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ED-209 Patrols University
Joel writes: "A security robot called Marvin is patrolling the corridors of Waikato University (New Zealand). Science students at the university's mechatronics laboratory built the 1.5m-high Machine, which runs on two 12-volt car batteries and can patrol the university corridors at up to 35 km/h."
*squeal*
ARE YOU BOYS COOKING UP THERE
*pop*
"No..."
*click, whirr*
ARE YOU BUILDING AN INTEROCITER
"NO!"
>inventory
You have:
a bathrobe
a screwdriver
tea
no tea
>show Marvin tea and no tea
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
I'm more concerned about the Dalek quote. I mean, what good is a robotic security guard if it can't vaporize things?
Does it have manipulators? Can we at least duct-tape an acetylene torch to its arm or something?
Chelloveck
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
In this "robot".
/. for posting this story.
In
Why?
This has to be the lamest robot "story" on the planet. Similar "security" robots have been built by companies and individuals for years. I remember several companies in the 80's doing this, when robots were the "thing" of the "future".
GPS? Why GPS? A white or black line (or even one done in a flourescent "invisible" paint or something) would be much cheaper for navigation. In a new building, a buried wire under the floor or carpet could be used. Coded tags at doors could further aid navigation (UPC or IR "active" tags).
Nomadic Technologies used to sell research robots with this kind of use in mind (sadly, I just found that they stopped production).
IRobot has a research robot that seems ideal for this as well.
Of course, nothing would beat Odetic's Odex-1 for the "scare" factor in security - too bad this 80's robot never went into production...
Now, homebrew bots - that is where the action is:
Karl Williams seems to have many projects of the type that would make interesting security platforms - or at least something to build off of (mount the vortex cannon or coil gun onto the home drone - yikes!).
This machine might even be better for security - simply because it could be smaller and faster for such a job.
The truth is that there are a lot of homebrew and commercial robots that can easily do what this robot does - probably at a fraction of the cost (actually, some of the commercial bots are quite expensive). There were many robots built in the 80's that were capable as well.
That is the article I want to see. Somehow I was hoping for a two legged chicken walker (not ED-209 sized, but something) patrolling the halls, maybe packing low powered pea shooters for "defense" (actually, one homebrewer managed to build such a robot with a "pea-shooter"-style, multi barrel "gun" - it couldn't hurt you, but it could knock over empty pop cans - I wish I had a link to it - probably do, but it is buried in my link list somewhere deep).
Oh well...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Okay, side note: when you're responding to a sentence with two phrases, and you're disagreeing violently with one of them, don't use pronouns. "Anyone who says what" -- the part about the Daleks or the part about the thinking? I either strongly agree with you, or I thnk you're an idiot, depending on which one you meant.
Anyhow.
I remember shortly after the Matrix came out, some folks in a newsgroup were discussing how such a malevolent AI could come about in the first place. One suggested some bad code someplace. Another responded with, "It's extremely unlikely that an AI could turn hostile due to sloppy programming. On the other hand, that fucking paperclip in Word 97 seems to do whatever the fuck it wants."
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Maybe they have a repeater that runs on 802.11 or something?
I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
Do you mean like this one ?
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
What's \. - an MS-DOS advocacy site?
--
Anyone who has been to Wildwood NJ should immediately be thinking about that annoying message:
Watch The Tram Car Please
I'm still working on a clever footer.
Hey, sure it's cool, but I don't think it's too practical. All this robot do is to search for intruders, right ? Security cameras, or motion detectors could do this, couldn't they ? At a fraction of the price.
:) But, then again, who would be crazy to make a killer bot ? There is no robot designer who would do this in a real life situation for the defense of a building. Yes, there are some belical bots at the army, designed to destroy the enemy. But it's a war zone, not a building.
Robots are fine when you have something repetitive that requires physical presence. Such as cleaning. There are cleaning robots, wich I think is much more useful than a walking-camera.
Unless, of course, you give ED-209 some real ammo. Now you're talking a different ball game.
-
Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
Id like to know what kind of GPS they have that will work indoors ... my handheld unit NEVER works indoors, and sometimes not even in my car :)
Free Techno/Jazz/DNB/MI Music by guys obsessed with monkeys!
I believe he is now working in the UK. He writes regular BOFH columns for the Register at http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/30/
Well I'm sure it couldn't pass the turning test
Neither can any other college security guard that I've seen.
