special steps4 robotics habmaxime

8/9/2019 Special Steps4 Robotics Habmaxime

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MAKING A ROBOT READ A BOOK

I. A Robot Reading a Book?

We've been busy watching the NBA playoffs and analyzing the Bulls' chances for upsetting the BostonCeltics, which is apparently why we've missed this story that has had other sports bloggers wagging theirtongues for the past few days. Why anybody would bother to flip over the Bulls logo and think they see aRobot reading a bible while sitting on a bench is beyond us...

Can we see what they're talking about? Sure... but who spent enough time looking at the rotated logo todiscover a supposedly hidden double image that doesn't make any sense to include? A robot? Reading abible -- or some sort of large book? What does a robot or reading have to do with Bulls or basketball?Nada! See, the "hidden" images included in the FedEx and Baskin-Robbins logos mentioned actuallymean something relevant. And those logos don't need to be rotated to be seen. We're going to go withsilly coincidence on this one.

Ulysses "Seen"

It has been quite an odyssey, so to speak, for Rob Berry, Mike Barsanti, Josh Levitas and Chad Rutkowski,

the partners in Throwaway Horse and the creators, in one sense or another, of the webcomic Ulysses

"Seen."Berry and Levitas started out doing a fairly straightfoward adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses,

with extensive notes and translations by Mike Barsanti just a click away from each page. Then the iTunes

store picked up their comic for the iPad, but Apple asked them to censor some of the content (ironic, in

light of the novel's history) and then reversed itself after the issue drew public attention. And now the

creators are closing the circle by bringing the comic into print: They have signed a deal with independent

publisher Atlas & Co. to bring out a print edition ofUlysses "Seen,"which will hopefully be on

bookstores shelves by BloomsDay.


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I talked to Berry, Atlas and Rutkowski about the new project and the challenges involved inbringing an interactive webcomic into print.

Brigid: Was making a print edition of the Ulysses comic part of your plan from the

beginning? If so, what role did you feel the webcomic would play in creating and

promoting the comic, and if not, at what point did you start thinking of a print edition?

Rob: Most of my plans about making comics instead of paintings (as I used to do) revolve

around the notion that I wanted to make stories and books instead of one-of-a-kind objects. Soeverything I've been doing these past couple of years has been seeing where the web and print

models are alike yet different. We always knew there'd be a desire to see this kind of a projectthrough to print, so it's designed with some of that potential in mind, but as an educational or

social platform we wanted to make sure Ulysses "Seen"was something completely different onthe web or iPad.

Brigid: From a purely technical point of view, one of the features of the webcomic right

now is that you can click on a panel and go directly to Mike's notes. How will that workwith the print version?

Rob: Yeah, that's a great example of one of the differences about the shape of web contentversus print. And there are a lot of nuances in Joyce's work that I can keep somewhat enigmatic

in my comic adaptation so that Mike can explain further through the Readers' Guide. I reallyhappy to say that Atlas & Co wants to preserve that kind of scholarship approach to the project.

This means Mike will be adding a new version of his Readers' Guide notes to fit the print model.Really, really happy about that.

Brigid: Another format question: The webcomic is formatted horizontally, to fit a

computer screen, which can be awkward in terms of shelving in bookstores and libraries.Are you going to keep that or reformat the comic vertically?

Rob:I designed the comic adaptation in the "landscape" format because I felt that there's adifferent kind of interface going on in entertainment platforms these days. We're being given a

choice for reading books and watching movies seeing family photos all in one presentationarena; the monitor, and the monitor is, for the most part, horizontal.

But the design choices I made to keep in line with this trend will remain when we move to print.

The comic is horizontal, so it makes sense that the book would be as well. Comix is a languageof design to a large part, so changing the page design would be like starting over from scratch.

We'll be working right alongside the people at Atlas & Co to put together an attractive designthat I think any bookstore or library would be happy to feature on their shelves.

Brigid: On a more philosophical level, how do you think the experience of reading the

comic as a print volume (like the original novel) will differ from reading it digitally? Do

you think it's purely a mechanical difference, or does print add gravitas?


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Rob: Well, I think that in comix as it stands at the moment there's a certain truth to that as it'srelatively easy for cartoonists to get their work out in the world as a webcomic. There's a certain

perception about art and literature in general that one's talents are measured in whether or not astranger would pay money for them and that an unpublished author or unpaid blogger is "merely

an over-ambitious hobbyist." I've never really had much patience for that kind of thinking,

however.

