ByHaldun
First Day in the Ranch to Test Vence Prototype 3
Sequoia tree forest on the way to Lunny Ranch where our field tests take place.
After the initial tests and assembly we arrived at the Lunny Ranch where we will be conducting our field tests for the Vence system. About a 1.5 hour drive from San Fransisco the commute to and from the ranch through the amazing Bay Area forests provides an excellent time for reflection on observations and discussions on future steps. Our first day in the ranch was rather rainy. We had drizzles and wind for most of the time we were there.
Cattle herd at the Lunny Ranch
Situated over a 1500 acer grass land Lunny Ranch has a herd of 100+ Angus cattle. The owner and manager of the ranch is a very progressive gentleman who offered us his insides and critique about certain aspects of our approach.
The third experimental cattle mounted system offers significantly improved mechanical properties and ease of use. When handling animals upward 1,500 lb who are easily excitable it is crucial to be able to attach and detach the unit quickly. The rainy first day also confirmed for us that the new and improved enclosure provides necessary splash proof protection which will be necessary for long term test coming later in the year.
Cattle at the Lunny Ranch in a pen prior to a test run. One animal is instrumented with a Vence Cattle Rider unit.
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Dr. Komsuoglu is a robotics expert and entrepreneur with over 20 years of research, development and start-up experience. Focusing on biologically inspired high-performance mobility and high-dexterity manipulation systems Mr. Komsuoglu served as a key personnel in several critically acclaimed multi-institutional robotics projects sponsored by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), United States Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) and National Science Foundation (NSF). Some noteworthy projects he was involved with includes DARPA-CBS, DARPA-RHex, DARPA-RiSE, NSF-FIBR and MA-UGV. In these projects Dr. Komsuoglu engaged experimental robotic research, simulation, embedded system development (hardware/software), control systems engineering and analytic studies. Since 2006 Dr. Komsuoglu has been heavily engaged in business development. He founded and ran technology start-up companies focusing on commercialization of several robotic technologies he helped develop. In 2009 he founded Robolit LLC (https://www.robolit.com) providing design consulting for academic research equipment, search and rescue systems for first responders and military applications. His current work focuses on remotely controlled UAVs with a unique UI system employing virtual reality devices with applications in first response and entertainment industry. Since 2011 Dr. Komsuoglu has been serving as an active member of the DHS-NIST-ASTM Standard Robot Test Methods committee and is responsible of development of manipulation test methods.
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