Mike Ornstein

Carnegie Mellon Engineering. What else? Here's my site.

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September 12, 10:25 PM
RC Bike

In addition to my eventual plans for world domination via 200+mph superbikes I want some humble couriers. My partner in crime on this project's initial direction, Andrew Burks, suggested some clever double purposing of the required on board equipment. Considering the light weight of this bicycle it could easily and effectively by electric powered.


There would be three motors total on this vehicle.

1) The driving motor
  • An obvious purpose for this one: hook it up to the back wheel and make it spin. Perhaps we could do something clever like utilize the 21-speed transmissions standard on most bikes nowadays in conjunction with an electric shifter such as the one Nico Paris is trying to develop.

2) The steering motor
  • It'd be nice to be able to point the bike where we want it to go. Again, pretty obvious here. We'd hook up a nice torque-ful motor with position feedback and she'd steer up a storm.

3) The balancing motor
  • The trickiest of all the bits that make up a self riding bicycle I'd say. So, some physics explanations- human riders balance the centripetal force acting on them and their bikes by leaning into turns. Same goes for perturbations- if someone comes up and tries to push a rider off his or her bike all the rider needs to do is lean in the direction of the push and they'll recover if the push wasn't too hard.
  • So, we need a leaning device. This leaning device needs to be pretty massive, but just how massive is still up in the air. The real kicker is figuring out how quickly we can accelerate this leaning device, because the faster the mass is accelerated the less mass there needs to be to generate that necessary torque, err lean.
  • The clever part kicks in here. Since we need batteries and other weighty stuff to make this bike roll on its own, why not swing that otherwise dead weight around to act as our counterbalance? I thought it was clever anyway... I'm actually kind of excited to get into the numbers of this problem, figuring out just how much torque needs to be generated to get the bike to a) stand up on its own and b) react to outside disturbances.

[ τ = I⍺ ]

September 02, 12:10 AM
Spreading it Thin, Enjoying the Sandwich

I came into college wanting to do everything. I got involved in everything- over ambitious perhaps. But then it worked out... I did everything I set out to do, and I did it well. So I wanted to take on more, and I did. I took on big things, because for some reason people liked what I did.


I sacrificed some things for that success, mostly on the social side. Sure, I made new friends along the way, but I lost touch with old ones. I couldn't make enough time for everything. To me, that's frustrating. To deal with that I'm employing a new value: apply myself fully to everything I do.

So far it's working, but it's frustrating none the less. Turning down opportunities, saying 'no' to friends on occasions, it's all a matter of tradeoffs. It's burdensome to need to be so picky. Maybe it's a responsibility thing? It'd be nice to live completely in the moment, but my goals simply don't allow for it. Things I do are too long term, too intensive to amass commitments.

If I were to give one piece of advice to an incoming freshman at a school like mine, so ripe with opportunity and option, it would be to concentrate yourself. Get passed classes, everyone takes them. Devote yourself completely to a project or goal. If your maximum level of devotion far overcomes what is necessary to manage that then, and only then take on more.

I am ambitious. I am confident. I'm pushing myself in new directions, trying to expand my professional network, expand my expertise and experience, maintain fruitful relationships, make new relationships. I like getting people excited about the things I work on and do.

Today at the activity fair I helped run the Robotics Club table. That was surprisingly enjoyable. Selling the assets of something good was easy. I felt amply able to communicate with everyone who came by- engage them with the goings on. But, the key is that I too am personally passionate about what goes on. I like to enable. And it's interesting, that guy Randy Pausch, may he rest in peace, is an amazing influence on me despite never having met him. I hear myself thinking about how to heed his advice everywhere. So far it's working out pretty well, and I intend to keep that advice in my head so long as things continue to go pretty well.
August 08, 04:41 PM
AutonBike

Autonomous Bike. Now we're not talking about bicycles here. We're talking about 16,000 RPM, squealing crotch rockets.
Fantastic. Now, put a big ole gyroscope (or side facing rocket thrusters if I have my way), some laser scanners and cameras on the front, maybe some side mounted machine guns and then you have the most excellent car chasing / bad guy run-downing machine ever. Some silly sci-fi movie may or may not be inspiration for this project...
As it so happens Burks came up with the exact same idea on his drive home from the 'Burgh. Must be a good idea because great minds think alike?