Law enforcement uses a diffused laser to dazzle suspects. They basically shine them in your eyes and pulse the signal. Since your eyes are trying to constantly adjust to the varying light levels, it becomes very difficult to see and as a bonus you get a sort of vertigo feeling.
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
I doubt that it could climb the ladders into the utility rooms.
Regarding your comment, Rackemup, how exactly is a laser beam a weapon system? I've never seen a laser beam used as a weapon. Perhaps one could use a laser beam for some sort of weapon guidance, but nothing energy based.
Keeping
Your future looks good... but does that mean at the present time you are aspiring to become a competant campus security guard?
The Internet is generally stupid
Anything?
That's a pretty bold and all inclusive statement. I'll expect him at my door soon to help satisfy my..er, needs.
The Internet is generally stupid
Maybe their building is a modern all fiberglass and glass job that is transparant to microwaves.. Think Radar Dome.. It couldn't be built out of things like steel, concrete, wood, sheetrock etc..
The truth shall set you free!
I like the idea, but instead of using GPS for a building, build a custom TX / RX set for the building. Each corner in each room or hall would have a transmitter and using timing + TX id's, it would be possible to calculate the location in the building with high precision. Of course it wouldn't be cheap and would require an atomic master clock for the system.
The truth shall set you free!
I tried it. It doesn't work more than about 2 feet from a window. My house is wood. Maybe it will work better there in a concrete and brick building with many stories. ;-) NOT! Maybe they are planning on building a better GPS system also that will work indoors.
The truth shall set you free!
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The robot is cruising along the coridors at 35 kph when suddendly it slips on a puddle of spilled coffee, crashes into a wall, and falls over on its (back?). Its rangefinder and camera, now staring at the unfamiliar ceiling cause the robot to initiate a series of intruder alerts to local and national security. MSG: Intruder Alert! Marvin Incapacitated, Intruder considered armed and dangerous. Last seen wearing offwhite tiles and several flourescent lighting fixtures.
Why this must be the work of none other than..
The original BOFH, back yet again to make people's lives miserable! Er..wait..I mean good..er..no I mean bad..er..I dunno whether this is good or bad! I guess good as long as the robot doesn't freak and kill people. But Marvin's a cool name..
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"My days are less enjoyable because of people." ~ Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
Sounds like this 'bot is at least a small improvement on those wonders of yesteryear, but I found the article quite low on details to convince me that it's really newsworthy. And surfing around it's creators' web site(s) didn't prove terribly informative either... (see my other postings)...
Ron Obvious
What was your username again? *clickety click* What do you mean your files? I don't see anything here...
TODO: Something witty here...
Hang on... we're talking about thinking like a human security guard here. I can just see the code now.
Patrol_Corridors();if (TimeSpentPatrolling > 30) {
get(Donuts);
get(pr0n);
sit_down(fat_ass);
eat(Donuts);
read(pr0n);
scratch(fat_ass);
sleep(60);
}
--
This post is about truth, beauty, freedom, and above all things, Karma
-- This post is about truth, beauty, freedom, and above all things, Karma
yeah, but he kissed some ass w/the coffee machine that is right outside the door of the district court judge's office and he got them to find against ACME ;-)
...something along the lines of:
``Here I am with a brain the size of a planet and I'm on the lookout for students cooking in their rooms. I'm so depressed...''
--
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
...of I shall be forced to activate the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator!
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
I'm sitting back in the Operations Armchair, watching the computer room closed circuit TV, which just happens to be connected to the frame-grabber's video player (sent off for repair, due back sometime in 2007) when the phone rings. That must be the 2nd time today, and it's really starting to get to me!
"Hello?" I say.
"Who is this?" they say
"It's me I think" I say, having successfully attended a telephone skills course
"Me Who?"
"Is this like a knock knock joke?" I say, trying to concentrate on the cute secretary picking up a jar of paperclips that somehow fell off her desk, via the security camera I located in her office last night.
"uhhh.... I have a problem here" says the slow drawly voice down the phone.
I hit pause on the video; can't concentrate with this voice whining in my ear. "What is your issue?" I enquire politely.
"I can't reach my keyboard from here - its too far away. Can I use a keyboard extension cable?"
I'm puzzled by this... I've done nothing to this particular beancounter moron lately that I'm aware of.
"Perhaps you've shrunk since you last used your workstation?" I suggest.
"No", says the user. "I'm hiding under my desk, because theres a tall white plastic scary robot wandering around."
