SigArt

By Jonathan Galownia

Under the ominous shadow of SIGMil's deadly projectile launcher, Bandit gave it's first sign of life. SIGArt's arm has been almost completed mechanically, and mostly what remains is the software brain to keep it from flailing around wildly grabbing whatever object it happens to run into.

The melting shelving unit prototype was scrapped for a new model made of PVC tubes of varying diameter. This was the result of long hours of breaking dremel bits, ruining drill bits, and destroying and remaking pieces of the arm itself.

The arm has 3 active degrees of motion, (rotate, swing, and extend), and one degree of passive motion, which allows the wrist to maintain a horizontal position on the ground. A few sleepless days put forth by our fearless leader Misha Voloshin and some help from the rest of the group produced the relays which control the motion of the arm via parallel port to a computer. Sensors have been added so that Bandit doesn't try to dig a hole in the ground and so that it knows when it has grabbed something. The hand itself, a "masterpiece of metal work," by Rachel Ortiga, opens and closes via a bike caliper break cable.

Although mechanically sound for the most part, a few minor improvements are still scheduled before the final unveiling of Bandit. Software is well under way, with object recognition complete. Planning algorithms using kohonen maps and genetic algorithms are set to be completed quickly, and are headed up by Misha Voloshin. Soon, Bandit will begin to train on itself and learn its bounds. Until then, don't be surprised to see it flailing away in L510 seemingly clueless, grasping random objects in its path.