Nick
Donaldson
~ Bot Wrangler
Extraordinaire ~ |
PORTFOLIO
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Ziggy - Sonar-Guided Autonomous
Hexapod (http://www.gotrobots.com/ziggy/)
Ziggy is a fully autonomous walking and
dancing robot that I designed and built from scratch. He incorporates innovative
leg linkages allowing for versatile locomotion and a realistic 'bug' look, and
uses sonar sensors to 'see' and avoid objects while roaming.
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Giant Animatronic Halloween Spider
(http://www.gotrobots.com/spider/)
Built as a 50' robotic octopus for
Burning Man 2002 and converted into a giant black hairy spider with moving legs
for Halloween 2002, this animatronic bug scared and wowed the kids, who had to
walk beneath his legs to get their candy.
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Zag - Sumo Robot, Placed Second in U.S. Championship, 2002
(http://www.gotrobots.com/spider/)
Due to budget issues, this Sumo robot was
assembled from spare parts from my other robots, and yet with its advanced sonar
tracking algorithm it was able to place second, loosing to the reigning champion.
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Willy - X-Rated Shoulder-sitting Puppet
(http://www.gotrobots.com/willy/)
I built Willy for a party with a stuffed
animal theme - he is an animatronic puppet controlled by a PIC with moving 'body
parts'. Caution - he is anatomically correct and quite rude, you have
been warned!
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Flik - Lego MindStorms Walking Hexapod
(http://www.gotrobots.com/ziggy/)
The fore-runner to Ziggy, Flik is a six-legged
walker built entirely from Lego and runs off two RCX 'brains' which communicate
with each other via infrared signals. Nominated for the Lego Hall of Fame.
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Space Elevator Ribbon Climbing Robot
(http://www.gotrobots.com/space_elevator/)
This robot was built to answer the Space
Elevator Challenge for the
Robotics Society of America's Holiday
Robot Games 2002. It is apparently the first working Space Ribbon climber to be
built.
SKILLS
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Mechanical Design |
Programming |
Miscellaneous |
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Pro/Engineer
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SolidWorks
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Cadkey
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MasterCam
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Manual Machining
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NC Machining
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Some Welding
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Java
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Perl
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SQL
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Actionscript (Flash)
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Javascript
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Some C
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3D Studio Max
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Adobe Photoshop
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Adobe Illustrator
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Adobe Premiere
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Macromedia Flash
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Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Win2k
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Apache, BIND, QMail, RADIUS
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Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL
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RELEVANT WORK HISTORY
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Computer Consultant
6/1995 - present -
www.dedicatedconsulting.com
I have earned my living in the past 7 years building Internet Systems for a
variety of clients on many different projects. While not directly related to
the field of robotics, I have gained a lot of experience working on short-term,
high profile projects where long hours and attention to detail are essential for
success. The programming skills I now possess are also useful in designing the
control systems for robots.
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Aerometrics, Inc.
1/1992 - 5/1995 -
www.aerometrics.com (from archive)
I completed a Special Design Project sponsored by Aerometrics in my final year
at The University of Bath, and after graduation they offered me a position in
their design department. I designed laser optics devices, taking a product from
initial conception and visualization, through 3D design and detailing, to
prototyping and assembly, before passing off a finished product to manufacturing.
This involved a great deal of precision work with optical components and
consequently required attention to very tight tolerance design.
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British Aerospace PLC
7/1989 - 6/1990, 7/1991 - 12/1991
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www.baesystems.com
I joined British Aerospace for an industrial placement year during college, and
spent 6 months working there after graduating before my move to California.
While with BAe, I worked on varied disciplines including wafer-scale integrated
chip design in a cleanroom lab, development of hypersonic missile ablative
shielding, designing and testing algorithms for guided missiles and a stint
apprenticing in the BAe machine shop where I learnt milling, lathing and welding.
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EDUCATION
REFERENCES
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Daniel Gregory, Head of Engineering, Slingshot Communications, Inc.
djgmisc@earthlink.net
Daniel was in charge of hardware and deployment at Slingshot, for whom I
designed and wrote a custom prepaid dialup internet access system. Slingshot has
now ceased operating but you can contact Daniel at his personal email address
above.
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Ari Newman, Director of Network Operations, Volera, Inc.
anewman@volera.com
I worked with Ari during the initial software design phase of Juston.com,
subsequently acquired by Novell, Inc. and spun off as Volera, Inc.
PERSONAL INTERESTS
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Robotic Competitions: I am constantly working on new robots for competitions,
my latest Sumo robot placed 2nd at the RSA Championships, and my main goal right now
is to build the omnidirectional drive system for the BattleBot that I have designed...
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LiteBrite: I cofounded LiteBrite Camp
and designed and built the giant LiteBrite for Burning Man and other art shows.
I also built a 50' robotic octopus for BM in 2002 together with working on many
elements of our popular camp.
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Robotics Society of America: I am a member of the Executive Committee of
the RSA and enjoy planning, meeting and broadening the reach of robots to school
children and adults alike. I personally have taken my robots into several schools
and the response from the kids has always been very rewarding.
Last updated September 13thth, 2002
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