Work

• 2009 All electronics and computer control for Jim Whiting's show in the West Fluegel Theatre Leipzig
• 2009 Animatronic figure for a railway museum
• 2008 Silicone skinned Animatronic Head for research into facial expressions
• 2008 Forearm design for the electric conversion of the Shadow pneumatic dextrous hand for Willow Garage's PR2
• 2005 Human sized Robotic-Leg for medical research
• 1996 to date: Animatronic figures for museums and theme centres worlwide
• 2002 Cycler presentation robots
• 1996 to date: Educational robot kits sold worldwide
• 1990 - 1998 Animatronic special effects for
  • 'Rumpus Mansion' at Blackgang Chine Theme Park IOW;
  • Channel 4
  • EuroDisney Sleeping Beauty pop-up Book;
  • Pet Shop Boys world tour 1991
• 1990 - 1998 Numerous robotic, animatronic and other special effects for productions in major Theatres including
  
  • Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at the Dominion Theatre, London;
  • Leeds Opera North - 'The thieving Magpie';
  • 'Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' production for New York;
  • British touring production of 'Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat';
  • The London Palladium production of 'Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat';
  • Into the Woods', the Phoenix Theatre, Charing Cross Rd London.;
  • the Rowan Atkinson show;

• 2009 All electronics and computer control for Jim Whiting's show in the West Fluegel Theatre Leipzig
• 2009 Animatronic figure for a railway museum
• 2008 Silicone skinned Animatronic Head for research into facial expressions
• 2008 Forearm design for the electric conversion of the Shadow pneumatic dextrous hand
• 2005 Robotic-Leg in partnership with The Shadow Robot Company for North Carolina A & T University,
  the leg will be used for research into powered prosthetic legs;
• 2003-to date: 'Gems Super Reality Figures' talking animatronic figures with Silicone skins;
• 2002 ‘Cycler’ semi autonomous radio controlled presentation robots for the environmental charity ‘Waste Watch’;
• 2001 Design of Hextor a ten processor hexapod robot with a Behavioural Operating system;
• Jun 01:Workshop on Animatronics given to students at Stockport College;
• 1999-to date: Design of a range of educational robot kits, Ambler, BigFoot, Alex, TecFoot, TecArm;
• Oct 98: Rebuild of the ‘New Invention’ a wood chopping car for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at the Dominion Theatre, Totenham Court Road, London;
• Sep 98: Design study for a free roaming robot ‘Gallery Cat’ for the new Robot Gallery in the Science Museum, London. (the gallery was later cancelled);
• Aug 98: Electric Ride-in Postman Pat Van for the British touring show;
• Jun 98: Special effects for Oklahoma at the Royal National Theatre, London;
• Apr 98: Workshop on Animatronics given to the staff of the Royal National Theatre, London;
• 1997: Ultrasonic detectors and Rebabeliser for the Stumbling Machine, by Simon Lewandowski;
• 1997-to date: ‘Gems Reality Figures’ animatronic figures for museums and Theme Centres etc;
• 1996-to date: 'Gems Gaze Control' to animate museum display mannequins,
• Dec 94: special effect Mediaeval Butt and Arrows for a Southampton pantomime;
• Oct 93: the radio controlled animatronic Camel and Snake and remote controlled Sheep for the British touring production of 'Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat';
• Apr 93: the pneumatics and 9 computer control system for 'Rumpus Mansion' at Blackgang Chine Theme Park IOW;
• Nov 92: the radio controlled animatronic Camel for the New York production of 'Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat';
• Oct 92: Shadow educational pneumatic computer control-interface;
• June 92: a set of radio controlled photographic lights;
• Apr 92: a flying magpie for the Leeds Opera North production of 'The thieving Magpie';
• Feb 92: a 5" gauge railway engine for 'My Fair Lady';
• Jan 92: the pneumatic system for the evil vines and other special effects for the EuroDisney Sleeping Beauty pop-up Book;
• Oct 91: a special effect flower puppeted to grow and push its way out of a flour bag, for the Channel 4 opera - Camera;
• an exhibition-set of large scale electronic components;
• May 91: the animatronic Camel for 'Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' at The London Palladium;
• a special effect crazy clock and other electrics for the Pet Shop Boys world tour 1991;
• May 1991: special effect magic-bottles and cake for a Rohl Dahl play;
• the special effects for a short-circuiting lamp post for a Rowan Atkinson show;
• two radio controlled animatronic dolls for The Birmingham Royal Ballet's production of the Nutcracker;
• radio controlled animatronic birds for 'Into the Woods' at the Phoenix Theatre, Charing Cross Rd London.
• March 1990: the control electrics/electronics for a 'Lion v. Unicorn' animatronic sculpture, by Thomas Scholtz, for a Carlisle museum.

