Projects
We take great pride in all work we undertake here at QuickSilver Controls, Inc., but a few projects, such as those highlighted below, are of particular interest. QuickSilver is proud to have been used on the following projects. Please let us know of any other interesting projects QuickSilver has been used on.
Calgary Zoo Animatronic Lion (2008)
Animatronic technology is roaring at the Calgary Zoo, Alberta Canada, in the form of a life-sized talking, moving male lion. The show is controlled by a Gilderfluke show control system using the popular DMX serial protocol which allows a master show controller to broadcast a packet of information up to 44 times per second (250K baud) over an RS-485 line in synch with an audio track. The DMX frame contains 512 bytes or "Slots" of data to control such things as lighting dimmers, I/O, and QuickSilver’s servo motors of which this lion has eleven.
Witte Museum (2008)
The Witte Museum, located in San Antonio Texas, uses a QuickSilver servo motor in their diorama, The Sounds of South Texas. QuickSilver was chosen for its compatibility with the entertainment industry’s popular DMX protocol which synchronizes a show’s audio, lighting and motion control elements.
The diorama contains specimens of many species of birds, one rock squirrel, and one coyote. When activated, a narration is played and each specimen is lit in sequence with the narrator giving a description of each bird or animal and the sound of the animal is played. The QuickSilver servo motor drives the rock squirrel lift.
Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) 2008
As part of MoMA’s “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition, Hoberman Associates chose QuickSilver Controls to move the panels on its Emergent Surface sculpture. Emergent Surface is a transformable wall of 26 panels each controlled by a QuickSilver servo motor. The sculpture consists of 7 floor to ceiling poles each affixed with 3 or 4 servo controlled panels. The poles are of varying slopes such that the wall appears flat or twisted depending on your perspective.
Lockheed Martin
F-35 Joint Strike Force Fighter
Anti Skid Test Set 2006
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable military strike fighter, a multi-role aircraft that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air-to-air combat. Two QuickSilver servo motors are used to test the plane's Anti Skid logic. The servo motors spin the two wheel encoders at various velocities to test the on-board Anti Skid logic.
Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) 2004-2008
The IGVC is an annual competition amongst universities to design and build a fully autonomous unmanned ground robotic vehicle. The vehicle must negotiate around an outdoor obstacle course under a prescribed time while staying within the 5 mph speed limit, and avoiding the obstacles on the track.
QuickSilver has supported many universities in this exciting competition. SInce 2004, QuickSilver has been on every 1st place vehicle.
Civilian European Land Robotic Trial
(C-ELROB) 2007
In August 2007, some 14 teams competed in Switzerland. The challenges included following pre-defined paths, patrolling an area, locating objects, and searching for hazardous materials.
We were used on both the Robotics Inventions A-Bot (above) and PIAP Expert (left) vehicles. Both teams used us for drive motors.
For more details on this on-going competition which includes both military and civilian versions, see http://www.elrob.org/.
DARPA Grand Challenge 2004, 2005
The Grand Challenge 2005 was held on October 8, 2005 in Southern California's high desert. Given only GPS coordinates, the autonomous vehicles had to negotiate a 132 mile course through the rough California desert is less than 10 hours. Five teams completed the Grand Challenge; four of them under the 10 hour limit. The Stanford Racing Team took the prize with a winning time of 6 hours, 53 minutes. During 2004 and 2005 QuickSilver servo motors were used on several vehicles.
Antarctica - Dome C MASS 2004
Multi-Aperture Scintillation Sensor (MASS) at the Dome C (Antarctica) automated lab (AASTINO) contains 2 QuickSilver servo motors to operate the sensor's gimbal. The motor's track the sky using move commands received over their serial comm channel (RS-485). The green "dome" in the foreground is warmed up to -20C to keep everything working.
SOAR Telescope 2003
SOAR (SOuthern Observatory for Astrophysical Research) Telescope is a 4.1 m diameter alt-az optical telescope constructed by a consortium of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, the National Optical Observatories, the University of North Carolina and Michigan State University. Through SOAR scientists watch galaxies collide, stars explode, and black holes form.
QuickSilver servo motors are being used with LabView to control the telescope and other equipment such as image cameras and spectrographs. It will also be used on the two new spectrographs being developed for SOAR in Brazil (SIFS and STLELES).
Success Stories
QuickSilver has been used any many successful projects over the years.