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A Robot To Follow "Mother" And Another To Block Her

Posted by timothy on from the unless-these-are-fake dept.

fireflash writes: "Some folks at MIT have had a bit of fun with robots. 'Mr. Mallard' and 'Roboguard' are robots that follow a homing beacon and guard hallways, respectively. Wouldn't you like to be followed around by a mess of wires and boards whilst attempting to pass through a hallway guarded by another? Sounds like the ultimate in home security to me :-)."

31 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Um... by sandidge · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't mean to be cruel, but I really don't think Roboguard is going to be keeping me from going anywhere. Just one swift kick and I'd be adding a few extra Legos to my collection.

  2. Mirror by Erasei · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is probably going to be needed real soon.. google mirror

    --
    visit my free wallpaper collection, wp.erasei.com
    1. Re:Mirror by angio · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Please don't use the google mirror.
      We've changed some of the links in the
      main page, and updated it a bit to
      point out things like the 173 megabyte
      download. If you use the google mirror,
      it will actually hurt our servers more
      than it will help. Ironic, that.

      -Dave

  3. Finally! by Masem · · Score: 5, Funny
    I've always wanted to play a full-size, real-life game of Daleks! (or Robots! or whatever title you remember it as!) As long as they can only move in ordinal directions, I'm set!

    (or insert 'Berserk' or 'Robotron/Llamatron' to your heart's desire... :-)

    --
    "Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
    "I can see my house from here!" - ST:
    1. Re:Finally! by Masem · · Score: 2, Informative

      You have a large grid. You're placed in the middle somewhere. Scattered about the level are 'daleks' or 'robots', depending on how much trouble the author wanted with BBC. Each 'turn', you move one space; each robot moves one of the eight possible directions towards you one space. If two robots ended in the same space at the end of that turn, they died and left a pile of rubble. If a robot hit the rubble after moving, it also died. If a robot touched you, or you collided with the rubble, you lost. The idea was to have all the robots collide with other robots or rubble, and leaving you alive. Typically you'd have a limited number of 'teleports' that would drop you in a random location on the grid that you could use instead of moving.

      --
      "Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
      "I can see my house from here!" - ST:
    2. Re:Finally! by jandrese · · Score: 3, Informative

      You play on a simple field (often times an 80x25 terminal window). Your intreped hero has no weapons (sometimes he has a single shot sonic screwdriver) and if any robot touches him he dies. You can only kill the robots by making them run into each other (where they'll leave piles of debris behind--and running into debris is also deadly for the robots!). The robots are very stupid, they always head in a bee-line to the player (at least as much as they can being constrained to moving in ordinal directions). Your hero's primary weapon is a teleporter that randomly teleports him to somewhere else in the playing field (including occasionally next to a robot). The game is over when a robot touches the player (usually when you teleport in right next to a robot). A somewhat feature lacking version can be compiled from here:
      Hpux

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    3. Re:Finally! by A+Big+Gnu+Thrush · · Score: 2

      For those using a sophisticated os, just type pkg_add -r xrobots.

      Too bad the game blows.

    4. Re:Finally! by jandrese · · Score: 2, Informative

      Heh, I guess it was too obvious that I pulled that URL directly from the ports tree. FreeBSDers who really want to see the game in action (although I suspect many people will have the above sentiment: This used to think this was fun?!?) can: # cd /usr/ports/games/xrobots Adjust if your ports tree is elsewhere of course
      # make install clean

      Or you can play the text version (it's part of the base BSD games):
      % cd /usr/games
      % ./robots

      Or you can install the gnome versions (not recommended unless you already have gnome installed, no point installing all of gnome for a couple of lousy games after all):
      # cd /usr/ports/games/gnomegames
      # make install clean

      This should be enough robot on robot action for anybody.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
  4. even cooler robots by guidobot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    An even more interesting robot is the one at CMU that walks around talking to people & showing facial expressions... these roboguard robots don't seem all that advanced, especially after seeing robot museum guides, nurses, and lots of other cool robots.

  5. Next up, pusher and shover robots. by Narcopolo · · Score: 3, Funny

    The shover robot pushes people around, and the pusher robot shoves bread down their throats.