With Ulysses "Seen" I and my partners set out to use our combined talents to give people a new

way to look at a really great novel and we took that goal very seriously whether it was for free onthe web or as a book in the neighborhood library. It'll feel great, believe me, to feel the book in

my hand, to hold the physical product. There's a feeling there that I suppose is much like"gravitas". But it's always really about the work you do behind the product, not the product itself,

right?

Brigid: Will you be altering the pages to remove any of the nudity or other potentially

problematic content?

Rob: Oh, absolutely not! It is a valuable point, however. A friend of mine is the comics librarianat Columbia and we had a conversation once about Moore and Gebbie's Lost Girls, a beautiful

book that is a "must have" for any collection, but where do you put it in a public library? TheRare Book Room so people have to wear gloves when touching it?

OurUlysses "Seen"is meant to have and respectfully portray all the earthiness of Joyce's 1922

edition of the novel. But to see it filed in a certain category or on a certain shelf because of thatwould, I think, be just as sad as placing it next to Witchblade in the "graphic novel" section by

sheer alphabetical order. It's a tricky business, that sorting out of content, and not something I'dbe particularly good at. But would we even have these same questions come up if we didn't some

how still believe that in America comicbooks are for kids? Would we even have a "graphicnovel" section?

Brigid: Your first volume covers the first chapter of the book, Telemachus, and also

Calypso, which is the fourth chapter. Are you rearranging it?

Rob: Right you are; "Calypso" is the fourth episode (Joyce didn't like the word "chapter") in

Ulysses and the next one we're covering. These episodes depict events that happen more or lesssimultaneously on Bloomsday and I made a decision about a year or so that I was going to go

chronologically through the day to make things a bit easier on new readers. There are echoesbetween the main characters' lives that are easier to showcase this way and I feel it moves people

a bit more into the meat of the drama by highlighting those similarities right away.

And it opens the door for something I wanted to do with episodes 2 and 5 ("Nestor" and "TheLotus Eaters"). Those two chapters will be drawn by me at the same time and presented together

chronologically as well, jumping every couple of pages from one to the other. A bit morecinematic approach, perhaps, but will still get them all in there. Promise.


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Brigid: How many volumes do you anticipate the finished work to be? Will it be longer

than the original?

Rob: There are 18 episodes to Joyce's novel and all of them present unique structural problems

for translating into the language of comix. It's difficult to say exactly then how many pages of

the comic each episode might yield, but the plan is for me to draw two episodes a year for thenext eight years. And two episodes seem to give us a nice size print volume with the Readers'Guide.

But the first episode, "Telemachus," is 21 pages in the novel and it took me 68 pages to carry it

off in the comic. James Joyce's Ulysses is 732 pages. Does this mean it'll take me 2,360 pages totranslate into comix? I certainly hope not, but this may be why some of my peers look at me like

I'm crazy. It's a very big book.

Brigid: Can you tell me a bit about the creation processhow you and Josh divide up the

story into pages, and how you create each one. They look like watercolor paintingsis that

right? And about how long does it take you to do a page, from start to finish?

Rob: All the adaptation work from novel to comic book storyboard is done by me, usually after

the four of us have had a chance to get together and talk about the particulars of a given chapter.After those storyboards are done we all sit down together to edit. Josh then does what we call a

"floorplan," putting in the hand-lettered text and key-lining the panels, so I'm actual putting mydrawings back in around the lettering. We make a black & white file first from my ink work and

then I do a watercolor version. Josh steps in again then enhancing the rougher watercolor throughPhotoshop. He'll be doing a lot of free-hand drawing in the coming chapters as well with sets,

props and patterns we'll be using throughout the book.

Brigid: Here's a technical question for Chad: Who owns the copyright on this? Is Ulysses inthe public domain?

Chad: We are using the 1922 version ofUlysses which our research indicates is in the pubicdomain in the United States. You'll notice, for example, that Project Gutenberg is treating the '22

as public domain in the U.S.

Throwaway Horse, of which Rob is a member, owns copyright to Rob's illustrations, thearrangement of the text and the Reader's Guide, among other things. We do not own the

underlying text ofUlysses or the words themselves.


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Brigid: OK, James, I just lost an hour of my life browsing the Atlas & Co. website. How

would you describe your company's focus, and how does Ulysses "Seen" fit into it?

James: Thanks so much for spending some time on our site, Brigid. We are publishers of qualitynonfiction, focusing on memoir, biography, and long-form reportage. Our primary concern is the

quality of the prose; the works we publish have a distinctive voice, a sense of literary tradition,and a consciousness of craft. What really interests me is story-telling; i'm a biographer (Delmore

Schwartz, Saul Bellow) and journalist as well as a publisher, so it's all part of the same narrative

impulse.

