Word: robots
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Building the "Tiger Vac", also known as a "programmable mobile platform," involved the intricate and lengthy construction of separate components, which ultimately were placed on the robot's main structure. The students did most of the building in conjuction with a Physics 123 course they were taking...
...their next step, the builders will add the robot--after some comprehensive modification--to a vacuum cleaner, a practical use not part of the original design. While the machine was not originally designed for housecleaning purposes, it can be programmed through the communication of its two computers to perform a certain movement or series of movements--a vacuum cleaner following a programmed map, for example...
Another function which enhances the robot's utility, according to its creators, is its ability to perform a series of movements on its own through the use of its ultrasonic sensors. These sensors are in the form of strips on the side panels that send signals back to the computer's Central Processing Unit of the main computer in case the robot--or in this case the vacuum cleaner--bumps into an object on the floor that it must evade...
More important is the mechanism which actually steers the robot, a camera which sends out a signal and gets reflections from objects back--in the same way a radar does--and adjusts its direction accordingly, Jury says...
This "sensory" function is what makes the robot unique, according to Jury. In general, robots are "open--loop robots" that go to a specific point and perform a specific function...