Demonstration Platforms

Machines to explore 'advanced' climbing concepts for difficult vertical surfaces such as concrete or glass.

Alternative use of 3 and 4 feet in FeetSequence -- MicheleLanzetta? %ENDCOMMENT%

PsaToybot

Tony v0.3

-- AlanAsbeck - 22 Jul 2004

Video that is the first draft of the August 3 video. Comments are welcome and should be sent to AlanAsbeck.

• TonyV3Aug3_DivX200kbps.avi: First draft of August 3 video, DivX? format

• TonyV3Aug3Mark_Sorenson2.mov: First draft of August 3 video, Quicktime format

Here is another short video (~5 Mb) showing the 4-legged Tony v3 climbing a stucco wall. There are close-ups so the operation of the feet can be observed.

• TonyV3Stucco_DivX.avi: Video of Tony V3 climbing a stucco wall (DivX? compression)

• TonyV3Stucco_Sorenson.mov: Video of Tony V3 climbing a stucco wall (Sorenson compression - Quicktime)

-- AlanAsbeck - 19 Jul 2004 We updated Tony so that it has 4 legs that move in pairs, and each leg has 2 DOF so that it can pull away from the wall in addition to sliding up/down the wall. This version works much better than the first due to the redundancy and extra DOF.

Tony v3 weighs 270 grams, including battery and servocontroller board. It is 7" wide and about 18" long, including the 5" the legs extend beyond the body. Powered by a PIC microprocessor, it is completely autonomous.

• TonyV3ClimbingStucco2.mov: This video shows the robot climbing up another patch of stucco, this time without smooth patches. We also updated the trajectories a little so that the feet detach more smoothly, and the robot climbs a little faster.
• TonyV3ClimbingStucco.mov: This video shows the four-legged, 2-DOF version climbing a stucco wall. We think it falls off because there are some small patches where the stucco is pretty smooth and has few irregularities.

• Tony V.3, side and front view: (see bottom for full images)
  

Tony v0.1, v0.2 (a.k.a "T.T.")

-- MarkCutkosky - 09 Jul 2004
This machine climbs flat vertical concrete walls, untethered. So we have named it Tony Tetherless ("T.T." for short). The machine uses lithium polymer batteries, push-pull cables, etc. from the old iSprawl toolbox. V0.2 will have more limbs (for redundancy) and/or a rear leg and/or friction pads for stabilization. The key thing we need now is more robustness so that we can climb to the top of a building!

• Tony2.mov This video shows a version with two toes climbing a rough concrete wall. We think we can do smoother walls soon...

• Tony1.mov: This clip shows a single two-tendon toe on smooth concrete. The design is described further in the NewFootDesignsJune04 page. Note the peel and un-peel motion.

Servo Driver Controller for Demonstration Platforms Implementation

ServoDriverController

-- VirgilioMattoli? - 21 Jul 2004 I developed a driver for the control of demonstration platforms that use many servo motors. The driver is powered by a microcontroller PIC18F252? and allow real time control of 8 servos in the first hardware version (V 1.0) and 12 servos in the second one (V 2.0). The user can control each servos by a PC interfaced with the driver board. The board is also able control autonomously the servos, using an opportune sequence preloaded by the user on the micro. The driver board was succefully utilised in the actuation of the Tony v0.3 For datails refers to ServoDriverController design page