The Robot of the Future?

I thought I would give an update on the Tankbot research--since no one really knows what I'm doing out here. First of all, this is a photo from an article in the Penn State Alumni magazine. They did a little part on our tankbot and research. I found it symbolic, maybe metaphoric, that the only picture of us included the first of the three tankbots (the one that I bent into shape by hand instead of any other quality means), the old vision system (I replaced that nasty set of boards my advisor is holding with a webcam), and the one doing the hands on work is in the silhouette (me). Oh well, my advisor is the one shelling out his personal money to fund most of this, he deserves a lot of credit.

Here is a picture of the inside of the tank--basically a bunch of batteries, motors, motor controller and a tank body. All the wiring goes to the top layer to power the computers, lasers, webcam and other power sucking toys. This one was not bent into shape by hand, but just like the robot in the first picture, all of it was built from scratch.

Here is a picture of the entire tankbot. This picture is missing a computer and laser scanner, but has the webcam on top for lane-following and avoiding obstacles, GPS and other fun stuff. So that is what I've been doing for the past few months, getting this very expensive heap of metal and plastic to run around. Now I just have to make it do what I want when I want, not just on the lucky days when I don't shower or change my underwear. Just kidding. Someday soon I'll have some videos to post, but until then just use your imagination to think of a robot that will change your life, save the world, and make your wildest dreams come true!