Supertronic BoeBot Robot

The world's first Supertronic exoskeleton built without board stacking. Boards live on the
outside shell for ease of wiring and processor access. These are the guts of the new
Supertronic BoeBot created by Humanoido. Boards are connected in three dimensions
with four sides using Parallax Propeller chip development boards and solderless
breadboards. Image by Humanoido in 2010.

Supertronic BoeBot Robot
with 20,640 Brains
Since the creation of the Smartest BoeBot robot machine, the Big Brain Propeller project has reached a level of semi cognizance and heralded in the new invention of the SuperTronic machine. The Propeller SuperTronic technique allows the creation of faster machines with more processors and fewer chips.

Designed and built by Humanoido

Therefore, the results of these studies and experiments can now be applied to a new "Smartest BoeBot" with more capability. Also, since the time of the original "Smartest BoeBot," new inventive software was created for parallel Propeller machines, and this can also add features to a new Smartest Boebot. The SuperTronic BoeBot has fewer chips but more processors, and has different intelligence compared to the previous Smartest BoeBot.

The preliminary design is a bigger newer smarter Smartest Boebot in the works using a new concept that does not use stacking. Twenty boards are arranged according to an exoskeleton and placed on top of the new Boebot robot platform along with a BS2 board for various compatibilities. Exoskeleton boards face the outside where wiring is easily reached. This arrangement is great for creating various wiring and rewiring for changing experiments. Advantages here are easy access to the wiring on the outside and all the extra space is usable on the inside of the hollow exo. Now for some numbers, which are all relative of course. The plateau reached is a completely new 54,400 MIPS design for the exo with 21 boards, which allows it to hold a standard cache of 20 Propeller chips, 160 cogs, and approximately 20,640 total processors using techniques of the Big Brain SuperTronic Era (not counting any BASIC Stamps used in the BoeBot design).

SuperTronic BoeBot Specifications
20 x 0001 = 20 Parallax 32-Bit 8-Core Propeller chips
20 x 2720 = 54,400 MIPS Relative Speed
20 x 1032 = 20,640 Total Computer Processors
20 x 1000 = 20,000 VIP processors, Threaded+Deterministic Parallel
20 x 0016 = 320 Counter Processors
20 x 0008 = 160 Cogs (RISC Processors)
20 x 0008 = 160 Generator Processors
20 x 0032 = 640 Ports
20 x 064K = 1,280K RAM/ROM

Specifications
Platform: Parallax BoeBot Robot
Interface: Parallel Processing
Projected Software: Loader, Learner, Roamer, Seeker, Avoider, Talker
Software - SPIN, PBASIC
Functions: Explores randomly, seeks light, avoids light, talks, learns, remembers, total recall

About the Exo
The Exo can have four sides, but usually a slot or two is open on one side to reach into the center for mounting of other components and expansions. Boards connect with simple nuts, bolts and angle iron. Use nylon bolts, nuts, and phenolic washers to reduce weight. Finished wiring can have a Seran type plastic wrap to ensure wires do not disconnect or dislodge. The Exo is not heavier or lighter than a Stack. The Exo advantages of easy access are great and it opens up center line space for upgrades and peripherals. At the base of this space, more batteries could ensure the elimination of the tether and make the new Smartest BoeBot more autonomous.

Links
www.parallax.com
http://www.parallax.com
SuperTronic Brain
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2012/09/supertronic-brain.html
SuperTronic Brain Era
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2012/09/supertronic-brain-era.html
Era
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2012/01/big-brain-era.html
Smartest BoeBot
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/smartest-boebot-robot.html
https://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/2010/07/smartest-boebot.html
Parallax BoeBot Robot
http://www.parallax.com/Store/Robots/AllRobots/tabid/128/CategoryID/3/List/0/SortField/0/Level/a/ProductID/296/Default.aspx
Robotics with the Boe-Bot Text v3.0 (.pdf)
http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/docs/books/edu/Roboticsv3_0.pdf
BOE USB Schematic (.pdf)
http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/docs/prod/robo/BOEUSBSchem.PDF

Big Brain AI Robot

Big Brain AI Robot
Big Brain is Like a Massive Growing Controlling Alien Robot

Designed & built by humanoido

Eight motors and eight power packs were integrated into the Big Brain arsenal of new flight worthy aircraft.

Since early on, the Big Brain commanded its own red security arm, airport and landing strip, remote helicopters, specially designed drones and a fleet of rockets. For more information and blogs dedicated to these Big Brain expansions, the massive new Big Brain web presence is found at: https://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/. Big Brain is an AI life form invented by its Father, Humanoido - a construction project that began in 2002 in the USA. This project is now almost 20 years in the running, and is one of the longest lasting advanced initiatives by Humanoido. With nearly 20 years of continuous development and expansions, the Big Brain has become a vast intelligence creature who is consuming (assimilating) countless other powerful AI machines. Some of the latest devices grabbed up by the Big Brain include the new Bionic chips by Apple, new iphones for communications and Cloud opportunities, and TESLA AI boards and processors - a powerful vision of AI intelligence that can see worldwide by TESLA and Elon Musk.