July 10, 12:29 AM
Sink Hole

Walking home after the cooling storms this evening I ran into an interesting scene. Take a gander at the following cell phone photo-



That vehicle is sad, as I would be if I was stuck in hole. The reason, as I've come to learn, for the road failure was a combination of old cobblestone road surface and a broken water main. Looks like there's a market for pipe inspectors...


June 20, 05:40 PM
New Lab Partner

So, I'm working in a pretty cool facility this summer. Get to name my own hours, meet with folks three times a week and that's it. Big plus is that I get make, and work with robots.

Meet my new lab partner; his name is Little Dog.



He happens to be baby brother to Big Dog; here's an exceptional video of Big Dog for those who have not met.



Little Dog is the development platform for Big Dog where terrain navigation, gaits, and awesomesauce are all integrated.

June 20, 01:50 PM
Chub Dance

Just a part of an excellent Pirate's game.
I am sorry in advance if this video offends you, your moral compass points more north than mine.

June 19, 12:46 AM
Snoop Dogg and Gummy Bear Minions

Never seen Snoop Dogg looking so fly... and with such a following!

Click fo hi-rez, foo.
June 13, 10:21 PM
Vibratron

Sounds a little dirty, I know, but try to keep your head level here. RobOrchestra acquired a vibraphone and we're going to turn it into a sweet robot because that's how we roll. It should be a pretty interesting project, so far the team players are Andrew Burks and Dan Shope. Our end goal starts at around the 1:05 mark in the following video:




A lofty goal? I think not. Stay tuned for more conceptual ideas on this blog, and over on mikeornstein.com for more polished updates on the Vibratron Project.
June 09, 11:30 AM
The FliFone, err, iFoneDrone?
So it's been a while since I haven't gotten into bed immediately fallen asleep. It probably has do with the appropriate quantity of sleep I've been getting lately combined with some strong tea. Yea, tea... pretty intense. Anyway this awakedness allowed me some serious thought time. What did I think about? Robots of course.

It took me about two hours to work it all out. I started out by fantasizing about owning an iPhone4, I mean they are so sexy after all. But, more importantly those chic little devices are now equipped with a new toy. Mr. Jobs glanced over it briefly during his Monday keynote at the WWDC claiming this addition to the iPhone (and in no time the iPod Touch I'm sure) would enhance the gaming possibilities of the platform. I agree. He was talking about a 3 axis gyroscope. We're not quite talking about the one that you might have played with as a kid, though the one in the iPhone works on a similar principle. A 3 axis gyroscope in the case of the iPhone is talking about a tiny chip deep in the guts of the phone that spits out angular velocity. Great, who cares? I care.

Accelerometers, which have been present in many consumer electronics since before the first iPod Touch, are responsible for telling a device which direction gravity is pointing. That's a nice thing to know when you want the screen on your phone to switch from portrait to landscape mode automagically. Apple has continued their integration of accelerometers in addition to the new gyros and I couldn't be more excited.

Anyone who has ever allowed me to rant to them about robots in person knows that I have a passion for a particular flying robotic platform: the quadrotor. If for some reason you are unfamiliar with this type of flying device I STRONGLY urge you watch this incredible video:

Okay, cool stuff, right?
Now that particular setup cheats a little, they don't do any of the stabilization or control on board the 'craft, they have super high precision cameras tracking its every move to crazy accuracy which makes controlling the subsequent movement almost as accurate. You get the idea.

Typically a quadrotor is outfitted with an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) which includes a 3 axis accelerometer (iPhone, check), a 3 axis gyro (iPhone4, check) and a magnetometer (aka a compass, iPhone, check). So, what's the big deal, if everyone uses an IMU for this purpose, then why try and go against the grain here? Simple: IMUs are pricey. For a measly $200 and AT&T's cheapest plan an iPhone4 competes pretty well if all we wanted it for was to replace the IMU. But that's not all iPhones are good for.

In addition to the tasty gyros there's also the delectable A4 chip, Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3G, and 720P Video. That's great news. Compared to similarly capable discrete devices for a quadrotor platform the iPhone is at least a $500 cheaper. Cheaper is nice. This finally leads me to the title of this entry:

FliFone or iFoneDrone?
Sadly iPhoneDrone and FliPhone .coms are spoken for, which I was unaware of late last night, so I figured I kill two birds with one stone be dodging obvious trademark issues and not getting burned on domain names. I have an important branding decision to make, no doubt.