I think - shit! is Christine Rankin in the office? Quickly I flick the CCTV on to channel 27, which covers that area of the building to find that its Marvin the new Security Droid (no, too star-warsy) Dalek (no, thats taken too) Big Scarey Robotic Vehicle (yeah) has ended up banging repeatedly against a table.
"I see the problem" I whisper down the phone. "Be very quiet - this unit has fantastic audio tracking techniques."
"errrp" is all I hear
"You need to sneak around your desk, to the rear of the robot, then put your arm around the front and press the button on the front. It's about 50 centimetres above the floor level. Remember - QUIET or else it'll hear you."
God I'm a bastard - the poor moron can't ask me any questions cos Marvin will hear him speak.
"Nod if you understand" On the CCTV I see him slowly lowers his head and raise it again.
"Go to it Tiger!" I encourage.
I can see the pleb clearly on the screen... he is quivvering with fear. He lays the phone handset gently down on the carpet and proceeds to crawl around the end of his desk.
This is amusing! I quickly shove another tape in the video recorder... ya never know when something blackmailworthy will happen...
Beancounter Bob has reached a position behind Marvin. He reaches his hand out slowly and ever so gently presses the button.
Immediately Marvin blurts out "EXTERMINATE!!!" and his head starts to rotate faster and faster. I quickly patch into the office PA system and yell out "RUN FOR IT!!!"
The twit jumps two metres in the air (I know - I measured it later) and runs out of the building screaming "RUN!!! IT'S COMING TO GET US ALL!!!"
Damn that was a good reset routine I slipped into the eprom data files down in the R&D labs.
(major appologies to Simon)
-- Criggie
The turning test? The robot is only intelligent enough to go straight then! I hope they have long corridors.
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
Umm... I thought GPS worked by measuring doplar shift and time of arrival to compute a position fix. If you lengthen some or all of the signal paths randomly by reflections, the GPS could not calculate a precise position fix. It would however be able to tell the signal is poor and properly display the estimated position error as a large value. You would make your own building a SA encoder to the signal by providing random multipath signal timing errors. There would be no precise phase and time shifts of individual satelite signals to calculate an accurate position due to the added lengths of the reflected signal paths. For an real life example of this, drive downtown in a large city where the signal bounces between buildings to reach the ground. The signal is fair much of the time, but the positioning is lousy.
The truth shall set you free!
"The robot cannot exterminate people in Dalek fashion but is not far from thinking like a human."
Yeah right! Anyone who says this about any AI we have today is full of it.
Okay, since no one seems to be getting it... (What a surprise on \.) Simon Travaglia, writier of the Bastard Operator From Hell Series is employed (last time I checked at any rate) by Waikato University as a sysadmin.
TODO: Something witty here...
Isn't that slightly dangerous? I can see it now... robot comes swinging round a corner at 35kph and collides with a lecturer - but instead of stopping, keeps running, causing severe injury as it mutters "Kernel Panic"...
http://www.themeparks.ie
They say he'll be upgraded...do you know how often a working project is upgraded at a university?
"`The first ten million years were the worst,' said Marvin, `and the second ten million, they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.'"
www.code-fix.com
How long before he gets bored on the job and starts flirting with the vending machines?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Turns out the GPS on him showed him doing 35km/h in a hallway that had a posted speed limit of 25km/h. ACME car rental sent then a notice of the violation.
Marvin: I'm afraid I have been left here to stop you.
Robber: You? Stop me? Go on.
Marvin: No, really I have.
Robber: What are you armed with?
Marvin: Guess
Robber: Guess?
Marvin: Yes, go on, you'll never guess.
Robber: Errmm... laser beam?
Marvin: No
Robber: No, too obvious I suppose. Anti-matter ray?
Marvin: Far too obvious
Robber: Yes... Er... how about an electron ram?
Marvin: No, not one of those
Robber: I know, you must have one of those new Xanthic Re-Struction Destabilised Zenon Emitters.
Marvin: Nice, aren't they?
Robber: That what you got?
Marvin: No.
...
And so on until the police arrive.
Credit to Douglas Adams.
This thing is worth $10,000? And it actively seeks out intruders?
(Squeal of robot tyres on floor tiles)
(Rumble of robot tyres on wooden ramp)
(Sound of van door slamming. Squeal of van tires on tarmac. Sound of cash register as Evildoer sells $10,000 robot.)
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Why the BOFH of course....
TODO: Something witty here...