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[DPRG] progress on Hough transform and small robot
Subject: [DPRG] progress on Hough transform and small robot
From: Randy M. Dumse
rmd at newmicros.com
Date: Sun Jan 21 15:20:19 CST 2007
On Behalf Of Chris Jang
> One thing that amazes me is how much faster buying
> off-the-shelf is. It took months to build a frame,
> drivetrain, motor control electronics and electronics
> enclosure for the big robot. If it proves easy to hack the
> motor control of this toy and all electronics can just be
> stuffed inside it, then there's easily an order of magnitude
> improvement in development time.
Really, what you're saying, if I may, is that it is easier to
buy something with value added than start from scratch. That's
not surprizing as it is the basis of all human commerce and
progress. (Adam Smith) You will be more productive if you
cooperate with your fellow humans, rather than do everything
yourself. (David Richardo) Imagine how it would go if your first
step in building a robot were, 1) Find iron ore for structures,
mine, smelt... Find cooper deposits for wire... Plant rubber
trees...
The thing about your big robot is it is of appropriate scale for
the task at hand, outdoors naviagation and the one you have on
your page is not. Dpa would probably argue keeping scale small
allowed him a more rapid development. But to put that in
perspective, he started with an existing base for structure too,
in the ... Was it MAXX outdoor trucks?
I'm just saying at certain scales, you don't have the option of
buying something COTS style. Your large chassis falls into that
category. Too big to be a toy, too small to be a childs vehicle.
But just about right for task at hand. Don't depriciate your
efforts and the reason for ti. On the other hand, if you want go
bigger, follow iRobot and buy a R-Gator from an existing John
Deere vehicle. Again, it is just following the principle of
exchange in human techniques of optimizing results. As they say,
not reinventing the wheel.
Randy
www.newmicros.com
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