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Monday, Monday
501(c)3
ROBOT CLUB of Traverse City, MI has appointed it's first set of directors and is preparing the paperwork to apply for 501(c)3 status. The new board of directors and their former associations are: Paul Grayson (Navy Robot Lab), Linda Graham (Legal Secretary), Sandi Wills (Business Consultant), and Doug Burwell (GM Research). This is an important step in fundraising for automation and control projects that the memebers of the ROBOT CLUB want to research.
WWII poster updated by AIM Team member Linda Graham.
ROBOT CLUB MEETING
The updated WWII poster is one of the slides that Linda used in her PowerPoint presentation about what she learned at the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. Other pictures showed that nearly every Urban Challenge vehicle had a Velodyne laser scanner on top. We also tested the microwave oven that was donated to the club, it worked well heating up the cinnamon buns that Linda baked for the meeting.
Doug will be planning the route to L. A. and back for AGV WENDY DARLING using online data storage so that he can access his work from any computer, where ever he is. This is important because he is constantly in motion throughout the TC area all day long and never knows when he will get a few minutes here and there to work on it. I will let you know how this experiment progresses.
Blue colored Canola seed arrived from Pioneer for our test plot. The seed is coated with a blue poison to protect it from things that might want to eat and requires special handling. We will be studying how each step of the the biofuel process, from field to fuel tank, could be automated. Today I spoke on the phone with Bill Koucky who is also preparing a small test plot of Canola near by (expected to be 42% oil by weight). His farm is a one man operation and he was going through the list of things that he needs to do to prepare the ground, fertilize, and harvest his Canola crop, process it into diesel fuel and sell it. He has a small batch oil processing plant which produces 500 gallon per day that he would like to convert to continuious process and automate. This is a scale version of the plant that he has plans for which will produce 5 million gallons per year of diesel fuel. He has two tractors that are small capacity so the field processes take a long time. To plow 20 acres with a 2 bottom plow he agrees takes a long time, and of course he can only drive one of his two tractors at a time. Automating one or both of the tractors would free him up to handle other aspects of biodiesel fuel processing.
Rich from Team FREDNET which is preparing a lunar rover for its mission on the Moon, said that several more people in Europe have joined his team. Several people who have joined Team FREDNET are experts in the use of LabVIEW software from National Insturments ( http://ni.com). A remarkable amount of his effort at FREDNET goes into overhead.
Work on AGV WENDY DARLING included some design changes to the throttle and service brake which have been combined to form a speed control. A close inspection showed that the brakes have been reconnected but that the engine manifold still needs one more gasket. Signs, bumpers, and sponsor logos are starting to go back on the truck after its latest paint job as part of getting it ready for its appearance in a parade soon.
Sandi, who his handling the team publicity now, says that she is signing AGV WENDY DARLING up for every public appearance, festival and parade that she can get us into. This should raise public awarness about how close vehicle automation is to being a consumer product and the US Army's continued wait for a working system. Being an all-volunteer organization, these public events should help AIM with recruiting. We are finding more and more young people interested in robots, automation and automatic control.
Sandra, AIM Team Support Staff volunteer, signaling "full auto" to ground crew.
SUNDAY, 5-11-2008 AIM PROGRESS REPORT No. 390
HELP US AUTOMATE THIS TRUCK
The US Army has had smart weapons for a long time now, but just recently realized that they need smart supply trucks. ROBOT CLUB of Traverse City, MI has been asked to do something that big companies, because of their large size, are unable to do. We have been asked to form a team and demonstrate a US Army supply truck that can drive itself safely from the supply depot, through city traffic, to where the troops are, and back, automatically. To limit the liability of Club members working on this project we have formed AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC (AIM).
AGV WENDY DARLING
Our truck, AGV (automatic guided vehicle) WENDY DARLING, named after a character in the children's story Peter Pan, has just gotten a color change from forest green to Desert Tan. It is expected to be the prototype of a series of driverless supply trucks that will save US soldiers lives. To be free of government oversight, which is known to stifle creativity, DoD has asked us to raise our own money, find our own sponsors, pick our own team members, and use whatever technology we can find or invent and do it as soon as possible. Designing, building, testing, developing, and demonstrating the AIM Truck AutoPilot and the HorseSense software that runs it will take a lot of Money, Manpower, and Materials but that will only be a small fraction of what it would cost to do it through normal channels. Big companies, because of their size, are not as free as ROBOT CLUB members are to try things to discover what will work, or to use unconventional approaches to solving problems of making a truck driverless.
WILL WORK FOR MONKEY
Sandra is one of the ROBOT CLUB of Traverse City, MI volunteers that range in age from 8 to 80 years old who are working to automate AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC's US Army supply truck. Sandra works as part of the support staff that makes it possible for the scientists, engineers, and technicians to concentrate on their work and not have to worry about shop and technical library housekeeping chores. Sandra's specialty is keeping the painted floors clean. With the amount of work being done in the shop, this is an important task. Her volunteer work counts as employment for use on her resume. Imagine how this will look, being able to say that she was part of the team working on a vital Department of Defense research and development project. This is the real deal, we are working to make a difference and help defend the USA. What she is hoping to get out of this project is conversion of her Curious George monkey into an animatronic character. You have to admit, kids do have their priorities.
GO ROBOTS !
Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Racing to build technology that saves soldier's lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 946-0187, (231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@aimagic.org
AIM: http://aimagic.org
Robot Club: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/
CE Magazine: http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318.html
Monday, Monday
May 12, 2008
501(c)3
ROBOT CLUB of Traverse City, MI has appointed it's first set of directors and is preparing the paperwork to apply for 501(c)3 status. The new board of directors and their former associations are: Paul Grayson (Navy Robot Lab), Linda Graham (Legal Secretary), Sandi Wills (Business Consultant), and Doug Burwell (GM Research). This is an important step in fundraising for automation and control projects that the memebers of the ROBOT CLUB want to research.
WWII poster updated by AIM Team member Linda Graham.
ROBOT CLUB MEETING
The updated WWII poster is one of the slides that Linda used in her PowerPoint presentation about what she learned at the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. Other pictures showed that nearly every Urban Challenge vehicle had a Velodyne laser scanner on top. We also tested the microwave oven that was donated to the club, it worked well heating up the cinnamon buns that Linda baked for the meeting.
Doug will be planning the route to L. A. and back for AGV WENDY DARLING using online data storage so that he can access his work from any computer, where ever he is. This is important because he is constantly in motion throughout the TC area all day long and never knows when he will get a few minutes here and there to work on it. I will let you know how this experiment progresses.
Blue colored Canola seed arrived from Pioneer for our test plot. The seed is coated with a blue poison to protect it from things that might want to eat and requires special handling. We will be studying how each step of the the biofuel process, from field to fuel tank, could be automated. Today I spoke on the phone with Bill Koucky who is also preparing a small test plot of Canola near by (expected to be 42% oil by weight). His farm is a one man operation and he was going through the list of things that he needs to do to prepare the ground, fertilize, and harvest his Canola crop, process it into diesel fuel and sell it. He has a small batch oil processing plant which produces 500 gallon per day that he would like to convert to continuious process and automate. This is a scale version of the plant that he has plans for which will produce 5 million gallons per year of diesel fuel. He has two tractors that are small capacity so the field processes take a long time. To plow 20 acres with a 2 bottom plow he agrees takes a long time, and of course he can only drive one of his two tractors at a time. Automating one or both of the tractors would free him up to handle other aspects of biodiesel fuel processing.
Rich from Team FREDNET which is preparing a lunar rover for its mission on the Moon, said that several more people in Europe have joined his team. Several people who have joined Team FREDNET are experts in the use of LabVIEW software from National Insturments ( http://ni.com). A remarkable amount of his effort at FREDNET goes into overhead.
Work on AGV WENDY DARLING included some design changes to the throttle and service brake which have been combined to form a speed control. A close inspection showed that the brakes have been reconnected but that the engine manifold still needs one more gasket. Signs, bumpers, and sponsor logos are starting to go back on the truck after its latest paint job as part of getting it ready for its appearance in a parade soon.
Sandi, who his handling the team publicity now, says that she is signing AGV WENDY DARLING up for every public appearance, festival and parade that she can get us into. This should raise public awarness about how close vehicle automation is to being a consumer product and the US Army's continued wait for a working system. Being an all-volunteer organization, these public events should help AIM with recruiting. We are finding more and more young people interested in robots, automation and automatic control.
Sandra, AIM Team Support Staff volunteer, signaling "full auto" to ground crew.
SUNDAY, 5-11-2008 AIM PROGRESS REPORT No. 390
HELP US AUTOMATE THIS TRUCK
The US Army has had smart weapons for a long time now, but just recently realized that they need smart supply trucks. ROBOT CLUB of Traverse City, MI has been asked to do something that big companies, because of their large size, are unable to do. We have been asked to form a team and demonstrate a US Army supply truck that can drive itself safely from the supply depot, through city traffic, to where the troops are, and back, automatically. To limit the liability of Club members working on this project we have formed AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC (AIM).
AGV WENDY DARLING
Our truck, AGV (automatic guided vehicle) WENDY DARLING, named after a character in the children's story Peter Pan, has just gotten a color change from forest green to Desert Tan. It is expected to be the prototype of a series of driverless supply trucks that will save US soldiers lives. To be free of government oversight, which is known to stifle creativity, DoD has asked us to raise our own money, find our own sponsors, pick our own team members, and use whatever technology we can find or invent and do it as soon as possible. Designing, building, testing, developing, and demonstrating the AIM Truck AutoPilot and the HorseSense software that runs it will take a lot of Money, Manpower, and Materials but that will only be a small fraction of what it would cost to do it through normal channels. Big companies, because of their size, are not as free as ROBOT CLUB members are to try things to discover what will work, or to use unconventional approaches to solving problems of making a truck driverless.
WILL WORK FOR MONKEY
Sandra is one of the ROBOT CLUB of Traverse City, MI volunteers that range in age from 8 to 80 years old who are working to automate AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC's US Army supply truck. Sandra works as part of the support staff that makes it possible for the scientists, engineers, and technicians to concentrate on their work and not have to worry about shop and technical library housekeeping chores. Sandra's specialty is keeping the painted floors clean. With the amount of work being done in the shop, this is an important task. Her volunteer work counts as employment for use on her resume. Imagine how this will look, being able to say that she was part of the team working on a vital Department of Defense research and development project. This is the real deal, we are working to make a difference and help defend the USA. What she is hoping to get out of this project is conversion of her Curious George monkey into an animatronic character. You have to admit, kids do have their priorities.
GO ROBOTS !
Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Racing to build technology that saves soldier's lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 946-0187, (231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@aimagic.org
AIM: http://aimagic.org
Robot Club: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/
CE Magazine: http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318.html
Posted by Paul Grayson on May 12, 2008 | Comments (0)
Industries: Machine Control
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