Vision Robot

Vision Robot
This robot sole purpose is to use its robotically controlled vision

Designed and built by Humanoido

The Big Brain Vision Robot is designed with a Parallax Propeller chip utilizing eight cores. A servo motor moves ultrasonic eyes (using a PING detector) to get an image of the surroundings. Running from a 9-volt battery, the robot acts as a motion detection sentry and can determine the distance to an object that moves. The robot includes a regulated power supply, green LED status lights, a pushbutton switch, and expanded EPROM.

Robot Commando

Robot Commando

Vintage 1960s Robot Owned by Humanoido

Humanoido owned a rare vintage retro robot around 1963 similar to Robot Commando.

The difference was, your hand fit into the back where it controlled levers to move the robot arms so it could pick up things. It was a toy robot that appeared about the same time as the Johnny Reb Cannon by Remco in 1963.

Robot Airport

Robot Airport
Big Brain robot airport for remote flights of aircraft

Designed & Built by Humanoido

BIG BRAIN CAN REMOTELY FLY THIS HELICOPTER
Simple controls establish vertical take off and landing by interfacing into the stock wireless controller. The airport sets atop the Big Brain (Left Brain) on the EXO. Simple servos offer control in four joystick directions. It is recommended to calibrate Trim before flying by remote to reduce or eliminate any spin rotation. In the video, the yellow helicopter revs up and lifts off, reaches its vertical height, and receives the command to lower back down to the Heli-Pad for a safe landing. This experiment proves that simple autonomous robotic control of flying a helicopter is possible using a budget under US$30.

Links
https://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/2012/07/big-brain-heli-flight.html

Smartest Boebot Robot

Smartest Boebot Robot
Mobile robot with 321 Brains

Designed & Built by Humanoido

Boebot is an excellent robot platform for doing experiments. In this power-tethered experiment, the intelligence of BoeBot is massively increased.

Specifications
Processor Chips - 40
Chip Types - BASIC Stamp 2, Propeller
Processor Brains - 321
Structure - Board Stack
Original Platform - Parallax BoeBot
Board Types - Parallax Propeller Proto Boards, Basic Stamp Board of Education
Boards - 20 boards @ 2 Props Each, 1 board with 1 Basic Stamp
Ports - 1,280
Speed - 6,400 MIPS
Power Supply - On Board and Tethered
Software - Motion Stabilization, move, slow, start, stop, ramp
Language - PBASIC, SPIN
Settings - Clock Mode

Forty prop chips, providing 320 tiny RISC computers, are added to BoeBot along with the BASIC Stamp Board of Education using twenty Propeller Proto Boards in a high rising skyscraper stack. Available ports now exceed 1,280 and computational speed tops out above a blazing 6,400 MIPS. The balance point is shifted slightly towards the front of BoeBot to increase stability during motion. Motions are typically slowed to stabilize the platform during travel as Smartest BoeBot carries around his big new brain.

Movement
It moves along just fine. If you have seen the space shuttle being moved with a special transport to the gantry, it sort of resembles the Smartest BoeBot. It looks top heavy, as does the Space Shuttle, however it's well balanced, and it moves along slow and perfectly fine on a smooth level surface. From what I can see, the servos work just fine at the slower speed (move slow, start slow, stop slow, and use ramping). A bonus is the added traction to the rubber wheels. I use the standard battery pack and for extended life, use the optional add on battery. For the brain, of course a tether must be used to supply power from an external source. Here the power depends on the clock mode selected.

Details
The project robot has 321 processors in parallel and 1,296 controller ports. There's two Props per board and 20 boards. Boards are PPPBs, Parallax Propeller Proto Boards. The bottom board is the motion control board BOE which uses a BS2 and PBASIC language. The boards above have Propeller processors with SPIN programming.

Arising AI Machine Intelligence
AI self awareness and machine intelligence is a topic that comes up frequently in 2010 as you can see we are constantly moving closer to achieving full machine self awareness. It's not that far away. But it does appear that the machine brain will think differently than the human brain to achieve the same goals. I think great minds can appreciate the self aware concept and welcome it. We are still approaching the full utilization of parallel computing techniques with multi processor chips and multi chip boards, though progress is being made even at the hobby level.

Titan Moon Explorer Robot

Way back in 2013, Humanoido used his M3T Molecular Mining power telescope to capture this
image of Moon titan seen passing in front of planet Saturn

Titan Moon Robot
designed and built by Humanoido
https://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/2013/09/robot-explorer-index.html

Titan Moon Robot Explorer was built inside Humanoido Laboratory and completed by January 2014. As seen (far above), captured with Humanoido's M3T Molecular Mining Telescope, the Moon Titan passes in front of planet Saturn's globe. Directly above, construction of the Titan Moon Explorer Robot is underway. Refer to the link for the index of numerous blogs about this robot.

The Titan Moon Explorer Robot is a mobile autonomous intelligent machine with 24 processing cores and driven by motors, sensors, batteries and a recharging wind generator. It uses infrared ground detectors, a PIR, ultrasonic vision, and a CCD camera to navigate this hydrocarbon based moon. 

