* amateur robotics
@ 1999-03-19 0:00 G.M. Wallace
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Fraser Wilson
` (3 more replies)
0 siblings, 4 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: G.M. Wallace @ 1999-03-19 0:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
Does anyone know of any relatively cheap units/systems which let an
amateur experiment with robotics and programming (in ADA, of course) for
robotic systems ?
Like simple mechanical systems which can be run from programs on my
local machine ?
Anyone ?
thanks,
GMW
*from sunny australia*
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: amateur robotics
1999-03-19 0:00 amateur robotics G.M. Wallace
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Fraser Wilson
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
@ 1999-03-19 0:00 ` Andreas Winckler
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Josh Highley
3 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Andreas Winckler @ 1999-03-19 0:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
"G.M. Wallace" wrote:
> Does anyone know of any relatively cheap units/systems which let an
> amateur experiment with robotics and programming (in ADA, of course)
> for robotic systems ?
>
> Like simple mechanical systems which can be run from programs on my
> local machine ?
>
> Anyone ?
Yes, systems which can be used for that are available here. Just how
does that help you on the other side of the world?
> *from sunny australia*
*from cold Germany* :-)
AW
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andreas Winckler Tel: (+49) (7541) 282 - 462
Department: MHS Fax: (+49) (7541) 282 - 299
FREQUENTIS Network Systems GmbH http://www.frqnet.de
------------------------------------------------------------------------
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: amateur robotics
1999-03-19 0:00 amateur robotics G.M. Wallace
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Fraser Wilson
@ 1999-03-19 0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Andreas Winckler
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Josh Highley
3 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Michael F Brenner @ 1999-03-19 0:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
> Any inexpensive robots that can be controlled from a home computer?
I do not know of any inexpensive ones, but here are a couple of ideas
that can start you off. Naming particular brands is just to start
you off and does NOT constitute an endorsement or a recommendation
for any particular brand (my experience is with a very limited
number of manufacturers of these items):
(a) a buffered multi-serial board from Black Box, Western Digital, etc.
(b) a 64-reed-relay board from Eagle, Carry-I, etc.,
to turn things on and off,
(c) radio control switches from Jackson, Radio Shack, etc.
or radio control servos from Ferrettronics, etc.
(d) stepper motors from National Control Devices, ACP, etc.
(e) an Ada-to-JavaByteCode interface to use the robots at URLs
http://jubilee.learning.cs.cmu.edu:8080/command.html
http://webcam.engsoc.carleton.ca/
http://telerobot.mech.uwa.edu.au/
(f) an old truck (volunteer to help Paul for one show at
Survival Research Labs on Bruno Street in San Francisco
in order to learn how to use computers to make trucks and
farm equipment fight themselves to the death)
(g) digital cameras, microphones, audio systems, votrex boards,
voice recognition boards, laser weapons, airplanes, cars,
robot arms, aritifical intelligence systems, extropian
devices to upload your mind to the Net, and biological
and non-biological neural nets from the usual manufacturers
of those things.
Sorry that nothing on my list is free or even particularly cheap.
Hope that others will post less expensive stuff because I am
interested in realtime, distributed systems (that is, robots).
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: amateur robotics
1999-03-19 0:00 amateur robotics G.M. Wallace
@ 1999-03-19 0:00 ` Fraser Wilson
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
` (2 subsequent siblings)
3 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Fraser Wilson @ 1999-03-19 0:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
paene lacrimavi postquam "G.M. Wallace" <Dizzy@interact.net.au> scribavit
http://www.legomindstorms.com
Lego *and* robots. How cool is that? They only provide software
for Win95, but people have reverse engineered the protocol, and
now you can control them from Linux. OK, we're not talking Ada
yet, but I have this compiler ...
Fraser.
(change i's to y's for my real address)
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: amateur robotics
1999-03-19 0:00 amateur robotics G.M. Wallace
` (2 preceding siblings ...)
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Andreas Winckler
@ 1999-03-19 0:00 ` Josh Highley
1999-03-20 0:00 ` Josh Highley
3 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Josh Highley @ 1999-03-19 0:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
In article <36F1A10F.18990DC9@interact.net.au>, Dizzy@interact.net.au
says...
>
>Does anyone know of any relatively cheap units/systems which let an
>amateur experiment with robotics and programming (in ADA, of course)
for
>robotic systems ?
>
>Like simple mechanical systems which can be run from programs on my
>local machine ?
>
>Anyone ?
>
>thanks,
>
>GMW
>
>*from sunny australia*
>
I've experimented a little with controlling relays, and therefore
motors, lights, etc; with the parallel port. It's easy to do using the
eight data bits, and for each bit either 1) a resistor and transitor or
2) an IC chip , to switch a relay using an external 12V DC power supply.
It's easy to connect 8 relays and I believe more can be added to each
of the control bits, with a little more work. If you can find them,
there's articles on converting the Radio Shack Armatron for use with a
computer. Controlling the parallel port is easy with Ada by using Jerry
van Dijk's IO_ports package. The info above is from a (12 page?) paper
of his that he sent me several years ago on controlling relays with the
parallel port. By the way, if Jerry is reading this, or someone else
who has the paper, could you please email it to me again? I have a hard
copy somewhere, but I'd like a computer copy also. The paper has
instructions, Radio Shack part numbers, Basic code, etc. The parts cost
only a few dollars, you just have to supply the object you want to
control. I hope this helps.
Josh Highley
joshhighley@hotmail.com
*from sunny Missouri, USA* :)
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: amateur robotics
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Josh Highley
@ 1999-03-20 0:00 ` Josh Highley
0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Josh Highley @ 1999-03-20 0:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
>Controlling the parallel port is easy with Ada by using Jerry van
>Dijk's IO_ports package. The info above is from a (12 page?) paper
>of his that he sent me several years ago on controlling relays with
>the parallel port.
Well, isn't my face red. I'm pretty sure the IO_ports package is
Jerry's, but the paper I'm talking about isn't. It is an article by Tom
Dickinson. I found my hard copy, it's from two years ago. Mr
Dickinson's email address is "tsd@bnl.gov" Again, it's two years old so
I'm not sure if it's still valid. Briefly reviewing the article, it
also has directions on how to interface a simple A to D converter to the
parallel port. I apologize again for getting the names wrong. I
just hope Jerrry will keep answering my questions :)
Josh Highley
joshhighley@hotmail.com
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
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1999-03-19 0:00 amateur robotics G.M. Wallace
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Fraser Wilson
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Andreas Winckler
1999-03-19 0:00 ` Josh Highley
1999-03-20 0:00 ` Josh Highley
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