Brigid: Is this your first graphic novel, and if so, what sort of challenges do you anticipate

that a prose book does not present?

James: We have not been publishing fiction; my feeling is that other publishers are adept at

finding the new novelists, and have more experience, so we've focused our energies on what wedo best. But I am obsessed with the graphic form, and avid reader of Daniel Clowes, Art

Spiegelman, the late Harvey Pekar, R. Crumb and other graphic artists.

Ulysses fits our mandate as a publisher: it's a literary classic, unabridged and in its original form.

What's exciting to me is that the entire book is there; the illustrations are an enhancement, not asimplification. The technical challenge will be to include the scholarly commentary that's part ofthe package; we will find a way.

Brigid: How did you first become aware ofUlysses?


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James: My father, a physician by trade, was a Joyce freak, and loved to read the book aloud; Iheard a lot of it before I ever read it, in high school. Forty years ago, as a graduate student at

Oxford, I studied with Richard Ellmann, author of the definitive Joyce biography, and I'veconsidered myself an amateur Joyceanvery amateurever since.

Brigid: Who do you see as the audience for this book, and how will it be marketed?

James: This is a Ulysses for a large and diverse audience: The young reader wanting an

introduction to the book; the college student who knows the book and can enjoy it in this newform; and readers like myself, for whom Joyce is a familiar presence and who want to read the

book in a readily accessible form that will allow them to linger over the words to give thewords a new dimension without having to embark once again on the long march through the

whole book. It's a way of savoring Joyce.

We intend to market the book to these audiences in a targeted way, through course adoption; and to a

trade readership. It's going to be beautifully packaged, most likely in paperback, not as a "fine" book but

as a book to carry aroundnot just to own but to read.

Setting the Stage for Building a Robot

I will be doing a series of articles outlining the steps we have taken in building our robot.

Both Benjamin and I are newbies at this and thus it will be written for newbies. Articles

will be focused on a robot that will compete in the Fire Fighting contest, be able to roam

around the house and just be a fun learning tool. The 68HC912B32 is our processor, so

articles will be on interfacing to the B32 to various mechanical devices and sensors using

Sbasic as our programming language. Who are we?

We are a father and son team. I (Doug) am the father old enough to have a son in college. I

am an Electronic Engineer by training and I direct the international division for

information systems of Campus Crusade for Christ. As a hobby, I built my first three

computers from scratch, called Home Brew in those days. My son,Benjamin, is a second

year Computer Engineering student at UCF (University of Central Florida). I am the main

builder with my son the consultant, who has put me many hours ahead on this project with

his extensive knowledge.

Why a robot?

Count on it, if someone finds out you are building a robot they will ask why and what will it

do. Almost no matter what you say it will do, it will leave them cold. It will never do enough

to meet their movie expectations. Plus they dont, for the most part, understand the why of

building a robot. You and I do because we want to create and explore and we like the

challenge. So I tell them that I am entering the computer in the Fire Fighting contest. This

is something they can understand plus it gives you me goals to shoot for.

My real reason for building a robot goes back to a night when I was in grammar school

and stayed up dreaming about it. It has taken 35 years to become a reality. This is actually


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my second attempt at a robot. The first one was a couple of years ago based on an IBM PC

386SX. Weighted a ton, actually moved around but the CPU ate too much power and

would not stay alive for more than minutes at a time. It was a failure in the robot sense, but

I gained knowledge especially on what not to do.

Setting your goals

In any project you need to set goals or you will just wander around and maybe

accomplishing nothing. So you should have goals that you can aim towards. It may be small

(fire up a micro and turn on a led) or large (enter a contest). If it is a large goal then it

needs to be broken down into manageable and achievable goals or discouragement will set

in. Steps in setting your goals maybe:

y Do research on what has already been written and done. Get on the net and explore

and learn what others are doing. Go to the local library and explore books on

robots. Take your time and enjoy this step. Write things down as you go.

y

Analyze what you can do. If you are a beginner in electronics and computers, startsmall and then build from there.

y Write down your goals.

y Get started. Once the above is done, just start moving. Its called tossing your hat

over the fence. Once the hat is over the fence you are committed to climbing the

fence. My hat in this case was deciding on the CPU and buying it. With real money

committed you have to do it.

For example our goals are:

Main goals

y Enter the Fire Fighting contest. Therefore it must meet those requirements and has

enough abilities to compete.

y Have a robot that can just wander around the house and be a building base for

future projects.

Note: These goals are not mutually exclusive, but do cause compromises that will

cause the robot not to be the best in each world. Fire Fighting robot need to be as

small as possible to get through the doors quickly and still do the job. House robot

and building platform needs to be large enough to go on carpets and carry various

sensors and have strong enough motors to do the job.