The first image returned from the wireless experimental
system during construction and testing

The robot explorer transmits wireless images of Titan's surface using a high resolution color camera. The images and video is stored on a card for retrieval at activation. The robot contains a weather station for determining the temperature and keeping heating elements on at the proper time so the system does not freeze solid. Recharging eight batteries is accomplished with a small portable wind generator to catch Titan's wind and breezes. The brain has two Parallax Propeller processors with a third upgrading more systems, with a total of twenty-four  hardware cores to handle multiple simultaneous functions. Special programming increases the chip power and the number of cores to three-hundred and twenty four. The bot has 2 motors and one front wheel, with autonomous exploration software.

SETUP
The current setup is a desktop proof of concept using frequencies centered around 1.2 GHz on four channels, and additional channels in the UHF, VHF range for long range wireless operations.

EXPERIMENTS
Experiments conducted include the camera eye on a robot that feeds images into a micro-miniature 1.2 GHz transmitter. The camera eye and transmitter remain on board the robot and wireless send images to the base station on one channel. This channel includes video and audio bands.

CONVERSION
The base station at Mission Control has a 1.2 GHz receiver that converts the signal to standard NTSC composite 1V p-p (AV) and feeds it into the TV. The TV has audio/video AV input.

MORE CHANNELS
A second Parallax Propeller chip, known as the sensor chip, transmits data telemetry on the VHF band USA channel 3. This is received directly by Mission Control's multi-band analog TV. Data transmitted includes information from sensors and various parameters including the condition of the robot and its decisions.

RECORDING TELEMETRY
The  TV monitor also has video out which can feed into a VCR or other digital recording device for a record of the mission's proceedings.

The robot must have a coat of insulation to keep the heater's warmth inside. The coat will cover the conductive and heat distributive aluminum chassis. Testing in a conventional food freezer is a good idea. The sensors can be operated at their lower temperature ratings below the freezing point to simulate operation inside the insulated container. More elaborate tests may involve chambers of dry ice at -109 degrees or a vessel of liquid nitrogen at -320 to -346 deg. F. No one knows the speed or particulate matter content of the air on the surface. Roughly speaking, the robot could function on the current conventional batteries a day with no wind or a much longer time with wind. Either way, it will work and gather science. Electronic components are designed to function because the insulated probe, covered with insulation and heated with a heater, will not reach -289 deg. F. Components will undoubtedly run at their lower limits so the probe will not be heated to room temperatures. Cold environments are actually beneficial for the processor, making it more efficient with less power and less noise. There's enough gravity on this moon to cause rain to fall from the sky. The rain is double the size of Earth rain droplets and falls much slower, more like Earth snowflakes. There's frozen hydrocarbon sand so it does fall to the ground. The windmill should not contaminate quickly but if it did, it would shorten the life of the probe. It's more likely the particles are so tiny and hard frozen, they won't affect performance. If the wind is too slow, it will be a problem for the windmill to recharge several battery packs. However, the air is over twice as thick as the Earth's air, so it's likely it will have good wind for driving the rotor. Observations of changing clouds indicate the presence of wind too. For periods of no wind, the probe can rest and sleep and wake up periodically to look and see if the batteries have recharged.

Mr. Machine Retro Robot

Mr. Machine Retro Robot

Vintage 1960s Robot
Owned by Humanoido

From Wikipedia: Mr. Machine is a once popular children's mechanical toy originally manufactured by the Ideal Toy Company in 1960. Mr. Machine was a robot-like mechanical man wearing a top hat.

The body had a giant windup key at the back. When the toy was wound up it would "walk", swinging its arms and repeatedly ringing a bell mounted on its front; and after every few steps emit a mechanical "Ah!", as if it were speaking.

The toy stood about 18 inches tall (roughly 46 cm). The gimmick of Mr. Machine was that one could not only see all of his mechanical "innards" through his clear plastic body, but one could also take the toy apart and put it back together, over and over, like a Lego toy or a jigsaw puzzle.

Humanoido received a Mr. Machine at Christmas time when it first appeared in 1960. The walking see through robot had many gears and once disassembled it was very challenging to reassemble the gears based on the drawings. Many people took apart their Mr. Machine and were unable to assemble it. Parents had no clue and in one case, the parts were taken to a rocket scientist who was unable to reassemble it. Generally the only robots surviving were those never taken apart.

TV Commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgIm1mJCyRU

Robert the Robot

Robert the Robot

Owned by Humanoido 1954

Robert the Robot was the most popular robot in the 1950s. Black and white TV advertising and ads in the Sears and Speigel catalogs introduced it across the USA.

Robert had many functions and was motion controllable with a hand paddle connected to the robot by a steel cable. It was modeled after robots on science fiction movies. The original Robert from the 1950s and replicas made in the 2000s can be found at auctions today.

The cable drive control box allowed him to move forward by turning a handle and to steer by squeezing a trigger. Robert was a 16-inch red and silver robot figure first manufactured in 1954 by Ideal Toy Corporation of New York. Robert was inspired by the sci-fi classic Tobor The Great. Robert beat the wind-up robot competition by offering several cool features.

