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The Mythbusters Construct a Kit Bot
A reader wrote in to mention a writeup of a really great Mythbusters project. Hyneman, Savage, and Imahara went out and purchased a 'Vex' robot kit from RadioShack, and constructed the bot to see what it was like. They were pleasantly surprised. From the article: "Jamie Hyneman: I must admit I was expecting to turn up my nose at a do-it yourself robotics kit from Radio Shack. But guess what? The VEX System kicks butt. In a total of about 12 person-hours, Adam Savage and Grant Imahara (my cohosts on MythBusters) and I were able to build a functional, if somewhat basic, prototype equivalent of an iRobot's PackBot."
http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatI
In TFA, Jamie Hyneman is said to have used the words "person-hours" in a sentence. The term is totally appropriate and it is not out of character for him from what I have seen on his television program.
A person hour is a measurement of effort. One person who works for one hour will have performed one person hour worth of work. This measure is often abbreviated as PH. http://www.spc.ca/resources/metrics/glossary.htm
This information was obtained by reading TFA (I searched for "hours" in the page) and by googling for "define person hours".
There was a mini-FIRST made of VEX robots this year. We saw the demo at FRC Hartford last week. Very impressive, makes it more accessible to middle schoolers and they "play" with it less than Mindstorms. The electronics comes from Innovation FIRST, the folks who make the brains for the FIRST robotics teams, and they're also VEXLabs. We're using it for the Trinity College Firefighting Robotics Contest, and we've gotten a chassis built and running under program control and effectors prototyped in record time.
One thing better than Mindstorms is that you can more easily add other materials, parts etc., and make it more bombproof without resorting to toxic adhesives or plastic-eating tools...
We're still wondering why RS is having a fire sale - two local stores were cleaned out as of Friday night - we just loaded up the last ultrasound and light sensors we could find. Some have said they're just dropping the retail line at RS, some have said it's just a sale, an eMail to the edu & gov rep at RS Fort Worth is yet unanswered. VEXLabs is still selling at full price. Hope they're just switching horses, but with RS no longer selling electronic parts, this was the sweetest thing they'd had in a while.
Two heads-ups: the pushbutton inputs use negative logic (thanks, VEX - that was a half hour of "stump the chumps"...) - and there is no "run" switch on the bot - programs (and the wheels they control) run once they complete the download - so either mold some tiny cinder blocks or grab an extra bumper button (or other sensor) and create a latch as the first step in the program...
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Erm, yes they can. It's called product placement. If you see a person drinking Pepsi in a movie, do you think that's a coincidence? No, it's someone only job to contact companies and ask for money. Favorite targets are cars, beverages, guns (USA), fast food restaurants, ....
.... now we're going to do this .... we're really going to do this .... we're doing this .... we've finished doing this .... we have done this ....). Like if we're idiots with the memory span of a goldfish.
Anyway, mythbusters has gone infomercial it seems.. Not that it was such a great show, they repeat the same thing over and over again (next we're going to do this
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Did you read TFA? "Also available is a programming module that will allow you to hook your robot up to a computer and download a program for adding autonomous capabilities . You can use the remote control only, let it operate autonomously , or have some combination of the two," and "When an object is sensed, the robot takes over and initiates an automated climbing sequence... " That qualifies as "performs a function(s) under its own control". It has sensors and a controller on board, and you can program it. It doesn't say how much programming you can fit in there (I doubt it will be opening the fridge and bringing you a beer), but it DOES qualify as being capable of performing some functions under its own control. It can decide which climbing algorithm is appropriate for the sensor inputs it has, and it can respond appropriately.
And finally, the whole thing sounds like it fits very well into both the American Heritage and Wikipedia definitions, which (by the way) do appear to allow remote control devices.
From TFA 'Also available is a programming module that will allow you to hook your robot up to a computer and download a program for adding autonomous capabilities.'
My robotics class here at school used a few Vex kits and accessories to build robots. We came out with three cool robots that all were quite successful in 3 weeks. Check out pictures here:
http://flickr.com/photos/yellowbkpk/tags/vex/
Also, we spent a lot of time making custom sensors and modifying the ones that Vex gave us. They are all very easy to get in to and examine (like this one) and interface with (like the switch debouncer that I made). Although the metal parts are just a little "different" then everything else, meaning you have to machine or buy new pieces, some Lego pieces will mesh with the Vex pieces quite nicely (as in this home-made shaft encoder).
If you find out more about the VEX kit and don't dismiss it simply as a Radio Shack product, you will see that it is based on a programmable microcontroller. While I think that RS is probably trying get some of the RC market with their product decription, VEX is capable of running autonomously, and thus would fit the definition of a robot.
The cast of Magnum PI just built a model airplane and didnt even sniff the glue.
They don't just have the base model kit.
From what I can tell they have:
- starter kit
- Tank tread kit (2X)
- Ultra sonic ranging sensor
- Extra hardware kit
I just bought a vex kit about an hour ago as well, damn cool so far.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.