• Jim Whiting Shows - Animatronics/Electronics Engineer -- February 89 - November 1990
  Responsibility for all electrical equipment, power and pneumatics, Cologne, Berlin, London, Warwick.
  
• Concorde Robotic, Farnborough - Design Engineer -- May 1988
  Design of a robot arm for the top end of their range. 2Kg lift, 2m/sec top speed, 600mm reach, dedicated controller.
  
• Intergalactic Robots Ltd - Technical Director -- 1983 - 1986
  Design of Zero II an educational robot vehicle (floor-turtle).
  
• Civil Service, Department of Energy, Westminster, London
  
  • Administration of rules and Conditions of Service
  • Programmer working in Cobol on an oilwell-data database.
  • Programmer working in Fortran on data conversion programs.
    [Prime minicomputers, 550/750 hybrid]
    
  • Programmer working in BASIC on programs for petrophysics analysis of geological data. [Wang microcomputer]
    
  • Programmer working in APL designing and using a database of oil prices.
    [bureau via telephone line]
    
  • anti-pollution measures and regulations for oil exploration and production.
    
  • Setting up of the Chemical notification scheme for Seaward oil production installations.
    
  • Examination of companies Oil Spill Prevention Plans.
    
  • Replying to the hundreds of letters prompted by the Ekofisk and Ixtoc-1 blowouts and other incidents.
    
  • Examination of applications for Landward Petroleum Exploration licences and preparation of title maps licence documents.
    
• Northern Blankets Ltd, Vine Mill, Royton, Lancashire.
  Service Manager - Electric Blanket manufacturing
• Salford Electrical Instruments Ltd, Times Mill, Heywood, Lancs.
  Laboratory Technician - Quality control of Ferrite inductors.
  
• Associated Electrical Industries, Manchester.
  Technician Apprentice - training in:-
  Electrical Wiring, Fitting, Sheet Metal work, Forge work, Welding and Drawing Office work.

Research

• Designer and builder of the biped walking robots -- 1999 to date
  • BigFoot (copied by, Parallax Inc. as Toddler, and others)
  • TecFoot
  • Ambler series:- Sam, Efi, Joe, Kas, Tom
  • Loki, Freya
• Designer and builder of Hextor -- 2002
  a hexapod walking robot with sensors, ten processors and a behavioural control operating system
• Shadow Robot Project -- 1988-
  
  • Designer of the project's experimental human sized two legged walking robot
  • and Liberator, the project's mobile robot.
• Designer and builder of First Step -- 1987
  A four legged walking computer controlled robot vehicle
• Member of:-
  The DTI's Advanced Robotics Initiative on Domestic Robots -- 1988-90
  UKLRRC - United Kingdom Legged Robot Research Consortium Sep. -- 1989

Society memberships

• CybSoc - Member of The Cybernetics Society;
• BCS - Member of the British Computer Society;
• SGAi - the British Computer Society's Specialist Group on Artificial Intellegence;
• AISB - Society for the study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour;
• BMVA - British Machine Vision Association.

Consultant Editorships

• Practical Robotics -- May 1984 - Dec 1984
  Britain's first (and only) news-stand magazine on Hobby Robotics.
• Your Robot -- Feb 1984
  Britain's first regular magazine insert on Hobby Robotics.
• Sinclair Projects -- Dec 1982 - Sep 1984
  Hardware and Software enhancements to Sinclair computers.

Papers, Reports and Articles

Computer Languages and Applications used

Miscellaneous

Appendix A

• Martin Smith and David Buckley (2005).
  A Lifelike Robotic Policeman with Realistic Motion and Speech
  AISB 2005 Creative Robotics Research Symposium
  
  
• Martin Smith and David Buckley (2005).
  The Development and Effectiveness of the CYCLER Educational Presentation Robots.
  AISB 2005 Creative Robotics Research Symposium
  
  
• David Buckley and Martin Smith (2003).
  Experiments with Three Minimal, Autonomous, Biped Walking Robots.
  CLAWAR ‘03, Sicily
  
  
• Smith, M.C.B. and Buckley D.L. (1998).
  An Evaluation of Some Minimalist Gait Control Systems on Six Legged Walking Machines.
  CLAWAR '98, Brussels, Belgium, Nov. '98, pp 67-70.
  
