Re: Trash-Bot

["Steve Moulding" <fti1983@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve Moulding wrote:
> "Bill Kearney" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:vMqdnZg8YZ7Ta03eRVn-iw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> My suggestion is that your idea's stupid.
>>
>> Or more that your posting is stupid.  I mean, really, why be such an
>> ass about it?
>>
>>> Not all us Americans are fat...  some are disabled and can't walk,
>>> so this
>>> device could be quite useful.  The problems are that you need a
>>> buried wire or some means of guiding it, or an expensive
>>> differential GPS system. The
>>> thing has got to know where it is, and you can't do it by dead
>>> reckoning. Another problem is that the unit might get thrown away
>>> with the trash, or that someone would steal it.  Also, if a baby is
>>> lying on the ground in front if it, and its litigious mother is
>>> nearby watching, are you confident you'll remain financially
>>> solvent?  All these are common problems to robots you send away on
>>> errands and expect to come back.
>>
>> You could hack the brains out of one of those robotic lawn mowers.  I
>> don't
>> recall them needing buried wire.  Likewise a radar sensor could deal
>> with unexpected obstructions.  Even machine vision would work. Since
>> it's following a regular track it'd be simple comparison against a
>> known-clear path, not actual pattern recognition.
>>
>> Dealing with someone stealing it isn't technological, but some sort
>> of "I'm
>> too far from my base station, scream like a banshee" feature might be
>> entertaining.  Heh, have it scream "help, help, I've been stolen
>> from..." and start frantically running it's drive wheels.
>>
>> Hmmm, if they're cheap enough one of those robo-mowers might indeed
>> be a cool starting point.  Teach it to traverse a fake lawn path and
>> then hack it
>> onto something with enough drive motor horsepower to move the weight.
>>
>> You could start the experiment by building the cart and using a radio
>> controlled car circuit to operate it manually.  Prove that the drive
>> hardware works and then cobble up the brain for doing it
>> automagically. Hmm, an R/C car design using a gas motor and some
>> sort of battery operated starter would probably get around the
>> rather hefty battery requirements that
>> moving several cans of trash might require.
>>
>> -Bill Kearney
>>
>
> "....scream like a banshee...." reminds me of a problem we once had
> in a medical
> center setting.  The facility consisted of multiple buildings spread
> over a wide
> campus area, and were essentially freely open to the public.  Thieves
> kept stealing
> tv sets from various locations, and security was unable to patrol
> open areas effectively (this was before the advent of camera
> surveillance and other tv security devices).  We decided to install a
> sonalert in series with a 9v battery,
> a tilt switch, and a key-operated switch to arm the system and allow
> the technicians
> to install the sets without activating the sonalert.  For the next six
> months or so we
> would almost daily find squawking tv sets in hallways or classrooms,
> but we didn't
> lose a single tv after that.
>
> Steve

I apologize to the group for the above quote mess - I am thoroughly
chastized and have added QuoteFix to my OE.

Steve