Another Book - The Everything Machine

Finished up another book. "The Everything Machine" is a quick look at the current state of the art of robotics. It's a discussion of where robots are and where they are going.

Buy it on Amazon

Jerry Project: Update

Here are some pictures of a couple final prototype designs for Jerry, a low cost, vision-based, personal robot. I also added the first official teaser video. The real prototype will be soon to follow.

The Jerry personal robot with all actuated components opened and extended

The Jerry personal robot with arm retracted and an added screen for improved telepresence functionality.

Incurve Spherical Robot

For my senior design project I was the chief designer of the internal mechanisms of a spherical robot. Both actuated degrees of freedom have a full range of motion unlike any other spherical robot built. Additionally the team was able to design an original non-holonomic controller for the omni-directional system we were pursuing.

The photos below show the design progression that the system took. All the CAD seen is my own original work (Except for the shell in the final image). I apologize some concepts were abandoned before they could be completed.

Original Concept and Outline

Full Aluminum Truss-Like Structure

Hybrid Wood-Aluminum with Linear Actuator

Hybrid Material with Offset Planes of Rotation

Final Design Designed for Controller Simplification

Final Design of the Incurve Spherical Robot

Jerry

This is a project that I have been working on for some time. Jerry is my foray into personal robotics. He will begin as a telepresence robot and then develop into an AI robot home assistant. A quick conceptual design is shown in the rendering below.

jotted - a place to send my stories

I have been writing short stories and pieces of books for sometime. I decided I should put some, or even all of them out into the world.

"jotted" is the place where I will post sections of books and parts of stories. I hope that people will enjoy them or help me improve them.

And who knows, maybe after awhile I'll just compile jotted into a book like I did "The Space Economy."

Illusion Tee-Shirt - Because I Can

I was taking a cognitive psychology class. In class we were running through all kinds of illusions. I wondered if there were any shirts out there with good illusions on them, I mean they would be great conversations starters, right. I couldn't find a tee-shirt with an illusion. So I thought I would make a few.

I discovered TeeSpring, which is awesome because it is a new platform and was fun to just try out. I chose the Rabbit-Duck illusion for the first tee-shirt, because it was quick and already set for black and white.

This was a project that literally took less than an hour to do. There is now a Rabbit-Duck illusion t-shirt in the world.

Prose Aloud - Website for audio poetry

Prose Aloud is a new project I've started to create audio versions of famous poetry. This came about when I realized that there are few to no good recordings of poetry. Also I needed to expand my cultural awareness into that area for a little while.

Below is the first compilation of poems that I read.

Just Playing

"Just Playing" is a YouTube channel I started to present videos of my original piano songs. I basically improvise for a few minutes on the piano while I'm practicing.

There is a lot of piano stuff on YouTube, but I might as well maximize the value of my time playing the piano by publishing some of what I do.

WhiteCapStudios

WhiteCapStudios is a new podcast channel that I started on SoundCloud to try comedy and music publishing. I have some short stand-up comedy routines as well as original piano songs.

See WhiteCapStudios

The Space Economy Book

I finally collected all of the essays I wrote, along with Dan Hermes, into a book. "The Space Economy" is on Kindle and will be available in print. It is my little contribution to the industry until I start building hardware for it.

The Space Economy on Amazon

My Tedx Talk

I was recently invited to give a Tedx Talk at my university. I ended up giving almost two talks in one. The first has part of the talk deals with how problem solving by humans is obsolete and inefficient. The second part deals with how if humans are not meant to be solely problem solvers what good are we and what is our secret sauce that will allow us to remain relevant?

SlantWatch

Another conceptual design. How I would make a smartwatch.

Smartwatches do not need to have large displays. In fact, the less obtrusive they are the better. So the SlantWatch has a thin profile.

Straps on smartwatches are also a waste of space. For something so dependent on battery more space needs to be made for the battery. So the Slant watch would house that battery in one half of the rigid cuff. The other half would hold excess electronics.

The entire piece is semi-solid. The flexible points would be near the top of the cuffs before the screen. This allows the watch to take some extra abuse while being put on.

The watch uses a flexible OLED display, with a solid glass capacitive touch screen. Though E-paper would also be an option.

The interface would be like a wheel on the wrist. As you scroll through apps you would eventually circle back around to the beginning. In order to change categories or menus one would side-swipe, basically "changing the wheel."

In a future version it would be great if the display could go all the way around the cuff, making it effectively seamless, no mater what angle your wrist is at.

Wrist Multitool

Over spring break from school I decided to build a multitool that I could wear in a shop were it would always be quick and easy to grab and use for just about anything.

The Wrist Tool is an early version. I have adapters on it for screwdrivers and socket wrenches. The top also has an english hex set cut in it. And what tool would be complete without a bottle opener.

The entire thing is 3-D printed. In the future I'll add holders for the screwdriver set on the inside of the tool.

Useful Robots

I recently started a blog called 'Useful Robots.' In it I outline robots that can be purchased and used by anyone who wants one.

The reason I made 'Useful Robots" was because there was really no place online that gives the average consumer or businessman an insight into what automation solutions are available to them. So I give profiles, not on research or the next big thing, but on the robotic mowers, or factory assistants, or vacuums that are ready to use right out of the box. It isn't cluttered with what a nerd would love, just with what an average person needs to know to buy.

