Category: Travel

Michaelangelo’s Teleporter – Leaf 3 Rome and Kaohsiung

On By cjx07sterIn Travel, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Leaf 3…

“Ferodo, look out !” said Alynn, as Ferodo, distracted, lurched across the road.  The car braked, Ferodo saw the car, and the driver in a black leather jacket – finger up – and with his head out of the window yelling in italian as he screamed away.  Ferodo saw the street and the car with extreme clarity and just got himself together when his cellphone rang.  He fumbled all through his coat, and got the phone. Green button ok, “Yes” said Ferodo. “Nin Hao Mr Ferodo” said the voice on the phone. “Someone from Taiwan” said Ferodo, “Taiwan !” said Alynn, “Get off the road” she screamed again.  “OK OK” said Ferodo jumping back on the curb. “Keep it cool”.

As Ferodo got back on the curb, the Taiwanese concierge at the grand hotel Kaosiung was on the phone, to let him know that his limo he had ordered earlier that day had arrived and he should come down to the lobby now.

Suddenly Ferodo found himself not on the curb but in the Hotel in Kaosiung. In his room, no Alynn, no Rome, and on his cell phone to the concierge.  The red light flashing on his room phone.

The fire alarm suddenly went off in the room.  He shut the cellphone, dived for the door, mainly to escape the incessant alarm.  He couldn’t smell any smoke decided on eight flights of stairs rather than the elevator. Started down and ended up in the lobby.

There in the lobby was a mild form of panic, people in pyjamas, t-shirts, suits, and other forms of dress.  All were heading for the lobby doors, themselves opening and closing at random.

Sir, Sir, don’t worry.  False alarm. You wait here a minute.” said a uniformed person with a hat.

It looked dark outside.  Ferodo looked at his watch, he really had no memory now of his short time in Rome.  It was as if he had dreamt it.  Where was Alynn ? . he thought briefly.

He walked out of the lobby, down the stairs onto the main drag of Kaohsiung.  “Forget the limo” he told the concierge as he walked out. “Cancel please”.

It was cold, but he needed to clear his head.  Fading memories of this afternoon and Rome and now a pretend fire in the hotel.  A bit much really.

Not over yet. He walked down the street, and as he wandered down he turned into a deserted street down by the water.  There was no one to be seen, the street was deserted.  It got gradually lighter.  He called into a nearby cafe and ordered a drink.  “Lotus Root” he said. “San Yuan” said the vendor – an attractive girl who smiled at him.  It got dark again.  He walked out into the street.  It got lighter and noisier and he ended up inside a restroom in a restaurant in Rome.  He did have a drink in his hand, but it was not Lotus Root, or flower tea for that matter.  It was a chinotto, in a small bottle.  He was totally alone in the restroom, but then a loud banging on the door, took his attention.. “Ferodo ?” “You in there ?”.. – sounded like Alynn he thought.

This story to be continued, based on the conjunction of the uncertainty principle, so elegantly captured in Ashley’s photograph above, and the contraction of time within the skylight of the church of Angels and Martyrs in Rome.

To be continued from these notes.. CJS

INV 11 – Robot Arm Wrestling – Leaf 1 – Proportional Control

On By cjx07sterIn Automata, Control, Engineering, Innovation, Intelligence, Travel, UncategorizedLeave a comment
Courtesy Aralani

Blogubarra – May ’11

OK Computer – I admit that i am writing this post today, inspired to write this down having seen all sorts of my colleagues come to grief after a few seconds of fun riding mechanical bulls.  These bulls seem to be all the rage in Texas at least.  I’ve just got back from there, and lets face it, felt a bit more than afraid of getting on one, putting myself in the hands of some kind of cowboy operator with a manual  controller, with the crowd screaming:-

“Make it go faster”

And the poor guy falling off after around 3 seconds.  Mechanical bull riding seems all about the embarrassment of novices rather than, actually having fun on the bull..  never mind. !

So this innovation is hypothetical, how would you create an unbeatable robot controller, which could not be beaten at arm wrestling, which was evenly matched in brain and brawn to it’s contestant, man or woman, with a beer in hand.

So innovation 11 is a cautious step down this pathway…

Mark I iRobot wrestler has a strong arm, a hand, and a controller managing the arm and it’s own winning strategy.  The initial controller is just a proportional controller, or servo regulator, and has a strategy relating to the setpoint or angle of the arm from the vertical.

I step up to the arm, have beer, see the lighted buttons, and plan to select “Right ARM” which is the hand I will use to wrestle the robot.

“Got any change mister ?” says the robot

“Sure”, I say

“Up for a challenge then… bet you can’t beat my arm !” says the robot.

“No worries mate, I wrestle tractors all the time, downunder.  You have no chance.” I say.

