May-June-Summer 1994 issue of The DPRG Newsletter

Vol. 2 No. 5

That Was Then...

At the April DPRG Meeting, we all got the low down on the Austin Group's Robofest, complete with color photos and glowing reviews from those of us who braved the wee hours on the road only to arrive four hours early! Consensus? FANTASTIC!!!

Vincent Gaines, one of our new members, became the Visionary Extraordinaire in charge of construction for the "Group Bot" (we've got to name this thing!) The "GB" Building Committee is forming quickly. If you want to be in on the ground floor of a new creation, sign up now. We still have room for both novice ~Botmen and Gurus, plus everyone in between. Contact Vincent at the next meeting, or you can reach me via Internet at: eric@sssi.com

We discussed a new membership dues structure, newsletter subscription rates for non-members, looking for corporate sponsors, and just about any other idea for keeping the coffers fun enough to keep mailing out our dear newsletter. In some cases our records aren't complete enough to know whose dues are due when, so if you think that it's been awhile since you've helped out with postage and all, please send in your annual membership dues of $20. I promise you I won't be grabbin' the cash and headin' for Mexico. Heck, I might not even get as far as South Dallas!

The New and Improved BBS seems to be doing great running on OS/2. Steve Rainwater (the sysop) has added new areas for AI and Robotics, and has many new neat-o files. Call and check it out. Steve also mentioned trying to rig some "special access" for DPRG members. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

...And This Is Now

At the May DPRG Meeting, we heard from the members who made it to the NTAAI Artificial Intelligence Extravaganza down at the University of Texas at Arlington. The DPRG had a booth down there where we had several Robots on display. There was quite a bit of interest in how we were actually putting some of their high-falutin' AI theories to real-world practical use. Steve Rainwater, yes, the creator of the magnificent NCC AI-CDROM, and the ~Botman with that weird looking white plastic shell thing on his monster wheeled Robot creation, is our liason with the NTAAI and has info on their organization for the interested. You can contact Steve, either about the AI-CDROM or the NTAAI on the Interocitor BBS or via Internet at srainwater@ncc.com.

We also just received the Media Information Package on ACLYPSE Corporation's latest offering, the ACLYPSE ADR-1 ROBOT Kit. Looks like one of the best kits out lately, and it's less than $300! See some of the details inside. Bob, if you're listening, how about sending a demo our way? (drool... drool...)

Inside, you should find some of the shocking preliminary results from our "Annual Spring Survey". You got to see 'em to believe 'em so read on.

NOTE: If you haven't sent your survey in yet, fill it out and get it in the mail, we'll be compiling the stats as long as they continue to roll in.

We've also got' a new regular column starting this month, featuring articles from the DPRG archives. The DPRG has been around a lot longer than most of you might suspect, pretty soon we'll be going into our 11th year! Over the many years our various newsletters have all been chock full of great ideas, and wonderful Robot stories. Don't miss reading about them, in the column, "memcpy(now, then, x);'.

87C750 Destroys PIC

By Roger Arrick

Surely you've heard of the PIC microcontroller from Microchip. Practically every electronics magazine I pick up has one or more articles featuring this little guy. The latest issue of Circuit Cellar INK has an article describing how to build a programmer for the PIC, an article about how to build an aerial photography system using one, along with about a half-dozen ads offering everything from C compilers to emulators. The latest issue of MicroComputer Journal has an article and a half-dozen ads also. And on, and on, and, well you get the picture.

I know, your first impression is that I hate PIC's, or maybe microcontrollers in general. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I use them all the time. Maybe I just can't find anything else to write about. Nope, wrong again. I wasn't even amazed at the PIC's initial success when it was announced a few years back. What I am amazed at is it's continued success and popularity in spite of the current competition which, quite frankly, exceeds in almost every area, even price. Maybe it's a new law of physics known as chip inertia, controller momentum, or maybe PIC adhesion.

The reason the PIC was so popular at first was the feature list which included, speed, simplicity, low power consumption, and low cost - very low! Your not going to be able to port DOS to the PIC, but it wasn't intended for that. It was meant to be a control processor and is often used to reduce glue logic in slow speed circuits. You probably use a PIC almost every day without even knowing about it. Get a screwdriver and open up the mouse next to your computer. You just may find a PIC inside! The PIC was and is one fancy machine. In fact, I would say the PIC is awesome.