  
• DL Bucley & MCB Smith (1995)
  Control of minimalist robot vehicles
  Proceedings 14th International Congress On Cybernetics,
  Namur, Belgium, Aug. 1995, ISBN 2-87215-003-X, 712 - 714
  

• A Report requested by The Department of Trade and Industry:-
  'Report on, First International Robot Olympics, University of Strathclyde, hosted by The Turing Institute,
  27 to 28th September 1990.
  Report compiled by the Shadow Group, 29 January 1991.'
  A report concerning impressions of the event, the technology observed and the relevance of the event for advanced robotics.
  

• 'The Shadow Robot Project', Greenhill R. and Buckley D.
  presented at:-
  'The 1st Workshop on Domestic Robots and The 2nd Workshop on Medical and Healthcare Robotics'
  Organised by The Department of Trade and Industry under its International Advanced Robotics Programme
  held in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne 5 - 7 September 1989
  
  
• 'Kitchen Table Robotics', Buckley D.
  (mistitled in the programme as:-
  'Building Robots on your Kitchen Table')
  presented at:-
  The Institution of Electrical Engineers' Colloquium on:-
  'Personal Robotics in the Home'
  held at The Institution of Electrical Engineers, Savoy Place, London, 16 July 1986
  
  
• 'The Place of the Hobbyist/Home Inventor', Buckley D.
  presented at:-
  'First European personal Robotics Conference and Exhibition'
  held at the London West Hotel, 2 - 4 July 1985
  

• 'Robot Drives - Conversion RD2.1' 1984
  To show how the 'raw' power generated by rotary drives can be converted, by mechanical means, into a useful form. Robot drive systems, gears, ratios, torque conversion, harmonic drives, belts and chains, toothed and beaded belts, backlash.
  
  
• 'Robot Drives - Applications RD2.2' 1984
  To continue with the mechanical aspects of robots.
  Winches, racks, torque conversion, cranks and eccentrics, cams, screw jacks and ball screws, levers, shafts and couplings.
  A description of the Armdroid robot arm.
  
  
• 'Control - The role of the computer RC3.1' 1984
  How programs can control physical devices, subroutines procedures and functions, task scheduling, adaptive control.

• 'Present state of the art', Practical Robotics, June 1985
  Personal Robotics - the present state of the art.
  
  
• 'Zero II', Maplin Magazine, March 1985. (unattributed)
  Zero II microrobot construction article.
  
  
• 'Problem Line', Practical Robotics, November 1984
  Advice on computer interfacing and mechanics.
  
  
• 'Seeing is Avoiding', Practical Robotics, July 1984
  A low cost stereo vision system, construction project and software.
  
  
• 'Problem Answers', Practical Robotics, May 1984
  Hints and advice on computer control of relays and motors.
  
  
• A Bibliography (untitled), Practical Robotics, May 1984, p65.
  A bibliography of useful books on robotics.
  
  
• 'Updates', Sinclair Projects, April 1983 to September 1984.
  (unattributed) A regular column listing every technical error in past issues.
  
  
• 'Problem Line', Practical Robotics, September 1984.
  Advice on computer interfacing.
  
  
• 'A History of Hobby Robots', (pseudonym D Maker), Your Robot, March 1984
  
  
• 'Prowler', Sinclair Projects, December 1983.
  Adding sensors to Prowler, construction project.
  
  
• 'Battery Support', Sinclair Projects, December 1983.
  Battery backup for Spectrum or ZX-81, construction project.
  
  
• 'Prowler', Sinclair Projects, August 1983.
  Projects-Prowler robot vehicle construction project.
  
  
• 'Adaptor', Sinclair Projects, August 1983.
  An Adaptor to allow use of ZX-81 peripherals on a Spectrum, construction project.
  
  
• 'Zeaker', Part 2, Practical Electronics, June 1983.
  Microrobot construction project.
  
  
• 'Zeaker', Part 1, Practical Electronics, May 1983.
  Microrobot construction project.
  
  
• 'Advice Corner', Sinclair Projects, April 1983.
  Technical advice on all the projects published in the magazine.
  
  
• 'Latch Card', Sinclair Projects, December 1982.
  ZX-81 output port, construction project.
  
  
• 'Christmas Lights', Sinclair Projects, December 1982.
  Power-Card; relay card construction project to plug into the 'Latch Card'.
  
  
• 'How to solder', (pseudonym David Elbee), Sinclair Projects, December 1982.
  
  
• 'Quester', Robotics Age, January 1982.
  A description of Quester, a micro-robot vehicle fitted with an arm and gripper.