[aklug] Fwd: [RoboEducators] Open Source article

Chris,
Never heard further from you re controller etc for robotics, so am not
sure what you may have done since then. While the note appended is
from a thread that evidences some naïveté re open source, it does
highlight some of the most current resources available that have
practical significance

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Michael Bastoni <mbastoni@pnta.org>
> Date: October 7, 2009 3:52:03 PM AKDT
> To: RoboEducators@yahoogroups.com,<roboeducators@yahoogroups.com>, "nRoboEducators@yahoogroups.com
> " <nRoboEducators@yahoogroups.com>
> Cc: Bob Pospick <bob@pospick.com>, "Hulse, Russell A" <russell.hulse@utdallas.edu
> >, "Ledbetter, Cynthia E" <ledbetter@utdallas.edu>, "Jones,
> Elizabeth F" <efj041000@utdallas.edu>, Tom Atwood <toma@maplegatemedia.com
> >
> Subject: Re: [RoboEducators] Open Source article
> Reply-To: RoboEducators@yahoogroups.com
>

> Ken and Bob,
>
>
> Greetings.
>
> My name is Michael Bastoni.
>
> I am a career science/technology and engineering instructor who is
> particularly appreciative of educational products that are
> classroom tough, easy to manage and designed to be customized by the
> people who use them.
>
> I am also the developer of the GEARS-IDS products. http://www.gearseds.com/
> .
>
> We create mechanical components and products specifically designed
> for educators who want to integrate "real world engineering
> components" into a variety of engineered mechanisms including but
> not limited to mobile robots.
>
> We make education and engineering prototyping kits that easily
> accept the stuff you can buy from local and on-line vendors. With
> our products, teachers and students can use materials that are
> easily and inexpensively available to them, stuff like PVC, readily
> available fasteners and the cool sheet, tube and rod stock that can
> be had for free from sign shops, heating and air conditioning
> fabricators and glazier shops.
>
> ......and there is the industrial option.
>
> Because our products are designed extra tough, students and
> instructors can and do make use of industrial components purchased
> from vendors like Stock drive products https://sdp-si.com/eStore/
> Small Parts. http://www.smallparts.com/ and of course the whole
> world of surplus electronics vendors like these: http://www.electronicsurplus.com/
> http://www.allelectronics.com/ as well as a host of others.
>
> The GEARS products are truly "Open Platform" both in respect to the
> strength and scale of the components and to the uses to which they
> can be put. Teachers and students create design challenges with our
> components using off the shelf as well as "Found" components
> obtained from hardware stores or salvaged from "Obsolete
> inventory". Many of our users employ a variety of electronic
> control systems ranging from tele-control using (any) RC radios or
> PS2 controllers to hybrid tele-autonomous systems available through
> us or a host of other vendors.
>
> Moreover schools who have a collection of different robotic products
> find it easy to integrate Lego components, Mindsensors products,
> Parallax processors and VEX components (the little plastic VEX servo
> motors fit our hole spacing particularly well). In fact Deepak Kumar
> of Mindsensors http://www.mindsensors.com/ has recently created a
> package specifically designed to integrate lego plastic parts and
> electronics with GEARS components.
>
> Our products are manufactured in the United States using metal
> parts, made from precision machined stainless steel, 0.090" aluminum
> and include metal gear-head motors, 3/8" keyed axles and sintered
> bronze bearings. We provide complete prototyping packages as well as
> a la carte component selections tailored to individual classroom
> needs.
>
> I recently swapped in a set of optional gearhead motor into our HMC
> (Heavy Metal Chassis) http://www.gearseds.com/files/heavy%20metal%20intro.pdf
> and I let 250lb people stand on and drive it! That's tough, tough
> enough to add really big batteries and a host of cool things to a
> really bullet proof mobile robot base.
>
> Our intention is for students and teachers to author their own
> authentic engineering experiences working with industrial standard
> products like 25 pitch roller chain and sprockets, XL aluminum
> timing pulleys and belts, 24 pitch gears made of both steel and
> nylon as well as a host of other mechanical and pneumatic components
> that all have manufacturer published specifications which students
> learn to read and select.
>
> We feel there is value in having a basic set of heavy duty
> components that students and teachers can add to in an effort to
> create "Libraries" of components used to design and build solutions
> to classroom based engineering games and challenges that are driven
> by individual classroom needs
>
> The GEARS objective has always been to create the most rugged "Open
> Source" platform so that teachers and students can make use of the
> widest range of existing and found components including batteries,
> controllers and mechanical components necessary "Engineer" the
> working prototypes that fire their particular passions.
