A couple interesting submarine launched UAVs, one by Raytheon and another, VOLANS, built by a German company, are featured in this Register article. The Submarine Over the Horizon Organic Capabilities, or SOTHOC, built by Raytheon, is launched out of the waste disposal lock of a submarine. SOTHOC then decents to a preset depth where it rises to the surface and launches a unmanned flying vehicle to gather data. The UAV can relay the data back to the sub via antenna, or if the sub whishes to remain anonymous the data can be relayed via satellite back to the US. This system allows a submarine to lauch an UAV while remaining submerged, in contrast to the VOLANS, which launches via a mast attached to the robot. The VOLANS functions as a mobile periscope for the sub.

The following article will show you how to build a simple robot, called "The Beetle Robot", created by Jerome Demers. It’s great for beginners and easy to do.

This is the Beetle Robot v. 3 you are going to build:



Before starting, I suggest you to read the complete tutorials. This will greatly lower the chances of you making a mistake.



Tools Needed:

• soldering iron  ( here’s a helpful tutorial on soldering )
• electronic solder
• diagonal cutter
• Mini glue gun
  

Components for the robot

• 2x – small 1.5 Volts motors
• 2x – small paperclips
• 2x – big paperclips
• 2x – batteries AAA or AA
• 1x – battery holder AAA or AA
• 1x – 2 cm of heat shrink
• 1x – wooden pearl  (for the caster)
• 1x – meter of electric wire
• 2x – Sub-mini lever SPDT switches
  
  

Here are the serial numbers of the components and tools from RadioShack .

Component

Number

soldering iron	64-2184
electronic solder	64-006
diagonal cutter	64-2951
1.5 Volts motor	273-223
battery holder	270-398
SPDT switch	275-016

Most of the components can be bought for much cheaper at Digi-Key, Jameco, or similar. At Solarbotics you can find the dual AA battery holder and the Mabuchi motor. You can find these components at any good electronic store.

This article lists some ideas for starting a simple robot. A good read for beginners.

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Here’s instructions on how to make a simple and cheap small robot base.

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This article details how to build a solar powered BEAM robot, the Trimet.

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This article details how to build a FLED solar engine for your next BEAM project.

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How to build a BEAM symet.
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As I mentioned in last month’s article, I’d decided to turn my robot into a fire-fighting
robot. Because of scheduling conflicts, I couldn’t attend the international contest in CT,
but I was able to compete in our club’s local contest. Unfortunately, because of short time
constraints I didn’t do so hot, but you can be sure I’ll be providing some real competition
next year!
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This year (2001), my parents have assigned me the task of doing a science fair project. After many many brainstorming ideas, I’ve finally settled on the idea of a project about maze solving robots and algorithms. I read Robot Science and Technology’s article about the C* algorithm, with just a little bit of confusion. After 3 readings I still don’t get it, so I decided I’d better start off simpler. I’ve also played around with Maze Bots, and read over their listings of algorithms. After much deliberation I finally decided on 3 different algorithms to do a project on:
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Fred is my first ‘photopopper’ style bot. I had designed and built a similar bot before, but that one had three motors arranged radialy around a central axis. It didn’t work nearly as well as Fred does.
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Ok, last time we talked about my brand new (supposedly) maze solving robot. I have to admit that it is hard to keep on track with just making it a maze solver. There is so much more that I want to add! Oh well, so little time.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to much done in the way of coding. I was, however, able to get quite a few hardware advancements in place this month. These include:
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As the dead line came closer and closer to when my ‘bot needed to be finished I became more and more frustrated, frantic, and sleep deprived. I worked for hours in 1st 3 weeks of February! Many all-day-ers and late nights. One night I even said "I’m staying up till it works!" … I finally went to bed a 2:00AM. I got lots of great coding done but it just WOULDN’T solve a path reliably. I tried and tried – adding new sensors, trying new code - but to no avail. Finally, exactly 8 days before the project deadline I came to the realization that "this just aint going to work!" Ok, time to change gears. BUT, before I finish my story I need to tell you what I DID get done.

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