Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!destroyer!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!fs1.ee.ubc.ca!johni
From: johni@ee.ubc.ca (john ip)
Subject: Re: Maybe I haven't ever built a robot. (Robotics VS Toy building)
Message-ID: <1993Aug16.180409.11997@ee.ubc.ca>
Organization: University of BC, Electrical Engineering
References: <1993Aug13.090141.6086@hemlock.cray.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 18:04:09 GMT
Lines: 23

In article <1993Aug13.090141.6086@hemlock.cray.com> kilian@cray.com (Alan Kilian) writes:
>
>My latest "robot" is a flower pot with a Polaroid ultrasonic range module
>mounted on a stepper motor and a large hideous flower mounted on a model
>airplane servo motor.
>
>The whole thing is controlled by a MC68HC11 based single-board computer
>(Miniboard)
>
>The stepper motor turns the ultrasonic transducer to eight different
>directions and records the range for each direction. The controller
>then chooses the nearest object, ignoring the background walls which were
>recorded when the flower pot powered up and chooses a direction for the
>servo motor so that the head of the flower follows people walking around
>in the hallway.
>
>Now I could have called it a "Real-time data aquisition and tracking unit"
>and probably gotten a PHD from the control system design

From a 2 year community college may be.  That doesn't even qualify for a term
project in an undergraduate class on control. 

John
