Tag: Wan Yik Lee

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).

Rover

Rover, another Wan Yik Lee creation, was a homebrewed robotic base powered by two motorized wheels which were controlled based on differential velocity. A SONAR system was mounted on top of the base.

The base had a dedicated microcontroller to allow it to accept various motion commands through a serial port. Encoders wee mounted on the motors to provide motion feedback.

The SONAR system consisted two parts :
a) a ring of sixteen uniformly-mounted Polaroid SONAR transducers, and 2) a microcontroller with two Polaroid SONAR drivers to accept various sensing commands and to control the operation of the sensing system.

The SONAR ring was adjustable to a height between 30 inches to 38 inches and could be programmed to sense according to various schemes.

Rover had been dressed up as a space-age android, and exhibited as a human transporter in RoboFest 4 (1993) and RoboFest 5 (1994). It served hundreds of human drivers using a Nintendo joystick controller as the interface for motion command.

Wan Yik Lee's Rover takes another happy RoboFest 4 attendee for a ride. Notice the Nintendo controller?
Wan Yik Lee’s Rover takes another happy RoboFest 4 attendee for a ride