SSU ARS Presentation at LUGOD...

ME dugan at passwall.com
Fri May 11 16:21:10 PDT 2001


Hello NBLUG and LUGOD members,

Sorry to cross-mail, but this may be useful for both lists:

I spoke with Bill Kendrick from LUGOD and he convinced me to drive out to
Davis ad offer a presentation of the SSU (Sonoma State University) ARS
(Automated Retrieval System) called a "Book Robot" in some publications.

The date in question appears to be Tuesday August 7, 2001.
The place will be in Davis for the LUGOD group.
The time is when they normally start their talks.
(See http://www.lugod.org/ for more info on the location.)

I briefly spoke about the ARS at the informal speaker-less NBLUG last
month, but Bill has convinced me there s enough interest in it to talk
about it in a little more detail for the LUGOD group.

One word of warning: "NDA"    ...

SSU and I are under NDA for the project. Though I have full source code
for the server side of things, I cannot comment on it, publish it, or
describe the internal workings of their software. I also cannot go into
much detail on the schematics of their robotic systems, or answer detailed
questions on just what they have in the way of hardware. Last, I can't
show you much in the way of memo's between the builder of the system and
the university, the ARS manuals, or diagrams.

However, I can discuss the general nature of the system, how we almost did
not get this on Linux, but later came to be the first AS/RS (ARS) in the
world (AFAIK) to use Linux as the OS of choice to control the system.

I can also bring a VHS tape of the system running, and my own
"personal" copy of their server software on my laptop in "demo mode" to
show you the User Interface and options that our employees have for using
the ARS. (I have permission from HK Systems to do this part.)

What is the ARS?

The ARS is an Automated Retrieval System designed to hold infrequently
used or accessed books. 3 Large robotic cranes (1-3 tons each) tower three
stories tall in a 3 story tall chamber  with 3 aisles and 6 computer
stations. Nearly 6,000 stainless steel bins exist in a 3 story tall rack
skeleton. The system currently has about 250,000 items stored in it, and
after compaction of items will likely have about 40-50% capacity in use.

The cost of this system is about $2.2 Million, and is entirely controlled
from one of 2 redundant Linux (x86 Dell PowerEdge) servers.

SSU is the 3rd library to go live with an ARS. The first library was at
CSUN, second at the University of E. Mich. Though UNLV started their ARS 1
year before us, they did not finish until after us and then start using it
until about 5 months after we were open and in service.

The presentation will likely mirror much of what I have placed on-line,
but if you have questions beyond what is on-line, bring them to the
presentation, or better yet, e-mail me so I may better prepare an answer
for you. I'll try to answer your question directly in e-mail before the
presentation and then put the Q and A up onto the site.

If there is demand for a semi-instant replay of the ARS presentation at
the NBLUG, I can offer it there/here as well. Unless the Tuesday slot in
August for NBLUG is taken, this is an option for NBLUG if that is desired.

Related URLs:
http://libweb.sonoma.edu/ (The Library Webpage)
http://mike.passwall.com/ars/ (my collection of ARS related stuff)
http://www.hksystems.com/ (The vendor that won the bid to the project RFP
                           I co-wrote)

I guess some people think it is cool because it involves "robots"
Others think it is cool because it is "high tech"
Many of you may think it is cool because it is an expensive project that
 relies upon Linux.

Me? Oh, I thought it was really cool when I started for all of the above
reasons. Now, it is not as cool as it was, but it is still fun. :-)

-ME

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     Systems Department Operating Systems Analyst for the SSU Library
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