Dog trainers. the questions from last week:
+ what is the difference between fact and fiction of robotics?;
+ do the visions of science fiction drive technological development?
we will continue to ask these, so keep them in mind, however, now we move to the reality of contaminants in our society.

First Sample Entry

For the idog team:

Preliminary design notes:

on adapting the Idog music player to play music so the the beat/min rate is proportional to the level of indoor pollutants (which specifically is yet to be specified, depending on the measurability and what contaminants are of local concern).

To solve: notes on controlling a music player--adding beats/min(bpm) info to music library such as itunes, and how to talk to itunes(or other software to select tracks on the basis of this.

Initial data aquisition interfaces (DAQ):

http://www.activewireinc.com/docs/usb_info.htm
http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/14681

Prelimary sensor suggestions:

http://www.figarosensor.com/
http://www.figarosensor.com/products/2600pdf.pdf
http://www.figarosensor.com/products/4161pdf.pdf

Indoor Air quality issues for further investigation:

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/homes/index.html
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/formalde.html this is the particular concern about the pressed wood IKEA products, but is there a suitable sensor
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/formaldehyde/evaluation.html

And some more stuff on indoor contaminants, and measuring this:
http://www.cectoxic.org/publications.html#cabinet
http://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_242600.html

Mike is about to post the dissection of the F-350 SuperDuty Ford Truck, that looks like it has servo steering control and a nice planetary gear system. Given that this is the case the robopet team is in need of an initial design and some more parts. ASAP. Kev has characterized the robopet behavior and is posting the dissection. Some links to get you going:
http://wiring.org.co/
http://www.seattlerobotics.org/guide/servos.html
http://wiring.org.co/reference/electronics/servo.html
and then the sensors that your dog will use will depend on the site of investigation.
Go!