Current Research Projects

Guidance Matrix Based Navigation for an Autonomous Mobile Robot in Dynamic Unstructured Environments – Chelliah Kanesalingam (PhD)
Real-time Video Processing for Mobile Robot Navigation and Steering – Nic Snailum (PhD) An Integrated Mobile Internet, Television and Telephone System at 42GHz – Evangelos Pallis (PhD) Design and Construction of an Autonomous Mobile Robot – David Buckley (MSc by Project)  Sonar Signal Processing for Mobile Robot Guidance – Wei Zhang (MSc by Project) Continue reading

ROBOT KITS

Some of the following kits and robots could be used as the basis for an entry in the schools or the maze solving micromouse competition or just for learning about mobile robots.The list is, I believe, a complete list of micromouse type robot kits and built robots that are available in the UK and on the web. The list gives the prices and specifications with the manufacturer’s and retailer’s details. Continue reading

Several Weekends Ago

klein_03While watching the Truck and Tractor Pull on TV and singing along with the commercials, some people from Seattle thought. What did they think? Even they don’t remember. But at some point the age-old instincts for competition, power — and yes, beer — came to the fore of their discussion. For some reason, TV lost its appeal, food seemed unnecessary, and even the joy of gardening dimmed to a shadow of its former self as these primal instincts became forever etched in their minds. Continue reading

Autonomous Finally Faster

roombaThe Robot Wars community justifiably thinks that autonomous robots are slow. Not so. You see, previous autonomous entries used notebook computer brains. Camp Peavy’s Gladiator Rodney used a 386SX with DOS 6.22, programmed in GW-BASIC; same as he did to win the autonomous face-off in 96. But this year he’s wielding an electric chain saw and a 1000 watt DC to AC inverter to run the 750 watt Sears chain saw. Continue reading

1997 ROBOT WARS

corobot_Upgrade_3Pretty Hate Machine’s offensive saws stalled while chewing on Ziggy’s metal armor. Being standard (hand-pull) gas-powered weed eater motors, they could not be restarted during the match. Jon Ridder’s Ziggy was fortunate not to have turned off.TIP: Other bots also lost controls in the ring. If your bot doesn’t restart its own functions, then put those features onto RC control. (Personally, I’d like more bots to use proprioception. That is, where the robot senses what’s happening to itself.) Continue reading