{"id":58,"date":"2007-06-08T12:05:36","date_gmt":"2007-06-08T19:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2007\/06\/08\/orb-updates\/"},"modified":"2019-11-03T15:44:28","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T22:44:28","slug":"orb-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2007\/06\/08\/orb-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Orb updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Mike:<\/p>\n

Just a brief note to let you all know that Lisa, Steve Monahan, and I
\nfinished welding the aluminum orb last night and brought it to the Box
\nShop for testing. There, Erik, Lee, Jon and I got it running and put
\nit through it’s paces. I’m pleased to report the test was a success!
\nI am confident that the current design with 1\/8″ 5052-H32 aluminum is
\nstructurally sound and rolls acceptably smoothly.<\/p>\n

Special thanks are due to Jack Schroll, Steve Monahan, and Germ
\nTravis, who went out of their way to help us out in our hour of need!<\/p>\n

Otherwise, a couple modifications were made to try to improve steering
\nperformance, based on the feedback from many people to make it the orb
\neasier to roll straight and avoid a high point at the equator.<\/p>\n

One was to cut into the equator rings (annuli) to keep them from
\nsticking out further than the ribs. I think this is successful, and
\nits my intention to move forward with this design feature.<\/p>\n

The other was to make a elliptical cutout on all the elements near the
\nequator so that there is a kind of flat spot in the middle to provide
\na slight centering force. The consensus last night was that at 0.2
\ninches of the radius, this was too extreme a cut. This self centering
\ntendency resulted in a significant trade off with turning ability,
\nlogically enough. My feeling is to move forward with a more subtle
\ncut; I will be experimenting with the geometry to see if there is any
\nway to make sense of deciding the optimal balance of self-centering
\nand steering capability.<\/p>\n

-mike<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And a little supplement from Lee<\/p>\n

We put in a late night Wednesday night…<\/p>\n

– The orbs look great :-)… like something made by NASA or a benevolent alien race come to destr^H^H^H^H greet us.\u00c2\u00a0 Clear anodizing at the Tech Shop could keep them looking like that for a long time.
\n– they didn’t bend or buckle or nuffum :-) :-)
\n– they were designed to be a little flat at the equator to help stabilize them…. maybe they were too flat… we’re still thinking on that
\n– it’s pretty hard drive around smoothly. It sometimes rocks around uncontrollably…. solutions to that are forthcoming…<\/a>
\n– some PID feedback loops have to be tweaked a little
\n– maybe the length of the steering motor throw has to be increased
\n– we didn’t try it on soft ground. Only in the shop.
\n\"lincoln.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s the most of it. I’m off to install the TIG welder :-)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our latest toy arrive yesterday. It’s a Lincoln Electric Precision TIG 225<\/strong>. This will help us get the orbs together and enrich the Box Shop for years to come. After getting it installed in the Box Shop, Michael and I got some play-time (IE practice time) and all I have to say is “Weeeeee!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Mike: Just a brief note to let you all know that Lisa, Steve Monahan, and I finished welding the aluminum orb last night and brought it to the Box Shop for testing. There, Erik, Lee, Jon and I got it running and put it through it’s paces. I’m pleased to report the test was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":64,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2007\/06\/26\/orbs-a-go-go\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":0},"title":"Orbs a Go-Go","date":"June 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Lisa, Michael and I have been working on building more orbs. Lisa and I have been working on an aluminum orb with all the welds on the inside; we set it down next to the one with the welds on the outside and there was no question which shows off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":144,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2008\/04\/04\/what-is-swarm\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":1},"title":"What is SWARM?","date":"April 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"SWARM is a kinetic art work consisting of multiple semi-autonomous spherical robots (\"Orbs\") that roll under their own power. Each has a spherical shell 30 inches in diameter: roughly waist high to an adult. Orb shells were computer-designed and cut from a flat plate of aluminum, then welded together to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":126,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2008\/03\/18\/yuris-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":2},"title":"Yuri’s Night","date":"March 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"From Coreyfro: While NASA is still bragging about teleoperated robots such as DEXTRE, DARPA continues to push the boundaries on autonomous robotics. That's because NASA nerds (or, well, two of us here at Ames, and technically, I'm a contractor) make autonomous robots for fun in our free time! Auto choreographing,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fun"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":211,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2009\/04\/30\/event-swarm\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":3},"title":"Event SWARM","date":"April 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been lax about posting to the SWARM blog... SWARM gets out way more than you know! Last week the orbs were found dancing and flirting with the laptops at the\u00c2\u00a0Jaunty Jackalope Ubuntu Linux Release party!\u00c2\u00a0(Each orb runs ARM embedded Debian, pretty nerdy, huh?) This Thursday 4-30-09 a cadre of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":75,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2007\/07\/04\/gps-orb-tracks-on-the-playa\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":4},"title":"GPS Orb Tracks On The Playa","date":"July 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The group on the playa sent back some GPS telemetry off of the prototype orb. Matt converted the data to KML format. Here are the first GPS tracks of our prototype orb on the playa! The lines are 3 GPS tracks. The image is from an image Google Earth took\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fun"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":74,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2007\/07\/04\/orb-arrives-on-the-playa\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":5},"title":"Orb arrives on the playa!","date":"July 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The orb has arrived on the playa, and thanks to our kind friends at Geek Week, we can blog live during our testing. Here, Beth and Tzara from the Geek Week camp examine the orb as it meets the playa surface for the first time! 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