cyberneticzoo.com

Unicorn-One ( Universal Controllable Robot ) is truly universal and a robot that you can build for between two- and-four hundred dollars, depending on your ingenuity and scrounging abilities. It is fully mobile and has the ability to use its arms and hands. It can be controlled by a cable link to a console, by radio control from a console, or in conjunction with a computer.

(Original image in magazine articles, but cleaned up by TheOldRobots)
This was published in an 11-part series. The first 7 parts can be found here (uploaded by Karl Williams). I've added part 9 (remote control part 2) from my own collection, but I'm missing part 8 (remote control part 1). Part 10 (computer interface and part 11 (Adding Sensors) has been provided by Tonino Giagnacovo (Apr 2012) and is uploaded here. If anyone has Part 8, please send me a scan and I'll publish on my website giving due acknowledgement. (send to cyberne1 at cyberneticzoo dot com).

Update: On 7 April 2013, Palmer Johnson, from Missouri, USA sent me a pdf of the missing Part 8 now found here. Thanks Palmer.

The top half looking like the prototype R2-D2 from the original Star Wars movie.

Robot builders Eddie Cook (left) and Scott Carter are putting the final touches on Unicorn 1, the robot they and their classmates built as part of their robotics course at the Union County Career Center. (Photo by James A. Gupton, Jr.)

(Poor quality image)

About the Author of the series of articles: Mr James Gupton Jr has a most unusual background including photography, electro-optics research and development (which resulted in five patents on computer display tubes and phosphor screens), along with teaching electronics. The Union County Career Center is the only high school in North Carolina to provide an electronics program which covers subjects from direct current to microprocessors.

Hobby Electronics magazine (November 1979-January 1980) describes an autonomous robot.

HEBOT is a free roaming robot which can negotiate obstacles, steer towards a light (infra red) and follow a wire (A.C. current) around your home.

HEBOT emits a squeak when it detects light or following a collision. Control is transferred to the wire following circuitry unless HEBOT encounters an abstacle.

HEBOT also has a microphone, and can be wired to go into reverse, spin, or just stop.

HEBOT's 'random walking' is a bit of a misnomer, as it actually executes a series of spirals.

There is room for development. Board one will support a further four levels of control. It also has a simple constant-current nicad charger for its recharging 'nest'.

Click image for pdf.

Click image for pdf.

Click image for pdf.

Text and some images sourced from here – http://www.spawar.navy.mil/robots/land/robart/robart.html

This link also contains other links to ROBART information, not covered here.

5-minute video clip about ROBART I.

ROBART-I was Bart Everett's thesis project at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA.  and one of the very first behavior-based autonomous robots ever built. The navigation scheme provided a layered hierarchy of behaviors (see Table below) that looked ahead for a clear path (high-level), reactively avoided nearby obstacles (intermediate-level), and responded to actual impacts (low-level). A basic tenet of this strategy was the ability of certain high-level deliberative behaviors to influence or even disable the intermediate and low-level reactive behaviors, such as when docking with the recharging station, for example.

ROBART I's assigned function was to patrol a home environment, following either a random or set pattern from room to room, checking for unwanted conditions such as fire, smoke, intrusion, etc. The security application was chosen because it demonstrated performance of a useful function and did not require an end-effector or vision system, significantly reducing the required system complexity. Provision was made for locating and connecting with a free-standing recharging station when battery voltage began running low. Patrols were made at random intervals, with the majority of time spent immobile in a passive intrusion-detection mode to conserve power.

Being a prototype, the images below will show variances as it evolved.

ROBART-I with re-charging station (and Lisa!)

ROBART-I ended up being the start of a family…

Creeping Robot Activated Balloon (CRAB) – A clever Walking Beam model devised by Peter Holland.

See pdf below for full instructions on how to build this novel walking model.

The images here from the book "Industrial Light & Magic".

I located this interview given by Joe Johnston, who worked for ILM during the production of Star Wars.

BTL = Below The Line

Former Industrial Light and Magic art director Joe Johnston became a feature film director over 20 years ago when he came aboard Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and has not looked back.

BTL: What aspect of being the Industrial Light and Magic art director informed your career as a film director?

Johnston: I was the storyboard guy on all three Star Wars films with help from my guys in the art department. It was being able to go into the cutting room with George Lucas to do storyboards to alter these sequences. We’d need a new board for this moment. I’d ask why, and he’d explain it. He was not only generous with his knowledge. It was like being in an intense one-on-one film school. That was more responsible for me getting into directing. He started letting me direct second unit in the mid ’80s. Then I went to USC for a year. It was the input with George in the cutting room that inspired me to want to be a director.

BTL: What were your proudest moments from your time at ILM?

Johnston: Even though I was art director, what we were mostly doing was designing spaceships, with some environments, costumes and creatures. George would come to us and say, we need a vehicle that transports the Imperial troopers from their landing site to the rebel base. We would do drawings. George had three rubber stamps – wonderful, Ok and not OK. We came up with the snow walker. That is my favorite of all the designs that I did. On Star Wars it was me and Ralph McQuarrie at home doing illustrations. The X-Wing, Y-Wing and Millennium Falcon were my design. Empire was my most rewarding. The snow walkers were from a brochure by Syd Mead for US Steel of these walking trucks going through the snow – we turned them into walking tanks.

See Syd Mead's original concept here.