>
> Finally I would like to point out that GEARS Educational Systems now
> offers the GRC micro-controller and related family of networked
> peripherals including I/O boards, Electronic Speed Controllers, LCD
> screens, Sensors and Navigational modules. A tutorial on using the
> GRC on a mobile robot platform is available at the Machine Science
> website: http://guides.machinescience.org/mod/book/view.php?id=961
>
> The GRC features an ATMega168 C programmable microcontroller, using
> a FREE and unique on-line programming environment developed by
> Machine Science. Even if you have never done any programming before,
> the instructions in this manual will get your autonomous robot up
> and running quickly and easily. Moreover, if you are an experienced
> programmer, you can access the capabilities of the Atmel chipset.
>
> As you can see, the functionality and performance of the system is
> highly customizable and expandable.
>
> If you are authoring an article on open source robotic platforms,
> and feel the GEARS products can provide an advantage to the
> educational community, I ask that you please consider including us
> in your list of Open Source Vendors. For more information, please
> contact us at our Hanover, Massachusetts office, 781 878 1512. My
> partner, Mark Newby will be happy to provide a personal introduction
> to our various products, and develop a customized solution designed
> to meet the needs of any interested teachers and students.
>
> Best wishes, and good luck in your educational pursuits
>
> Michael Bastoni
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> At 10:11 AM 10/7/2009 -0500, Kenneth S. Berry wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Here is an article that I have submitted to Robot Magazine. Bob
>> Pospick and I wrote it. I would like to hear your comments. I would
>> also like to discuss what needs to go into an open source education
>> platform for a follow-on article. Any suggestions or help would be
>> appreciated, and I will be sure to include your name with your
>> contribution.
>>
>>
>> Open Source Robotics
>> By
>> Ken Berry and Bob Pospick
>>
>> The case for Open Source
>> Dr. Kenneth Berry
>> Assistant Director of the Science and Engineering Education Center,
>> University of Texas at Dallas
>>
>> Capitalism is great, and everyone wants to reap the rewards of
>> profit to better support their families and have money left over to
>> have fun. Why then do open source projects on the Internet and
>> elsewhere seem to be winning the innovation race? Apple OS X is
>> built on Unix, an open source operating system. From what I
>> understand Microsoft is moving in the direction of creating a more
>> Unix compatible operating system. And, why not? Unix is elegant,
>> thin and stable. Commercial operating systems in comparison are
>> bloated memory hogs, inefficient and unstable. Apache is another
>> open source success. Currently, almost all web servers are running
>> on Apache, an open source project for networking computers.
>> Commercial web applications were developed for years but none could
>> compare to beauty and power of Apache. Now companies like IBM
>> develop proprietary tools on top of Apache.
>>
>> Perhaps an open source educational robot platform will take over
>> the educational robot market. What a great idea! I have been told,
>> that if I think of a great idea someone else has probably already
>> discovered it. The corollary to this rule is that if no one is
>> working on my great idea, it is probably not such a great idea.
>> So, which is it? I did a quick search on the Internet of open
>> source robotics and found that many people are working on something
>> like an open source robot platform. So, it is not a bad idea. A
>> great idea? Well, none of the open source platforms have made big
>> inroads into industry or the marketplace yet.
>>
>> Apparently, open source projects serve an important function by
>> damping the development swings of emerging technology. Personal
>> computer operating systems are a good example of this. If you
>> recall at the beginning of the development of personal computers,
>> there were many contenders. Remember Amiga, Commodore, and
>> Osbourne. Only Apple OS X and Windows still exist. The OS market
>> was damped and standardized. A wide variety of operating systems
>> was a problem for businesses and developers. A person who trained
>> on one operating system had trouble learning a new one. This
>> created wasted time. Businesses, developers and customers in
>> general rewarded the best operating systems of the group. The
>> others either disappeared or copied the successful components.
>> Although many people today profess to be either a Mac or PC
>> person. anyone with a little bit of effort can navigate both
>> platforms because they have converged in so many ways.
