Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!mcsun!ieunet!tcdcs!gjlacey
From: gjlacey@cs.tcd.ie (Gerard Lacey)
Subject: Mobile robot suppliers list
Message-ID: <1993Apr16.152330.17620@cs.tcd.ie>
Organization: Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL9]
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1993 15:23:30 GMT
Lines: 206

A few weeks ago I requested info on mobile robots
This is the result of that request and the newsgroup
FAQ. The information may contain errors so if any one
has more info please forward to 
Gerard.Lacey@cs.tcd.ie
Thanks to all who helped and to those who compiled the FAQ



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Mobile robot survey information 
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TRC
15 Great Pasture Road
Danbury, CT 06810 USA
(203) 798-8988
Labmate research platform 49kg - $10,500, plus additional optional sensors
etc. Other prodcuts for hospital markets and floor cleaning machines.
(Helpmate and RoboKent respectively)

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Denning Mobile Robotics Inc.
21 Concord Street
Wilmington, MA 01887
(508) 658-7800
Mobile robots - synchronous drive bases for research platforms.
Building automated camera platforms for newsrooms, working on
floor cleaning machines with an industrial partner.
(This company is reputed to have gone bust)
Price range is $13,000 to $28,000 for a 178kg robot depending on
configuration.
It has been reported recently that Denning have gone to the wall
any confirmation ?

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Real World Interface (RWI)
P.O. Box 270
Main St.
Dublin
New Hamshire 03444
tel +1 - 603 - 563 - 8871

Small synchronous drive bases, primarily for research purposes. 
B12 Approx $6500
b12 robot base, diameter 58cm, height 34cm, weight 90kg
8 inch backplane -- $2500
12 inch backplane - $2700
cmos 16Mhz 68000 -- $2050
g64 sonar board  -- $1000
Transducer Driver - $80
g64 - b12 interface board - $275
Delivery 2 - 8 weeks

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Cybermotion
5457 Jae Valley Road
Roanoke, VA 24014
(703) 982-2641
(703) 982-0410
John Holland's company. Mobile K2 bases making use of ingenious
torque-tube synchronous drive system. [Holland has patents for robot 
synchronous drives, not clear how Denning and RWI are using
this for their products, although Holland consulted on first Denning
designs.] Security maarkets and research platforms, manipulators for
base as well. Map building and following software.
Navimaster 150kg approx $62,000

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Yamazaki Construction Company,
Kaika Building
2-7-1 Sotokanda
Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo 101,
Japan.
LR1 robot - small research robot, basically a VME cage on wheels with
some ultrasonic sensors and a nice constant force suspension. has
shown up at IEEE R&A conferences $2000

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Robosoft,
6 Rue Paul Cezanne,
93360 Neuilly Plaisance,
France.
tel +33 1 49 44 30 35
fax +33 1 49 44 32 97
Range of mobile platforms some with 6 DOF arm mounted onboard
Price range French Franks 80,000 to FF 250,000 approximately

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  mecos Robotics AG
  Technopark
  Pfingstweidstrasse 30
  8005 Zurich
  Switzerland

  Telephone: (01) 445 11 35
  Telefax: (o1) 445 11 34
  mecos@efr.ethz.ch

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Nomadic Technologies
858 La Para Avenue
Palo Alto
CA 94306
+1 - (415) 439-7700
+1 - (415) 493-7064
35kg Nomad 200 and some sensor systems

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ISX
4353 Park Terrace Drive
Westlake Village
CA 91361
USA
+1-818-597-1900
+1-818-597-1500
email robots@isx.com

IS Robotics has a number of products which you may find interesting.  We
offer the R-2 and R-2E robots.  These are small differential drive robots
with two-fingered gripper, force-sensing bumper ring, infrared ranging
sensors, and finger mounted object color sensor.  The R-2 has a MC68HC11
processor with 32K of RAM for running user programs.  The R-2E uses a
68332 processor with 1 MByte of battery backed static RAM.

The Genghis II is a 6 legged walking robot.  It uses the MC68HC11
processor and has many of the same sensors as R-2.

The Nero robot is also a 6 legged walking robot with a very much
richer sensor suite than Genghis and it has a pincher type gripper.
Nero runs user programs on a 68332 processor with 1 MByte of RAM.

A Behavior language environment is provided with all robots.  Behavior
language supports Brooks' subsumption paradigm.  At present we support
the Behavior langage only on Macintoshs running Macintosh Common Lisp.
A C compiler is available (at least for the R-2) but is not currently
supported.  The 68332 processor should be able to run any program that
a 68000 can run.  So, supplying you own compiler is also an option.

Prices for the robots are as follows:
  R-2         US$10,920
  R-2E        US$13,920
  Genghis II   US$7,636
  Nero        US$75,000

We offer a 15% discount to educational institutions.

At present IS Robotics does not offer any robot kits, all robots come
fully assembled.

There is another approach you might take if your goal is a low-cost
robot kit.  A colleague at the MIT AI Lab and I are just finishing
writing a book about how to design and build your own mobile robot.
The example robot in the book has a number of sensors: photocell, bump
detector, microphone, shaft encoders, IR sensor, and piezo buzzer.
Although much less sophisticated than the products IS Robotics sells,
this robot also uses an MC68HC11 processor and it is able to demonstrate
the principles of subsumption architecture.  At present it would be
necessary to acquire all the parts and assemble it yourself, but the
cost is quite low.  We anticipate parts cost to be about US$200 in
single quantities.

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Odetics
Advanced Intelegent Machines Division
1515 S. Manchester Ave.
Anaheim 
CA 
USA

6 legged mobile robot

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Aleph Technologies
new address + phone
TEL : +33-76422999
FAX : +33-76444620
Robot kit called KitBorg

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TAG
5 Bowlands Mill
Alnwick
Northumberland
NE661LN
UK
Tel: +44 655 604895
fax: +44 665 510624
mobile called FRANK basic system Sterling 2000 full functionality
Sterling 5785.
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