Tour PNADDER

Tour PNADDER (Path Navigating Autonomous Differentially-Driven Escort Robot) is a project that I was a part of, as half of my senior project. The name is pronounced 'tor-nader.'

Tour PNADDER is meant to be a robotic tour guide for the Embry-Riddle campus. Guests will eventually be able to select a destination and the robot will lead them there.

Since, I came in at the half-way point of this project,  I did not have input on the initial designs, mechanical or otherwise (i.e. the name). My job, therefore, has been to design and develop the vision system that the robot is to rely on to navigate.

The vision system consists of a single Logitech webcam plugged into a Linux computer. I have to develop code, using Python and Open CV, that will let the robot know where it is with respect to the edge of any sidewalk on campus. I have never done anything with vision systems prior to this project.

The white lines display what the program believes 

to be the edge of the sidewalk.

The green line is a set-point to be used for localization

Performed on an indoor calibration grid I made.

So far, I have been able to implement a draft program that is able to run several filters on the video (Canny, Hough ...) to determine exactly how far the robot is from the edge of the sidewalk. This info will then be fed into a trajectory generator that will tell the robot where it needs to go.

I am still working to finalize the code. It runs a little slowly and has my error checking still in it. I'll post it when I'm finished.

SlantBook and Phone

What would a cellphone and a laptop made by Slant look like? I decided to design and phone and a laptop the way that I want those devices to be. The result are digital mock-ups of the SlantPhone and SlantBook.

The SlantPhone

Who says the flip-phone is dead. Use it as a normal phone or watch videos without crouching over the display (and what video is rectangular anyway, a square display still give you all the size you need). Also scroll and control one display with the other.

Set the SlantPhone up sideways to show feeds while your at your desk

The cylinder hinge adds battery, cooling, and ergonomic capabilities to the SlantPhone that a typical smartphone doesn't.

You don't need a case anymore because the phone can take care of itself.

To really use it as a table piece let it support itself.

I will be 3-D printing this model of the SlantPhone just to see what it would be like in the real world.

The SlantPhone would also be separable. So that you could take a call with one half and browse with the other as if it were two devices. Each display is 3x2.5 inches.

The SlantBook

Basically, a larger version of the SlantPhone. The SlantBook would not have a keyboard. Just two touch displays which allows for a completely dynamic user interface. After all a laptop is limited by its keyboard and mouse, a tablet loses half of its display to a keyboard, and a tablet with a keyboard is just an under-powered laptop. The SlantBook has none of the problems of those devices.

Rugged Prosthetic Arm Concept

I have wanted to build a heavy duty prosthetic for awhile. So I decided to get a basic concept design in CAD.

In the Slant Rugged Prosthetic 0.8, the elbow is supported by a bike spring. I downloaded the spring part, because of that the spring is a quite a bit larger than I would use in practice.

All the pieces of the arm are machined aluminum plates. This drastically reduces production costs of the prosthetic.

This arm is intended to be used by amputees with an active lifestyle. Its won't break and certainly won't short circuit. It could be used on snowmobiles, bikes, or water skis to give the amputee greater control and balance on the vehicle. It also allows for the user to perform heavier duty lifting, such as moving 2x4's, something no other prosthetic could withstand.

The passive design is a limitation since the arm is stuck in a particular static position, until the user basically leans into it. This is fine on an ATV, but not when moving boards around. (Check out my exoskeleton to see this problem in action)

Fortunately the design can easily be changed from using a spring to using a linear actuator. A slight adjustment in the fastening locations on the arm and a person would have a super strong arm, which would only require a very basic controller to operate.

But most of all this arm would be cheap. Maximum manufacturing cost would be around 200-400 dollars.

The next step will be to layout the manipulator and its attachment.

ERAU Housing Internal Site

This was a basic functional website that I had intended for the ERAU Department of Housing and Residence Life to utilize for internal communication and collaboration. I created multiple tools and portals that were meant to make the Resident Assistant job easier.

I was an RA when I built this site. The department didn't want to run with it. So it was a failed project, but still a useful one. If you would like to take a look go ahead and visit it. The password it "hi'

Note: ERAU is not affiliated with the creation of the site in any way. I edited some of the website's functionality to protect department information.

Personal Submarine

This is a project that I found from a few years ago that I thought would be cool to share.

It is a design for a faceted personal submarine. It would have what are essentially trolling motors on the end of each fin. The two from fins can be angled by the pilot to turn and even submerge the sub because of the V-like design.

While not shown in this first Google Sketch-up Design the sides of the sub would have ballast tanks that would make it neutrally buoyant so the motors could take over.

The windows would be supported by steel bars so that the large panes don't have to support the water pressure entirely.

The faceted design was to make sure that the sub would be cheap to manufacture. You could just weld the panels over the internal frame. No molding.

This project could be changed to a pull behind sub, where it it is towed by a boat and the fins force it under the water. But then it would need to be a little sleeker. And the front fins need to be moved forward no matter what. So sue me I designed it in an hour.

Jotters

Who says the notebook is dead? Jotters is a project I started to keep one of my favorite mediums going.

Notebooks haven't changed for decades, and they suck! The paper is thin, the binding is flimsy and constantly deranged, and they really don't capture the imagination.

I made Jotters to be the perfect notebooks for students. They have hardcovers, specially designed interiors for a variety of purposes (i.e. note-taking, drawing) and have QR links to Jotlink a web directory of many of the web's best student resource sites. (Though Jotlink is still in development)

Purchase a Jotter