Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!wyeth
From: wyeth@elec.uq.oz.au (Gordon Wyeth)
Subject: Re: Braitenburg
Message-ID: <wyeth.705642199@s1.elec.uq.oz.au>
Sender: news@bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au (USENET News System)
Organization: Prentice Centre, University of Queensland
References: <1992May8.142417.20908@a.cs.okstate.edu>
Date: Tue, 12 May 1992 03:43:19 GMT
Lines: 53

In <1992May8.142417.20908@a.cs.okstate.edu> rjs@a.cs.okstate.edu (STOLFA ROLAND JOSE) writes:

"|"Hello,

"|"I have a question about Braitenburg vehicles.  Presuming that a person
"|"was wanting to physically BUILD a horde of these things, what would be
"|"the most prefered method?  Would you build some simple small computer
"|"to run the nueron-net?  Would you hard-wire some sort of net?

"|"Also, does anybody have any ideas of what kind of chassis would work well?
"|"Some small toy car (al.la. the Radio-Shack car used for the Omni-photovore)?
"|"etc?

"|"I am trying to get some of the ideas of what nueron programming would be
"|"like in the real world.  Any comments are welcome.  Thank you in advance.

We're building Braitenberg creatures in two ways.

1. A Lego chassis controlled by a PC. This uses all the
standard Lego interface stuff, as well as standard Lego
sensors. The sensors limit performance and the cables are a
nuisance.

2. A Lego chassis carrying its own 6811 and some custom
sensors. This project is coming near to completion. The 6811
was chosen for its built-in "bag of goodies" (A/D, timers,
serial comms) and ease of use (built in monitor, EEPROM and
enough RAM for simple Braitenberg robots.) Sensors include
sonar and tuned I/R.

I suggest option 2 is probably the best for experimenting with
the beasties, but if you wanted to build a "horde" of them I'd
start looking at a standard chassis. Lego can get a bit
expensive after a while. Also you'd be surprised what you can
achieve with a piece of wood and a few rubber bands, when it
comes to building these critters.

Have fun.





-- 
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| Gordon Wyeth      Dept of Elec Eng |
|                  Uni of Queensland |
| wyeth@elec.uq.oz.au      Australia |
--
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| Gordon Wyeth      Dept of Elec Eng |
|                  Uni of Queensland |
| wyeth@elec.uq.oz.au      Australia |
