The nuts and bolts of robot building
Robotics Team awaiting results of qualification in national competition
Christopher Lewis
Issue date: 5/5/05 Section: Spotlight
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After three years of research and construction, the team has created this autonomous robot, capable of maneuvering through unstructured environments with the help of satellites in the sky, said club president and senior computer science student Justin Gaylor.
Wheels from the Segway Human Transporter - a weight-sensitive mobile podium used to help UPS employees and big city businesspeople get around - governed by two motors allow the machine to roll about. A small gas powered engine runs the machine, although power can also be drawn from a battery.
The team has also stocked the robot with digital video cameras, a laser scanner and stereovision for obstacle detection, and an image processor passing through two cameras attached to the Cub's front side to detect obstacles in its path. A laptop sitting on the heap of machinery processes all the information as the brain controlling the body, he said.
So, there's more to this laptop-on-wheels than meets the eye.
Fifteen to 20 students of various majors - including computer science and bio-medical, mechanical, computer and industrial engineering - have contributed to the effort in recent years with the intent to compete against other universities at competitions like the upcoming Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Challenge, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and held in September.
"The Army is interested in unmanned vehicles," Gaylor said, "to go into missions and get information, or maybe to run tanks without anyone in them. About 200 teams applied for the DARPA Challenge and 119 were selected," he said.
Feeling the pressure of the approaching competition, the UC Robotics Team has been practicing out on Sigma Sigma Commons for the past few days, tightening its robot's skills.
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