Smithsonian Institution Archives

Robotics Videohistory Collection, 1989-1990

Summary

Collection ID:
SIA.FARU9552
Creators:
Dates:
1989-1990
Languages:
English
Physical Description:
12 videotapes (Reference copies). 14 digital .wmv files and .rm files (Reference copies).
Repository:
Smithsonian Institution Archives

Introduction

Introduction
The Smithsonian Videohistory Program, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation from 1986 until 1992, used video in historical research. Additional collections have been added since the grant project ended. Videohistory uses the video camera as a historical research tool to record moving visual information. Video works best in historical research when recording people at work in environments, explaining artifacts, demonstrating process, or in group discussion. The experimental program recorded projects that reflected the Institution's concern with the conduct of contemporary science and technology.
Smithsonian historians participated in the program to document visual aspects of their on-going historical research. Projects covered topics in the physical and biological sciences as well as in technological design and manufacture. To capture site, process, and interaction most effectively, projects were taped in offices, factories, quarries, laboratories, observatories, and museums. Resulting footage was duplicated, transcribed, and deposited in the Smithsonian Institution Archives for scholarship, education, and exhibition. The collection is open to qualified researchers.

Descriptive Entry

Descriptive Entry
Session participants included students, professors, technicians, and engineers. Session One took place in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, on March 31, 1989. Lubar focused on the development of a robot at a university with a strong engineering tradition and a program with very practical goals. Lung-Wen Tsai, Jigien "Roger" Chen, and Shapour Azarm, professors in the department, oversaw the development and production of a robot designed by students for a national competition. The professors discussed the competition and the university's involvement with it, student participation and their level of effort, design of robots, and the nature of engineering design and its application to robots. This highly visual session also documented the students' work in the laboratory and machine shop, and classroom progress reports about the robot under construction.
Session Two took place at Odetics, Inc., in Anaheim, California, on December 14, 1989, where Lubar documented the only commercial firm currently producing walking robots. While there, he talked with Steve Bartholet, the inventor of the firm's first walking robot, ODEX I. Bartholet spoke about initial concepts and design configurations, and demonstrated structural features of the robot while it walked. Lubar also talked with Robert Drap, who designed the computer system for a self-contained machine. Joel Slutzkey, Odetics president, provided the overview of the company's role in robotics research and development. Finally, Lubar interviewed technicians involved in the most recent phase of robotics development, ODEX III. Armen Sivaslian determined production methods and demonstrated telescopic leg structure. Steven Corley, a software developer, demonstrated the debugging process (modify and re-code) for software that controlled the robot's leg operations.
Session Three took place at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 20 and 21, 1990. The Institute was established in 1979 to bring together cooperative programs between academia and industry to conduct research in robotics technologies relevant to industrial problems. The focus of the session was to record the history of Ambler (Autonomous Mobile Exploration Robot), a six-legged walking robot commissioned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to explore and sample the planetary surface of Mars. Lubar recorded a weekly integration meeting of production leaders and students involved with Ambler, a group interview with four Ambler project leaders, and a work session in the Ambler control room where students discussed and resolved some of the robot's movement problems.
Ambler project leaders interviewed included Erik Krotkov, professor and research scientist for the Ambler, Kevin Dowling, a graduate student who served previously as project manager for the Ambler before his current position as project manager for NASA Space Shuttle ground operations robot development, Henning Pangels, a graduate student leader of Ambler's physical control and real-time computing team, and John Bares, a Ph.D. candidate responsible for Ambler's configuration design. Participants in the control room included Pangels, and CMU students David Wettergreen and Regis Hoffman. Finally, Brian Albrecht, current Ambler project manager, conducted a visual tour of the Ambler robot.
Session Four provided an overview of the Robotics Institute's philosophy and research interests. Albrecht led Lubar on a laboratory tour highlighting other CMU-designed robots and discussed the history of their development. Lubar also interviewed William "Red" Whittaker, director and principal research scientist of the Field Robotics Center of the Robotics Institute since 1986. Finally, Lubar visited the Learning Robots Laboratory, a CMU lab devoted to developing robots that automatically improve their performance through experience. Peter S. Tanguy, CMU student, demonstrated movement of a robot arm and described task oriented vision.
The series includes two sets of supplemental tapes. Steven Lubar shot the first set of supplemental tape on July 24, 1989, at the National Bureau of Standards about its robot, "Erica." Thomas E. Wheatley and James S. Albus spoke about the robot, and offered demonstration. The second set was recorded on April 20-21, 1989, at Texas Technical University, where faculty member Jaime Cardenas-Garcia and crew videotaped the "Walking Machine Decathalon," in which the robot from the University of Maryland competed (and took second place). This supplemental sessions is comprised of four VHS tapes, which include "Rules," "Student Presentations," and "Preliminary Judging."
This collection consists of four interview sessions and two supplementary sessions, totalling approximately 12:20 hours of recordings (not including supplementary session 2), and 102 pages of transcript. Supplementary session 2 is comprised of 8:00 hours of recordings. Supplementary session 2 was not digitized.

Historical Note

Historical Note
Robotics is the applied science of intelligent machines, a field of research that combines electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering. Steven Lubar, curator in the Division of Engineering and Industry at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (NMAH), recorded four sessions with robots designers to document different work styles, environments, and the processes by which engineers make decisions. He captured the style of work at two university settings and a corporate site to understand how their differing objectives influenced technological development. His goal was to interview researchers working with their machines--to document the "hands-on" aspect of development--and to record the robots in use. Lubar was also interested in documenting the interactions between researchers, the robots, and their environment.

Administration

Author
Finding aid prepared by Smithsonian Institution Archives

Using the Collection

Prefered Citation
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 9552, Robotics Videohistory Collection

More Information

Notes

Oral Histories


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Tsai, Lung-Wen Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Chen, Jigien Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Azarm, Shapour Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Drap, Robert Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Slutzkey, Joel Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sivaslian, Armen Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Corley, Steven Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Krotkov, Erik Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dowling, Kevin Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Pangels, Henning Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bares, John Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wettergreen, David Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hoffman, Regis Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Whittaker, William L. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tanguy, Peter S. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Albus, James S. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wheatley, Thomas E. (Thomas Edward), 1954- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Lubar, Steven D., interviewer Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
University of Maryland at College Park Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Carnegie-Mellon University Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Odetics Incorporated (Anaheim, California) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Science -- History Topic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Engineering Topic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Technology -- History Topic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Oral history Topic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Topic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Robotics Topic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Videotapes Genre/Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Transcripts Genre/Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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