Robotica Exotica

Underwater Autonomous Tracker

Students at the University of Arizona have developed a small autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to track octupuses (octopi) underwater. Since the target is very shy, the students developed a robot to continously monitor and track these creatures.

UA engineering undergrads, in collaboration with students from two other universities, are building a mini-sub to answer this need. In July, they took a prototype to Alaska for testing.

Appropriately named Shadow III — and painted a bright yellow that belies its sleuthy assignment — the mini-sub includes a video camera and hydrophones (sonar mikes) to track its prey.

Marine biologists, directed by Professor David Scheel at Alaska Pacific University, will use the sub to track octopuses. Meanwhile, undergrads at Colorado School of Mines are developing the hydrophones under the direction of Tyrone Vincent, an associate professor of electrical engineering. The hydrophones are set up to create bi-aural hearing that will allow researchers to determine the direction from which a sound originates.

During the July test, Shadow III completed ten dives in Prince William Sound, with a communications cable linking it to a mother boat on the surface. Divers checked it for leaks, while UA Professor Emeritus Tom Vincent and UA Mechanical Engineering senior Patrick Haley tested its robotic vision, motors and internal computer. Along the way, it encountered and filmed a Giant Pacific Octopus.

World's Smallest Atomic Clock

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has developed the world's smallest atomic clock based on MEMs technology. Though still in a prototype stage, this indicates the possibility of cheap, ubiquitous atomic clocks in battery powered devices. This has implications for all kinds of navigation and precision sensing applications.

The heart of a minuscule atomic clock—believed to be 100 times smaller than any other atomic clock—has been demonstrated by scientists at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), opening the door to atomically precise timekeeping in portable, battery-powered devices for secure wireless communications, more precise navigation and other applications.

Described in the Aug. 30, 2004, issue of Applied Physics Letters, the clock’s inner workings are about the size of a grain of rice (1.5 millimeters on a side and 4 millimeters high), consume less than 75 thousandths of a watt (enabling the clock to be operated on batteries) and are stable to one part in 10 billion, equivalent to gaining or losing just one second every 300 years.

In addition, this “physics package” could be fabricated and assembled on semiconductor wafers using existing techniques for making micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), offering the potential for low-cost mass production of an atomic clock about the size of a computer chip and permitting easy integration with other electronics. Eventually, the physics package will be integrated with an external oscillator and control circuitry into a finished clock about 1 cubic centimeter in size.

“The real power of our technique is that we’re able to run the clock on so little electrical power that it could be battery operated and that it’s small enough to be easily incorporated into a cell phone or some other kind of handheld device,” says physicist John Kitching, principal investigator for the project. “And nothing else like it even comes close as far as being mass producible.”

The mini-clock is comparable in size and long-term stability to temperature-compensated quartz crystal oscillators, currently used in portable devices. NIST scientists expect to improve the clock’s long-term stability and reduce its power consumption to the point where the device could substantially improve the performance of many commercial and military systems that require precision time keeping.

The chip-scale clock is the latest advance in time keeping at NIST, which for decades has been a world leader in the development of new technologies for measuring time and frequency. Atomic clocks long have provided the most accurate realizations of both of these quantities but also have traditionally been large—up to two meters in height—as well as power-hungry and expensive to build.

The new clock is based on the same general idea as other atomic clocks such as the NIST-F1 fountain clock—measuring time by the natural vibrations of cesium atoms, at 9.2 billion “ticks” per second—but uses a different design. In the chip-scale clock, cesium vapor is confined in a sealed cell and probed with light from an equally small infrared laser, which generates two electromagnetic fields. The difference in frequency of these two fields is tuned until it equals the difference between two energy levels of the atoms. The atoms then enter a “dark state” in which they stop absorbing and emitting light; this point defines the natural resonance frequency of cesium. An external oscillator, such as quartz crystal like those found in wristwatches, then can be stabilized against this standard.

The chip-scale clock is less accurate than larger atomic clocks such as fountain clocks. However, the clock’s small size, low power dissipation and potentially low cost make it ideal for a variety of commercial and military applications. Compared to quartz crystal oscillators, the most precise time and frequency references of equivalent size and power, chip-scale atomic clocks potentially offer a 1,000-fold improvement in long-term timing precision.

