Robotics
Miniature ~ Autonomous

My thing is trying to create something that at least thinks it's alive.

Here are some images and videos of a few of my own robots

Rodent Mimicking gif footage
Pocket-Bot

Miniature robot with rodent like survival behavior
Download the video here

 This video shows the Pocket-Bot robot I designed at Universal Robotics along with Greg Kiskaden running a program I wrote called The Insect. In this program I really wanted to give the robot a mind of it's own. Although it lacks the ability to learn, the program gives the robot instincts that mimic nature. The robot desires and seeks well lit places. As it moves toward the brightest place in the room it keeps an eye out for fear of anything that moves. If it sees movement it will stop and try to get a better look just in case the movement it saw was merely it's own motion passing by a nearby stationary object. If it doesn't see any further movement from the object it is staring at it will dismiss the object and resume it's search for light. However, if the object continues to move, the robot will turn and flee a short distance then turn to see if the object is still coming after it. If it sees that the object is still moving it will immediately abandon it's search for light and as fast as it can, seek the nearest dark place to hide. Once the robot finds a safe place to hide it stops and shivers. After a short while the robot will timidly turn and look to see if the danger has passed by looking again for movement. If none is detected it will begin again it's search for light. When searching for light the robot has not encountered any danger for some time, it will perform "The Little Dance of Happiness" as it basks safely in the sun.

One interesting behavior (not shown on video clip) that emerged when running The Insect program on the Pocket-Bot  was that when seeking light the robot would randomly stop for a moment and then move on again much like how real insects often stop as they scurry across the ground. It becomes clear why some insects often stop and go as they travel. Like the Pocket-Bot, insects often have poor eyesight and they may have difficulty spotting anything as their eyes jitter and bobble from the shaking from their own leg movements. Therefore, it seems that like the Pocket-Bot, insects must stop often just to accurately monitor their surroundings.




I am a cofounder of the robot company Living Machines formerly known as Universal Robotics and as Diversified Enterprises. I left that company in 2001.


Crawler
Download Crawler Video

This video shows the crawler robot pulling itself around by it's two front feet. Nerve endings at the tips of the feet feel for the edge of the table as it crawls along. If it cannot feel the table as it steps it will turn until it feels the table again at which point it will resume it's forward crawl.


Acrylobyte

The Acrylobyte is one of my favorite robots. It is a combination of art and electronics. I soldered all of the electronics together in a wire to wire ball of chips, caps, resistors, relays, transistors and LEDs with no board of any kind. Then I formed a bioinspired mold and placed the electronics in it. Then I poured a clear liquid resin into the mold engulfing the electronics in a perfectly clear and solid body. The behavior of this robot is determined by what the whiskers sense as it moves through it's environment.
 
 






Blimp Bot
Blimp Bot flies around the house and never touches the walls or furniture. It uses Infra Red as a means to detect and avoid obstacles.
 
 


Old Homer

This is one of the first robots I ever made from my pre-microcontroller days. It's brains come from three 555 timer chips a decade counter chip and a nand gate chip and four relays. It's behavors include negotiating mazes, wandering, and homing towards any hand held television remote control.
 
 


Digital Neuron

This little experiment is part of one of my life long projects to contribute to the field of Artificial Intelligence. I call it a digital neuron because it is designed to be networked with multitudes of other specialized digital neurons who collectively decide by variable majority whether or not a situation is dangerous, safe, familiar etc. This particular one has the ability to become alarmed when it encounters a situation that reminds itself of a place where it once experienced pain. Currently I am exploring AI with the notion that in order for a device to learn it must be able to experience pleasure and pain while sensing it's actions and surroundings. Inspired by the dynamics in the cell structures of true living things I hope to achieve something that might resemble emergent behavior by defraying the data processing to many simple neurons with specialized sensors.


 
 
 
 
I hold Patent #6076226 for an Automatic Vacuum Cleaning System, a fully autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner.
 There are already some good robotic vacuum cleaners currently on the market. In light of that, my patent  and additional pendings cover the concept of a more advanced configuration anticipated to be commonplace in the next generation of robotic vacuums. In particular, my vacuum stores itself in a cabinet or an end table and has the ability to initiate, perform and complete it's cleaning cycle, put itself away, then completely empty itself of debris into a separate container inside the cabinet while recharging itself during each time of operation without any user intervention. This allows the vacuum to operate daily, for weeks on end without any attention needed by it's owner.
At this time I have no intentions of mass producing The  Automatic Vacuum Cleaning System on my own. However, I am looking to license my patent to an established or new manufacturer that is willing to mass produce and am willing to consider other offers.

Fully functional prototype

Those who are sincerely interested should contact me here email