Sub goals for steps to form robot reading a book

y Robot can be no bigger than 12" by 12" by 12" (fire contest)

y Needs strong base with strong motors

y Large enough wheels to go across carpet

y Need wheel sensors to judge speed and to keep going straight

y Candle detection sensor(s)


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y Floor detection, edge for real world and line for Fire contest

y Wall sensors (no touching)

y Way to blow out candle

y Portable power source

y A electronics platform that wiring can be easily changed

y

Feedback device while robot is on own to know what is happening on inside of CPUy Feedback device while robot is sensing to know what is inside a text book

y Need detection sensor(s) to make sure that is reading a text book

y

y Principles in building a robot

y Use connectors between assemblies so you can connect and reconnect as much as

possible things. This will happen a lot!

y If your robot base is layered like ours, make sure the layers come apart easily and

the wire connectors are long enough to test while layers are apart. This is important

for you will have to test between layers and having it lay open allows you to see if it

has the right voltages, etc.y Three ring binders. Building robots is about building information. I have two

binders, one holds all the information on the B32, second holds Encoder and other

articles, spec sheets. This has greatly increased the speed of the projects for I can

always find that article or information I need.

y Document what you have done. Keep a notebook of ideas. Paper is better for

remembering then gray matter. Save the gray matter for creativity.

y Tools. Get the right tools and have them there at all times. These maybe:

o Digital Volt Meter. Need the accuracy of digital. Analog has it place here

also.

o Digital Logic Probe to test what is happening on the input and outputs. Will

tell you if it is a pulse, if it is high or low and you can judge roughly the duty

of the cycle (by how leds change brightness). Get this a Radio Shack for

about $20.

o Proto-Board breadboard (where you can put chips on and use wires between

connections). I have two. One that sits on the desk with its own power supply

to test circuits and for some of the interfacing to robot. Second is on the robot

itself to hold the electronic. You can get these at Radio Shack or electronics

store.

o A scope would be nice but expensive. Borrow one if you can. While at Radio

Shack I found on sale a ProbeScope that has an RS232 connector into your

PC and turns your PC into a simple scope. Last one there and got it for $30.

It lets me see the signal, lets me know the period and frequency doing the

math for me and its duty rate.

o A work space with everything handy. I had to carve out a work space that

would allow me to work a few minutes at a time without having to set it up

each time.

o A PC to program and download to robot. With a family of four kids the

family computer is maxed. So I borrow my work notebook that is usually

home with me. If that is not possible get a low end PC that is cheap on the


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second hand market. Any 486 should do it for this project. The most CPU

intensive part of this is the browsing on the net which can be done on another

computer.

o Organization bins. My wife got fed up with our mess in our work area and

we straightened up my stuff. With the various needed pieces in bins

everything is now locatable.

Conclusion

Have fun working on your robot, it will be a worthwhile experience. The next article will

be on the choice of the 68HC912B32 and why; choosing the programming language and

choosing the CPU kit. It will be hopefully a lot more into making it happen. Future articles

after that will include: using Sbasic with the B32 board, hooking up H bridge wheel

drivers, using an RF link to/from PC to robot, using the Victor compass and wheel

encoders.

Photo for making robot Doug and Benjamin in front of work area.ProbeScope and Digital Logic Probe. The

ProbeScope was great in testing and

debugging the shaft encoder. It hooks up to

your computer and uses it's power. Only

problem is on my notebook computer has

only one RS232 port. I could freeze the signal

and analysis it.

The Logic Probe is great for testing CMOS

logic. You can test if it is high/low or pulsing

and shows the results using both LEDs andsounds.

Work area. Not a lot of space but it does the

job. Far left is all the books on the shelf. The

two notebooks on floor is the documentation.

The table is left over from the kids home

school days.

Bins are to the right. I can't seem to figure

out where to put the Nuts and Volts

Magazines. They are so oversized they don't

fit anywhere.

The important thing is keeping everything

within reach so time is not lost getting up.


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Two Laws of Robotics

The first introduced in "Runaround." These

laws describe three fundamental rules that robots must

follow in order to operate without harming their human

creators. The laws are:

1. A robot must obey the orders given to it by humanbeings, except where such orders would conflict with

the First Law.

2. A robot must protect its own existence as long as

such protection does not conflict with the First and Second Laws.

REFERNCES

y Finger Board II: (Handy Board w/o IO)

y Mekatronix is a manufacturer of Autonomous Mobile Robots, Robot Kits

interesting bases http://www.mekatronix.com/

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