* Control movement through a plastic grip connected to its back with a wire
* Turn the crank on the controller to move forwards or backwards
* Squeezing the trigger made it turn left or right
* Open the bot’s chest panel and take out the set of handy tools
* Battery-controlled eyes that lit up
* Talk by turning a crank in
his back
* Speak one phrase

It became a very popular toy, thanks to good distribution and appearance in the Sears’ 1954 Wishbook followed by other catalogs and sources.

Today, collectors will pay anywhere from $200 and $1,200 for a classic Robert The Robot. If you want a cool robot to fulfil your childhood robot fantasy, then Robert The Robot is the mechanical marvel of choice.

Commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRFFMcD6KP8

Talk
I am Robert Robot mechanical man, drive me and steer me wherever you can, I am Robert Robot

Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcTMZRfyobU

Robert was the first robot owned by Humanoido in 1954 at age 2. The robot toy, along with other toy robots such as Big Loo, Mr. Machine, and Robot Commando set the path for advanced careers in electronics, robotics and space technology. Robert the Robot was a gift at the gray house that led to my interests for creating a library of Astronomy and Robot books, which led to the first laboratory. Robert was durable and at age 2, I completely disassembled it to learn how his voice operated. He was my first commercial humanoid robot.

Automatron Robot

Designed & Built by Humanoido

I designed and built AutomaTron, a model-bot to simulate a 25-ton industrial press robot and demonstrate multi-axis programmable motion control.

This “industrial automatic” member of the Zylatron family from December 2016 is a working model, capable of supporting the full gamut of machine parameters. Scaled ratio is 1 ton to 1 ounce, maintained with 3 unmodified 3.4 kg/cm 180 degree servos. In scaled terms, it can handle up to 42 tons. This R&D unit is lightweight, portable, and breadboarded to facilitate rapid changes, improvements, testing, and debugging as needed.

I built a tiny PLC to control X-Y-Z axes driven by hobby servos interfaced to a miniature SSC. Multiple axes can achieve singular or plural states. Expansion is provided for up to 8 axes. An autonomous Light Curtain (ALC) safety feature is made from infrared beam detectors wired to the MCU. Breaking the transmitter-receiver beam results in safety effects, which are hardware (and/or software) programmed to OSHA regulations. ALC options halt the zaxis RAM, return the RAM to a previous state, RAM home, or move to a new location.
Audio signals, programmed from one MCU modulated output port, feed to a piezoelectric element. In high decibel mode, the Decibel Generator Unit (DGU) feeds output through an optional LM386 analog amplifier wired at 200x. AutomaTron is powered by a surplus miniature analog power supply, wall power converter, or batteries.

I designed MMOS, a simple Micro Motion Operating System. It derives efficient higher ordered modular code snippets to accomplish motion control. MMOS commands talk to the servos, PLC, PUP, DGU, ALC, SSC, LCD, LED, EPROM, RAM, MCU, SCS, ABU, LDS, and DGU. The OS modular aspect includes comment featuring, which makes programming by a succession of authors feasible and easy. This section is embedded in MMOS as SDE - Self Documentation Engine. MMOS code can do repeat version burns to EEPROM. MMOS documentation is saved with uploading software to the host computer.
The PLC "head" was fabricated from a PIC-based 16 I/O 16C57 computer affectionately know as the "Electrical Cabinet." It includes a Grayhill 96 series black matrix keyboard, 4 x 5 matrix encoder, and low drain green LCD for display. The PLC commands a memory slave board with a series of operating screens, programmed on-the-fly or presaved.

PLC User Programs (PUP) can be generated through AutomaTrons keyboard using the User Program Interface (UPI), embedded in the MMOS and Modular PBASIC code drivers. Keyboard code can turn 16 hard keys into 80 total keys using special designed function modes. This is reminiscent of Clive Sinclair’s marvel of achievement TS-1000 keyboard. In effect, the PLC functions as an advanced mini-terminal.

Motion control is accomplished with degrees of pulse width modulation. Homing is programmed with 1.5 ms pulses sent every 20 ms on each axis. Forward and reverse motion is achieved along the closed loop servo Self Calibrating System (SCS) with subroutines. Features include constant, or varied acceleration, velocities in ± directions, and a self calibrating Automatic Backlash Unit (ABU).
RAM motion (up or down) is controlled with the x-axis. Backguage (forward or back) is managed with the y-axis. Backgauge height is controlled by a third dimension Z vector. Repeatability matches typical 25 ton presses. Limit switches are experimental; soft microswitches, Hall Effect devices, induction detectors, and optical vision recognizers.

Setting the gains is automatic. Self Tuning Servos (STS) were created by programming in Test Mode (TM). Debugging is by Stop Gap (SG) where lines of code, subroutines, or modules are executed individually. The code Line Display Subroutine (LDS) shows a line by line execution of the program.

