DPRG mailing list archives: [DPRG] Processing unit for mobile robot

Tue Apr 22 23:13:56 CDT 2008

ed at okerson.com said: Sunday, April 20, 2008 9:59 AM
> Somewhat dated and no longer in existance, but the DPRG club 
> robot GARP had a 486 based PC as the only controller.  I 
> know, because I installed it.  It drove the H-bridges from 
> pins on the parallel port.  It was running RT-Linux 
> generating the PWM pulses.

Yes, you may have one example from history there, but I admit,
Garp must predate my being active in the club by a bit or the
RBNO's or such. I never saw it. I know it collected dust, and
the tires rotted off (reported on list) and was given away. But
tell, me, did it ever operate, and to what extent was it
functional? Just what did it actually do which we consider a
test of it's robotic-ness?

And if you were to do it again today, would you go straight PC,
or could you even do that now that the parallel ports and serial
ports are no longer included?

Randy