Other interests
I've been a robot enthusiast for as long as I can remember. I'm not sure where the passion comes from, but it probably goes back to my childhood. I used to dream of having a laboratory in my room, and of inventing a life-like robot that could make my bed and pick up my dirty clothes. Unfortunately, I'm not particularly adept mechanically, so my early attempts at robot construction never really went anywhere. I mean that literally... I don't think any of them ever moved.
My first robotWay back in 1984, I came across an advertisement for a Hero Jr. and I was in heaven. I contacted a sales representative at Heath and several weeks later I talked him into selling me one of their pre-built demo units. It was fantastic!
My wife and I named our new addition "Isaac" (after Isaac Asimov, who authored the now famous Three Laws of Robotics), and he was an active member of our family for several years. His behavior was fairly limited and predictable, but my daughter loved to wiggle her fingers in front of his sonar sensors because that would make Isaac laugh (in a kind of creepy monotone: "HA HA HA... HA HA HA... HA HA HA..."). |
I named my Hero Jr. "Isaac"
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Mindstorms and my second robot
My first Mindstorms robot
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A dozen or so years later my wife bought me a Lego Mindstorms set for Christmas and my passion for robotics was re-kindled. My first Mindstorms robot (left) was programmed to look for light and move towards it. Unfortunately, I left the little guy unattended and he wandered into the kitchen where my wife was cooking. When she turned around she kicked him with her foot and pieces exploded everywhere. She was devastated.
The Mindstorms robots were great, but I needed more power, and larger sensors. |
Albert being worked on
Albert's Tupperware "body"
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My second (official) effort was named "Albert". He was an autonomous mobile robot built around a base I purchased from Zagros Robotics. A local friend, Chris Hostetler, helped me get it all working. Total construction time was about 4 months, and I probably spent a little over $1500.00 for parts and labor, not including the price of a refurbished laptop I bought for high level control.
The Pentium 200 laptop was connected to Albert's 68HC11 processor, and it provided high level control, voice recognition, and excellent text-to-speech quality. Eventually, I wanted to hook up a couple of RF modems for communications with my home PC... and even access to the Internet! I learned 'C' so I could write low level code for the HC11 processor. These routines let me interface with the onboard laptop's serial port, and allowed me to write Visual Basic programs to control the sensors and motors. I learned a lot working with Albert, but my work sort of stalled due to hardware issues. |
my third robot
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My work with Albert was going pretty well, but I ultimately came to realize that he was never going to be the home robot I dreamed about. Albert was too large, noisy, and slow to be a good "pet" robot, and he would never be completely autonomous due to his inability to find and dock with a charger. I was also having problems with the encoders, HC11 interrupts, and countless other mechanical and electrical components.
As I was having these disheartening revelations I discovered that a company called Probotics was about to release a new version of their Cye robot with an added sound sensor, and an .ocx file, meaning there was a way for me to program behaviors using Visual Basic! I named this creation "Cybert". He is a mood-driven autonomous robot pet with an unlimited vocabulary! In addition to exploring, playing games, and getting into mischief, Cybert can tell jokes, report current news, weather, and stock market information, and find humans and read them their e-mail messages! When his battery runs low he can navigate to his charger from anywhere in the house (upstairs only). Cye didn't have many features so I had my friend Chris help me add an FRS receiver, a range-finding sensor, and a light sensor. Cybert communicates with my PC via wireless modems; speech is broadcast using a pair of 500mW radios (Cybert's mouth is a small speaker). My Visual Basic program can parse text from websites, e-mail, news, stocks, etc. and convert this to speech using Microsoft's powerful Speech SDK. Cybert chooses most of his behaviors based on his mood. If he hasn't sensed a human for awhile (and it isn't night time) he will become uncomfortable. This will cause him to choose behaviors that are known to make him feel better, such as moving into a well lit room. His mood also determines the volume, pitch, and speed of his voice, as well as his comments. (If Cybert detects an object in his path when he's angry he will say in a loud threatening voice: "GET OUT OF MY WAY".) |
Cybert is a mood-driven autonomous robot
Every morning, Cybert would undock from his charger, navigate down the hallway (avoiding obstacles) and wake us up. After delivering the latest news , weather, and our morning stock prices he would ask if he should wake up Autumn, our daughter. If we said "Yes" Cybert would navigate down the hallway and knock on her door three times (behavior not shown in video). When she opened the door he would greet her and then go back and dock with his charger again.