Specifications
Name - Automatron
Sequence - Number 5 in the Tron series
Date - December 2016
Purpose - 25 ton industrial press robot
Simulate - Multi-axis programmable motion control
Built by - Humanoido
Processor - BASIC Stamp 2 OEM board (built from a kit)
Power - 4 AA, 2 D, 1 AC battery eliminator
Boards - Giant solderless breadboard, memory, ssc, 4x5 matrix encoder, processor LCD display
Motors - 3 servos
Language - PBASIC
OS - MMOS Micro Motion Operating System
Keyboard - Grayhill 96 series black matrix keyboard
Features - PLC, XYZ, ALC, MCU, RAM, DGU,  UPI, PLC, PUP, ALC, SSC, LCD, LED, EPROM, RAM, MCU, SCS, ABU, LDS, SDE, PWM,  VR KB, STS, TM, SG, LDS, CLD, repeatability, limit switches, singular or plural states, up to eight axes, OSHA compliant, Audio, Light Curtain, piezoelectric element, high decibel mode, optional LM386 analog amplifier wired at 200x

Tron Series Robots Built by Humanoido
1) Zylatron by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/zylatron-robot-by-humanoido.html
2) Son of Zylatron (SOZ) by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/son-of-zylatron-by-humanoido.html
3) Bugatron (Da Chong) by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/bugatron-bug-robot.html
4) Manatron
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/p/manatron.html
5) Automatron by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/automatron-robot.html

Chain Can Man Robot

Chain Can Man Robot

Designed & Built by Humanoido

Chain Can Man Robot was built by Humanoido at the USA in 1984 and is a new nostalgic version in the series of the original Can Man robots built by Humanoido in the 1950s.

It was designed to appeal to young kids and had working surplus electronics boards with sound effects and lights. It sported side chains connected to its can upper body torso. The head, body, arms and torso were constructed from old fashioned metal soup cans connected together with wire. It was battery operated and composed of mostly surplus mechanics and electronics found left over in Humanoido's lab. The circuit board and switches were mounted on the front chest where lights and sounds were programmed. The robot was given away in 1999. Unfortunately, there are no remaining photos of Chain Can Man, though it was a fine specimen of a robot that provided may hours of enjoyment.

Chain Can Man Specifications
Robot type - Humanoid
Electronics board - Sound effects generator
Body composition - Metal soup cans
Featured - Side chains
Front Mounted Electronics Board
Programmable - Sound effects & lights
Power - Battery
Upper body included head, arms, torso

Big Loo Retro Toy Robot

Big Loo Giant Moon Robot 
was a toy robot manufactured by Louis Marx and Company in the United States for the December 1963 Christmas holiday season. It retailed for $9.99 however today it's a collector's item commanding as much as $18,000.00. The toy, primarily made of injection molded hi-impact polystyrene parts, stood three-feet tall (37-inches), a foot wide, and nine inches deep. 

To operate the arm you hold the ring and bend LOO over, by pulling the ring, his hand opens up and you can pick-up items up to 1 1/4 inch thick. His mid-section has a round hole for squirting water that's loaded into a plastic squeeze bottle about one inch round and 1 1/2 inches long plus a nozzle. A trough on his left base is a rocket launcher that shoots a rocket (rubber tipped and 6 inches long) a great distance. A trough on the right base is for holding four red balls. On the base in the middle is a compass with fine accuracy and there are four plastic wheels in the base outer corners so LOO may move across the floor manually. His head rotates 360 degrees.

He is made of a very brittle plastic and this is one reason he is hard to find. We talked to an engineer that was on this project, and he felt the production was about 5000 total but he was not sure. On a 1-10 scarce scale with 10 being the most rare, LOO is about an ---EIGHT!!! The toy, complete, is very expensive. Replacement parts (SOME) are available BUT LOO is glued together and it takes a class A toy fixer to install them.

Specifications
* Sighting scope with cross hairs
* Two battery operated flashing red eyes with on/off switch
* Power from 2 size D batteries
* Wheeled base
* Compass on base
* Rocket launcher on base
* Base storage compartment for rockets and darts
* Chest has two dart launchers fired from the back
* Two rubber tipped darts
* Hand-cranked mechanical voice box that played ten messages
* Left arm fired four red balls from a spring in the left elbow
* Plastic red balls are 1-3/32" diameter
* Right arm grasping claw to pick up things
* Right arm has a metal ring in the shoulder and will
rotate 360 degrees
* One foot with a spring powered rocket
* Whistle
* Bell
* Morse code clicker with Morse Code chart
* Its navel squirts water
* Bends over at the waist
* Shipping weight 10 lbs.


Descriptions and posting from 2013 at the Big Brain site
https://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-first-humanoido-lab.html
Hear him speak
http://bigloorobot.com/2017/04/04/big-loo-phrases-hear-him-speak/

Spoken Phrases
1) I will stand guard for you
2) Take me for a walk
3) I am your friend
4) Big Loo fights for you
5) I can pick up things
6) I am yours to command
7) Where shall we go
8) My name is Big Loo
9) I will defend you
10) I work for you

Big Loo TV Commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhH0MW44d78

BIG LOO GIANT MOON ROBOT
by Humanoido
Big Loo was possibly the most amazing robot toy ever created. It's sheer size was fantastic and the number of functions it had was remarkable. It could roll along on wheels, bend at the torso to pick up things, it had a gripping hand, could shoot missiles, canon balls, had two dart launchers, a navigation compass, alarm whistle, Morse code keyer with Morse code language on the back, lighted eyes, a signaling bell, base storage compartment, a moveable arm that could throw a grenade, a centrally located squirt mechanism to shoot out water, and it could speak many different phrases. Big Loo saw so much action, the winding lever to control the speech wore out. Two slits were made in the performance of head surgery to repair the mechanism with silicone and restore the robot's voice. The voice mechanism used in Big Loo was almost the same as used in Robert the Robot.