Climb into the Sky

This is impressive. A group called Elevator2010 has a site up promoting a space elevator idea and contest. I've spoken with one of their lead technical guys, and we are definitely getting close on the material science side of this. Their approach is to also promote the idea through a contest, demonstrating the technology through a small scale performance championed by students and industry.

The dream of a Space Elevator is a monumental one. A vision that will not only further space exploration and knowledge, but has the potential to shape the existential future of the human race for centuries to come. For the first time since it was initially conceived, this dream is now within our reach.

Elevator 2010 has joined the massive construction effort, adding energy, resources and new initiatives to the ever-growing number of organizations, companies, websites and enthusiasts focused on the technical, political and economic development of the Space Elevator.

We firmly believe that the set of technologies that underlie the infinite promise of the Space Elevator can be demonstrated, or proven infeasible, within a 5 year time-frame.

And hence our name. Elevator:2010. we promise to get an answer for you by then.

Rapid Prototyping comes to the Web

This is very exciting. A company called eMachineShop.com has free software that allows you to draw and specify mechanical parts using traditional CAD tools and will then quote you a finished part cost which will come shipped to your door in a few weeks.

Programs for computer-aided design, or CAD, have been around for decades, but eMachineShop.com appears to be the first service that checks whether a design can be made, tells the customer how much it will cost and, if the customer wants the item, forwards the design to a "real world" machine shop for manufacturing.

The key to this enterprise is free design software provided by eMachineShop that aims to be simple enough for hobbyists and other non-engineers.

Prices won't be competitive with Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart won't make ten copper door knobs, then sandblast them for you. EmachineShop charges $143 for that.

The company was created by Jim Lewis, a programmer and self-professed "tinkerer." One previous credit: "the world's hardest sliding block puzzle."

Very, very good idea.

Testing MEME Propagation in the Blogosphere

Next experiment, will the fork in a light socket trick give me hair like Don King?
Testing Meme Propagation In Blogspace: Add Your Blog

This posting is a community experiment that tests how a meme, represented by this blog posting, spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs (and aggregation sites) are most influential in the propagation of memes. The dataset from this experiment will be public, and can be located via Google (or Technorati) by doing a search for the GUID for this meme (below).

Please join the test by adding your blog (see instructions, below) and inviting your friends to participate—the more the better. The data from this test will be public and open; others may use it to visualize and study the connectedness of blogspace and the propagation of memes across blogs.

The GUID for this experiment is:

as098398298250swg9e98929872525389t9987898tq98wteqtgaq62010920352598gawst

The above GUID enables anyone to easily search Google or other search engines for all blogs that participate in this experiment, once they have indexed the sites that participate, which may take several days or weeks. To locate the full data set, just search for any sites that contain this GUID.

Anyone is free to analyze the data of this experiment. Please publicize your analysis of the data, and/or any comments by adding comments onto the original post (see URL above). (Note: it would be interesting to see a geographic map or a temporal animation, as well as a social network map of the propagation of this meme.)

INSTRUCTIONS

To add your blog to this experiment, copy this entire posting to your blog, and then answer the questions below, substituting your own information, below, where appropriate. Other than answering the questions below, please do not alter the information, layout or format of this post in order to preserve the integrity of the data in this experiment (this will make it easier for searchers and automated bots to find and analyze the results later).

REQUIRED FIELDS (Note: Replace the answers below with your own answers)

(1) I found this experiment at URL:
http://www.aoe.vt.edu/%7Ecdhall/Space/

(2) I found it via “Newsreader Software” or “Browsing the Web” or “Searching the Web” or “An E-Mail Message”: Browsing the Web

(3) I posted this experiment at URL: http://www.robotica-exotica.com

(4) I posted this on date (day/month/year): 10/08/04

(5) I posted this at time (24 hour time): 21:39

(6) My posting location is (city, state, country): Santa Cruz, CA, USA

OPTIONAL SURVEY FIELDS:

(7) My blog is hosted by: ucsc.edu

(8) My age is: 37

(9) My gender is: Male

(10) My occupation is: Computer Engineering Professor

(11) I use the following RSS/Atom reader software: none

(12) I use the following software to post to my blog: MovableType

(13) I have been blogging since (day, month, year): 12/11/2003

(14) My web browser is: MS IE

(15) My operating systems are: Windows XP