Beat the serve

Work from Wunderman Dubai on January 1, 2004

The primary aim of the game was to build public interest in the Dubai ATP Tennis Championships. Built in Flash MX, the game featured a unique 3-dimensional virtual reality engine that was capable of simulating acceleration, gravity and basic drag. User scores and profiles were managed using an ASP and Microsoft SQL Server back-end.

Though it didn’t win at the regional Arjo Wiggins Design Awards in 2004, the microsite was the only one to make the judges’ cut.

Download the game

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Email engine

Work from Wunderman Dubai on November 1, 2003

This project was the first phase in a larger project to build a full-fledged extranet for clients and designers and developers to interact, without having to run through client servicing. Developed in ASP and Oracle, the email engine featured powerful email template and user database management tools, discretely hidden behind the simple interface.

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Microcontroller cluster

Work from AUS on May 1, 2003

The aim of this project was to develop a cost-effective anthropomorphic manipulator and a sensor glove, which would be capable of real-time control and haptic feedback, supported by a distributed computing microcontroller network. It investigates the design and engineering of anthropomorphic joints, force-feedback control systems and microcontroller nodes.

Ever since the late 1930s, the field of robotic engineering has gained significant attention in the scientific community. Starting off with primitive mechanical designs to perform mundane two-state tasks, engineers gradually moved on to more complex robots which were able to perform human-like activities, such as lifting objects. However, it was only in the early 1970s that the true potential of anthropomorphic robots was realized. By definition, an anthropomorphic robot is one which is built around human geometry and derived from the study of human form and action. Several robots, such as Honda’s ASIMO¹ were the result of large-scale research and development in anthropomorphic robotics over the last decade. The design of anthropomorphic manipulators is particularly challenging as it involves replicating human form, without the luxury of muscle-and-bone joints afforded to nature.

Two engineering concepts that have become inseparable from anthropomorphic robot design are those of haptic feedback and real-time distributed processing networks. The term haptic feedback refers to the process where haptic sensory information (sense of touch or force applied on a surface) is measured or calculated on a primary device and relayed to a secondary device for possible replication. Haptic feedback gives anthropomorphic manipulators the ability to handle both light-fragile objects and heavy-rigid objects. In the absence of haptic feedback, the anthropomorphic manipulator would either be too weak to handle Rigid objects or too strong for light-fragile objects.

The second concept of real time distributed processing networks, plays a crucial role in processing and communicating large amounts of information both within an anthropomorphic module and to external modules. The advantage of such networks is that they enable system engineers to effortlessly implement a large number of interface ports using modular programming techniques, yet at the same time, sustain high data update frequencies. Furthermore, the reduced size of microcontroller units used in anthropomorphic manipulators, allows them to be conveniently distributed in small spaces over the manipulator, with only one interconnecting 3-channel bus.

The project is divided into three distinct research areas – the ‘Sensor glove with haptic feedback’, the ‘Microcontroller clusters’ and the ‘Anthropomorphic manipulator’. Briefly stated, the sensor glove will measure the movements of a human hand, which, in turn, will be processed and communicated via the microcontroller clusters to the anthropomorphic manipulator. The anthropomorphic manipulator, in turn, will replicate the sensor glove’s movements, and at the same time provide haptic feedback to the sensor glove through the microcontroller clusters.

Download the final report, presentation and Engineering Day poster.

1. Honda Motor Co. (2001), “Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility (ASIMO)”, Honda Motor Co. [http://world.honda.com/asimo]

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Magellan

Work from AUS on April 25, 2003

A free text indexer is a piece of software that is able to extract the textual content in a document that contains additional visual formatting (in this case, HTML tags), and store the same in a meaningful and easily retrievable format. The aim of this project was to develop a simple free text indexer for HTML based documents, capable of returning search results for one or more sites, comprised of between 50-200 pages each.

The primary objective of a free-text indexer for HTML documents is to retrieve the pure textual content of one or more HTML documents and store the results in a database, in a manner that can be easily retrieved. The free-text indexer developed in this project only parses HTML documents suffixed with a .htm or .html extension. Additional objectives of this project also include performance testing of the developed algorithm, both in terms of content indexing time and content retrieval time.

The key to developing an effective indexing algorithm lies in being able to successfully account for all the content in a page, while at the same time, ensuring that the space taken up for the same purpose, is kept to the bare minimum. The indexing algorithm developed in this project is quite primitive, when compared to grandiose schemes like Google,. However, the purpose of this project is to serve as the foundation for a more effective scheme aimed at improving content retrieval time. Content indexing time, though important, is not critical to the ‘user experience’, which should take a higher priority. Furthermore, developing algorithms that improve content indexing at the cost of content retrieval also increase the real-time load on web servers that service content retrieval requests.

Download the final report.

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Smart car demonstrator

Work from AUS on August 28, 2002

The Smart Car Demonstrator is an autonomous mobile robot that serves as a case study for the Time Triggered Architecture (TTA) and the Time Triggered Protocol for SAE Class A applications (TTP/A). The aim of the project was to determinine the real-life feasibility of implementing a TTP/A cluster, by validating the Smart Car’s ability to independently navigate through a static obstacle course, with the help of a combination of infrared and ultrasonic distance sensors.

The Time Triggered Protocol for SAE Class A applications (TTP/A)¹ is the newest member of the family of protocols for the Time Triggered Architecture (TTA)² developed at the Institut für Technische Informatik at the Technische Universität in Vienna, Austria. The following report will describe the design and implementation of an autonomous mobile robot that serves as a case study for TTA and TTP/A. The Smart Car is a demonstrator for the TTP/A protocol, with the aim of determining the real-life feasibility of implementing a TTP/A cluster¹.

The Smart Car’s primary task was to navigate through a static obstacle course by perceiving its immediate environment with the help of a combination of infrared and ultrasonic distance sensors. The car uses a series of grid generation and navigational path planning algorithms to choose the best path. Additionally, the car is also fault tolerant, in the sense that if it makes a poor navigational path decision and encounters a dead end, the car can retrace its path backwards and take an alternative path.

The Smart Car’s operation can be categorized into 4 main fields – Software, Electrical hardware, Electro-mechanical hardware and Mechanical hardware. The first layer in the hierarchy – the software layer, refers to software code for the TTP/A nodes compiled using the AVR GCC compiler. The second layer – the electrical hardware layer, consists of a fieldbus network, complete with TTP/A nodes and the car’s TTP/A communication bus. The third layer – electrical/electromechanical hardware layer refers to the sensors, power supplies, servos, LED indicators and other components such as additional power supply busses. The fourth layer – the mechanical layer, consists if the main chassis of the Smart Car, which is an off-the-shelf four-wheeled model car fitted with a wooden mounting board.

Download my contribution, the final report and the published paper.

1. Elmenreich, W., Haidinger, W., Kopetz, H., Losert, T., Obermaisser, R., Paulitsch, M., Trödhandl, C. (2002), “A Smart Sensor LIF Case Study: Autonomous Mobile Robot”, DSoS Project – Deliverable PCE3, Institut für Technische Informatik der Technischen Universität Wien, Vienna [http://www.vmars.tuwien.ac.at]
2. Kopetz, H., Bauer, G. (2002), “The Time Triggered Architecture”, Proceedings of the IEEE special issue on Modeling and Design of Embedded Software, October 2002

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