It is hard for me to put into words the different emotions that this event brought on. If you would have asked be prior to the event if I felt that this would be a “life changer” the answer would have been without a doubt no. While looking back on it I believe that is exactly what happened.

Before I go into my personal reflections a de-brief for those who weren’t there is probably the right way to start.

The event was a build challenge where we had to build something to move a person. We decided early on that we wanted to “go big or go home” The latter turned out to be true. For my robot Folks, we attempted to build a 6foot x 8foot, 1000lb swerve drive with a playground on top. The fact that we were able to build this in 72 hours is still shocking to me. Although we finished our plan and were able to build a cool device we were lacking those extra few hours of tweaking required to make it a show stopper. We literally finished the wiring and fabrication as the time hit zero in a what hopefully will be some dramatic TV. Immediately following the completion we had to put our creations on trucks to go over to the public part of Red Bull creation. During this event we did a public showing of our semi-functional device and then immediately following the event cut our creation into pieces. We were told information which turned out to be false about them trashing creations that were not dealt with immediately. The P^3 (play powered pod) is gone but the front and back modules are in storage so we could re-build it, still a week later we are deciding the fate of the remains of our creation.

From a build point of view what we did could (and probably should) be considered a failure. We didn’t win or place and with such high expectations that we set for ourselves going into the event it is hard to look at it from any other perspective. On the flip side I got much more than a piece of hardware and some cash from the event. I learned that there are many communities beyond robotics that look at things the same way that we do. The cooperation and willingness to help between the teams was all there and many friends were made. Additionally the build allowed me to push myself in a way that I haven’t done in a long time (while FIRST robots are a challenge it is a different time period and different skill set). Josh from IEEE Spectrum Magazine was following us during the build and put together a nice video talking about the competition featuring us.

So as I eluded to I consider this event to be a life changer for me. For the longest time I have found myself to be stuck in a routine that doesn’t involve thinking creatively outside of work, or trying to personally improve myself. My whole life growing up I was constantly trying to push myself to be more than I am in many ways. I used to try to live outside of my comfort zone, because that is where you can explore your true potential. Too many people (myself included these past few years) are just satisfied with the status quo, accepting reality for what it is and not what it could be. This event was a wake up call, an eye opener, a kick in the pants, or whatever metaphor you would like, either way I am motivated now and feel great!

Christina and I have decided to try and continuously improve ourselves through learning new skills, working on new projects and making a conscious effort not to waste a moment of our lives. The first step for me was to cancel TV service to my house as I have wasted countless hours to mindless shows when I could have been building something or learning a new skill. Each month we are both going to try and teach each other something new though the completion of projects (which I will outline on this blog). I am truly excited for what the future holds, and I recommend everyone take a step back from their daily routine and evaluate if you are getting the most from your life and living up to your full potential.

Team innovation thirst was selected and is going to comepete at the Redbull Creation contest July 7-10th in Brooklyn, NY.

What is Redbull Creation? well…..this….

My team is on of the 16 teams competing for our share of $10,000 in cash and $10,000 in tools.  We qualified for the contest through the creation of our “Pour Master Pro”

If you are in town please come out and support us at the Free public event.

Date: July 10, 2011
Location: McCarren Park, Brooklyn
Time: 3-7pm

I have been mulling over ideas on how to design this cnc. Mainly I have found 3 design plan sets which seem common online yet none of them meet my needs. Since I am incredibly picky about this sort of thing I figure the best thing to do is to take bits and pieces from different places and make something which is uniquely mine.

Joe’s CNC ( http://www.joescnc.com ) – He has 2 different designs. The first one was made in 2006 and is one of the standards that you see people on cnc forums talking about. His plans are free and it seems like a solid unit. The issue I have with it is that it is a full wrap carriage; meaning that the gantry travels under the work surface. This is bad for a number of reasons but mainly I got a super table to mount this on, namely the new Biesemeyer Extension table for the unisaw ( I wonder how I got that ) and that would prevent this design from going forward.  The second design from Joe is much better but I refuse to pay 100 bucks just for the plans for something I can design myself, I am not really into just building

The next set of plans is the JGRO Plans Like Joe’s plans it offers simple construction methods with MDF and some of the same features. If I was a betting man (which I am) i would say that one of these 2 sets of plans inspired the other. Full plans are available for this one for free, but I really dislike the way that he does linear motion. There is no way I can tell to hold reasonable accuracy with out really spending time tweaking the unit after assembly, something that I know is likely no matter which way I go.

