Feral Robot Dogs
stinkypig sent in a blurb about Feral Robot Dogs, assorted modifications of the commercial AIBO dogs to be "more useful". For various definitions of useful. See also a discussion on smartmobs.com.
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
fecal robot dogs? Immediately, I thought they taught AIBO how to poop. Leave it to Sony to make a great product...
My dreams of one day owning a real-live (sorta) Dyno-Mutt are closer to fruition!
still not usefulful enough to warrent the $1400 price tags...
- colin
Bring on the Rat Thing!
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Based on this article it would seem that Sony does not people modding thier robot dog. So is that article the latest word or has Sony wisened up?
Feral.
6 entries found for Feral @ www.dictionary.com
feral ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fîrl, fr-)
adj.
Existing in a wild or untamed state.
Having returned to an untamed state from domestication.
Of or suggestive of a wild animal; savage: a feral grin.
Well I botched that one...shoulda used the preview button I guess... should have read: Do Paraniod Androids Dream Of Electric [Feral Dogs] ? read this sequel to Phillip K. Dick's masterpiece novel...in store's now! i guess i lost that funny mod!
****--- A fortune cookie once told me the meaning of life...so I ate it. ---****
Since I first heard of nanotechnology, a logical use seemed to be using it to create landfill miners.
Small robotic devices sent into most landfills could harvest bost the useful and the harmful substances from them.
This "robodog" mod is an excellent first step towards this. Well intentioned, but likely doomed to
the humour or "wierd news" fold.
I look forward to following it.
... It's about time someone did something useful with these things.
A local newsagent is selling a series of these horrid mags with a bit of a robot on the cover, collect them all and build it, sort of a thing. I can just imagine how proud I'd be to watch my lad's robot savage the postie ...
"By Grabthar's Hammer, what a savings."
eating-steaks-that-grow-on-trees dept?? Comon Micheal, We know its early but this title is ++ungood.
--sig fault--
Now we need some feral NanoDogs!
Of course, the waste may be hazardous... or at least nanosmelly. I definitely want a pack of NanoDobermans protecting me from the other nanobots.
hmmm, I feel a rock band coming on...
This Like That - fun with words!
I'm just wondering the about the legal issues surrounding the release of a 'feral' robot..
When you release your feral robot to freely wander about, would you have any legal right of ownership over it, if, say, someone else took it into their own possession ?
On the converse, could you be held responsible for it's actions ?
Are there any legal precendents around for any of this stuff ?
$ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
How about frigging feral robot dogs with frigging laser beams on their heads?
Yeah baby!
Alan.
Under poop and scoop laws would you have to follow around one of these with an anti-static baggie?
On a more serious note - it's always interesting to see explorations of behaviour in robotics (since future robots used for autonomous exploration of planetary surfaces and such will likely need different programming than the traditional robot (many of which would actually be closer to teleoperated machines than robots as they rely on human instruction for just about everything.
It reminds me to some degree of some sci-fi stories exploring AI and von neumann type machines interacting in such a way to create robotic "evolution". Which makes you further wonder - one day could obsolete robots be considered endangered species? (Look over there... it's one of the last VIC-20's left in the wild!)
Based on this article [slashdot.org] it would seem that Sony does not people modding thier robot dog.
First:You need a verb between not and people.
Second: The correct link is here.
Third: You've also spelled 'their' wrong.
Grammar Nazi: +1
Everyone Else: -1 (Troll)
You don't put the laser on the robot dogs head.
You put the laser in the dog's nose.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Cheaper, fuzzier and more affecionate: Humane Society
... will we be seeing some Stephenson rat things wandering around anytime soon, then?
Al Qaeda has ninjas!
Give me a Back massage with 3-D solid mapping?
since that other site "contains 'artsy' stuff, and doesn't include technical tidbits."
I wanna know if I can make it give me back rubs...
and no I don't want to talk about the implications or the websites and spam that would be sent out!
"Hot Young Aibo Bestiality Sensual Massage Pics In Your E-mail Everyday!"
Hmmm maybe theres a Niche Market there somewhere
1.?
2.Profit!!!
moo.
It's a 600MHz Celeron with 60MB RAM. I was surprised I didn't see any smoke when I went to reboot it.
I just throttled back MaxClients in httpd.conf. You'll be able to get in a little bit easier now, for a little while at least.
And no, I have no control over the content or the hardware.
Anyone else read that as "Federal Robot Dogs?"
Seriously, I was starting to wonder about the airports.
"It's a very tangled subsystem." --Windows kernel guru
Sam Waterston and I tried to warn you all, but you wouldn't listen!
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
In a related vein, I'm working on Angry Fish. In addition to the first fish that cries out in pain, I am working on a school of seven Linux-controlled fish, which will soon be decrying their position in life.
now I don't even have to be a 7337 AI hAx0r to win RoboCup? Sweet!
No.
According to Captain Beatty, "We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal...A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it."
-jc
Maybe I should stop reading slashdot. Just when I finally stopped worrying about fake monkey automotans now I have to stress over feral robot dogs.
Will the madness never end?
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball(TM)
Programming it to hump the legs of attractive women?
I read Federal Robot Dogs at first and immediately a picture of Janet Reno popped into my head.
(shudders)
using System.Awesome;
"We have an order to shut down that grotesque web server. Where is it!"
"In the killer robot... over there. I forgot the password, you'll have to shut him down manually."
