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1959 or 2011 Robot? — Parallax Forums

1959 or 2011 Robot?

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  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2011-01-06 12:04
    Back in 1954 or so, my older brother and I were trying to build a simple light-seeking robot with a couple of motors, a few gears, a photocell and a dual-triode valve. The photocell tracked the light source OK, but I don't think we got any further than that. We later tried a transistor (Ge PNP) as a light sensor, by filing off the side of the casing. I can't remember if that worked, but we could detect light with it.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2011-01-06 13:35
    AWESOME link, Thanks!
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2011-01-06 18:35
    The tube was the real hint...
  • NikosGNikosG Posts: 705
    edited 2011-01-07 01:32
    Hi all,
    Is a good idea to create a thread about history of robots!
    Here is a very interesting video about Grey Walter's tortoises
  • NikosGNikosG Posts: 705
    edited 2011-01-07 02:04
    I hadn't realized the link under the photo that was given by Humanoido
    This link is amazing!
    Thank you Humanoido!
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2011-01-07 06:30
    @NikosG - Great video! Thanks for posting.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-01-07 13:37
    Thanks NikosG. Turtle robots have a great part in robotics history. In the 1980s there was a wave of turtles in kits and assembled models, typically with half hemispherical clear acrylic tops (for see-through parts). Many of the robotics magazines during that era had articles on turtle robots - they were stable, relatively easy to build, and had their own programming language. I had obtained one of these half domes through a science company so I could build a turtle. Mainly I wanted to explore Turtle Logo programming language. You can still download variations of this language.

    Download free languages here: http://www.mathcats.com/gallery/logodownloadinfo.html

    @ Wikipedia
    Turtles are a class of educational robots designed originally in the late 1940s (largely under the auspices of researcher William Grey Walter) and used in computer science and mechanical engineering training. These devices are traditionally built low to the ground with a roughly hemispheric (sometimes transparent) shell and a power train capable of a very small turning radius. The robots are often equipped with sensor devices which aid in avoiding obstacles and, if the robot is sufficiently sophisticated, allow it some perception of its environment. Turtle robots are commercially available and are common projects for robotics hobbyists...
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-01-07 13:45
    Whit wrote: »
    The tube was the real hint...
    Whit, you're right! Interesting, growing up in that time era I created many humanoid robots using lots of parts but always reserved the tubes for my home-brew ham radio equipment. I do remembers lots of relays and other scavenged Radio-TV parts and mostly mechanics with tin cans in my robots. I even built one robot that could talk - it had a miniature "Thomas Edison" style grammaphone built from cardboard so it could roughly speak.
  • NikosGNikosG Posts: 705
    edited 2011-01-09 12:06
    Humanoido wrote: »
    Thanks NikosG. Turtle robots have a great part in robotics history. In the 1980s there was a wave of turtles in kits and assembled models, typically with half hemispherical clear acrylic tops (for see-through parts). Many of the robotics magazines during that era had articles on turtle robots - they were stable, relatively easy to build, and had their own programming language. I had obtained one of these half domes through a science company so I could build a turtle. Mainly I wanted to explore Turtle Logo programming language. You can still download variations of this language.

    Download free languages here: http://www.mathcats.com/gallery/logodownloadinfo.html

    @ Wikipedia
    Turtles are a class of educational robots designed originally in the late 1940s (largely under the auspices of researcher William Grey Walter) and used in computer science and mechanical engineering training. These devices are traditionally built low to the ground with a roughly hemispheric (sometimes transparent) shell and a power train capable of a very small turning radius. The robots are often equipped with sensor devices which aid in avoiding obstacles and, if the robot is sufficiently sophisticated, allow it some perception of its environment. Turtle robots are commercially available and are common projects for robotics hobbyists...

    Thank you Humanoido,
    Logo is one of my favorites programming languages because it combines computer geometry and robotics.
    One of my first robotic project was the "Robotic Logo Turtle" in 2004.
    This robot was completely home made.You don't believe but the half hemispherical top of this robot was part of cake-utensil! The board was also very simple and home-made with 6 relay and transistor and 3 dc motors.
    The robot was conected with the PC through parallel port.
    I had created a specific Logo language for this robot and I had given it the name "Robo-Logo" .The funny is that when I started the creation of this robot I had no idea about, Saymour Papert's Turtles.
    I also learned about Grey Walter's tortoises 2 months ago! In addition the link you suggested has a lot of examples of turtle- robots!
    I think that Logo applications can be perfectly materialized by Parallax robots (e.g.the S2 writing robot) with a new software interface.
    I also think that Robot Base Kit is suitable for this purpose. I have in mind to suggest some alterations for this kit (e.g. the ability to carry a pen like the S2 robot).
    Thank you for the new links about LOGO!
  • RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
    edited 2011-01-09 12:24
    Or, if you want to go even earlier you could look at the mobile automatic flight recorder robot that crawled around the desk when pilots were trained in the Link Trainers. This was in the early 40's. Yes, they basically had a version of the Scribbler back then!! They remind me of the newer RWI robots with the tri wheeled base. At one point we had an extra one (in hindsight it would have been cool to keep) but that was donated to the Yankee Air Museum to help restore a link trainer that my father and I donated.