I sit down, adjust my Akubra, and then just put in the money, select right arm fast, grab the arm and see what happens.

The robot arm instantly starts humming and pushes up to the vertical position.  I let it, ‘cos I want to see what it does.  So the arm is just sitting there at vertical.  I push left, the restoring force on the arm increases directly proportional to the force I use to push it over.  The more I push, the more the robot arm leans over, but the more force I have to apply to get it to lean over.

At about 45 degrees to the left, the robot says ” ah I see you are stronger than I thought, I must apply more effort. ”

“No worries I say, go for it ”

The robot arm strategy engine figures that its proportional gain may not be enough since I got it over to 45 degrees, and I challenged it with “No Worries Mate”, something the robot didn’t understand.  But correctly guesses it had something to do with confidence, purely by the tone.

So suddenly the force increased and it had pushed my arm back to 22 degrees from centre.

I figured ok, proportional control being used here, because I can just keep on pushing and the robot can never win. I wondered what other tricks it had up it’s sleeve.

after 1 minute the robot says impatiently “Look buddy, I don’t have all day, so I am going to finish this off in about 30 seconds”

I quickly think, 30 seconds, the robot must be going to change the setpoint to 90 degrees against me.  So I have 30 seconds to figure out how to defeat this.

I figure, since the robot is currently set to drive the arm to the vertical before the ‘coup de grace’ all I have to do it trick it into driving the arm my direction, and then suddenly I can win.

“Hey Robot, I exclaim, in 10 seconds you will be defeated!”

Before the robot has time to reply, I gradually relax my arm and the robot arm pushes it to vertical, right up in the middle, and at that point there is no force from either me or the robot. I suddenly pull the robot arm past vertical to the point where it is about 10 degrees from winning, I move fast so that the momentum of the arm moving helps move it further before the restoring force catches up.  Since it is proportional control, and the robot hasn’t changed the setpoint, the robot controller immediately applies a restoring force to push the arm back to vertical, i.e. going my way, with full force.  I suddenly reverse direction and both the robot controller and I are both pushing the arm at full force in my direction.

“Geronimo” I exclaim, the robot arm moves rapidly past vertical in my direction and the momentum of the heavy arm and my force push it over further and further until it hits the table.

“Uncle !” says the robot.. – who taught this thing language ? who the hell is “Uncle” ?

“Mate !.. see thats how it is done. Cheers “.

Proportional Control

In proportional control, the controller generates an output or restoring force proportionally equal to the difference between the setpoint and the actual position multiplied by some gain factor.

Generally speaking proportional control is kind of ok, but depending on the disturbance pushing the controlled variable away from the setpoint, you will always have an error, since it is the error which creates the control output.  No error, equals no output.

One of us on a Tricycle

On By cjx07sterIn TravelLeave a comment

Yes, in the early days of my life, I recall we got a tricycle for a  birthday or Christmas present.  It was a present that we often had to share, all three of us.  We actually didn’t mind sharing presents, it saved our parents looking stupid for buying 3 identical, or different coloured presents, and it also saved them the hassle of fights due to buying different presents, which would always be compared in fine detail to determine exactly who of the three of us were being favoured.

The metal tricycle we got, was pretty ok.  Usually only two of the three of us wanted to play with it at anyone time, and with three, you could have 3 variations on a theme of two people on a bike at anyone time.  The other resting in between turns and laughing like hell about how awkward the other two would look.

But pure serenity, when the other two were off somewhere, and you could take full command of the tricycle for yourself, your own bell, your own destination, and your own time.  Of course, this led to higher risk elements, and no one holding you back with criticism.  You could wander off into the bush, on a bumpy bush track and try not to crash too hard, with a bell to compete with the galahs hanging around in the trees, and the flies, and lizards wandering in and out of view. The three wheels were ok going slow, but instability increased with speed, resulting inevitably in cuts and scrapes and blood and slight bruising, which of course you would pretend did not happen.

Eventually tired and most probably sore, you would just sit, and listen, leaning on the handlebars, waiting to get your breath back, not talking, just listening, and soon more wondering at the bush around you.   The quiet of the bush on entry would start to give way to more and more sound as the pain gave way, as though your hearing were amplified.  Each chirp or rush of wings, or screech of a cockatoo would impinge on the waiting mind, and become more random, more a total soundscape.

After a while you realised, that the chaos of the Australian bush is not something the eye fathom’s real well.  However the ear is perfect.  Stereo listening with eyes closed gives you the panorama of life and what is happening.  If the wind shifts, so does the sound.  If the light shifts, so does the sound.  You wonder what happens when it all goes silent, and you open your eyes, and blink, looking around to see who or what happened, and even what will happen, as though the bush life can sense something coming, like an earth tremor, or like a storm, or some change in the weather

But you would be sitting on the bike, as if to own it, and to prove to the natural world around that you, man, machine, were one, and ready to hike off back home at any point in time. Ready to return to the world of compromise and cooperation and sharing and scrapes.