Inside Big Loo's Head
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv4T-LApWLs
Sources
http://www.theoldrobots.com/BigLoo.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Loo

Mobile Brain Robot by Humanoido

Mobile Brain Robot

Designed & Built by Humanoido

As a result of the Big Brain project and its spinoff technology, the Mobile Brain Robot is born.

Originally from the Saturday, January 14, 2017 posting, the Mobile Brain, MBR was designed and prototyped with both the Parallax Propeller and BASIC Stamp. In the final analysis, the wheeled chassis from a BOEBOT robot gives mobility and the brain comes from a Brain in a Jar project using a single Propeller chip with 8 processor cores.

As an added feature to the Mobile Brain, a PING ultrasonic sensor adds the power of ultrasonic vision. Ultrasonics, much like bat or submarine SONAR can see out to distances of about 12-feet maximum and in total darkness. It's also well adapted to closer distances as well. In this case, rather than using a sing servo to move the PING sensor side to side for scanning scenery, the technique of vision scanning is to move the already established two wheels in countered directions for left and right motions. The main circuit is built on a solderless breadboard and attached to the BoeBot chassis. The purpose of Mobile Brain is to demonstrate the characteristics of a thinking brain that has the power of mobility and changing positions. The MBR is an interim test robot built before the Planet Saturn's Moon Titan Lander Explorer Robot. The robot experimented with massive Titan hydrocarbon traction wheels made from discarded peanut butter jars.

Specifications
Name - Mobile Brain Robot
Built by - Humanoido
Purpose - Mobility, Thinking, Experiments, Interim Testing,
                Autonomous Programming
Processors - Parallax Propeller Chip, BASIC Stamp 2
Chassis - Boebot
Sensor - Ultrasonc PING
Brain - 8 Core Brain in a Jar
Mobility - wheels
Power - 4 AA & 9 Volt Batteries
Prramming Languages - PBASIC & SPIN
Software - Vision Scanning, Travel, Obstacle Avoidance
Board - Solderless Breadboard

Mobile Brain Robot
https://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/2017/01/mobile-brain.html
Space Explorer Robot
https://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/2017/01/space-robot-explorer.html
Titan Lander Explorer Robot
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/09/robot-explorer-index.html
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/08/robot-explorer-log-1.html
Robot Explorer Index
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/2013/09/robot-explorer-index.html
Half Gallon Brain in a Jar
https://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/2013/10/quart-brain-in-jar.html
Extended Jar Brains
https://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/2013/11/extended-jar-brains.html
Jar'd Brain (Quart Brain)
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/quart-brain-in-jar.html 

Brain Family

https://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/2016/09/brain-family.html

Brain Cortex Conceptual Ideas

http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-conceptual-ideas-part-36.html

Son of Zylatron by Humanoido

Small Son of Zylatron is seen to the left of its Father,
Zylatron. SOZ weighs only a fraction of its father and yet
has all the same functions and more.

Son of Zylatron

Designed & Built by Humanoido

This is my next addition to a family of personal home robots! The Zylatron series of robots are precursors to the early humanoid robots. Son of Zylatron is seen at lower left, with Father Zylatron in the background.  After moving 3 times, I finally had time to convert my new dining room into a robotics & electronics lab.

With a "toolroom" in one corner, computers in another, and lots of parts, I began work on several new robot projects. With a robot dog for companionship, I burned the midnight candle, and little "SOZ" was born! Weighing in at a mere 2 lbs. 2 oz, he's dwarfed by the 28 pound father!!!

Son of Zylatron has 3 computers, and is partially built up from a BoeBot robotics parts kit. Several additional computer stages were added using standoffs to connect board levels, and networked using a circuit designed to act like a mini-token ring. Total robot cost, with all the "bells & whistles," is around $500. With several weekends of planning, construction, and programming, the greatest challenge was duplicating the functions of the previous robot and keeping all the parts tiny and the weight down so as not to overtax the two servos.
The primary level is a Basic Stamp 2 computer mounted on a BOE, Board of Education. The second level is a more powerful Basic Stamp 2SX computer with expansion cards on top, including a Parallax AppMod solderless breadboard and prototype board.

