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\\M1BDR25;\M2SIGN57;\M3NGR25;\M4NGR20;\F2\CVICARM
\F3\C154 EAST DANA STREET
\CMOUNTAIN VIEW, CA. 94041
\F4\←L\-R\/'7;\+R\→.\→S   Telephone:
\←S\→.415-965-0557
\F1\CApril 2, 1974



Professor Richard A. Northouse
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201


Dear Prof. Northouse:

\J
	I am enclosing  some literature on  the arms I  have designed
and developed. In  addition, I am sending in a separte envelope a few
recent reports which cover some  of the arm project work at  Stanford
Univ.  

	There are  two basic  arm designs which  are in  current use.
The Stanford  type arm is an improved version of the all electric arm
used there since 1969.  Several copies have been built and are in use
or will soon  be in use at several other  research centers around the
country.   JPL  redesigned the  arm  slightly to  fit  their  special
application which called for  the arm to be mounted on  a vehicle and
work on the  ground, but the mechanical details and configuration are
essentially the same.

	As I  mentioned, the selling  price of  this arm  is not  yet
fixed, but I think it will be pegged at about $15,000.  This includes
a  hand, a  manual  controller, the  power supply,  servo amplifiers,
brake drivers.  All  you need is an 8  channel DAC and at least  a 16
channel  A/D with  at  least 12  bits  resolution.   Also, 8  digital
channels are required to drive the brakes.  I am redesigning the  arm
to allow the use  of commercial optical encoders or  resolvers.  This
will both increase  the accuracy and resolution by a factor of two or
so.  As for individuals building the arm, I am not opposed to it, but
I have spent  a lot of time  already telling people how  to build the
arm,  and   then  helping  with  the  debugging,  so  I  am  not  too
enthusiastic  with the  prospect  of  taking on  another  obligation.
There  are lots  of groups  such as  yours, who  have  machine shops,
fully staffed  and equipped,  but without  much work.   I  have  been
thinking of making a kit out of the arm for  groups such as yours.  I
will supply the drawings for all the  necessary machined parts, and I
will also  supply all  the purchaced  components, some  pre-assembled
into  easy to  install  assemblies.   You would  then  just make  the
machined   parts  and  assemble  the  arm   according  to  a  set  of
instructions I plan to make  up.  I estimate that the kit  would cost
about $5,000  to $6,000  plus about 500  man-hours and $250  worth of
material to  make  the  parts  and assemble  the  arm-  exclusive  of
electronics(estimated at $600 plus 100 hours of labor).

	The M.I.T. model arm is much newer.  This  is a result of the
Mini-Robot project at M.I.T.  (part of the A-I Lab.).  I have already
delivered the first arm to M.I.T.   They have it interfaced to a  PDP
11/40 and  are developing programs  for it.   They will get  two more
arms  in July.   I intend to make  about 20 of  these small arms this
year, at a University price of about $5600 for the  arm, a hand, some
electronics  and a simple  manual controller.   Because of  the large
number of custom made components in this arm, it is only practical to
make this arm in quantity, so I am not giving out plans, nor thinking
of offering this arm as a kit.  

	Here  are a  few names  of  people who  are also  thinking of
starting an arm related project of some sort.  

	Dr. Robert Chen
	Coordinated Sciences Lab.
	University of Illinois
	Urbana, Ill. 61801

	Dr. Y.S.  Luh
	Department of Electrical Engineering
	Purdue University
	Lafayette, Indiana 47907

	Dr. Merill Ebner
	Dean of Engineering
	Boston University
	Boston, Mass.  02215


	I mentioned a few interesting reports produced by other groups.
Here are two, but there are more published by both organizations listed.
 "A Mechanical Arm Control System"- A.I. Memo #301  - Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory; M.I.T.  ; 545 Technology Square; Cambridge, Ma.  02139.  Also,
NASA Technical Memorandum # 33-669 , "Robot Arn Dynamics and Control"; by  
Dr.  A. K. Bejczy; Jet Propulsion Laboratory;  Pasadena, Ca.

	Look  over the  information  supplied, and  if  you have  any
furthur questions, let me know.\.
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Yours sincerely,



Victor Scheinman
    President

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VDS:pdp10