Close your eyes. Longer than a minute, and listen to what is happening around you. It will inform you of a reality far beyond sight, which is much better suited for other things, like riding a tricycle.

Note:  The sculpture featured in this post is by Stephen Gregory.  If you happen to be near Goodwood UK you can visit the Cass sculpture park and talk to the all hearing tricycle rider sitting there, who itself is trying to fathom by listening, just what is going on.

Ferodo and The Michaelangelo Teleporter

On By cjx07sterIn Qantum Physics, TravelLeave a comment

Leaf 1 – Kaosiung Taiwan

Ferodo was discussing the architecture of Michaelango with his friend Alynn.  They were actually in Kaosiung Taiwan for a conference on manufacturing.

At the end of the day it was now dark and raining out side, Alynn had wanted to go for a walk, but they caught the subway itself.  They had got off the train at R10, and while still in the subway had came accross the most beautiful stained glass dome.  It was massive and filled the whole station with light.  Alynn wandered off for a bit, and Ferodo was just thinking about the time.  Stained glass, all very well, but he was getting hungry.  He got distracted by one of the panels of blue with things that looked a bit like panels.

Ferodo tried to touch the glass overhead, he looked more and more carefully, and thought he could see the reflection of Alynn in the glass.  He really wasn’t sure why he had started thinking about Michaelangelo.  TS Elliot perhaps, the poet, that was probably it. “In the room the women come and go. Talking of Michelangelo. The yellow fog that rubs its …

He suddenly relaxed, but felt a rush of energy and then all of a sudden, he was inside the glass, all colors of the rainbow, but like a yellow fog of Ferodo, all mixed up in the glass but moving through it, like the eastern current of “Finding Nemo” he thought… hey dudes.. I got to get off !.  As he travelled through it was like he could get off at many stops, there were fast moving tributaries of glass of different colours.  It was hot and his misty body was feeling more like a thought than a reality.

As he travelled, he saw his watch going backward, the digits counting backward at reasonable speed, like about 1 hour per second. and the glass, originally bathed in the light of the subway became dark, and then gradually brighter and brighter, like the sun was just shining through the colored walls of it all.

The character of the glass changed from being like a long transporting tube, to a more flat space with Roman Numerals scattered around like a dial of some kind. He could see more and more through it and sped toward a large yellow disk in the centre of the dial.

He crashed through the glass disk and his misty self suddenly recoalesced into a different place. He was on the floor of a large vestibule where a tour group were.  Mostly women.  He looked up and could make out a large dome, with a disk of stained glass at the top.  It was he felt sure the disk he had just crashed through, but was complete and whole, with a collection of maybe planetary bodies on it’s outer rim.

Well for a start Alynn was not there.  He looked around, calling out.  The noise of the evening railway station was gone, replaced by chattering tourists in the classroom. The people were speaking Italian, and a choir was singing what sounded like hymns to a large organ sound filling the space. Alynn wandered in asking, “would you like to go to a small cafe, not far from here” she said.  “It’s on the via Nazionale, just down the road.”

Leaf 2 – Roma Italy and the fixed Teleporter

Ferodo looked up at the skylight above, all round like a portal, and felt the cold hard floor he was sitting on, with women all around, stopped in their reverie of the amazing paintings and colors all over the walls, who quickly rushed to his help.  Alynn, kind of got pushed back out of the way, and the others helped Ferodo to his feet, speaking Italian, and all concerned.

Alynn pushed through the crowd inside and grabbed Ferodo.  She said “Look you’ll be fine !, same thing happened to me just before you.  Let’s go.” She dragged Ferodo outside, in the sunshine, none of this looked familiar to him, he certainly was not in Taiwan, where he was a few minutes ago.  The bright sun shone down and it appeared to be late morning.  He looked back at the door he had just come through and looked up at what appeared to be a fairly modern facade in an ancient building.

Alynn stopped, “look she said, we’re in Roma, lovely Rome, and we just arrived on the Michaelangelo Teleporter, it’s been there a few years, since the skylight was put in.  The same artist for the Kaohsiung subway light dome, and this Roman church skylight, I think that is the connection, was involved.  Michaelangelo designed the church, but originally it was the Diocletian baths.  Now it is the bassilica, St Mary, Angels and Martyrs.  Come on, lets go”.

This was all happening pretty fast, but then life was like that.  A door opened, a portal opened, what was the difference. Only about 6000 miles.  But it looked like time and date were the same, it was Monday morning instead of Monday evening. Now he was in sunny Rome instead of darkening Kaohsiung.

The new question, should he come, or go.  He had come, but he didn’t choose to come, did he ? Could he go back ?