Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: kburtch@pts.mot.com (Kevin Burtch)
Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: A robotic Butterlfy!
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Reply-To: kburtch@pts.mot.com
Organization: Motorola Inc, Paging Products Group, Boynton Beach, FL
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Date: Tue, 2 Aug 1994 20:24:50 GMT
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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned using pieziolectric(sp?) wafers. There are
several companies making piezo fans, and I remember an article some time back
in one of the electronics mags about making your own piezo-dragonfly - now I
know it couldn't fly, so no lame comments, but it is worth thinking about...
With a high impedance (low current) motion source, albeit a weak and range
limited one, a very light one might be possible...

It would need:
	Lots of voltage - for the piezo  (I may be wrong here...)
	Super light weight - composites and webbing mandatory
	Possible power sources - Lithium batteries, battery packs from
	  One-Step camera film packs (strong 6V+ with super light weight,
	  but won't last long), Solar Cells - problem, expensive and heavy
	  unless you know where to get those ones the some guy invented 
	  that are in big foil-like sheets.*

* - Several years ago, I saw on TV a guy (being interviewed) who had invented
	a super-thin, flexable solar cell... the biggest point they made was
	this tube he had under his arm (a big rolled up sheet) was capable of
	10kW!! Another thing they showed, was by its design, it could be 
	perforated (within reason) and still function - they shot it! This
	was also in Popular Science and maybe Mechanics Illustrated (before
	they changed the name) This product was supposed to be made for
	everything from rooftop power, to cars, to aux power for planes, etc.

	If you don't believe this - oh well, I can't convince you, as I don't
	have proof. If you DO remember this, PLEASE pipe up! I only know about
	a dozen people who remember this, and none of us have heard anything
	since. 	Flames are pointless, so don't waste your time or 
	net.bandwidth. IF you are curious, write to Pop.Sci. and see if they
	will do a followup article. (I might do this myself...)


Later,
Kevin

P.S. People didn't believe me when I told them about a processor I read about
     several years ago... It is a RISC processor with "rewriteable microcode",
     (I don't see how this is possible either) and had hardware emulation of
     both a 486DX and a 68040 (via microcode) and could also function as a
     RISC processor in native mode at 200MHz... it was being developed by a
     company in Europe... For more information on this _REAL_ microprocessor,
     check the latest Computer Shopper! (if you can't find the article, email
     me and I'll try to remember the page number tomorrow)






