If anybody has old Byte Magazine February and March 1979,
please share the “Designing a Robot From Nature” articles.
My name is Andrew Filo, and I was an Androbody. I was at Androbot for
the last 6 months, but threw myself into the work. One of my life's
passions is robotics. I was hired by Richard Foote as a result of an
article called "Designing a Robot From Nature" published in BYTE Magazine
in 2 parts n Feb/Mar of '79. I came in as the "Sensors " guy and later
became VP of engineering. My background was in electronics/medicine and
aerospace and my goal was to make Nolan's Androbot Vision a reality. As
part of Nolan's management style I was a Skunk works within Androbot.
First of all the BLB/XA was made over a 4 month period! So everything was prototypical. Second, I was hired to designed the sensors and high level algorithms to make the XA a reality, because the BOB in the Topo body was faked at CES with and RC.
My project was the Baseline Line Bob BLB (or later the known as the XA,
eXpandable Androbot). The goal was to make a baseline robot that could
receive user commands and interpret them, navigate from point A to point
B unassisted, and achieve automatic acquisition and docking with special objects in its environment as a result of the input commands and the
environment it was in. This would be done by making a clone of the the
IBM PC and clone industrial automation cards, combine them with multiple
layers of sensors and mechanisms.
The First phase was the Andro Base, designed as a stable, differential
platform to support the body and lifted objects. Next was the Andro Lift
which was a passive compliant "forklift", Andro Table, and a modulated IR
unit. The IR unit was a range finder and code reader that served a
multi role. The IR could detect wall and most objects (2-3 feet) to
avoid them. The IR could also detect Andro Tables (10-15 feet) and for
precise vectoring for navigation and docking with them. The IR could
also read the tables to their purpose or content. The tables could be
used to transport items such as drinks (beer fetch bob), hot air popcorn,
or even serve as recharge points or data transfer stations.
Next a sensor suite was composed of Bump Switches, Flux Gate Compass for
orientation and navigation, Wheel Encoders, Side IR for wall hugging.
Body plastics including the signature head was also part of the plan.
THE BOB XA, 2 PIECE BODY TOPO AND THE TOPO 2V (VISION) WERE MY PROJECTS
KODAK WAS THE BIGGEST CUSTOMER FOR THE BOB XA WHERE IT WAS USED AS A DARKROOM ROBOT!, BOB COULD DO POINT A TO POINT B NAVIGATION, FIND AND DOCK WITH TABLES , AUTO RECHARGE, LINE FOLLOW READ BAR CODES. THE TYPICAL DEMO WAS TO HAVE BOB FIND THE ACE CARD ON 1 OF 3 TABLES LIKE A SHELL GAME. THE CARDS WERE FACED TO THE AUDIANCE, BOB WOULD SCAN EACH TABLE, AND READ THE CODE ON THE BACK OF THE CARDS. THET HAD A LARGE BARCODE ON THEM. BOB WOULD PICK THE ACE EVERY TIME! THE ANDRO LIFT WAS VERY COOL, IT COULD DETECT A TABLE AT 15 FEET, PERCISION DOCK WITH IT AT 3 FEET, AND ID THE ANDRO TABLE THE KEYPAD WAS THE SIMPLEST HUMAN INTERFACE, SINCE VOICE INPUT WAS POOR AT THE TIME.????
While this was happening the company was unwinding. I pushed Nolan to
make a "toy" grade version of and Androbot, but it was too late.
I returned to Androbot from Christmas Vacation to find I was Fired but
told to report to Nolan's Catalyst Building, where He told me to try to
develop a toy androbot. I quickly crafted a robot based on the FRED
plastics and started on a software package called the personality editor.
It cost about 1/10th the price of a FRED and was intended to be a
roaming and interactive computer "pet"as opposed to the original drawing
turtle. Nolan Christened it Andy Robot to honor me and spite the
Androbot. Under the Alxon Banner (a defunct pocket terminal company Nolan
Had) we sold 2300 Andys and ran out of plastics in 2 months. Desperate
for plastics, we turned to a large tupperware bowl, inverted it and
covered it with plush fur and deely boppers and renamed it a Petster.
The 3 square holes on the motor box are for line followers, left, right and center. This was to be for a " invisible line" that could be painted on the floor. The Bob used the same Brevel gear head motors as the Topos did. Behind the motor box is the battery box that holds 4 X 6volt sealed lead acid batteries. The round holes on the battery box are to push up the batteries with your fingers. The batteries are held in place/ cushioned with white Ethafoam. There is (was) a plate that covers the base assembly. There were holes to pass wires from the base unit to the card cage and sensors bays. The yellow stickers were to ID the serial # as there were no data plates made, they were on every sub assembly, base, card cage, cpu box, sensors, etc., you just did not see them all. The head on that unit was bustacated which is why it was off. All black surfaces were anodized matte black The IR sensor was a custom part. The curb feelers were made by taking a 1/8" metal male audio plug and adding a piece of music wire with acrylic ball on the end. When the wire deflected it would short to the side of the plug's body closing the circuit.
