This is a look back at some of my good, bad, and ugly robot projects! I call this entry the "Robot Scrapyard" is it is just a random selection of many past robotic experiments, some were good, some were bad, but all of them were great learning experiences. Pleas not that when I took these photos some 10 to 20 years ago, a digital camera with 1 megapixel was considered high end, so the resolution of the photos is bad at times. These robots are all ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles), designed to be linked to either a human controlled base station or a computer controlled system with machine vision. These ROVs are designed to traverse the urban terrain, so they range in size from about 200 pounds to well over 600 pounds, and all have more than enough power to pull a parked car! Most of these past robotic vehicles were built with scrap junk I found at the local dump, so I just worked with the parts I had available to me, often rusty junk and old car parts. Some of these bots worked out quite well considering their makeup, and one even made it to the local TV news and had several appearances at trade shows and local events, interacting with people. Others did not work out so well, and ended up being chopped for parts and built into other contraptions. It is unfortunate that I did not snap photos of all of my past robotic experiments, but the photos I did manage to dig up will be presented here with the humorous and sometimes scary accounts of their creation. Figure 1 - This is "Tippy", an unstable robotic avatar and impromptu electric car! | |
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