During his talk, Roberts will present the BEHEMOTH on stage along with other work in progress. The machines will be discussed in broad detail, with close attention to the myriad conflicting design issues that drove the design process. Integration of a multilayered computer system into a tiny mobile platform created all sorts of interesting challenges, not the least of which was maintaining effective physical interface while dealing with a potentially fatal real-time physical environment. Additional design effort blended the substrates themselves with wireless network architecture, automated data collection and telemetry, solar power optimization, user interface design, audio/video routing, browser-based front end and communication tools, harsh-environment packaging, well-behaved embedded control systems, and more.
Roberts will discuss the growing phenomenon of technomadics, the blending of art and engineering, Internet collaboration, the critical importance of generalists in the design environment, and human factors issues in a complex multipurpose system, interspersed with tales of his bike-ride adventures.
NASA Ames Auditorium Room 201
Moffett Federal Airfield
Mountain View,
CA,
