"NanoSumo" Project Pages
(Home to: www.nanosumo.com & www.nano-sumo.com
)
So what's a "Nano" Anyway ?
No... A "Nano" is not a kind of cow! I just got
this cow gif in an email yesterday and decided it needed a home. I've named
the cow Nano and am putting it in charge of this website. Speak well of Nano
or you will be banned from here forever!
Anyway... "Nano" (not the cow) refers to a "Nano-Sumo"
robot. This class of robot is defined as a completely autonomous
(self-controlled) little robot measuring no more than 25 millimeters on a side
(less than a cubic inch) and weighing no more than 25 grams (not very much).
These little guys are on the "cutting edge" of tiny robot technology
and present a daunting challenge to the robot builder. It seems that every
part you can scrounge for a nano is just a little too big to fit. That
leaves you empty handed when you start the project. That's where I am now,
but then that's what makes this hobby so much fun!
What Is This Site?
This site's really about the cow and a place for me to ramble, but I
hope to put some other cool stuff here that you will enjoy seeing. So here
we go... One of the things I enjoy most on the
Internet these days is Monty Goodson's MegaBitty
discussion group on Yahoo. The group
was started to share information on his "MegaBitty" robot controller
board, but it seems to be turning into a hangout for guys doing a lot of other
really neat stuff. One of the major topics of discussion lately has been
the subject of Nano-Sumo construction. I really don't have the time
right now to build my own nano, but certain aspects of the challenge really
intrigue me. From monitoring all the postings, it would appear that the
geartrain is the biggest challenge. There just doesn't seem to be any
good solution to that since all the parts commonly available are just way too
big. Having pondered the problem for a while, I am now giving in to the
temptation to join the geartrain challenge. I don't know if I'll actually be able to
build something that works, but I'm about ready to give it a shot!
Since there was some unused space on the wildrobots.com
website, I have decided to setup this "sub-site" for my Nano adventure
and let everyone watch me stumble and fumble along. The main reason I'm
not doing these postings in the MegaBitty
group is that Yahoo restricts the posting of big pictures. Here, I will be
able to do whatever I want. I think good pictures add a lot
and sometimes they convey ideas in a way that's impossible to do with words.
Posting here will also let me keep all my postings together, which is a good
thing since this project might take twenty years to complete. I really have no
idea where I'm going with this but I hope to have some fun and I welcome you to
ride along.
What This Site Isn't
Since my time to "play" is very limited, I probably
won't be able to respond to direct emails about the project. I have
disabled sending any emails through nanosumo.com and obviously would rather not
get hobby emails at work. Documentation for this project will probably be
sketchy. I'll do the best I can with the time I've got. My goal here is just to have some
fun with nano robotics and let you look over my shoulder while I'm doing
it. I am blessed to have some pretty nice tools to work with so some
things I make may be pretty difficult for you to duplicate. Nevertheless,
I hope you'll find it interesting. I regret that I will not be able to
make parts for others. This is going to have to be a "WYSIWYG"
adventure!
One Final Thought...
I just looked back over what I did here tonight and I can see already that this is
not what I set out to do. What I really had
in mind was not much more than a couple blank pages for pictures and comments. Oh well!
We'll go with this like it is now and see where it takes us. If this
doesn't work out, just remember that the cow was the one in charge here! ...John
Last Updated: 08/23/03
(C) 2004 Tigerbotics