Teleconference notes and instructions

(Please add newest to top of list)

Stanford speakerphone number: 650-723-2070
Other lab number: 650-723-4258

• Fridays
  • Testing & Operations @ 12:30 pm Penn time (9:30am PST)
  • PI (full RiSE group) @ 1:00 pm Penn time (10:00am PST)
  • Everyone dials 1-866-705-3198, next enter passcode: 1392782, then saw name and press '#'.
  • See below for additional info/controls

If it's running, view the Stanford Web cam
(Stanford teams see WebCamInstructions? for launching)

---

Jan. 04 2005 AMcClung? : Email re:telecon info

From: "Karen Alexa" <kalexa@umich.edu>
To: <rise@worktools.si.umich.edu>
Subject: Info for Teleconference Call - Friday, Jan. 7
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 14:06:08 -0500

Happy New Year!

We are under a new conference call system set up by UPenn-Thanks Delores.

 The instructions below are for the Friday conference calls through the
entire 2005 year - There are up to 20 ports available so we have plenty.  If
there is trouble or problems with the line, the number is 800-475-5000
(press "1" for audio conference).

Call start time is 1pm EST and we have the line for one hour

Let me know if you have any questions

Karen

PARTICIPANT ACCESS INFORMATION:

The text below is the only information you should forward on to call
participants. Please ensure that you provide all necessary information to
participants in advance of the call.

AUDIO PARTICIPANT ACCESS

TollFree Numbers:
USA
866-705-3198
PASSCODE:
1392782

INSTANT MEETING FEATURES

You must use a touch-tone phone to participate in an Instant Meeting
conference. Upon entering the conference, you may hear music prior to the
first voice prompt. You can input your passcode (followed by the #sign) at
any time, even before the voice prompt. The following touch-tone commands
are available for you to use during an active conference:

*       Press *1 for a private pre-recorded help menu. A recorded message
will play listing the available touch- tone features.
*       Press *3 for a roll call (private). A playback of the participants'
names that have joined the call will be announced to the initiator only.
This feature is only available when the leader activates the Name Record
feature.
*       Press *6 to mute and/or un-mute your line.

---

Oct. 29 2004 MarkCutkosky: Notes from the post-Oct. review telecon

   From:      kod@umich.edu
   Subject:    today's telecon
   Date:    October 29, 2004 8:19:08 AM PDT
   To:      rise@worktools.si.umich.edu
   Reply-To:      kod@umich.edu

Folks,

Thanks to everyone's huge productive efforts, I am pleased to report
that the demo visit at Penn went quite well. It was not without its
various hitches and a few terrifying moments, but, all in all, we have
many reasons to feel pleased and proud. Certainly, Morley was impressed
by the continuing and rapid progress we are exhibiting in understanding
and results. It is clear that he has become a strong proponent of the
Biodynotics program in general, and our work in particular. He has
seemingly been firmed up now in the posture he had come to adopt over
the last half year since the April site visit of advising us on the kind
of material he will need to present our work in the most favorable
possible light to his organization. Obviously, this is extremely
positive for us and we are well advised to take maximum advantage of the
opportunities it affords. 

Thus, I'd like to spend our hour telecon reviewing the sponsors'
guidance and the list of potential "to-dos" that arise therefrom. In
particular, Morley defends the Biodynotics program and presents the case
for Phase 2 to his management on November 24, so we are certain to have
a final scramble up to that cliff over the next few weeks. We must
choose carefully amongst the many alternative paths along which to
scramble, and balance appropriately the continuing burden each of these
scrambles places on the regular pace of work toward the real top of the
mountain that we would prefer (but cannot afford) to climb without these
various distracting scrambles off the path.
I propose to spend this telecon and next on reviewing the choices and
hope to converge on a consensus of how to proceed by the end of next
week's hour. 


Here are some of the concerns that Morley hopes we will address:

1) He remains convinced that a presentation of RiSEbot's present
capabilities against the backdrop of a much more convincing "real world"
scenario is important. The suggestion he favors would be for us to show
the RiSEbot platform climbing on "adobe" (of the kind that is popular in
certain middle east countries).

MARK: THERE IS A KIND OF SLIGHTLY ASPHALT-IMPREGNATED ADOBE THAT MIGHT BE 
MANAGEABLE FOR RISE WITH APPROPRIATE SPINES

2) He plans to present each of the biodynotics programs in opposition to
their main "competition." For Octor, he construes this as the
alternative conventional robotic manipulators; for BigDog he posits the
alternative of the all-terrain-vehicle; for RiSE, he (and John Blitch)
see the opponent as the vacuum cleaner style robots that use suction to
climb vertical. Accordingly, he needs us to help draw out the clear
advantages we show over the suction-bots in general and vacuum cleaner
machines in particular.

