Fiore Robotics Research

Finally

2005-09-17T15:40:00.000-05:00

Finally I have time to post again. Well not much time because I have some physics homework to get working on. A lot has happened over the summer, and the projects are still unfinished. But the majority of them are slowly coming ever closer to completion. I don't have any new pictures to put up, mainly because I'm here at college and the robots are back at home. However, next chance I get I'll put some more up. I'll also add some more information about some of the other projects I've worked on in the past. This will include projects from my other hobbies such as art, music, software, and other random creations.

too busy

2005-03-03T12:27:00.000-06:00

I've been really busy lately, so busy I have rarely had time to even work on my beloved electronics projects. In fact the only reason I have time to post this is because I am sick today so I stayed home. The arcade machine is nearing completion, and although I say that every time you must believe me that it really is. As soon as I get some flashing lights on it, I will upload some pictures. Well, I'm going back to sleep, Loren out.

Weekend of Building?

2005-02-18T13:34:00.000-06:00

Well I haven't even had time to update this recently, what with math league meets and honor band competitions and extremely difficult English 184 tests. But hoopefully I will be able to contruct many robots this weekend, and then share my findings with you - the random people of the internet. Ok, wish me luck.

knowledge bowl

2005-02-13T13:04:00.000-06:00

Had a knowledge bowl meet yesterday. For those you don't know, I am on my school's knowledge bowl team, basically it's like jeopardy except your on a team of 4 people. We placed second in our conference, which really makes me mad ... because we should've done better. Oh well, all is not lost, the speakers on mame_cab are now functioning, just have to wait for some LEDs off ebay and I should be able to finish it.

magic smoke makes electronics work

2005-02-10T16:33:00.000-06:00

I'm thinking I should update this blog more often, if for no other reason then to let people know that I am not dead. Sadly I've been very busy with school lately and have been unable to work on any of my robotics projects. The speaker amp I was using for the mame_cab gave up its magic smoke the other day and ceased working. I've found a replacement amp, however it is a car amp, so I am going to have to order a stereo l-pad off the internet to use as a volume control. Once that is wired up, and once I create the flashing "Galaxian" logo, the mame_cab will be complete. Pics will definately be up once that is done.

theEFS

2005-02-09T01:07:00.000-06:00

This is not exactly related to Fiore Robotics Research, but it will go here anyway because this is my blog and I can do with it what I please. My band, maybe you've heard of them, "theEFS" have recently started to make available to the public t-shirts. Everyone here reading this blog should buy one, so goto theEFS Store and buy one. Hopefully in the coming weeks we can work some of the kinks out of our new CD and that will be available as well. So go buy theEFS merchandise, and support Fiore Robotics Research today.

Site Updated

2005-02-05T20:11:00.000-06:00

I have just updated my site with some new information about some of my continuing projects. The projects are as follow: IR Illuminator, PIC Clock, PIC Lights, the lab, Tumbler Clone, and the Laser Tripwire. Also again I ask if anyone has ever built anything close to a laser tripwire please contact me because I am having major difficulties with this project. (oh, click the link over -> to visit the site)

Mame_cab almost complete

2005-02-05T19:37:00.000-06:00

My MAME cabinet is almost complete. I purchased some arcade controls off of ebay and built them into the cabinet which I constructed from 2x4's and today I added the speaker enclosure. All that is left is a few tweaks to the operating system, some extra tweeters, and as always some random flashing lights. Pics are soon to come. For more information on MAME visit www.mame.net

fyziks

2005-01-17T18:58:00.000-06:00

Its been a while since I've updated, and it probably will be a couple more days before I get around to it. I've been working on a project for physics class in school, and I'm pretty sure I failed it, because the project melted and fell apart before I got it finished. I've also started a simple project, one I'm sure I can't mess up ... a MAME arcade cabinet. Should be pretty kewl, I'm going to go build that now.

New Update Coming Soon

2005-01-04T15:52:00.000-06:00

I will update the site (look for link to the right), soon. More pictures of finished projects, more information on projects under development, and even more stuff. Right now I'm going to go build some things, and take some photos of the newly finished 'bots. l8r.

