Here is a story for your weekend. The grandmother of an engineering student at the University of Arizona has an old mine on her property. What could be inside? Would it be safe to explore it? She -- the student, not the grandmother -- decided it was better to send a robot inside and she teamed with another robotic enthusiast to build a radio-controlled rover to explore the mysteries of the old mine. The 18-inch-long and 7-inch-high robot can communicate with them via a 900 MHz radio modem and send them videos from inside the mine. Theoretically, the robot has a seven-mile range line-of-sight, but the team is not so sure. So the robot is also tied with a rope to pull it out of the mine if necessary, especially if it falls into a big hole. And did I mention this robot is a 'she'? They decided the machine was female "because the rover is independent, sometimes unpredictable and able to do the seemingly impossible" and they called her "Green Meanie." Read more...
Let's start with the beginning of the article of the Arizona Daily Wildcat.
Keith Brock and Jessica Dooley, both aerospace engineering seniors, were curious about what was inside a mine northeast of Phoenix near Congress, Ariz., but were not willing to risk their lives to find out.
Brock and Dooley, members of the UA's Aerial Robotics Club, said they were familiar with the technology necessary to make the rover, so it only took two weeks to go from an idea to the finished product.
Dooley said they have yet to test the rover in an actual mine because they are uncertain how safe the mineshafts are and unsure if they will get radio transmission that far underground. They plan to connect the rover to a rope in case they need to pull it out of the mine.
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Here is a photo of Keith Brock and Jessica Dooley with their "Green Meanie" rover -- definitively a 'female' machine (Credit: Gary Gaynor, Tucson Citizen). |
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And here is how "the mine rover captures a video image of the photographer taking its photo. The photographer’s image has been sent from the rover camera (black object just to the right of the light at the front of the rover) to the computer screen." (Credit: University of Arizona?) |
Here are some general details about this robotic rover.
Dooley said the 18-inch-long rover has a searchlight powerful enough to see in the depths of the mine, and a pan-and-tilt video camera that will be able to send images of the mine back to their laptop.
Brock said the rover is 1.5 square feet in area and seven inches tall. He said it can be controlled with a joystick, computer mouse, or cursor tracking.
Brock said the rover is 1.5 square feet in area and seven inches tall. He said it can be controlled with a joystick, computer mouse, or cursor tracking.
Now, let's turn to the Tucson Citizen to learn more about why this robot is a 'she.'
It climbs over rocks as big as your head and remains agile on loose gravel, sand and hardpan. It can explore areas too dangerous for humans, lighting its way and sending video images to it creators. It's the Green Meanie.
That's what Jessica Dooley dubbed the green-wheeled, battery-operated rover she built with the help of Keith Brock, a fellow aerospace engineering senior at the University of Arizona. She's decided the machine is female.
"It's definitely a she," Dooley said, explaining that the rover is independent, sometimes unpredictable and able to do the seemingly impossible.
Now that we know that this over is female, let's look at more technical details provided by innovations report, from Germany, in "Students Build Rover to Explore Old Mines."
The rover is about 1.5 square feet in area and seven inches tall. It can be controlled with a joystick, computer mouse or cursor tracking. The cursor tracking or "mouse tracking" is linked to the rover’s video camera. Move the cursor to a point on the image sent back from the video camera, and the video camera will center over that part of the image where the cursor lies. "If you have a moving object, you can follow it with the mouse and the camera will automatically stay centered on it," Brock said.
With the hatch off, the rover electronics can be seen to include: lithium polymer batteries; servos that drive the wheels; a 900 MHz wireless modem; a servo-driver board that allows the remote computer to send signals to the servos; and a DC-to-DC converter that has outputs for several voltages to power the rover’s various electronic components.
So you have an old mine close to your home and want to see what's inside? Contact the students and build your own 'Green Meanie.'
Sources: Georgeanne Barrett, Arizona Daily Wildcat, November 23, 2004; Larry Copenhaver, Tucson Citizen, December 3, 2004; innovations report, Germany, November 18, 2004
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