robots.net blog for Keith Rowell

Contribute to Knewt 2.0

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 17:10:25 GMT

Commemorate your contribution to the development of version 2.0 of the Knewt robotic biped project with an iPhone case. Knewt 2.0 will be bigger, have better more powerful motors, auto balance, and be wireless. The bigger size will allow Knewt to climb standard human scale stairs.

http://www.cafepress.com/keithrowell.661706144

Knewt Video from 2006 Robot Rally

Wed, 12 May 2010 19:28:19 GMT

Richard Bodor has posted some videos of the Robot Rally that include Knewt's presentation.
See the other competitors at this wonderful competition on the AHRC site.

All Knewt Videos:
Robot Rally 2006
Turning Sequence with head
A short walk
Turning 'sans head'
Squat Thrusts
Tap Dancing 1
Tap Dancing 2
Test Stand Movie
Servo Control Test

VacBot

Wed, 12 May 2010 19:28:19 GMT

Bob Baxter and Keith Rowell's Vac-mobile in the 2006 rice contest.

Knewt at Beep Beep Gallery

Wed, 12 May 2010 19:28:19 GMT

Knewt makes an appearance at the opening of Beep Beep gallery in Midtown.

I went to the Beep Beep gallery opening and displayed some robots and cards to promote our club. It's a small space with a cool sign off Ponce between downtown and Virginia Highlands. There were easily 100 people there. There was food and drinks and music. It was quite a party. There were about 10 to 15 artists represented. Knewt and "entourage" sat on a table with a stack of AHRC cards. The party was still going on at 11:30 when I packed them up.

keith, thanks for the forward and the cool email. people really liked your robots alot. i'm glad you had a good time.

Mark Basehore

Knewt wins First Place

Wed, 12 May 2010 19:28:19 GMT

Knewt and his trophy sit on the Dekalb Tech 6 axis CNC milling machine

Knewt wins First Place in the Open Competition
of the 2006 AHRC Robot Rally

Video

First and formost I'ld like to recognise Knewt's team members, Stuart Rolf and Bob Baxter for the fine work that made Knewt possible. We ran 3 motion routines on the parallax board that proved that the robot could move about and stand on one foot without falling down. The "not falling down" I think was the "clincher".

The Rally overall was a lot of fun, there was a fine array of robots present and I'm proud for Knewt to be recognized by such a prestegious group. Thank you AHRC for such a fine event.

Bob Baxter, Stuart Rolf, Keith Rowell

12 May 2010

Wed, 12 May 2010 19:28:19 GMT

Frank Borowick presents me with the first place trophy as Richard Bodor looks on.

COOOL! Well done, Sir. Were you way ahead of the also-rans?
Bill Hotch

There were 4 others, 1 lego with a hand (end affector), one with a camera, a butler, and a line follower. Knewt was less than 1 point above 2nd place. These are some very clever guys.

http://www.botlanta.org/rally2006/scores.html

http://www.botlanta.org/rally2006/index.html

12 May 2010

Wed, 12 May 2010 19:28:19 GMT

Knewt on the floor of the Open Competition Arena

Thanks to Dale and Ann Hetherington for the fine photos.

12 May 2010

Wed, 12 May 2010 19:28:19 GMT

commenting on the movements

Creative Loafing covers the Dorkbot meeting

Wed, 12 May 2010 19:28:19 GMT

creative loafing article

Putting the "bot" in dorkbot that evening was presenter Keith Rowell. Rowell screened video clips of robots, including robots walking, robots running, robots fighting one another, robots shooting flames, a stylish robo-rhino, and much to the amusement of the audience, a robot kicking a wastebasket down a set of steps. When finished, he fired up his own creation, a biped robot named Knewt. It looked like a robo-dinosaur.
Andisheh Nouraee

Knewt Presents at the first Dorkbot Atl meeting

Wed, 12 May 2010 19:28:19 GMT

Dorkbot presentation

Dorkbot is an art group that is making use of technology as a medium. Their motto is "people doing strange things with electricity". There were about 30 people there and they seemed to have a good time.

Knewt was 3rd on the agenda following Greg Kellum and Craig Dongoski.

Greg's endeavor uses a computer and midi dimmers to control lights. He did a very cool "layering" of control to add hand motions from a data glove, on top of a programmed sequence. It had an eerie "ethereal" effect, like dappled shade of trees in the breeze, or sun through broken clouds. He explained all the technical aspect pretty thoroughly.

Craig showed a system for reaching the "sound of drawing". He controls various electronic input with the user's input on a special piezo board that makes the drawing process "audible". The samples we listened to were very thought provoking. In the "nonsense" one could make out the scratching of a pen, breathing, barking, voices. The objective it seems is to evoke images from the listeners sub-consciousness. I'ld say it works, because you can't really discern the noises, but they are strangely familiar. Like a tool for getting into the creative "zone".

These are two fine examples of interface technology being used for creative purposes. Art being the motive. I wonder what it would look like to have art techniques being used for technological purposes? A cliche might be conductive paint used as circuitry. Any other suggestions?

In Knewt's portion of the show, I showed lots of the reference material that inspired Knewt to be built in the first place, and talked about what makes up the "robot aesthetic" in general comparing the "cute" factor in Japanese design to the "terminator" factor in American movie robots. The response was very good, I think it was a success.

Thanks to Jason Freeman for organizing the meeting and for having Knewt on the agenda.