NOTE: I improved Cybert's behaviors, speed, and voice -- but a few weeks after I made this video my hard drive crashed and I lost a ton of work, so I wasn't able to show off the improvements. |
I've always loved to cook over an open flame, so my wife bought me a "Big Green Egg" several years ago. These Kamado-style cookers can sear steaks at 600 degrees or slow cook pork shoulder and brisket at a mere 250 degrees for 18 or more hours. (Without adding additional wood or even tending to the fire.) I use it to cook lunch or dinner probably three or four days a week.
Big Green Egg
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Smoked brisket is one of my favorite meals!
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Food history
My Kentucky-style burgoo, after about 4 hours
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I'm fascinated by history, so naturally I got very interested in the history of BBQ. After a little searching I found a great book called "Barbecue: The History of an American Institution", by Robert F. Moss.
There's a section in the book that talks about a famous Southern dish known as "burgoo". Being from the Midwest I had never heard of burgoo so I decided to make some. But first, a little info about this interesting concoction: Kentucky legend says that burgoo was invented by a French barbecue chef named Gustave (Gus) Jaubert, who used to make a blackbird stew. Due to Gustave's French accent (and hairlip) some believe that "burgoo" was what people heard when he said he was cookin' up some, "blackbird stew". |
The legends about Gustave are probably just fanciful stories, however, as there are references to burgoo dating all the way back to 1830, ten years before he was born. Still, Gus was the undisputed "King of Burgoo", once presiding over the barbecue pits at the National Encampment for the Grand Army of the Republic, the famed fraternal organization for veterans of the Union army. That year, Civil war leaders from both sides came to be honored and an estimated 150,000 veterans attended the encampment. Gus made 12,000 gallons of burgoo using 4 tons of beef, 900 whole chickens, 4500 ears of corn, 50 bushels of onions, 100 pounds of pepper, and more.
In 1905, the Reverend John H. Aughey shared his memories after talking to a famous burgoo chef at a Kentucky BBQ:
Quote:
The fires were lighted under the vats before the roasting commenced on the trenches, and the burgoo has been steadily boiling ever since. This boiling necessitates steady stirring, and next to Uncle Jake's ministerial powers the old expert who presides over each kettle comes in for due respect and glorification.
"You might not think it," says the old grey-headed Kentuckian, whose eye is on the largest of the pots where 500 gallons of burgoo are bubbling, "but a piece of mutton suet as large as my hand thrown into the pot would spoil the whole mess. That shows you that there are some things you can't put in burgoo. Sometimes out in the woods we put in squirrels and turkeys, but we didn't have any this time. I think they've got a leetle too much pepper in that pot down there, so if you don't find what you get is just right come to me and I'll fix you up with some of this."
As the meat boils from the bones the latter are raised from the bottom of the kettle by the paddle and thrown out. Gradually vegetables lose all distinctive form and appearance and the compound is reduced to a homogeneous liquid about the consistency of molasses. Burgoo ought to boil about 14 hours", says the old expert...
In 1905, the Reverend John H. Aughey shared his memories after talking to a famous burgoo chef at a Kentucky BBQ:
Quote:
The fires were lighted under the vats before the roasting commenced on the trenches, and the burgoo has been steadily boiling ever since. This boiling necessitates steady stirring, and next to Uncle Jake's ministerial powers the old expert who presides over each kettle comes in for due respect and glorification.
"You might not think it," says the old grey-headed Kentuckian, whose eye is on the largest of the pots where 500 gallons of burgoo are bubbling, "but a piece of mutton suet as large as my hand thrown into the pot would spoil the whole mess. That shows you that there are some things you can't put in burgoo. Sometimes out in the woods we put in squirrels and turkeys, but we didn't have any this time. I think they've got a leetle too much pepper in that pot down there, so if you don't find what you get is just right come to me and I'll fix you up with some of this."
As the meat boils from the bones the latter are raised from the bottom of the kettle by the paddle and thrown out. Gradually vegetables lose all distinctive form and appearance and the compound is reduced to a homogeneous liquid about the consistency of molasses. Burgoo ought to boil about 14 hours", says the old expert...