The date is: Fri Jan 29 11:10:06 MST 1999

1/29/99
This week we briefly discussed the pros and cons of 
different chassis design.  Tracked was goin to be
simple yet difficult.  We decided to canabalize parts
from an old RC and use a mechanical differential that would
enable us to drive both rear wheels while using only one 
motor for the task.  We also discussed an alternate base
of balsa wood (light, strong, and conducts no noise).  
Ultimately we decided on a modified Ackerman(sp?) setup
but would use all sets of wheels to turn.

Next Week we hopefully will be able to iron out the 
mechanical specifics of implementing the ackerman setup as 
well as maybe get our hands on some sensors and begin 
testing with those to see how we need to plan. We also will 
need to difinitivly(sp?) decide on who is going to what on 
the project.  Another than that, we'll see.


The date is: Fri Feb  5 14:28:46 MST 1999

This week we went a little further as far as chassis 
fabrication only to find out that we didn't know exactly 
what dimensions we wanted to use.  We decided on at least 
the width of the differential we have and a minimum length 
that is as long as the battery.  This is just a starting 
point and can be flushed out from there.  Greg came up with 
a program flow chart that would work but may need details 
added here and there.  This weekend some supplies will be 
picked up in Albuquerque that will be needed.

Next week we hope to have some sensors to play with, if they 
come in.  I have also considered the possibility of 
purchasing some alternative sensors on the group budget, but 
this is only and idea. Ultrasonic detectors are a bit 
expensive, but not outside the budget of $100.  We hope to 
have the chassis laid out next week and some preliminary 
work with the sensors and the control program. Back to the 
grindstone.


The date is: Fri Feb 12 13:24:05 MST 1999

This week we were unsuccesfull in attempting to get get the 
robot chassis dynamics working.  I.E. I was unable to get  
parts in ABQ and thus we have to wait till next week to 
begin that phase. The 2D12 sensors came in this week and we 
began preliminary tests on the wall sensors. We also placed 
and order for 4 more of the 2D12's for applications in wall 
sensing and similar functions.  The motor controller was 
also tested and a method of operation of the motor was 
determined.  Some of the others have come up with a 
preliminary diagram of program flow yet I have actually to 
see this.

Next week we hope to have whose duty is what firmly 
established(finally) and to begin testing of the robot 
chassis by remote control to test the feasibility of the 
modified Ackerman method.  Wall sensor testings will 
continue as well.  I hope to come up with an alternate fire 
extinguishing method. Perhaps compressed CO2 or something 
similar. Ideas will flourish from there.  Progress 
continues....


The date is: Fri Feb 26 13:25:39 MST 1999

This week while in explanation was uneventful, is still
somewhat packed.  Last weekend, using my father's milling 
machine, I fabricated new arpieces out of aluminum that 
would provide an actual "bolt on" arm instead of 
jurry-rigging some old parts with washers and such. Also, I 
obtained new pieces for the steering linkage as well.  While 
the task was succesful I was not happy with how they worked 
overall. So this weekend I plan on fabricating some new 
pieces as well as creating mounts for the servo. With all 
the slop taken out of the linkage I will focus on the wheels 
as they are the last place that has significant play.  I 
also researched getting electrically actuated valves.  The 
men at the machine shop helped me out by giving me data 
books and letting me look at a sample of what one of the 
valves looks like.  The name on the catalog escapes me at 
the moment but the other company that makes such devices is 
called minimatic (mini-pneumatics) and are located in 
Albuquerque. I will get ahold of them next week.  Early 
progress was slow, the group needs to pick up the pace.


The date is: Fri Mar  5 11:32:47 MST 1999

Dr. Wedeward,

I successfully recreated new arm pieces in which to mount 
the front wheel spindles.  However, this week had it's 
difficulties in implementing the steering of our ackerman 
setup.  At first there was too much play in the linkage that 
allowed the servo to turn without actually making much 
impact as to the angle of the wheels.  Greater stability was 
achieved through  tighter allthread and some new hardware on 
which to mount the steering pivots.  The last task in the 
front wheels is to add some bearings take out the remaining 
slop.  Once this is done it should be a pretty tight system.   
As far as steering goes.  The rear section implementation is 
up for next week's project.  

I was unable to get ahold of minimatics this week to 
procure some valves for the CO2 fire suppression system.  I 
believe I am going to switch to my backup plan of a simple 
fan and then if I can get ahold of some stuff to implement 
the CO2 then I may give that a try.  Progress continues...


The date is: Wed Mar 17 18:02:32 MST 1999

This report is for the last week before spring break.  Sorry 
it's late but i guess better late than never. In complete 
truth, I accomplished very little this week.  Being the 
knuckle head that I am I forgot to purchase sensors in ABQ 
one weekend and had to go back on Tuesday afternoon so my 
productivity there was pretty much shot.  I did however 
begin inital tests of the fire-putter-outer system.  We got 
a fan from radio shack and decided that it would not meet 
our needs.  We instead opted for a different mottor with a 
seperate fan.  Tests continue with that.  I am going to 
explore an optional method of putting the flame out, I just 
need to check the rules on something.  Progress gains 
momentum.  Sorry for the lateness of this report.


The date is: Fri Apr  9 13:27:22 MDT 1999

Well, since one set of reports got wiped out and I forgot to 
do last week's report I'm going to try to do a grand 
summation of what I've done for a while. 

Finally got the mechanics of te rear steering worked out and 
it works quite well.  I fabricated a second layer out of 
aluminum and modified the chassis to accomodate stays that 
would hold up the next level.  Then even more levels were 
added using simple perfboard. These will be used to keep the 
robot from being top heavy.  We finally got a fire 
suppression system working.  A really _POWERFUL_ fan.  It 
could knock the flame out from the end of the room if we had 
to.  

With the chassis being pretty much complete I moved on to 
learning how to use PC Boards to do wire-traces for the 
sensor boards.  While this is easy to say, I've spent the 
last couple of lab sessions gleaning tips from others and 
generally teaching how to use it and PSpice myself.

Other than that progress continues more rapidly now.

-Sorry, I accidentally sent a message under the title NONAME


The date is: Fri Apr 23 08:30:13 MDT 1999

The first half of this week was spent working on the printed 
circuit boards.  I cut and etched boards for the wall and 
white line sensors, pwm, and the main power board with a 
big fat ground on it.  That pretty much ate up 3-4 hours of 
my time on Tuesday. And on Thursday I was pretty useless.  I 
didn't have any boards to etch and powers and grounds on the 
robot were being worked together by Clint. The only thing I 
have to do is mount the white line sensor when Nate finishes 
up with it.


The date is: Fri May  7 14:07:09 MDT 1999

Dr. Wedeward,

This will be my final report on Glitchy the fire fighter.  
This week it very much a collabrative effort to get Glitchy 
up to par for his final inspection Thursday.  So instead of 
describing what I specifically did, I'll just summaraze what 
the group did.  For this week we needed to spiffy Glitchy up 
and turn him into a more robust design.  To do this we 
removed all the old perfboard and put in its place, nicely 
cut pieces of lexan.  In doing this we also widened the 
levels so that we need only two and not three.  The circuit 
board layers were consolodated by connecting each board via 
metal stans to another piece of lexan. with the battery 
layer the second layer, we needed the batteries to be 
secure.  To do this we used high density foam rubber and it 
seems to work well and not allow the batteries to shift at 
all.  Sensors mounted, attachments made glitchy was it his 
final state of construction for the moment.  Over the course 
of the summer Glitcy will see improvements with the addition 
of his fire sensor and fire suppression.  Who knows, other, 
new ideas may be incorporated as well.