At top, a StampMem circuit board provides extra memory, and a Basic Stamp I OEM computer is wired to handle input/output and dedicated processes. An electronic voice can function on either the Basic Stamp 1 or 2, using a vintage voice synthesizer IC set (General Instruments SPO-256) bought on ebay. The electrical chip uses allophones, an advantage over specific phonemes, giving it capability to speak any language as programmed. This is the same voice chip used by Father Zylatron nearly 2 decades ago. It's interesting to note the Son's chip is driven by a slightly faster crystal, resulting in a higher pitched voice.
Motion control is provided by two 45 gram servos modified for continuous rotation. Infrared sensors give ranging information for navigation, and two whisker feelers are for tactile feedback. A serial LCD reports parameters, acting as a mini-display for diagnostics and communications. A MemKey interface, and micro matrix keyboard built using a Radio Shack printed circuit board and tiny keys obtained from Mouser Electronics are recent additions.

Another add on, for voice input commands, uses a dedicated Voice Direct Speech Recognition kit, purchased from All Electronics Corp., which can be trained to recognize words or phrases in any language. Robotic power is supplied to the computers and peripheral boards by Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeable 9-volt batteries obtained at Wal-Mart and Radio Shack. Servos, with 3.4kg-cm torque, are driven by four AA batteries on a separate circuit but with common grounds to avoid spiking to central processors. Programming for all 3 computers is in PBASIC language which contains a special microcontroller instruction subset. The BS2 and BS2SX computers are programmed by downloading instructions with an HP desktop computer using Windows 98 operating system and a serial cable. The BS1 is programmed using a Twinhead laptop with DOS and a parallel cable. Once the program is burned in, instructions remain in memory, even after power is removed, until the burn-in process is repeated. This new 2001 robot matches functionality of the previous 1984 robot, but at only a fraction of the original size, weight, and power requirements.

Data from the Original Web Site

Target Environment	Locomotion Method
Indoors	3 Wheels
Sensors / Input Devices	Actuators / Output Devices
IR sensors whiskers microphone matrix keyboard	modified R/C servos voice synthesizer LCD display
Control Method	Power Source
Autonomous	Battery
CPU Type	Operating System
BASIC Stamp	None
Programming Lanuage	Weight
BASIC	2 lbs. 2 oz
Time to build	Cost to build
several weekends	around $500
URL for more information
N/A
Comments (Text from the Web Site)
This is my next addition to a family of personal home robots! Son of Zylatron is seen at lower left, with Father Zylatron in the background. Son of Zylatron has 3 computers, and is partially built up from a BoeBot robotics parts kit. Several additional computer stages were added and networked using a circuit designed to act like a mini-token ring. The greatest challenge was duplicating the functions of the previous robot and keeping all the parts tiny and the weight down so as not to overtax the two servos. The primary level is a Basic Stamp 2 computer mounted on a BOE, Board of Education. The second level is a more powerful Basic Stamp 2SX computer with expansion cards on top, including a Parallax AppMod solderless breadboard and prototype board. At top, a StampMem circuit board provides extra memory, and a Basic Stamp I OEM computer is wired to handle I/O and dedicated processes. An electronic voice can function on either the Basic Stamp 1 or 2, using a vintage voice synthesizer IC set (General Instruments SPO-256). The chip uses allophones, an advantage over specific phonemes, giving it capability to speak any language as programmed. Motion control is provided by two 45 gram servos modified for continuous rotation. IR gives ranging information for navigation, and two whiskers provide tactile feedback. A serial LCD reports parameters. A MemKey interface, and micro matrix keyboard are recent additions.For voice input commands, there is a dedicated Voice Direct Speech Recognition kit, which can be trained to recognize words or phrases in any language. The BS2 and BS2SX computers are programmed by downloading instructions with an HP desktop computer using Windows 98 and a serial cable. The BS1 is programmed using a Twinhead laptop with DOS and a parallel cable.

Tron Series Robots Built by Humanoido
1) Zylatron by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/zylatron-robot-by-humanoido.html
2) Son of Zylatron (SOZ) by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/son-of-zylatron-by-humanoido.html
3) Bugatron (Da Chong) by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/bugatron-bug-robot.html
4) Manatron
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/p/manatron.html
5) Automatron by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/automatron-robot.html

Zylatron Robot by Humanoido

Zylatron Robot

Designed & Built by Humanoido

Zylatron robot was built in 1984 over a 3 month period and is my first full computer-controlled robot, named after the Z80 chip which drives it and the 1982 Disney movie Tron.

Constructed from new, surplus and spare parts, he is now the father of a generation of spin-off robots.

Zylatron specs from the original sales flyer in 1984 as typed with an Olivetti ET221, one of the first Electronic Typewriters using a machine font daisy wheel

Specs: Male. Autonomous. BASIC computer on board, speaks multiple languages with SPO256-AL2 speech allophone synthesizer, obeys commands with homebuilt speech recognition unit, sees in total darkness with ultrasonic vision, mobile,

has secondary analog-based eyes and ears. His electronic nose detects and counts air contamination. He has served to control a telescope observatory and operate CCD cameras. He has also served as the primary droid to control a Robotic Virtual Cyber Space Telescope. He talks to another robot using spoken English. Mobility and computer power are derived from a motorcycle battery. A 9-volt battery powers the speech recognition board. Accessories include a Sony 9-inch TV, RF modulator, experimenter's power source, battery charger, and tool kit. The back side contains a programmable power section with custom etched printed circuit board, power meter, and connectors for hardware programming. There are additional ports for talker experiments.

