Heat Shrink Tip

When soldering it is a good idea to cover a solder joint of wires with heat shrink.  Sometimes if you have a solder joint with a bulge or sharp edges sticking up you can cause the heat shrink to tear when it is heated and shrinks. 

To avoid this:
  1.) Cut the heat shrink tubing so it will more than cover the solder joint of the wire.
  2.) Place the heat shrink over the solder joint of the wire.
  3.) Apply heat first to the each end of the heat shrink so it shrinks around the wire
  4.) Apply a modest amount of heat to the center of the heat shrink so it shrinks but is not too tight around the solder joint.

For larger solder joints you can use a thin covering of electrical tape around the soldered wires then use a large diameter of heat shrink tubing.  This will help protect against sharp edges of the solder from tearing through the heat shrink.

And if you are used to using a lighter for heat shrink, think about investing in a heat gun.  It'll make your projects much easier and safer.

Happy Roboting!

In The Lab Now

Two new J2's are in the lab.  The silver one is a rebuilt J2 I made for myself.  It is the first of a new set of J2 robots that will be used for further research into collaborative game play, human interaction and hunt/avoid behavior.

The awesome looking red one is a custom J2 for a new customer.  The customer let me take a little creative license when he requested it in red.  I made the arms and wheels black to really make the red body and base pop.  The customer gave me a thumbs up on the color scheme so the assemble will be completed, programs loaded and tested and this sharp looking J2 will be shipping out soon.

Death of Cookie Monster Robot

Another death on the month of December.  If must not be a good month to be a robot around the Ratliff house.

This time Cookie Monster had just been programmed with updated code.  But his rough prototype design was showing signs of wear and tear.  The www.BudgetRobotics.com BigGripper inside his body broke around the fingers where they meet the push/pull arm attached to the servo horn.  This left the arms not closing all the way and limited movement of the gripper inside.

 

The sensor placement of dual PING sonar units for the eyes on the head and as eyes on the feet were a bit awkward.  People who viewed the robot did not understand why he needed eyes on his feet. The base where the feet mounted was made from Styrofoam board.  It was a quick solution but was starting to bend in spots.  It lasted over a year with limited use.  The goal with Cookie Monster was to build an interesting test bed for some ideas I had; so overall I achieved what I wanted with this robot.

The bad part is, Cookie Monster was so cute and he lasted for nearly two years I'm going to miss the little guy.  For now his parts will live on in other robots.  I believe one day I will have the technology to rebuild him.  :-)

New Commercial with Robots!

Most awesome commercial in the history of the world? I would think so, yes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7DNYocXvR0

The GE commercial is awesome.  Anything with robots is awesome, but to see so many movie and real robots together in one commercial is just way too awesome.  My favorites to see was KITT from Knight Rider, the custom Johnny 5 like robot (I know if have seen that robot before, but I can't remember who made it) and seeing Data beam in towards the end.

Happy Roboting!

You Are Not Your Robot

I think this is an interesting commentary from: http://sstephenson.us/posts/you-are-not-your-code
"I have learned that in the open-source world, you are not your code. A critique of your project is not tantamount to a personal attack. An alternative take on the problem your software solves is not hostile or divisive. It is simply the result of a regenerative process, driven by an unending desire to improve the status quo."

I think this easily applies to robotics.  I know in the past folks have pointed out faults in my designs or made improvements and I've seen folks point out other robot builder's design faults and sometimes it can feel like a personal attack, but as long as we focus on critiques as valued input and an effort to share knowledge then I think we'll keep a positive outlook.

Behavior Based Robot At Work

From the pioneer or behavior based robotics design, Prof. Rodney Brooks, comes a new company called Rethink Robotics and a new industrial robotic system called Baxter. 

http://www.engineeringtv.com/video/Behavior-Based-Programming-of-t

This video from Engineering TV explains the benefits of how the behavior based system works.  Behavior based robotics I believe is light years ahead of neural net designs which is why I have abandoned my research on neural networks. 

My new research is going Back To The Future to focus on behavior bases systems, much like the program controls for the Baxter robot. 

I can't wait to search some of new ideas and robot projects here bases on this new line of development.

Death of a robot

This is what the death of a child sized android looks like. 

This robot was named David for the android in the movie A.I.  David was going to be a test platform for my AI research and used as an interactive robot to relate to children.  David's base and leg design were not as stable as I had hoped. 

Shown is David's guts being removed for parts to use in another robot.  Perhaps David will be rebuilt better in the future.