>>
>> They are both converging into Unix. Companies understand that their
>> customers are the final judge of the success or failure of their
>> product. Unix is the ultimate consumer product. If you do not like
>> it, just change it. You do not have to wait for your modification
>> request to come out in the next version. This is what computer
>> hacks did for years. If something did not work, a programmer could
>> look under the hood of the software and change it. If a new
>> application needed to be added, a programmer could add it
>> immediately. Everyone benefited from this sharing. Now even the
>> commercial companies are benefiting from the open code.
>>
>> Then why not do this for robot platforms? The market would benefit
>> from an open source platform. The biggest problem with robot
>> platforms is the black box. It is hard to get under the hood of
>> most robot controllers, for example, or hard to modify the code to
>> fit new needs. An open source robot kit and software would not have
>> these issues. I would like to tell my students if they want to mess
>> with the code or even improve the electrical connectivity of the
>> circuit board, here is the documentation you need to do it. Go
>> forth and knock yourself out.
>>
>> The beauty of robotics in the classroom is that it is not limiting.
>> It encourages students to learn more; as much as their minds can
>> hold. If a student is really caught up in a project or a build they
>> can learn volumes by just getting more deeply involved with it. In
>> a classroom, teachers give A s for a certain level of investment.
>> If students want to go beyond that level, so much the better. This
>> is good for the student and good for education. An open source
>> robot would be wonderful because nothing would be hidden behind a
>> black box. It would be infinitely adjustable, and flexible. The
>> learning potential would be just as infinite.
>>
>> I would love for commercial companies to be much more responsive to
>> our needs. We have seen this in many of the current platforms. For
>> example, the LEGO RCX. Teachers asked for a rechargeable battery
>> for the controller for almost 10 years before it happened. Also,
>> educators have asked for sensors that have not been developed. I
>> would love to add a camera to my robot or connect my robot to the
>> Internet. Both are possible but very difficult in the current
>> commercial software environments. From its inception educators have
>> asked for a way to add more memory to the LEGO NXT. It would be so
>> nice to just develop a fix for a need, and have it incorporated
>> into the platform quickly. Why can t we customers control the
>> development of robotics platforms more.
>>
>> Wouldn t our input speed up the damping process and support the
>> whole community better? Currently the market is in need of damping.
>> Parallax is not the same as VEX. LEGO is very different from the
>> Asian platforms. Why isn t there an open source platform that we
>> can all work on?
>>
>> Here are several contenders:
>>
>> Open-robot by Abe Howell: http://www.abotics.com/open_robot.htm
>>
>> Deepak Kumar has been working on an open source educational robot
>> at Bryn Mawr for many years: http://pyrorobotics.org/
>>
>> Willow Garage has incorporated CMU s visualization software into an
>> open source software: http://www.willowgarage.com/
>>
>> Open Source Sensing: http://opensourcesensing.org/blog/?p=110
>>
>> Open Robotics Peripheral Platform: http://orpp.sourceforge.net/
>>
>> Experimental Robot Platform: http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_ERP.shtml
>>
>> It seems like open source robotics is even marketable see: http://robotcentral.com/2009/01/05/formidable-consumer-robot-platform-gets-ready-to-take-the-stage/
>>
>> A quick look at the web will show you there are many efforts out
>> there. Unfortunately, the term educational robot often refers to a
>> robot that works well with undergraduates or graduate students.
>>
>> Business Response
>> Bob Pospick
>> Formerly of Texas Instruments Education Division
>>
>> That s insane, have you lost your mind?
>>
>> Business people, at least those who are guided by traditional
>> profit motives have that reaction when asked to invest in an open
>> source product. The reason stems from generations of business
>> school training. Profits naturally follow when you gain a
>> competitive advantage in the market. That is, if other things are
>> done correctly as well, such as producing, promoting and supporting
>> your product or service. And without a profit, your family will go
>> hungry, wear tattered clothes and be forced to sleep in the woods.
>>
>> Well, that outcome is a bit exaggerated, but it does point to the
>> fundamental premise of why businesses fear the words open source .
>> If anyone can use the fruits of your labor (investment) without
>> benefit of reward (profit), then why do it? There are always other
>> opportunities to earn a wage or profit from your efforts.
>> Unfortunately there are many well documented instances where a
>> great idea was developed only to be copied and mass produced in
>> distant parts of the world, leaving the business with nothing but a
>> financial loss. The good news, at least from the business
>> perspective is that in 1790, Congress adopted the Patent Act to
>> promote the progress of science and useful arts and the Copyright
>> Act for the "encouragement of learning".