"Grrrrrrrrrrrr"
"Nice doggie..."
Novel theory: Modern Man evolved from psychopath
Even in jest, using newspeak is bad mojo. Offtopic I know, but it gives me a frowny face to think that anyone would willingly use it.
Never confuse feeling with thinking.
As long as the tree-hugging hippies don't give
me any shit when I mod the thing.
from smartmobs.com:
An emblematic feature of the adapted dogs is placement of the webcams in the non-barking end of the dogs
1. Wild dogs evolve
2. Humans domesticate wild dogs.
3. Humans create domesticated robotic dogs
4. Robotic dogs go wild
5. Wild robotic dogs tame humans???
Whats it gonna do? Lick its electric nuts?
-Y.T., Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
AIBO ate my Baby!
This project made its debut at the 2003 Florida Film Festival here in Orlando about a month or so ago. I worked on the dogs for a day, helping assemble some of the first prototypes. The dog platform they used was initially a cheap toy (Mega-Byte) that they purchased for about $10. Then, they added particulate sensors which were sensitive to Co2 and other things like gasoline, etc. A new stepper motor assembly replaced the front legs, and a single tail wheel carried the rear. This is the bot you see at the top of the "Smart Mobs" link. The system basically got a variable voltage reading off the particulate sensors, then fed that to a PIC which did a linear variable speed control to the drive motors in the front. Ex: gasoline vapor on the left of the bot would drive the bot forward and to the left.
;^)
Modding a single dog took about 2-3hrs per dog, if you count in the soldering and layout of the PCB and the modification of the dog shell.
The purpose of the exhibit was to create a mediagenic event around coordinated releases of the dogs. There's a development here in Orlando called Baldwin Park, which has a bit of notoriety around it for being build on the site of an old Army base. They wanted to draw attention to the repurposing of these dogs and the fact that they could be used to make a statement, rather than trying to expose specific polluters, etc
It was kind of fun working on the dogs, and to see them run. We sent a team out into the field to videotape the dogs in action - supposedly they took it to a Burger King and it just ran into a corner. On a construction work site, one dog caught a whiff of a truck and went rolling after it.
We had fun working on the dogs, but weren't able to spend much time discussion the potential for this kind of renegade modding - in that sense I was a bit disappointed. But the whole sense of modding these dogs is what Slashdot is all about! Unfortunately, they don't run Linux yet...
Feral Robot Dog? I had a girlfriend like that once...
Do Feral Dogs Herd Electric Sheep?
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
"My AIBO can kill and consume for materials your AIBO."
Here's a link to the aforementioned SNL sketch:
Old Glory Insurance
...I can imagine that some people at DARPA (of course they read Slashdot) are creaming in their jeans over this - unless they are working on versions of it already. I can imagine that some other three letter agencies are thinking of both applications and threats from devices of these kinds. I bet that the number of U.S. tax dollars spend on this is more than Sony spends on Aibo - unless Sony is a DoD contractor, too.
He lived in a virtual black-and-white world where steaks grow on trees and bloody rawhide frisbees drift by on the breeze, until you catch them.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
Link to any of the pages....lower left side....you probably don't want to see this.
Just a warning for those of us who actually have jobs and are at work checking this shit out. (No pun intended.)
WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THAT!!! I Visited the website for the robot dogs and I clicked the link "DIY UPGRADES" and on the left side of my screen i swa the most fucking disgusting thing ever. what the fuck is up with the morn that posted that website. oh my god i honestly hope you get shot for posting that.
I've got an original AIBO. $2500.
I've got a real dog, with allergies (never buy a dog from a flea market - not that I did, she's second-hand).
Allergen-free food - $40/bag, lasts about 2 months, expected lifetime 10 years = almost 2500 right there.
Allergy shots, $300 a year
Vet, $100/year
Of course, the real dog is more fun. But only the Aibo is allowed at work.
Feral Robot Dogs - their first album was great, but now their new stuff is too poppy and commercial.
Based on this article [slashdot.org] it would seem that Sony does not people modding their robot dog. So is that article the latest word or has Sony wizened up?
At any rate does this mean a whole new propagation of "____ ate my balls websites?"
My Feral AIBO Ate My Balls
BTW - Everyone here has figured out that Tweekie from Buck Rogers is the cheaper and less functional version of a sex droid (just as TOMY's "Poochie" is a cheaper and less functional version of Sony's "AIBO").
"Face it, a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.
I know several people who have emotional attachments to their cars that are greater than the attachments they have to the people around them...not to mention that they are nicer to their cars than they are to other people.
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
Mod points... you never have them when you need them. I just about pissed myself reading this :-)
I am artificially intelligent.
so, can we hype these little bastards up and have robot dogfights?
battlebots meets the dogpit...."hello, UPN..."
Mike VA
Take an army of the recently-described feral hunting robots . To each robot, add a GPS chip and wireless mesh networking .
Give the people and dogs smart name tags , and have your dogs exchange your "business card" with the other smart name tags. Publish the FOAF url in it, so you can immediately check for compatibility and give the new information to the dogs.
Study the discovered FOAF files , each describing individual traits ("attributes").
Instruct the feral robots to find other people with compatible personalities , but to stay near you. They'll roam around, seeking people whose interests relate to yours.
For bonus points, add solar panels to generate power as it roams around, and electronic boundaries to keep it in safe areas, away from motor traffic.
An AIBeOwolf cluster?
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass