FYI Mark Tilden Signature Series Robosapien

I am curious to what extent Mark stills follows the original BEAM principles. Does this robot use a micro processor. Is it developed solely by mark or was it developed by a team.

JohnCreighton snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (John Creighton) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

Mark is the designer/creator. I can't comment if he had assistance. It does still use BEAM principles. Here is an excerpt from

The interesting thing about Robosapien, according to a recent article in Servo Magazine is the methods to make its legs and arms work. Instead of stepper motors attached to each joint controlled by a microprocessor, Robosapien uses a set of sliding plastic parts to deliver output from only a couple of motors. This reduces part number, wear and tear, and generally is more practical for low-cost production than the systems used in the Sony QRIO or Honda Asimo. Motor control in the Robosapien uses the "nervous net" methods of BEAM technology. This greatly reduces the amount of digital computing power used by Robosapien, and makes it more flexible than it might otherwise be.

The proof-of-concept prototype was built using BEAM techniques, and it's much speedier than the commercial version.

Ultimately, the patterns optimized by Mark on the Nv controller were adapted into a traditional "blob" microcontroller for mass-production. Also, it allowed the easier implementation of IR decoding and sound generation.

-Dave