>>
>> Now, back to the concept of open source products. In 2005, Project
>> Inkwell (www.projectinkwell.com) attempted to create an open
>> standard, open source computing device for the K-12 classroom by
>> bringing industry, educators and researchers together to define the
>> ultimate product so that anyone could produce it, royalty free.
>> From the educator s perspective this was heaven. Basic economic
>> theory would prevail many competitors producing the same product
>> will lower the price and make it affordable to all. The companies
>> that were invited to attend were squirming in their chairs,
>> thinking that they were headed to Hades. They were obviously
>> concerned, but not about making a great product and having a
>> positive effect on K-12 education. Rather they were worried about
>> how will their shareholders react. The great news is that Project
>> Inkwell read the tea leaves after businesses demurred their
>> generous [sic] offer, and refocused their efforts to define the
>> functional requirements of the ideal classroom product. This
>> outcome was indeed a great catalyst for defining high level
>> customer needs and for guiding businesses in their development
>> investments.
>>
>> What business does need is an open source of ideas from the
>> customer. Another business school tenant is that the customer is
>> always right. If you listen to the customer and deliver what they
>> want, then you ll be rewarded with a sale and hopefully a profit as
>> well. Profit, especially when working within public education is
>> often perceived as a necessary evil. It is required as part of our
>> capitalistic economic system, but is ultimately taking away from
>> the scarce pool of resources that could be used elsewhere in the
>> school. Educational products, and in particular those with a high
>> technology component require three components to be successful:
>> the right product, effective curriculum, and teacher training.
>> Successful companies serving education recognize this and build
>> their business model around selling the product (yes, at a profit)
>> and pouring a portion of the profits back into curriculum &
>> training. Texas Instruments uses the profits from the sale of a
>> graphing calculator to provide subsidized and often free curricular
>> materials and training classes. Finally, profits fuel the
>> development of new and improved products, which if done right comes
>> from those open source, customer generated ideas.
>>
>> From a business perspective, open source is not always a bad thing.
>> Open source initiatives can benefit an immature, growing market,
>> one where there are many players seeking to find the right product
>> for the customer. An alternative is the industry consortium that
>> comes together to define a common standard. This is often referred
>> to as coopetition (cooperation-competition); in the end everyone
>> benefits because the cost for each member trying to develop it on
>> their own would be very expensive. In a sense, Project Inkwell s
>> final requirements specification helped accelerate the convergence
>> of the 1:1 computing market.
>>
>> Products developed around open source software can have a serious
>> unintended consequence when used in a structured classroom learning
>> environment. Teachers are constrained by the 50 or so minutes that
>> they have with their students in class. So little time, so much to
>> do. Open source is all about continual product evolution and
>> improvement, which is great. Unfortunately, this also means that
>> the teacher has to manage a classroom filled with multiple product
>> variations. In the software realm, variations go unnoticed; there
>> are no physical differences to tell them apart. So, when one robot
>> doesn t function as intended, the teacher has to either be the
>> technical expert to solve the problem, or adjust the instruction to
>> accommodate the student with the recalcitrant robot. Mainstream
>> teachers aren t technologists, and are apt to reject the use of
>> robotics as a part of their classroom instruction if this occurs
>> frequently.
>>
>> Lawyers, either from genetics or through years of training are
>> justifiably paranoid about open source products. Open source
>> software licenses, and there are many variations from which to
>> choose, have no indemnification against the use of purloined code.
>> Open source is unique in that many different people contribute to
>> the final product. In many instances, these programmers know one
>> another only through the Internet. If someone either intentionally
>> or inadvertently incorporated patented or copyrighted code into the
>> final product, the company producing and selling the product is
>> held liable with potentially devastating financial consequences.
>>
>> The world of product development is not purely black or white. One
>> end of this spectrum is the proprietary or closed system, while the
>> other end is open source for all to freely use. Fortunately for
>> educational robotics I believe that there is a middle ground that
>> can satisfy the needs of the educator and business. Educational
>> robotics is a mixture of different components adding up to a
>> solution that ultimately improves the learning process. Aside from
>> curricular materials and teacher training, the solution will have
>> multiple components: computer software for design, programming, and
>> simulation; hardware the robot mechanism itself along with sensors
>> and structural components; and firmware used to control the robot
>> mechanism and interface with the computer. The challenge for
>> business is to find the right balance between proprietary and open
>> source while keeping their family fed, clothed and housed.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

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Received on Thu Oct 8 08:31:50 2009