NEED SLIDES SHOWING HOW SPINYBOTS ARE WAY BETTER THAN THE 'VACUUM CLEANER'
AND SIMILAR SOLUTIONS BEING PROPOSED BY COMPANIES

3) He was extremely impressed by the SU Spinybot II movie (after all,
who could possibly not have been impressed!) and agrees that it presents
a strong case against vacuum clearners along many dimensions. His worry
is that if he now goes into the Phase 2 presentation with this movie,
Tony Tether's reaction will be: "well that's now clear: cancel the rest
of the RiSE program and put all your money into spinybot". Thus, we have
to put together a second movie that shows the spinybot "out-takes" and
makes graphically clear the implications Mark's "one-trick" (or even
"two-trick") pony and points the way toward the integration of
spiny-compliant toes into the evolving RiSEbot platform.

SO... WE CAN FIX THIS. IT'S "FOOT DEVELOPMENT BOT" AND NOT A REAL ROBOT.

ALSO WE HAVE A 'HOMEWORK' ASSIGNMENT WHICH IS TO DO A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
OF THE EFFECT OF HAVING SMALLER AND SMALLER SPINES AND HOW SMOOTH, IN THEORY,
THE SURFACE COULD BE.
 
4) There a number of quantitative measures that Morley needs: how fast
can RiSEbot go *now* (both climbing and level) what angle does it fall
at with what surface, etc.; he wanted some specific measures bearing on
materials properties that I will describe live during the telecon; etc,
etc.

THIS IS FOR CMU AND BDI TO DO.

OK - I invite everyone else who was present at the demo to add their
thoughts and reactions to this note between and our discussion this
afternoon.

Looking  forward to chatting with everyone.


- Dan 

---

Older stuff...

• Dan Koditschek notes to Group 4 participants following the 9/5/03 PI Telecon (see WorkingGroups? for schedule)
• 8/15/03 PI Telecon notes from Main.DanKoditschek + comments from MarkCutkosky
• Need some 8/8/03 notes...
• 8/01/03 AugOnePItelecon? notes from DanKoditschek? & MarkCutkosky
  • some follow-up email questions and responses
• 7/25/03 PIs telecon note posted in the Hypermail: http://dart.stanford.edu/~biomim/0670.html

---

Useful links: ProjectManagement? (general project management issues), MeetingNotes? (non-teleconference meetings).

Older teleconference notes...

1:00 - 1:25 SU reports on progress with climbing limb trajectory studies

1:25 - 1:30 Dan reports on Morley's SPIE presentation

1:30 - 1:40 Group discussion of how to address Morley's interest in use of bioinspired materials for behavior

1:40 - 1:50 Al, Hal, Uluc, Aaron/Don Update on Site Visit Demo Preparations

1:50 - 2:00 Dan reviews process for putting site visit ppts together:

Outline of intended ppts + movie list - Due 4/19 posted to RiSE? Website

Draft of ppts + actual movies - Due 4/23 posted to RiSE? Website

Final ppts - Due 4/25 posted to RiSE? Website

CD distribution to sponsors on Monday morning

=====================================

7/17/03 JonathanClark?
Gave a summary of early work on LegDesign? powerpoint presentation link is on that page. Discussed approaches to creating simple legs & appropriate leg motions. Videos don't seem to work. Repost some?

Action Items:

Aaron & Don

Schedule next telecon & post summary of Rhex leg design & videos & description

Jonathan & Dan & Will & Sean

Continue working on Working Model for 4-bar and pantograph leg design.

Telecon with Martin et al. on July 2, 2003 + local group meeting

Suggest the Friday telecon with PIs will cover missions and scenarios

Thursday July 17 focus on: legs design. It will help if each group prepares some concepts first.

Concerns about robustness

How about create a spreadsheet - basic features, holding strength, RMS roughness, comparison. results on the climbing wall.

Can we classify claw size/ strength vs loading capabilities? Is there something in biology?

Look for biological nice slow motion videos of claws, climbing. 1-4 lb animals, ideally.

Action item: Daniel and Adam -- start looking around at some more stuff on heavier animals that use claws and what the principles are.

squirrels, monkeys, good pictures. video footage? leg reversal. motion...

We should create a TeleconNotes TWiki page (done!)

Mark will call in next Wed. (July at 2:30 PST) number 650-723-2070

Jonathan - show Adam and Daniel about Working model 2D simple linkages and combinations for front/rear. e.g. 4bar + Rhex or... 4 Bar + sprawlita. compliant 4Bar.

for Sangbae, Adam, Daniel: Working model is on the Gateway laptop computer.