[Robotgroup] Divide and Conquer!

[Mark Hinkle]

   Oh yeah! I remember Odex! thanks for the links, Vern.
   I had a similar design in my "robots to make" list. It was a lot
   simpler as it used six independent wheels. I wanted something
   "generic". That is, if a wheel module, or sensor burned up or failed
   utterly, I could just drop in a new one and the platform CPU would
   know what to do. The brain talks to the platform, and the platform
   would talk to the wheels and sensors. In other words, I am designing
   several layers of motion control abstraction.
   Jon, there are a lot of questions that will need to be addressed
   regarding the protocol with such distributed processing structure.
   For example: you built Odex-1 and you want Odex to lift its leg. How
   far? For how long? What do you do if it cannot lift or lower its leg?
   How do you know it cannot? How will you synchronize the legs for
   "walking"? How fast? What direction? How far? Standing? The legs also
   have pivot angles. How will you specify that in relation to the
   generic tasks you will assign?
   That is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg. You can extrapolate
   from there easily. Distributed motion control is a GREAT idea.
   Implementation can be tricky, though.
   My first baby step in this will be a basic two-wheeled platform with a
   third caster-type wheel. I am still thinking about what the command
   protocol should be. I thought starting small would be a good idea.
   I'll need to control motor speed and monitor sensors at the most basic
   level. Check out my WIKI (
   http://www.robotgroup.net/index.cgi/MarkHinkle ) for more info on my
   generic robot base. I have outlined my design stages.
   Cheers,
   Mark
   ---------[ Received Mail Content ]----------
   Subject : Re: [Robotgroup] Divide and Conquer!
   Date : Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:44:49 -0500
   From : Vern Graner
   To : The Robot Group Mailing List
   Thelostcircuit wrote:
   > Why not divide the work into small tasks. Like one chip
   > controlling each leg
   Sub-processors for device control that frees up the main CPU is a good
   concept, and one that has been around for a while. For example, this
   robot is one that fascinates me and I'd love to take a shot at
   building:
   http://incolor.inebraska.com/bill_r/odex_1.htm
   I think it was *mechanically* way ahead of its time and would be
   spectacular with some of today's microprocessor horsepower. I actually
   toyed with the idea of recreating it a long while back:
   http://lists.puremagic.com/pipermail/robotgroup/2004-June/000525.html
   And I still harbor visions of making this machine someday. How hard
   could it be? :)
   Vern
   --
   Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE
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