Control Engineering

Movie poster

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR
Both the book (and the movie by the same name) is a remarkable true story that makes you want to do something that will make a difference, like in the story. On one of the tables in AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC's Technical Library is jig saw puzzle box containing 1,000 pieces. There is an interesting picture on the lid, but when you open the box the 1,000 pieces are just a jumble of unimpressive looking pieces. From any single piece or even a handful of pieces there no more than a clue as to what the finished product would be. The puzzle is there to remind me and the other team members that the seemingly...Read More

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Diesel Fuel that farmers can grow.

FUEL COSTS
With diesel fuel having passed the $4 mark quite some time ago, I am learning more about Oil Fuel crops that I ever thought I would as an engineer specializing in energy conversion.  It appears that if I want to have any energy (fuel) to convert, I may have to get involved with the process at its source.  My contribution to the movement toward National Energy Independance looks like it will be in the area of vegitable oils to be used as diesel fuel.  On behalf of the farmers in the area where I...Read More

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Iteris 

DRIVER ASSISTANCE
Machine vision has left the shop floor and is now roaming the roads and highways of the world. Some trucks in the USA are now being outfitted with it. While embraced as a true lifesaver outside of the USA, insurance companies in the United States are taking a wait and see attitude. Rather than giving trucking companies an incentive to install this accident preventing technology, they instead say that if the accident rate goes down, the company can apply for a policy review. The EU on the other hand is getting the cooperation of its members to use every incentive possible to cut the EU's death rate ...Read More

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Power steering kit.

HYDRAULIC STEERING
For tractors and other vehicles like AIM's AGV WENDY DARLING that already have hydraulics power available onboard, hydraulic steering is a reasonable option. The photo shows an example of how quickly the power steering can be installed. The cylinder rod end clamps on the drag link. The two U bolts loop over the hardened steel frame of the truck to hold the bracket in place. All that is needed to complete this picture are the hoses and the computer controlled steering valve. A few days ago Sun Hydraulics sent me a post card about their Electro-hydraulic Proportional Valves with on-board electronics. Thi...Read More

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Photo: Beeline

FIRST TO MARKET WINS
The first-to-market with hands-free automatic steering for Ag vehicles was Denver, CO based BEELINE Technologies, Inc. in 1998 with their aftermarket product the BEELINE Navigator RowCrop. BEELINE uses a blend of two technologies,  GPS (Global Positioning System) and INS (Inertial Navigation System) along with advanced algorithms to accurately guide a tractor in a straight line or follow a contour line. Navigator RowCrop offers GPS static accuracy of +/- 2 cm (sub-inch). This year in North Dakota, BEELINE launched the third...Read More

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AUTOMATE OR GO OUT OF BUSINESS
While this advice overheard at a trade show might seem a bit harsh, it is an economic fact of business life. Either you are constantly improving or you are falling behind. With fuel prices hitting all time highs and not expected to come down, the economic balance of everything is shifting and farmers have more economic incentive than ever to automate as many of the farm processes as possible. There are several systems on the market and they are remarkably similar. Most agricultural machinery uses hydraulic steering because there is already a hydraulic system on board to control the implements and it i...Read More

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Matt Patterson - Machine Vision Sales - KEYENCE 

MATT PATTERSON  < mpatterson@keyence.com > , Sales Associate for KEYENCE's Machine Vision Products, stopped by AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC's workshop yesterday to see Automatic Guided Vehicle WENDY DARLING.   We are looking to see which of their 125 vision systems and vision system parts would be useful in saving lives.  Matt has been with the company for about 8 months now and loves to ...Read More

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Blueprint of the manual process.

BLUE SMOKE AS FUEL  It is the smoke from the incomplete combustion of the wood that is the fuel.  Some people at the Robot Club meeting Saturday were under the impression that Andy was somehow creating a liquid fuel when in fact he is creating a combustible gas from wood.  Most everyone at the meeting here in northern Michigan has been around wood fires enough to know that blue smoke will burn if lit.  The simplest explaination of what Andy has been experimenting with for the past 30 years is that this process produces smoke that can be burned in a gasoline engine.&nb...Read More

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New Logo: ROBOT CLUB of Traverse City, MI (RCTC)

MONEY, MATERIALS
The ROBOT CLUB of Traverse City MI, meeting was Saturday at the AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC workshop and Sandi, our new grant writer volunteer is finding a lot of things that we should apply for.  She also has a few wealthy friends who might be interested in supporting our work on Automatic Guided Vehicles.  In the past that is how most research and development was conducted, with the support of wealthy patrons.  Each DARPA Urban Challenge team must find its own sources of funding to cover the expenses of the work that needs done. There are a lot of peopl...Read More

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Photo: http://us.penguingroup.com/

THE POWER OF PEN AND PAPER
As the Team Leader of AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC's DARPA Urban Challenge team, which is entirely dependant on donations, I am constantly searching for things that are inexpnsive and can be used to solve the problems I run into every day.  I have heard the ledgends of how drawing on a pizza box lid or cocktail napkin launched billion dollar enterprizes or solved the world's most difficult problem. These are rare instances but what if they don't have to be?  What if there is something about the pizza box lid...Read More

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LSSU Camp photo

SUMMER CAMP  (possible movie?)
While adults can go to trade shows, conventions, and seminars to keep up their enthusiasm for their trade and hone their skills, what do kids do? Well, it is not too soon to start thinking about what camp you want to send them to. Five-day camps do the same thing for kid and young adults. A Women In Technology camp or Robotics Camp might just be the thing that would get an already interested kid really fired up about science and engineering or if they are unc...Read More

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