P.S This whole plan might fall apart if it turns out that the data resolution of the gyros in the iPhone is not of flight quality. That would be sad.
June 07, 12:43 PM
A Fresh Render
I had made myself a random little logo/desktop picture a while ago.

It looked like this:












Since then I've learned some new skills and have tried my hand at creating a pleasing 3D version with a bit of a twist. (A revolution if you want to get punny).

Anyway, fresh off the render farm:












My roomate, Andrew Burks, seems to think I have some sort of problem... turning perfectly fine 2D images into 3D images for a little while and then just rendering them back into 2D... maybe he's got a point.
June 01, 08:01 AM
Foray Into 3D Animation

What's better than a shiny SolidWorks render? I don't know, I don't think there's much out there that is.

What about a long string of renders? Maybe that would pique my interest. In fact, a bit of sweetly rendered frames as part of an animation sounds like it could be right up my alley. So, with RoboClub being my first 'client' I'll be attempting some of my first 3D animations using Autodesk's 3DS Max. It's a pretty different animal than SolidWorks but I hear it plays nice with all the models I've already created, and I'll be starting simple.

My first project will be to make a RoboClub YouTube splash animation involving Red Robot and our logo. That's what you're getting a taste of up top there.


May 28, 10:35 PM
A pair of gloves I could learn to sport:
Tony Stark, here I come.

June 01, 01:04 AM
Hovercraft

One of the many items on my to-do list: a hovercraft.


I had an idea that wasn't quite a hovercraft at all , but a hover-capable aerial vehicle. A long time ago I saw a video of a hunk o' metal floating in midair suspended by bursts from a downward facing rocket thruster. The thruster output a constant force I assume, but the rate at which it was fired controlled the rate of ascent/descent. Cool. Now, lets combine that with a quadrotor style platform, so you've now got a planar square arrangement of these thrusters. That's nice, but changing orientation would still be difficult with just those four coplanar deals. So, to add in the ability to strafe and rotate we just put on some horizontal firing thrusters and things are getting exciting. JPL, you listening?
May 12, 12:28 AM
School Year - OUT

Wow, look at that... I've matriculated into my second year of college. That was fast. Glad I have a job now.

March 27, 02:17 PM
First post

Here's a nice link to my real site:



More happy fun time random posts coming up!
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Mike Ornstein
Robotics Engineer at Near Earth Autonomy
Higher Education | Greater New York City Area, US

Experience

  • Oct 2012 - Present
    Robotics Engineer / Near Earth Autonomy
    Design and manufacture survey quality articulated laser scanner for perception system of full scale autonomous helicopter.
  • May 2012 - Present
    Robotics Engineering Intern / Carnegie Mellon University
    Designed mass-manufacturable 3D laser scanner for use in security and automation on mobile platforms in harsh outdoor environments. Supported research team in upgrading and fabricating components on autonomous aerial vehicles.
  • Jan 2012 - Present
    SolidWorks Course TA / Carnegie Mellon University
    I am a teaching assistant for the Mechanical Engineering SolidWorks course at CMU. I am responsible for helping the fifteen students enrolled in the class stay on track during lectures and assist in their understanding of the ways of SolidWorks.
  • May 2011 - Present
    Mechanical Engineering Intern / Space Exploration Technologies
    I work in the Structures department of SpaceX.
  • May 2010 - Present
    Student Mechanical Designer / Carnegie Mellon University
    Design and fabrication of robotics systems. In the summer of 2010 I worked within Chris Atkeson's lab with the goal of creating an inherently safe robot arm. This was accomplished through the use of inflatable segments as the structural component of the arm. In particular, I was responsible for the design and construction of a soft, but capable grasper for the robot. In the winter of 2010, I designed and fabricated a complete robot arm with 4 degrees of freedom capable of various manipulation tasks. I demonstrated this product in January of 2011 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV. In the spring of 2011 I began some consulting work with the Field Robotics Center in the Micro Air-Vehicle Lab.

Education

  • 2009 - 2013
    Carnegie Mellon University
    BS in Mechanical Engineering
    Activities: Formula SAE, Robotics Club, Robotics Institute: Atkeson Lab

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Websites:
Personal Website, Blog, RSS Feed
Interests:
aviation, robotics, photography, design
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