robot robot robot HOP

[gfish]

For the first time in a year and a half, GYRE is fully assembled. And it's looking good. I mean, check out the new thrusters! neuro42 did an amazing job on them. And three permanently mounted onboard computers, one for each camera, each one more powerful than the old laptop we used to have kludged on. The hardware is getting damned nice.

Safety docs due Friday, then plenty of time for working on the code. For once, I think we're doing this right.

Comments

I must have missed a post...

[johno.livejournal.com]

What is it? {besides cool looking?}

Re: I must have missed a post...

[gfish.livejournal.com]

It is GYRE, aka the space robot, aka that damned space robot. Centerpiece of an opportunistic research project (http://depts.washington.edu/gyre/) I've been involved with for several centuries at this point. It lets us fly on the vomit cometweightless wonder.

Re: I must have missed a post...

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

I presume that this is a job, and not a hobby, but who pays for this? Where do you work?

Re: I must have missed a post...

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Well, I work at the University of Washington Medical Center, but this is an unrelated research project (also at UW). It has been funded through a couple small grants when we can get them and out of pocket when we can't. Everyone involved works in related fields, and we'll probably get a couple publications out of it eventually, so it isn't entirely a hobby. But no one is paying us for it either, so we're certainly not professional.

Re: I must have missed a post...

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's really cool. So, what will your robot do? What scientific questions are you trying to answer with it? And who will put into space?

Re: I must have missed a post...

[gfish.livejournal.com]

The research goals are just to test the visual navigation system. This year we're focusing on the feedback algorithm to deal with the sometimes very noisy data we're getting from the motion estimation code.

Sadly, GYRE will never fly in space. It was designed and built for the Weightless Wonder, which is much easier to get stuff on. NASA runs a program to fly undergrad research projects, if you can jump through all the paperwork hoops.

Even should some miracle happen and NASA came to us and said 'We love GYRE! Make us one to put on the space station!' the current hardware could never be flight rated. This year is probably the end of the project. It's been going on and off for four years now, and we'll all pretty ready to move on to something else. I'm pushing for a sea floor exploration bot next, but we'll see.

Re: I must have missed a post...

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

And will it actually be watching the movies with Joel, or helping Gypsy keep the ship running? What sort of comic timers are you using?