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Elizabeth & Victoria by David Buckley September 1993

Why Imperial Ladies - because they are named after Queens of England and the chassis were dimensioned in inches.
Unfortunately due to domestic circumstances I had to abandon work on these robots.

Elizabeth
Elizabeth Gallery
Imperial-Lady class robot #1
A self contained mobile robot able to navigate in an unstructured environment and coexist with human and other reasonably sized animal life.
Multiple sensors and multiple sensor systems.
Data fusion via behavioural fusion control strategies.
Design and building started September 1993.
Size - about 26" * 18" * 36".

Victoria
Victoria Gallery
Imperial-Lady class robot #2
A self contained mobile robot able to navigate in an unstructured environment and coexist with human and other reasonably sized animal life.
Multiple sensors and multiple sensor systems.
Data fusion via behavioural fusion control strategies.
Design and building started September 1993.
Size - about 26" * 18" * 36".
Both robots were designed to be operated by Triangle Digital Services 16 bit Forth controllers.
Big Red Emergency-stop switches were fitted at the four corners of the top structure.
Each base was designed to be clad in bump sensitive sensor plates in case other sensor readings failed.
Each robot had an on board charger but a docking charger point was never fitted.
Victoria had 12v motors and Elizabeth 24v motors, the steering was by windscreen wiper motors and the drive was by mobility scooter motors.

Victoria was demonstrated at the Model Engineering Show London on 5th & 6th January 1996, was featured on 'The Big Breakfast' TV show on 4th September 1996, and was at the Robot Olympics Glasgow in Spring 1997.

From 2000 Elizabeth and Victoria have been in the care of Prof. Martin Smith.

The top photo shows Victoria minus some skirt panels and with my X-500 robot arm mounted. The one to the left shows Victoria with a complete skirt and with an upper body, arms and microwave sensors fitted by Martin while the next photo was taken on 2nd July 2002 when the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Technology Innovation Centre at the University of Central England, followed by the Big Breakfast letter and a part completed Victoria and Liberator at the Robot Olympics Glasgow in 1996.

          


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