Seeking a $1 million robot prize

At age nine, Bill Zimmerly got his first book on computer programming. And, when Warren Williams was a kid, he wanted to learn how to build everything.

These two St. Louisans are adults now. And they've pooled their talents to enter an unusual national competition.

The U.S. Department of Defense wants inventors to build a totally self-contained military robot vehicle. It must be able to go 250 miles cross-country without a driver or even remote control.

And the vehicle has to complete the Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas route in less than 10 hours. That's an average of at least 25 miles per hour over all types of terrain.

The prize is $1 million.

Zimmerly and Williams are entered as Team Phantasm against such scientific research powerhouses as Carnegie Mellon University and California Institute of Technology.

Carnegie Mellon has a 30-member team and a budget in the millions. The Cal Tech budget it estimated at $400,000.

Carnegie Mellon's basic vehicle is a Hummer. The St. Louis team's basic vehicle is a Kawasaki ATV.

Williams said, "We have the smallest team and no budget."

But, they believe their life-long experiences and small-team flexibility let them compete.

Zimmerly said, "When I was a 9-year-old, I went to the library and found a book on computer programming. I've been hooked (on computers) ever since." At 46, he's now semi-retired after 27 years as a computer programmer for a variety of companies.

Williams, who is 38, has been building things most of his life. For a time it was customized homes. Now, he works at calibrating a wide variety of measuring devices for companies such as Boeing.

He said, as a kid, he wanted to build "all aspects of a trip to the moon."

The two of them first pooled their skills while Williams was competing in national and international BattleBot competitions. Those contests pit robots against each other to see which can disable or destroy all other entries.

Williams said he wanted to program his robots with simpler, but more powerful, software. "My professor at Meramec (Community College) suggested Bill," Williams said. Zimmerly is an expert in Forth, a language using fewer lines of instruction than other software to achieve goals.

About their self-contained all-terrain vehicle, Zimmerly said the programming is about 80 per cent complete. Williams said the construction is about 60 per cent finished.

In mid-October, they took delivery of their prototype 2004 Kawasaki Prairie ATV.

But, when their vehicle is ready to try the desert course in March, even Kawasaki won't recognize its machine. For one thing, all the sheet-metal will be removed. And, there's no need for any seats because there will be no driver.

Williams said, "We'll take it down to the frame."

The tires will be replaced by individualized tank treads. Those are made by a company, Mattracks, in northwest Minnesota. The three-sided tank treads are bolted on to the axles just like the runner wheels.

Then, there's the "mushroom" canopy that will be over the entire vehicle. This canopy is divided into four "flower petal" sections. If the vehicle flips over, these unfold and flip the vehicle back on its treads. Williams said, the vehicle is programmed to be "self-righting."

And the vehicle will be "covered with sensors," Williams added.

With the help of Zimmerly's super-fast software, this will allow the vehicle to use its sonar and radar to track at least eight different targets at one time. Those targets might be big rocks, ditches or other obstacles in the vehicle's path.

The sonar/radar waves let the vehicle "see" like a bat, that uses sound-waves to fly at night. These messages then tell the vehicle's computers to steer around trouble.

One criticism of regular ATVs is that they can be unstable and tip over on rough ground. But, Team Phantasm's vehicle--with no rider sitting tall in the seat--will have a "very low center-of-gravity," adding stability.

And the "mushroom" canopy will be there to turn it right-side-up if there is a mishap.

The vehicle will use a gasoline engine but also will have battery power. There are super-efficient solar panels to recharge batteries.

By using simpler Forth programming, the team feels it will be able to pack more instructions into the computer navigation system. Navigation will use a Global Positioning System to double-check location against detailed surface maps stored in the vehicle's computer. These are the latest digital maps from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Team Phantasm wants to begin testing its machine by the end of December. One sponsor has donated use of 5 acres of land in south St. Louis County for preliminary testing.

The national competition starts in California in early March.

(Young Saint Louis.com will follow progress of the robot competition. Also, if you'd like more information about the St. Louis team's efforts, see its website at:
www.iidbs.com/phantasm.zkb.)