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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 :-)."

12 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
  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 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.
  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. 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.
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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... :)