The PIC was so great that many engineers could finally implement ideas that had be waiting in their notebooks for the right chip to come along, others switched their 8051-based designs over to the PIC.

Well, that was then and this is now! (this is now isn't it?) When I needed a small, cheap, microcontroller for a recent project, I looked at the PIC and said wow. I then looked at some of the new 8051 derivatives and said WOWi These new 8051's are like PIC's only different! They actually have the 8051 instruction set I've been using for cons and best of all they're cheap, cheap, cheap. Yes, I needed a new programming module (about $50), but other than that, my investment was the null set! I'm speaking specifically of the S87C750, 751 and 752 chips from Philips.

You can get these guys from Allied Electronics (xxx) xxx-xxxx. If you decide to act soon, Philips is having a contest to promote the use of the 87C750 and is offering a development board for only 47.50! (800) 447-1500. It includes all the hardware, software and documentation needed to quickly build, emulate and debug your designs. Who knows, your design may even win you the grand prize of a new Camaro! I challenge you to investigate these new 805l's for your next project. You'll be glad you did!

87C750  1K EPROM, 64 RAM, 19 I/O, 1 timer, skinny dip
87C751  2K EPROM, 64 RAM, 19 I/O, 1 timer, I2C bus, skinny dip
87C752  2K EPROM, 64 RAM, 21 I/O, 1 timer, I2C, PWM, 8-Bit ADC

The Interocitor Report

by Steve Rainwater

In the days to come this column will try to cover topics of interest that are related to the Interocitor BBS, Fidonet, and the internet -- Steve Rainwater.

At the last DPRG meeting (May 18), it was decided to seek increased funding and set some more aggressive goals for future group activities. One of the possibilities discussed was seeking corporate funding for a group robot to be entered in a national competition. What follows is a sampling of the information on competitions which is available from our BBS. Since I cannot include the entire content of the files in this column, I would highly recommend that anyone who is interested download and read the original files.

The BEAM Robot Olympics is a very high profile, international competition held in a different country each year. It was in Canada in 1992 and Scotland in 1993. The Robot Olympics are much like the human Olympics in that there are many different events such as rolling, walking, rope climbing, flying, and jumping. There are also events for specialized robots that are solar powered, very small, etc. Contestants come from many different Universities and organizations (commercial or industrial robots are prohibited.) All events are nondestructive to the robots.

The AAAI holds a robot competition in conjunction with their annual meeting each year. The BEAM has made numerous changes to the competition but always with the same goal in mind. Unlike most other competitions, this one is looking for the most capable general purpose robot. Past contests have involved fairly complex navigation, recognition, and manipulation skills. As an example, the 1993 contest required each robot to explore and map all objects in a series of rooms after which it would be instructed to navigate to a series of locations and retrieve specific objects. An entry in the AAAI contest would have to be small enough to navigate within a typical room, would need fairly extensive sensory and perceptual capabilities, and the ability to accept commands from an operator.

An example of a third type of contest is the Critter Crunch, head annually by The Denver Mad Scientists Club. The Critter Crunch is essentially armed robot combat. Robots meet within a combat area and the winner is the one which remains functional and within the combat area for the longest amount of time. The competition can be destructive to the robots themselves and weapons are limited only by OSHA restrictions rules designed to prevent harm to humans or building in which the competition is held. Past Critter Crunch competitions have seen the use of tethered projectiles, flame throwers, and robots with propane powered internal combustion engines.

While there are many other robot competitions these three represent a cross section of the type of events being held. Virtually none of the competitions offer prizes valuable enough to fully compensate a winning organization for the cost of an entry. Most of these events do get fairly good media coverage and should provide some incentive to a potential corporate sponsor. Nearly all of them will require travel expenses for one or more DPRG members in addition to the cost of building the robot itself.

My own opinion is that, while the Critter Crunch might well prove to be the most fun, the BEAM Robot Olympics would be the best target for the DPRG to aim for. We have a much better shot at getting a robot ready within a year that could be entered in some of basic BEAM events than we do of building something of the complexity required for the AAAI contest. Once we've been to the Olympics and returned with a few gold medals, we can move up to the AAAI cornpetition or perhaps even an aerial vehicle. In any event, need to start the planning (and some fund raising) now if we hope to get an entry in the '94 or '95 Olympics.