Intel combines Robots, WLANs, and Linux

An anonymous reader writes "This article by a researcher in Intel's Emerging Platforms Lab details some of Intel's current research into wireless, mobile robotics technology. A key goal of the effort, according to the article, is to efficiently combine the two technologies -- mobile robotics and wireless networks -- so that mobile robots can serve as gateways into wireless sensor networks. The Intel project is providing robotics researchers with a robotics development package that includes standardized silicon, a Linux-based open-source operating system, and open-source software drivers for robotics applications. Additionally, Intel has released a test version of a technical library for building Bayesian networks, which will help advance the ability of robots to navigate their environments, and pilot systems based on Intel's open-source packages are already being deployed in a variety of flexible environments in agricultural, security, and military applications."

Comments

Looks interesting

[Timesprout]

I'm wondering though since they are not actually all that interested in the physical capabilities of the robots, concentrating instead on group intelligence why do they actually build the robots?(OK I know geeks and their toys).

Surely the robot controller code could be emulated purely in software to determine how the robot will respond, a much more sophisticated version of the recent Java battle bots if you will.

Is there some benefit to physically building the robot when researching group intelligence ?

Intel + WLAN + Linux == unsupported

[SilverSun]

I find this article very interesting, especially since I just recieved an e-mail from Intel custumer support, telling me that my centrino based laptop's wireless network adapter (Pro100) is not supported with linux. After asking when I can expect drivers, I got a friendly e-mail, telling me that linux support is not planned in the near future....

I think this is symptomatic for many big companies. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand does...

Cheers, Peter