Zylatron described at a 1984 web page

The brain is a surplus TS-1000 microcomputer with added 8-port I/O board and expanded 16K RAM pack. The brain, memory, mic., speech
synthesis, and speech recognition (at rear) reside at the top most level on a tempered masonite platform. The ultrasonic eyes platform is mounted under the top level on threaded rods. The bottom level, made from plywood, contains the ambient light eye and motion control mechanics. Two large surplus DC-driven PM motors feed motion via belts and pulleys. The middle level has relays, a battery, and huge filtering capacitors. Tact sensors are located on front and back. Each motor has isolation circuits to limit power spikes and EMI. In first software demo mode, he navigates around the room announcing himself, "I am Zylatron." (Loaded programs are kept nonvolatile and changed using the membrane computer keyboard keys.) Additional applications include education, robotics experimentation, software programming in machine language (ML) and BASIC, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Programs written in AI allow personal conversations.
While at the IPRC, I was approached by people interested in utilizing Zylatron to dispense medication to the elderly. He earned a red ribbon at the World's 1st International Personal Robotics Conference in Albuquerque New Mexico, appeared on national television, and was published in a book (A Layman's Introduction to Robotics by Derek Kelly, Petrocelli Books, Princeton NJ, ISBN 0-89433-265-1).

Tron Series Robots Built by Humanoido
1) Zylatron by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/zylatron-robot-by-humanoido.html
2) Son of Zylatron (SOZ) by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/son-of-zylatron-by-humanoido.html
3) Bugatron (Da Chong) by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/bugatron-bug-robot.html
4) Manatron
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/p/manatron.html
5) Automatron by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/automatron-robot.html

Bugatron Bug Robot by Humanoido

Bugatron Robot (Da Chong)

by Humanoido

BUGaTRON is my '2002' addition to the ZYLATRON family of personal robots and the first to demonstrate walking motion control using an autonomous embedded microprocessor system. Constructed entirely of spare parts, this 4-legged walking machine is driven by a miniature computer and two servos. The bug has a talking speech synthesizer, two sound effects generators, proximity detector, LEDs, a tiny motion control system and a homebuilt breadboard for experiments.

The computer brain was hand assembled from a Parallax OEM Basic Stamp kit
and soldered onto a bare stock BS1 carrier board. The pcb was converted into
a solderless breadboard by adding twelve connector strip arrays. These act
as socket contacts for point-to-point wires. Using the solderless breadboard
technique, many robot circuit configurations are built and tested in a short
period of time.

Legs, made from wire coat hangers (formed to facilitate the best walking
gait), attach to servo horns using paper clips. Front legs span 8-inches
laterally, and angle to raise and tilt the bug body plane. Rear legs, with
7-inch span, help propel the bug forwards or backwards.

A "PRC toy mouse" was purchased at EconoFoods and the innards were salvaged to provide light, speech, sound, and proximity detection. Under $10, this was a goldmine of parts, including switch, speech board, speaker, sensors,
motor, wires, mounting form, pinion & gear train, screws, brackets, and left
over parts like small wheels and hardware.

The power supply bank consists of a 9-volt battery to drive the computer.
It's isolated from four AA batteries connected to servos. The primary AA
bank is switchable, while the 9-volt battery is connected with the
electrical clip. All batteries are rechargeable.

The bug face that holds the BS2 computer and miniature breadboard is made
from a metal box cover and salvaged Furby plastic face plate - the latter
acts as a mounting platform for a 3/4-inch speaker, detector, and transducer
feed-through point. It gives it a very effective buggy-looking face!

The head, thorax, and abdomen are made from surplus Radio Shack black
plastic project boxes. Using the same screws, the metal cover was moved over
to the box edge, extending the area. Boxes are joined together using metal
covers, which assist in angling the bug body, conducive to the correct
walking gait. One servo mounts in the rear box and one in the front box.

PBASIC code drives both servos in walking fashion. The peizo element is
programmed to signal walking cycle completion.  It helps calibrate walking
motion and is code retained as a juncture of bug communication.

Overall, BUGaTron is about a foot long and 3-inches wide. The robot can be
built in a few weekends for under $200 with all new parts including a
charger. Components and batteries weigh over a pound - at the limit of its
walking load-handling capabilities.

The electric bug has resulted in countless hours of exciting experimentation
and served as an educational platform. Built while living in the Republic of
China, I gave BUGaTRON a nickname of "da-Chong" (large bug). When "alive,"
it roams the room like a large black alien bug, making robotic sounds and
talking. The rest of the family includes Zylatron and Son of Zylatron (SOZ).

Tron Series Robots Built by Humanoido
1) Zylatron by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/zylatron-robot-by-humanoido.html
2) Son of Zylatron (SOZ) by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/son-of-zylatron-by-humanoido.html
3) Bugatron (Da Chong) by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/bugatron-bug-robot.html
4) Manatron
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/p/manatron.html
5) Automatron by Humanoido
https://humanoidslabs.blogspot.com/2020/03/automatron-robot.html