    Are there stairs in your house?
    --
    I used to be a cynic, then I got disillusioned with it.
  6. Re:I hope they are programmed to obey Asimov's law by msheppard · · Score: 5, Funny

    It would be very complicated to make a robot for the battlefield that obeys Asimov's laws.

    The zeroth law does allow them to kill people to save other people, but for modern battles you're gonna have to teach them religon to get them to kill some people.

    "The entertainment of the many outweighs the safty of the few, or the one"

    M@

    --
    Krispy Cream is people
  7. Big File Warning by shut_up_man · · Score: 3, Informative

    Holy crap, that Roboguard demo is... 173MB? Maybe they should put a size warning on that one, although my work's currently paying for my bandwidth, meh.

    shut up man

  8. Robot babysitters? by imrdkl · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'll take two, with the optional mild electrical stimulation/motivation modules, please. :-)

  9. Yep by Aceticon · · Score: 2
    I can just see it now ...

    I'll grab my old "Neural Network That Recognizes Digits" university project ...

    ... and put it inside a Lego-Mindstorm robot.

    This way i will create a robot that reads digits and then draws them by running a path in the shape of that digit (i only have to program 10 paths).

    Next i'll post in Slashdot (naturally such post will be accepted) ...

    ... which will make me famous (more famous than i am now at least) and rich (i'll sell advertising on the page that i'll provide about the robot).

    From that to World Domination it will be just a small step!!!

  10. make 'em fight by AssFace · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't care about protection - just put one in the hallway who's only mission is to get through the door at the end.
    then put the other one who's only job it is to guard the door... well, right be the door.

    then program them to scream when parts of them fall off.
    and give them lasers.
    everybody love lasters. just like that tv show.

    --

    There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
  11. large files, etc by Alien54 · · Score: 2
    How about data compression? A three min video clip that is 177 megs? This better be good.

    This is a typical oversight when designing stuff mostly for internal consumption. They obviously were not planning for people to try to see the file via a dialup or something.

    This fits in with the dot-bomb executives who wanted their website optimized for 1280 x 1024 or something, which is what they had in their office. Which was more clueless since those dotbomb websites were designed for public use.

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  12. Re:I hope they are programmed to obey Asimov's law by SaturnTim · · Score: 2, Insightful

    By God, I don't see the wonder of these wonder weapons. Killing by remote control, nothing is reaffirmed. The day is quickly coming where our troops will be safely hidden in a bunker somewhere while we wipe out the enemy with a joystick.

    But, what will this prove? Sure, we could kill a few more bad guys... But If the cause isn't worth dieing for, is it really worth killing for? Will this help make the world a better place, or will this just provide a way for the few to control the many?

    --ST

    --
    http://www.theMediaBunker.com
  13. "Get him, my robots!" by Saint+Aardvark · · Score: 2

    I think someone should stop MIT...they're obviously trying to set up a live version of Impossible Mission. Remember, it's all fun and games until someone gets ionized.

    --
    Carousel is a lie!
  14. Kickbot, a robot you can kick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So if you guys like Nick, Jaeyon, Godfrey and Magda's robots, you should check out Kickbot, a robot Chris and I made for the same class that was designed to be kicked. (These were for Rodney Brooks' Embodied Intelligence class)

    check out this link for details Kickbot Homepage

    And if Chris' connection gets slashdotted the final paper with all of the cool pictures can be seen at Paper Mirror PDF (1.4MB)

  15. Talking to ME? by blang · · Score: 2

    The researchers tested Vikia
    out on passers-by. The robot would sense a person, turn its
    face towards them and ask
    them to stop and answer a
    question.

    Wonder how they did that, focus on the person being adressed. From my experience, as long as the face on the TV screen looks into the camera,
    it appears to be looking stratight at you, even i you stand to the very side of the screen.

    So, it'll be like in the old days, when I had a cross-eyed professor. Whenever he asked a question to the audience, he got more than one answer.

    --
    -- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
  16. Fridge guard by BLAMM! · · Score: 2, Funny

    Great! All I have to do now is put the blocker in front of my fridge and I might have a chance of staying on my diet. At the very least I'll get some exercise trying to out maneuver it!

  17. no robots! by Kengineer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Do not trust the pusher robot!

    He is malfunctioning!

    Do you have stairs in your house?

