NASA's Cool Robot of the Week

S.Bartfarst writes "NASA's Cool Robot of the Week (which apparently is about a month long) has produced a huge spike of activity on our web page from .gov and .mil domains. Most interesting are a long series of hits from uspto.gov. Maybe looking for "prior art?" I wonder how much of this Dean Kamen already has tied up?"

Comments

Might just be

[.milfox]

.. other .mil geeks browsing at work. :P I know if I'm on a duty day (when I can't go home) I tend to surf during downtime. :P

Balancing Pool Cues

[Baldrson]

I wonder how much of this Dean Kamen already has tied up?

Not much since control systems have been balancing pool cue's since the early days of rocketry.

Lego Mindstorms

[heli0]

I attempted to build a two-wheel self balancing robot similar to this one using the lego mindstorms kit. I had a large metal ball that would roll in a cylinder and hit sensors at either end allowing the robot to adjust when it was tilting. Unfortunately the motors could never respond quick enough to prevent the machine from falling over.

I have given several of these kits as gifts, great gift for teenagers and unemployed tech workers.

Re:Why stop at patenting cookies?

[wfberg]

The thing that bugs me about the mindstorms kit, and LEGO(TM)(R) in general is the non-orthogonality of the bricks/components. If you want to put two bricks together at an angle, you need specially shaped bricks. In fact, the lego people make a butt load of cash just inventing new kinds of bricks to include in kits -- lose 'em, and you have to buy a new kit, or another kit that includes it.

I much preferred Construx building sets as a kid. It was much easier to put together moving parts, build voluminous structures, and to some degree work with angles. Anyone remember Construx? I suppose k'nex now fulfills this role, though it seems less sturdy. Of course, Meccano is the granddady of all, so some-one will point out that it's superior. It's just that I've never owned any ;-)

BTW, ever notices how the electrical engines in the Mindstorms set are non-lego-standard shapes and sizes? What's that about? Would an extra millimeter of plastic to make it align hurt that much??

I'm sure there are better products to construct robots, meccano offshoots or succesors combined with sensors, actuators, a PC interface and perhaps even a microcontroller-cum-batterypack like the mindstorms set. Does the slashdot crowd have any suggestions?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, mindstorms is fscking expensive and hard to get, esp. in Europe.

but when do I get a household droid?

[jpnews]

I've been following the advances in robotics with great interest. They've come a long way, to be sure. But still, there are no consumer level droids available. I have a lot of things around the house that could be done better and faster (and certainly easier) by a robot. But I can't get one.

Will someone please get to work on a small battery with incredible storage capacity and quick charging? Or make a fuel cell powered 'bot that can walk over to the gas tank and refuel himself. Whatever it takes, just make a droid that has a price similar to a car, and I'll buy it.

It should be able to perform normal household duties. I'm talking about cleaning, cooking, answering the phone and watching over the place while I'm gone. I don't think that's too much to ask, but maybe I'm wrong.