The vast potential
of humanoid robots is just beginning. It is
you — the readers of this magazine — who
Advertiser Index
Images Co. ................................................46
IMService ............................................31, 46
Jameco .................................................2, 46
Lorax Works ........................................31, 46
Lynxmotion, Inc. .......................................19
Maxbotix ...................................................46
Maximum Robotics ............................20, 46
Net Media .................................................83
Parallax, Inc. ...............................Back Cover
PCB Pool .............................................46, 55
Pololu Robotics & Electronics ..........21, 46
Robotis Co. Ltd. ..........................................7
will forge those steps to finally produce
that one humanoid who will be indistin-
guishable from a human being. Maybe
not in our lifetime, but there will be
humanoids that can stand beside us and
be the robotic equivalent of Turing’s Test
for AI. Meanwhile, go to the various man-
ufacturers such as CrustCrawler, Trossen
Robotics, Lynxmotion, or Robotis to see
what is already available. Buy a kit or
ready-made robot, modify it, and then cre-
ate your own. Take that giant step. SV
Robot Power ............................................66
RobotShop, Inc. .................................46, 82
Schmartboard .....................................31, 75
SCON .........................................................31
Solarbotics/HVW .......................................9
SORC ..........................................................60
SPSU ...........................................................17
Technological Arts ...................................46
TORMACH .................................................12
Vantec .......................................................66
Yost Engineering .......................................71
CoverInside.qxd 10/10/2007 11:34 AM Page 2

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Vol. 5 No. 11 SERVO MAGAZINE TOUCH BIONICS • KILLER ROBOTS • HUMANOIDS • ANDROID ARMS November 2007
Page 84
7:56 PM
10/10/2007
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