The last type is from the site www.buildyourcnc.com  he has 2 different designs and the one I am going to make  most closely resembles his new machine the black toe while I don’t understand the name I really like the way his linear guides are done.

So the project starts, I purchased these v-bearings for a cheap price of 2.50 each and as I continue to spec my machine I will buy the parts which will help me create more cool projects in the future.

1)  A simple mechanical drive where I power the rear wheels and have casters on the front. This use of differential steering will be sufficient for my needs, but it doesn’t have that flare which makes a project stand out. On the other hand doing something simple (KISS FTW) may take the time required to finish the project more achievable.

2) My next thought is a mechanically more sophisticated system of using mecanum wheels on the robot.  Mecanum wheels are ones that allow for holonomic movement(movement in any direction) You can read more about them here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecanum_wheel   One of issues with mecanum wheels is that they need to ensure contact with the ground at all time to work, which is why they are traditionally used in systems which roll on flat floors such as forktrucks. In the uneven ground of a yard or offroad the robot would require a suspension system, which is where the complexity begins.  Normally suspensions are straight forward because their only requirement is to keep traction and keeping close to the ground is not a factor like it is when mowing the lawn.  In the research I have done so far I have yet to find any off-road mecanum robots, in fact the closest I found is a concept for a mars surface vehicle. If I do go this route I plan on using the mecanum wheels from Andymark, as they offer 6inch,  8inch, and 10inch options with different modular hubs, which will make the challenge the implementation of the system not re-inventing the wheel.

This is the first paint style sketch of what I am thinking about if I decide to go down the mecanum path. Obviously the largest challenge is to keep the blade at a constant height so that I still have a good cut quality in addition to a autonomous robot cutting it.

Here are a beginning list of things I AM going to work on.

• Coaxial Swerve drive – my team wants to build one and convert the robot for IRI. I am waiting for the kids to start being proactive about this;as I am going to guide them, not design it for them.
• Robotic lawn mower – Last year my boss gave me a black & decker electric lawn mower. Cutting my lawn is up there as a thing I don’t want to do so it makes sense. I will design and build a chassis for it and start by converting it to RC then add sensors and other goodness as time goes on.
• CNC router – I have been interested in CNC for some time now and no matter how many times I have had things made for me I still don’t have much experience with it myself. So the net is filled with plans and ideas on DIY cnc stuff so building one for my garage would be fun, IMO.
• Underwater ROV – I have never done an underwater robot before and think it could be fun. We have this sketchy pond infront of work which seems prime to stick a robot in and explore. Also the cost factor with this one is low which makes it ideal for my garage.

I think that’s a good start. Also with these projects I am going to start developing the robot webcast show Botcentric I started on last year, these 3 things seems to be a good idea for a few episodes.  As always I am going to post project updates to this site, twitter, facebook, and any other tool a stalker could use to find out what I am doing. So if you don’t see updates poke me because that means I have either gotten lazy about the projects or am sucking at documentation.

Greg

video on gizmodo.

here is my new camera a canon HV-20. It shoots 1080i HD onto mini dv tapes and should make my videocast have really good quality

In other news my life has been on an even kilter for a while now which for me is a nice change. I have started to settle into my own skin a bit more and am now able to do the things I want to do.

I have also registered for a motorcycle class and will be getting my license this month. A motorcycle purchase is in my future.

I will be doing these in instructables.com format as step by step instructions. Look for them soon. Some topics will include:

Effective use of CAD for robot design

How to decide which, and design your robot drive train

How to install xp over vista for OEM computers

etc….

There was also some talk a few months ago with some of the guys from www.thebluealliance.net about turning some of these into video tutorials. If that happens it won’t be till much later in the summer.

For now sitback and enjoy this dancing robo known as keepon.