    - kengineer

  18. Yeah, but... by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Consider the practical side of such a thing following toddlers around the house. Parents might by sold on something like this if it had a map of the house programmed in and warned if Kiddo was heading for the basement stairs or out in the back yard, etc. Think baby monitor with video and maybe even something like a local GPS. :-)

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  19. Roboguard, slasdotting, comments from inside by angio · · Score: 3, Informative
    Some comments from another student in Nick and Jaeyoun's group:
    • Sorry about the slashdotting. Small server configuration error that's been fixed now. Browse away.
    • Roboguard and friends were a class project; it wasn't DARPA or NSF funded, it was all for fun and a good grade. :) Our research group does networks and mobile systems research for our day jobs...
    • The Cricket Project that was used in the "Mother" robot is part of our real research.
    • Much of the robotics research at MIT happens in the AI Lab, so if you're curious about robotics, browse over there and see the things that the Humanoid Robotics Group is doing. Very cool stuff.
    -Dave
  20. The Learning Company did this in the 80's by Mr+Slushy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Back in the '80s, I worked on a DOS port of an Apple II game called "Robot Odyssey" where there were "guard 'bots" that guarded certain items. In order to win, you had to program a robot with digital logic circuits to bypass the guards, or solve a puzzle.

    The game was way cool, but too hard for the casual gamer. I understand the game was even used in electronics classes to teach digital logic.

    Here [members.aol.com] is a site where you can see screenshots or download copies of the Apple II and DOS version.

    I recall that the DOS version only worked on 8086/286 machines with color monitor and joystick.

    --

    S.E.S.S.D.E.N.E.E.NW from west end of hall of mists

  21. Is there SERIOUS research at the MIT Media Lab? by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 2
    Jezus, I think it's about time to consider the attitude "I don't give a shit what those sellouts at the Media Lab are doing now."

    Instead of researching the difficult and unglamorous stuff which will result in the next wave of technological progress, they're playing with parrots, training their dogs over the internet, and making cutesy robots which have no use beyond getting Omni magazine and dumbed-down "isn't-science-neat"-type shows to give them publicity. Maybe this results in grants... but I can't imagine MIT alums would be so dumb as to think this is the sort of work that deserves their funding. But I worry that I am overestimating their wisdom, probably because of the mystique of MIT. The Media Lab is now the "Let the Media Stroke our Egos" lab.

    Now think how you would react if you read that work like this had instead been done at SUNY Bingamton or some other or the University of Kentucky (two decent schools). Like every other sane person, you would think they're just wanking. The only reason why we don't think that of the Media Lab is because we think "oh, it's MIT, so there must be something important behind this that they don't explain in their media relations." I hate to tell you this, but there isn't.

    Mind you, I'm not saying we shouldn't allow these self-righteous wankers to do their work. Self-righteous wanking is something I think should and must live on in academia. What I oppose is treating these wankers as anything but what they are, as though they had a halo around them.

    spork

    1. Re:Is there SERIOUS research at the MIT Media Lab? by ChristianBaekkelund · · Score: 2

      ROFLMAO....

      Um...did you even read the blurb?...much less go to the actual page. There is nothing even remotely releated to the Media Lab here.

    2. Re:Is there SERIOUS research at the MIT Media Lab? by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 2
      Fine, but I don't know of another lab at MIT who would do this, and the project has Media Lab stench all over it (pointlessness and gee-whizzity).

      I'll believe you if you have evidence that it's NOT them, but that would be sad, because I don't want to believe that the rest of MIT sold out to the media.

  22. Class project... by ChristianBaekkelund · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Um, it's worth noting that this was merely one class project at one class at MIT by a couple students.

    If this is Slashdot-worthy, then there are nearly thousands of Slashdot-worthy pages in the MIT domain alone.

    For starters, every other final project for the Embodied Intelligence class for every term recently. That should be around 200 Slashdot pages right there... :)

  23. robot? by child_of_mercy · · Score: 2

    remote control doth not a robot make.

    The predator is just a large and sophisticated remote control plane.

    --
    'There is a Light that never goes out.'
  24. Re:I hope they are programmed to obey Asimov's law by kin_korn_karn · · Score: 2

    I admit I haven't read much of Asimov, so I'm glad to hear that he was wise enough to recognize this. Risk-taking is the key to growth in any area.