January 1994 – The Robot Group, Inc.

The Robot Group Coloring Book

The Robot Group Coloring Book [2 MB PDF download], by Norm Annal, was released in 1994.

It was a great effort to document designs of various group projects that were either already completed or still in the works. This book is pretty rare as there were only a few hundred copies printed.

Norm is a talented CAD graphic artist with a background in mechanical design. Norm also designed The Robot Group logo.

The Robot Group, Inc. logo, color version (copyright to The Robot Group, Inc., design by Norm Annal).

His schematic drawings of our projects have always been of extremely good quality and accuracy. This book is far from being a simple coloring book. Norm put in a considerable amount of time in assuring that this project would be both artistic and educational.

The Robot Group Coloring Book - Flying Sphere — Flying Sphere, by Dave Santos & George Parks, an illustration from The Robot Group Coloring Book

It documents 14 group projects with 16 original drawings of such favorites such as Varmint, Bipedal Ornithopter, Flying Sphere, Dolphfan, Mark IV Blimp, and Dweebvision.

The Robot Group Coloring Book - Dolphan — Norm Annal’s Dolphan, an illustration from The Robot Group Coloring Book

The book was sold at RoboFest 5 and distributed to various schools during outreach visits.

The Robot Group Coloring Book - Bipedal Ornithopter — Dave Santos’ Bipedal Ornithopter, an illustration from The Robot Group Coloring Book

RoboCacing

Wan Yik Lee‘s RoboCacing was an amazing, fully-autonomous robotic worm which moved like a leech until provoked.

It was approximately two-and-a-half feet long with a metallic, segmented body covered with bristles used to sense its environment. Two antenna at its head probed for front obstacles. On sensing danger through its bristles, it sped-off to escape. Different responses were produced for different sensations received through its bristles and antenna.

RoboCacing (from ‘robotic’ and ‘cacing,’ the Malay word for worm) was built specifically for RoboFest 5 (1994).

Mark IV Cybernetic Airship

The Mark IV Cybernetic Airship, aka Mark IV Neural Net Scanning SONAR Blimp was next in the evolution of the blimp projects.

Craig Sainsott designed and built the blimp under carriage. Alex Iles and Bill Craig were responsible for the electronic and computer implementation. John Lovgren developed the neural network learning program. Brooks Coleman was the training pilot. Read more of the technical details on blimps.