Newsgroups: comp.robotics Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!mwtilden From: mwtilden@watmath.waterloo.edu (M.W.Tilden, Hardware) Subject: Re: CM Ambler Rover Message-ID: <1990May30.182249.22352@watmath.waterloo.edu> Organization: University of Waterloo References: <3708@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> <95816@philabs.Philips.Com> Distribution: na Date: Wed, 30 May 90 18:22:49 GMT Lines: 29 In article Benjamin Chase writes: >My first comment is to notice that both the ASV and the CM Ambler each >weigh in at rougly 3 tons. You'd think that somebody could build >something a little more, ah, nimble. ... Brooks at MIT seems to have a reasonable solution. They've built a 6 legged walker which uses a simple Algorithmic State Machine network as the control (simulated in a single 8bit 68HC11 processor). The thing they built is the size of a cat but walks and thinks very much the way any 6 legged bio-critter does. Modifications to the network make it capable of handling any rough terrain. The talk I saw said that the work was being done for inter-stellar rovers, and a 8bit uP is certainly more robust and compact than the multiple high-speed 68020 systems used in the ADF and the Ambler (hence their size? Not the only consideration I know, but it seems people keep on trying to push AI languages onto their machines. Whatever happened to heuristic systems, by God?). Brooks is more interested in making small machines, not moon-stompers. Anybody know why this work is not in the running for space exploration? Is all. -- Mark Tilden: _-_-_-__--__--_ /(glitch!) M.F.C.F Hardware Design Lab. -_-___ | \ /\/ U of Waterloo. Ont. Can, N2L-3G1 |__-_-_-| \/ (519) - 885 - 1211 ext.2454, "MY OPINIONS, YOU HEAR!? MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! AH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"