In 1997, they put 2 men and 2 women in a 30-foot chamber for 91 days (Schreckenghost et al. 1998b). A physical-chemical air revitalization system recycled the air for 3 of the 4 people, and a wheat crop in the 10-foot chamber did the same for the fourth. The ALS team also experimented with a solid-waste incinerator. Our second ALS AI control system managed the transfer of O2 and CO2 among the gas reservoirs for this test to ensure crew and crop health and to recycle gases produced by waste incineration. These reservoirs included a crew habitat, a plant chamber, an airlock, and a number of pressurized tanks (figure 1). Operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the AI system also used a generative planner that scheduled waste incinerations and crop planting and harvesting, coordinating these tasks with the day-to-day product gas transfer. For both these projects, we used a three-layer architecture (Gat 1998) to design, organize, and develop the control software. AR&SD had used a particular implementation of this architecture known as 3T (see The 3T Intelligent Control System) in a number of robot projects prior to 1995 (Bonasso et al. 1997), and because life support systems are a form of immobots (Williams and Nayak 1996), its application to ALS projects was straightforward.

Maintaining the machineIf possible, store the washer indoors in the off-season to avoid damage to the pump, hoses and spray wand. Otherwise, winterize them using only antifreeze designed for recreational vehicles (RVs); see Photo 6. When a gas-powered washer won''t be used for a month or more, prevent damage to the engine by draining the system of gas or adding a gas preservative to the fuel tank.1 TO START a gas-powered washer: (1) Clean any debris from the inlet filter. (2) Connect any accessories (like this chemical injector). (3) Run water through the washer for one minute to prime the system and remove any air. (4) Squeeze the spray wand trigger to bleed water pressure, and (5) pull the starter cord to start the engine.

"We looked at many different ideas, including articulated loaders and various other concepts. What we ended up with was really two machines in one. If you have situations where you''re in very tight quarters and need that skid-steer function, they have that option. When you want to be out on grass or some other surface that you don''t want disturbed, you can switch into all-wheel steer mode. There is so much versatility, it''s like having two machines in one.And Bobcat managed to develop two machines in one while not reinventing the wheel, according to Chuck Krause, senior development engineer, new products group. "The basic drivetrain is the same as on our 363 loader," he said. "It has the same chain case, the same drive motors, same drive sprocket, same driven sprocket. The changes all take place on getting the power from the driven sprocket out to the axle."

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