Happy New Year

2005-01-04T15:47:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I've updated this; I've been busy with the whole Christmas thing. Over the holiday season I did however finish the NeuronBot. Although further modifications will be needed after seeing its initial performance, but that's ok, at least it's a start. Also after reading the newest beam article in SERVO magazine I have started the construction of a clone of Wolf's turbot. Of course once I get it working I will try to build a modified, better version. But right now I'm going to go finish the first version.

wow

2004-12-19T10:49:00.000-06:00

Wow, it has been a long week. I've had finals in school so I haven't had any time to work on robots this week. Except until this weekend that is. Right now as I'm typing this I am uploading more images and information to my site, so just click on that link right over there to the right of this text and check it out. I have updated information about my DriveBay Mod, my first and second walking robots and my NeuronBot. The second walking robot is currently giving me trouble, I can't seem to get the bicores to oscillate properly and this is really starting to annoy me. If anyone has any experience with this type of stuff please email me. Also if anyone know how to create a laser tripwire type device that would detect intruders I would be grateful for any information.

NeuronBot Update

2004-12-11T18:14:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, my team and I continued our efforts to create a Neuron bot. We sucessfully created the photocell eyes for the robot. It took quite some time because Heather is still learning the basics of electronics, but I have no problem with that: teaching is fun. Also I can't seem to get my master/slave bicore setup to fire properly, it keeps freezing. I can get it to work if I make the master bicore "unsuspended" but when it is suspended it doesn't work. I guess there is no noise in my power supply or something, I shall have to investigate more.

Pictures

2004-12-09T22:03:00.000-06:00

Hey. I just created a simple site to house the pictures of my various electronic creations. Right now it only has pictures of two of my robots, but in time when I take more pictures and get them uploaded it will have more. The site is http://fiorerobotics.solarbotics.net. Check it out, bookmark it, and visit it often.

Master/Slave Mapping Walker continues

2004-12-08T23:08:00.000-06:00

Today I finished another bicore module for the walking robot. I'm building everything in modules, so if need be I can quickly and easily rewire things to try and improve the robot's performance. Like the title? I have yet to think of a catchy name for this robot, I called it a mapping bot because it will be the simplistic master/slave bicore walker with a microprocessor steering the robot and measuring input from the various sensors in an attempt to map out its environment. This will allow it to survive, I hope. It will be able to figure out which areas are safe and return to them in times of peril. Hopefully it will work as I plan. As soon as I get my scanner working maybe I'll upload that drawing I made which better explains the structural layout of the electronics.

Cricket

2004-12-05T17:26:00.000-06:00

Today I finally finished my LED cricket bot, based off of a BEAM circuit I found called "Cricket". I can't remember who's circuit it was otherwise I would give them credit. It's actually fairly neat, I have a red and a blue LED that blink on and off and the batteries are charged during the day with a Panasonic solar cell. Kewl stuff.

Neuron Bot

2004-12-05T17:23:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Heather, my girlfriend, came over and wanted to learn about robotics. So I decided we could build a simple robot with op-amp based neurons. We finished most of the mechanical aspects of the project, within the next couple days we'll finish the electrical components and then I'll post some pics of it.

Walking Robot Update

2004-12-04T01:53:00.000-06:00

Today, during the rebuilding of a windows xp machine, I came up with an idea of what exactly my latest creation will consist of electronically. It will be a pulse-delay circuit, in traditional BEAM style, that controls the walking. With a reverser and feelers. Plus it will have a microprocessor, most likely something of the 16f84 variety, which will take input from a new rgb light sensor that I have thought of and then influence the pulse-delay circuit. It will also have a microphone connected to it, so it can "run-away" from loud noises in an attempt to save its life. Wow, it's really late ... or early, I'm going to sleep now, I might post some prelim drawings later to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.

the blog begins

2004-11-29T18:24:00.000-06:00

Hello world. I was going to create a full featured website to house the works and thought processes that pertain to my research. However, upon evaluating what I wanted in my site, and how long it would take to create such a site, I have decided that this blog will be much better suited to my needs. Allow me to introduce myself at this point, my name is Loren Fiore, and I build robots. For the moment most of my robots are simple, BEAM technology driven, but I hope to someday in the near future work on robots that require cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI). This place will be updated as often as I remember to, hopefully eventually I will have pictures and diagrams and perhaps schematics about my robots. For now though you have to just trust me that I am building robots, and check back for future updates.