    I'll have to dig up some pictures if it but found some links that show a portion of it on the desk:

    http://www.starksravings.com/linktrainer/desk_4.jpg

    http://www.starksravings.com/linktrainer/desk_6.jpg

    http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5585.pdf

    I've never heard anyone else mention this little gadget before and it pre-dates many of the other early robots out there. So I guess this particular post could be 1940 or 2011 robot. Vintage desk robot to scribbler.......
  • NikosGNikosG Posts: 705
    edited 2011-01-09 13:22
    Or, if you want to go even earlier you could look at the mobile automatic flight recorder robot that crawled around the desk when pilots were trained in the Link Trainers. This was in the early 40's. Yes, they basically had a version of the Scribbler back then!! They remind me of the newer RWI robots with the tri wheeled base. At one point we had an extra one (in hindsight it would have been cool to keep) but that was donated to the Yankee Air Museum to help restore a link trainer that my father and I donated.

    I'll have to dig up some pictures if it but found some links that show a portion of it on the desk:

    http://www.starksravings.com/linktrainer/desk_4.jpg

    http://www.starksravings.com/linktrainer/desk_6.jpg

    http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5585.pdf

    I've never heard anyone else mention this little gadget before and it pre-dates many of the other early robots out there. So I guess this particular post could be 1940 or 2011 robot. Vintage desk robot to scribbler.......

    Hi RobotWorkshop,
    This is a very cool information!
    I suppose that no one book about the history of RWI robots have this information! This forum is really amazing!
    Tomorow I'll have te opportunity to share all those information with my students
    For one more time I'm convinced that this forum gathers very special people with real knowledge about robotics and their history!!!
    Thank you!!!
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-01-09 20:28
    NikoG, thanks for the great information about Robo-Logo! You mentioned S2 by Parallax. Prior to S2, the Propeller chip has had a LOGO programming language. You can keep tabs on this language and other languages at the Ultimate List of Propeller languages.

    HYDRA LOGO 1.41 by DREAMWRITER
    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?92990-Hydra-Logo-1.4-ready-for-download!
    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?91381-Hydra-Logo-the-future-of-realtime-Propeller-programming!
    With this programming language you can draw neat things and stuff without using any sort of compiler/editor, just type commands and watch them happen. Here's a fun program you can type to get you started:

    to spiral :ln
    fd :ln
    rt 92
    fd :ln+1
    rt 92
    spiral :ln+2
    end
    

    Then just enter
    spiral 4
    and watch the fun!
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-01-10 13:20
    One thing is certain, modern day wheeled robots shrunk in size.

    Eensy weensy robot picks things up

    eensyrobot.jpg
  • NikosGNikosG Posts: 705
    edited 2011-01-10 22:42
    Humanoido wrote: »
    NikoG, thanks for the great information about Robo-Logo! You mentioned S2 by Parallax. Prior to S2, the Propeller chip has had a LOGO programming language. You can keep tabs on this language and other languages at the Ultimate List of Propeller languages.

    HYDRA LOGO 1.41 by DREAMWRITER
    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?92990-Hydra-Logo-1.4-ready-for-download!
    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?91381-Hydra-Logo-the-future-of-realtime-Propeller-programming!
    With this programming language you can draw neat things and stuff without using any sort of compiler/editor, just type commands and watch them happen. Here's a fun program you can type to get you started:

    to spiral :ln
    fd :ln
    rt 92
    fd :ln+1
    rt 92
    spiral :ln+2
    end
    

    Then just enter
    spiral 4
    and watch the fun!

    Hi Humanoido,
    This is great news for me! Thank you very much!
    I have 2 questions:
    1) Is the Hydra Board essential to "RUN" the Hydra logo or I can do this with my Propeller Board?
    2) The link you gave me for downloading Hydra logo (file:JMM_logo_03-30-07.zip) is broken.Do you know an alternative link for this?
    Nikos
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-01-13 23:27
    NikosG wrote: »
    Hi Humanoido,
    This is great news for me! Thank you very much!
    I have 2 questions:
    1) Is the Hydra Board essential to "RUN" the Hydra logo or I can do this with my Propeller Board?
    2) The link you gave me for downloading Hydra logo (file:JMM_logo_03-30-07.zip) is broken.Do you know an alternative link for this?
    Nikos
    NikosG, Sorry about that link not working. I did some searching and found another download site here at the main thread here. The good news is this version now works on the Parallax Propeller Proto Board and Demo Board. According to Oldbitcollector,

    Here's a command to try it out.
    to spiral :ln
    fd :ln
    rt 92
    fd :ln+1
    rt 92
    spiral :ln+2
    end

    Then just enter
    spiral

    and Dreamwriter has also commented, "I found a boneheaded bug in 1.4, if you want to fix it all you have to do is add one simple line of code. Find the function "funcCopyBufferToText", and at the end of the function add this line:

    return(Loop)
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-01-13 23:51
    NikosG, I have the original LOGO language which runs on the HYDRA archived on my computer and also the update to it. If you want it, I can email it to you.
  • NikosGNikosG Posts: 705
    edited 2011-01-14 06:53
    Hi Humanoido,
    I got the file and I fixed the bug acording Dreamwriter's comment.!
    It is amazing!
    Here is a video from my first attempt.
    Propeller is fantastic! It gives me umpteen ideas for projects!
    Thank you Humanoido!!!

    P.s. Yes if you have time send me the LOGO. My e-mail is gianakop@gmail.com
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-01-14 13:47
    NikosG, wow! Your video is really great! I'm deeply honored by your credits. I see you have lots interesting and totally fantastic videos and projects going on. Keep up the great work. I am sending you, by email, all the LOGO language information that I currently have archived in a zip file.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-01-14 13:50
    I definitely want to thank Oldbitcollector for porting LOGO language to the Parallax Propeller Proto Board and Demo boards. Without that port and new link (and thread with sample program), we could be left with nothing and only a previous broken link. Through OBC's efforts, the Propeller has a working LOGO language. Thanks OBC!
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