CyberNet Adventure part 3; PickensPlan Update

FROM AIM TO CYBERNET

It was pre-dawn dark and rainy when Rich and I left the AIM workshop on our way out into the countryside to pick up Josh.  Since we were going to have to take the second best route to get to Ann Arbor, MI (because of a bridge out on US 131) our new GARMIN-generated route passed through the country roads where Josh lives so we agreed to pick him up along the way.  We followed the GARMIN 205 down dirt roads to the to a point where it said the street address we were looking for was.  I got a call from Linda, saying that we should have been there by now and she directed us by phone to where her house actually was (about a block away on the opposite side of the road from where the GARMIN 205 said it was.   When I arrived there, I marked the actual location in the GPS memory for the trip back and the three of us, me, Josh, and Rich headed south east.   Along the way the sun rose to a grey day and the rain backed off to a light drizzle allowing us to make good time on the interstate.     The GPS took us to the back door of the the CyberNet facility so we parked the car and walked around the building to the front entrance.  We were about in the middle of the pack of people arriving for the the AUVSI-GLC Luncheon so we arrived neither early nor late.  

LUNCH

The lunch was chips, pop, submarine sandwiches, and cookies served in the CyberNet Systems Corporation employee lunch room.  In the lunchroom there were two piles of food, one marked “employees” and the other marked “AUVSI-GLC Food”.  As it turns out CyberNet has a weekly employee lunch each Friday for its employees.  Rich said this is very much in the Silicone Valley tradition that he remembers from long ago.  

PRESENTATIONS

After lunch there were two presentations in the CyberNet auditorium.  The first was by David Thomas - Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International - Great Lakes Chapter President. http://www.auvsigreatlakes.org/ who spoke about the Automotive-Robotics Cluster Initiative Partnership Workshop July 28-29, 2009 which sought to marry existing automotive infrastructure with the robotics needs of the Department of Defense. This event was to expand the framework established under the DoD’s Mentor-Protege Robotics Initiative to develop a road-map for an Automotive-Robotics Cluster Initiative in Michigan.  As part of its contribution to supporting entrepreneurs and business owners the SBA hosted a small business resource center at the workshop to provide information about resources available through the SBA, DoD, and state and regional economic development authorities.  The conference was held at the Oakland University’s Oakland Center, hosted by the Great Lakes Chapter of AUVSI in conjunction with U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research and Development Center Joint Center for Robotics; National Automotive Center; the Small Business Administration (SBA); the Department of Defense’s Office of Small Business programs; the Michigan Economic Development Corporation; and Automation Alley.

The second presentation was by Steve Rowe - CyberNet Research Engineer’s presentation of CyberNet’s DARPA Urban Challenge CyberVan vehicle : Armadillo. 

CYBERNET TOUR AND ARMADILLO DEMO

On the tour I saw multi-touch screens being used, flight simulators that can be modified in a few hours to represent whatever cockpit you need complete with working knobs.   There were bar-codes on the ceiling, robots in the corners, ammo sorting machines in production,  and lots of other interesting looking things.  The CyberVan was out in the parking lot to take each of us for driverless rides around the parking lot but when it was my groups turn, the circuit board runs it all got wet from the misty rain and the car stopped working.  They pulled it back into the garage where we got a close up look and as it started to dry out, it started working again.   By that time it was time for me to head my car back toward Traverse City.  We left with promises of copies of technical reports and white papers to follow.

THE RETURN TRIP

The GARMIN nuvi 205 is the economy model and has less features than the higher models.  Pushing the buttons rather than speaking to it, I let it know that I wanted a route back to Traverse City, MI using the “best time” route and getting there Via Josh’s house.  This time it routed us down the interstate then through a long stretch of dirt roads which after so much rain were soft enough that I was a bit concerned.  I arrived back at the AIM workshop about 8pm having driven about 10 hours and spent about $60 on gasoline.

Pickens Plan Photo:

What kind of car would a billionaire drive?   Here is a picture of billionaire Boone Pickens leaving the office in the natural gas powered PickensPlan car.

JOBS IN THE USA

Boone and the PickensPlan are advocating fueling the the biggest single user of foreign owned oil, the US truck fleet, with US owned natural gas as a matter of national security and energy independence.  As a result of your fellow citizen’s pressure to encourage your U.S. Representative and your U.S. Senators to support the  the NAT GAS Act of 2009, progress is being made in that direction.  Imagine how much better off the USA would be if the $24.7 billion sent overseas in September was used to pay for US owned fuel.  That money would have stayed here to provide jobs for us and boosted our economy instead of draining the wealth out of our country and going to governments who don’t like us.

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GO ROBOTS !  

Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
Robot Club of Traverse City, MI
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Cherryland Robotics Division - (The Robot Shop)
Racing to build technology that saves soldier’s lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@chartermi.net
AIM: http://aimagic.org/
Robot Club: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/
CE Magazine: http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318.html