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Evolution Robotics' ER1 Reviewed
Anonymous Coward writes "A useful review of Evolution Robotics' ER-1 by the boys at Techfocus. It covers: construction, customization, hardware requirements, best features, programming, durability of equipment -- and all that good stuff.
One interesting factoid is that the robot can recognize objects until the object is blocked - up to 40% - by something (like a piece of furniture). Techfocus aptly points out the Orwellian implications... Another thing that rocked my world is the notion that the robot is not as much of a drag on CPU as one might suspect. TF ran the unit on an NEC Versa VXi running Windows 2000, with a 900mhz CPU and 128mb of RAM, and encountered absolutely no problems. Encouragingly, if you want to further customize your robot, why not just write a script in C or Perl -- the manual even points users toward an app primarily based in Linux.
What's not surprising: it's pricey. Also some nice pictures of how the robot really looks right out of the box."
This one also has a commercial off-the-shelf computer in the heart of the design:
It uses a Palm Pilot
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Until Azimov's 3 Rules come standard.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
I saw a demo of this at Fry's Electronics! Very
impressive, the robot itself isn't terrible fast, and you do have to have the laptop there, but the person demoing said they were working on something for PocketPCs, and other PDA's!
I've seen so many robot articles. Robots to mow your lawn, vacuum your carpet, walk your dog...
Where are they though? I have yet to walk down my street and see a mowing robot or visit a friends house and see a robot cleaning the windows. Most of these articles will say that they will be available to consumers in the next year or so.
Funny, I've been reading articles about robots for what seems like forever
Anybody moding their bot with lasers? You know for returning library books and stuff..
Librarian: This book is overdue
Geek: 'click'
Robot: *whir* BZZZZ
Librarian: We'll just take that fine off.. can I help you with anything else?
air and light and time and space
Runs on both Windows 2000 and Linux
Any sensors available other than the camera? For long term useage, I'd expect at least rudimentary obstacle sensing; a robot that runs around an unstructured environment for too long will generally not do to well without decent obstacle sensors. Anybody else have one of these that would care to comment?
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
Techfocus aptly points out the Orwellian implications...
robot: TARGET RECOGNIZED. PINCHERS ENGAGED
me: OH NO! IT'S DELICATELY PINCHING MY ANKLES. DAMN THIS POLICE STATE I LIVE IN!
Puh-lease. The image recognition will only be Orwellian to my cat, and *everything* is Orwellian to cats.
*everything* is Orwellian to cats.
In the near future: a PDA that follows you around and carries all those electronics that doesn't fit in your pocket anymore. :-)
:-)
You just will have to watch out for water, and thieves.
The ENIAC Demo Competition
If it's my robot, that's not exactly optional.
This sad statement brought to you by the Internet. If this had been a real sad statement, you'd have been instructed to look away, murmuring in pity. Thank you.
"The Laptop is getting away!"
We quit using the word Orwellian.
Especially for topics like this where it doesn't apply even remotely. Name one Orwell book about toy robots.
God, you all are buzzword loving fucktards.
To funny... If you watch the Spooky Bot Around Town video on their website, there is a scene that is just like the part in Short Circut where Johny 5 is in the bookstore! LOL!
:(
Ok i guess this robot doesn't trash the place...
Or get the cops called on him...
And he's wearing a Spooky Bot Costume...
nevermind...
Polaroid. See what develops!!
It's Evolver all over again!!!
- OrbNobz
And a table made of cheeeeese...and a chair made of cheeeeeese...
NO DISASSEMBLE JOHNNY FIVE!
Hmmm.
The largest requirement for a robot able to recognize objects would be memory/storage. Kind of like those 20 questions programs, it is very simple processing to compare input with a matrix of possibilities. As the closest match in one matrix is found, it can now compare the input to the next matrix. The storage space for the matrices would be immense as the robot became more sophisticated, but higher processing power would simply speed up the time to "recognize" an object.
I was taking one day at a time, but then several days got together and ambushed me. (from a Rhymes with Orange comic)
Now, I just need to know what Battlebot weight class I'm in with my new robomonster!
Seriously though, it's base set-up doesn't look very rugged, nor stable... I doubt your laptop would survive the first fall down a couple stairs.
It's still wicked cool for the price however.
'He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.' - Douglas Adams
Maybe one day I'll have my very own droid that can go with me everywhere and have all my pr0...um, I mean files with me so I can do all the stuff I want while on the move. All you need to do is make this little think the size of a trashcan, put some big-ass rechargable batteries in it, add some beeping and chirping and whistling, and there you have it. Your personal assistant in a can.
Makes life easier when you don't have to lug arounda laptop. Simply have it follow you around. Of course the early models will have to have a remote to control it, but later version will add autonomous following and features such as that. Imagine if it could also connect into the internet wirelessly and allow you to walk around and read your e-mail and surf the web/work from the park. That's where the computer and robotics industry should be focusing. Bring everyone thier own personal assistant and boom, instant fame and fortune. You know all the Star Wars geeks will be clamouring for one.
The real questions will be , "Does it run Windows or Mac OS X?"
Heh.
Dean Kamen could even adapt his Segue to have it function on 2 wheels just like the real R2-D2 from the movies. Now wouldn't that be interesting?
Don't Ask Questions. I don't know the answers and even if I did I wouldn't tell you.
"If only she had killer robot insurance. Most insurance policies don't cover attacks by killer robots.
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for food.
Only Old Glory offers complete killer robot coverage.
Robots are everywhere, and when they grab you with their big metal claws there's no secape, because they're made of metal. And robots are strong.
Note: People denying the existence of killer robots may be robots themselves."
Considering all the body parts on a blow-up doll are made of plastic, that will be a good trick indeed.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Your "robomoster" with that bare keyboard is easily defeated by any "three-finger salutebot", or, if you're running a decent OS, any "power button zeroing mecha". :-)
The ENIAC Demo Competition
I guess I'll need to switch to Linux at that point.
'He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.' - Douglas Adams
Where are they though? I have yet to walk down my street and see a mowing robot or visit a friends house and see a robot cleaning the windows.
That's because the first use that the sorts of people that fanatically follow robot news would have for a robot would be as a sex toy. They're all inside.
The coolest voice ever.
Its a set of compiled modules gathered together, and able to be called by other modules. The references to the functions in it are usually resolved at link time.
e to the i pi equals negative one
I don't know if it's just my side. I get a DNS error and then I go to techfocus.org, get redirected to https and just another click is the domain administration page.
Strange.
B
One interesting factoid is that the robot can recognize objects until the object is blocked - up to 40% - by something (like a piece of furniture).
:)
So what you're saying is that it can recognize something that it's looking at until it starts looking at whatever is in front of what it was looking at before?
Technology like that just baffles the mind...
---
Help stamp out and abolish redundancy.
...the site listed by /. is slashdotted so here are some useful links. In a nut shell I am not sold by this thing because it lacks a real purpose(for myself anyways). Maybe one day I will move into a 10,000 sq foot house and have plenty of hallways, laptops and time to play around with the ER-1.
1 9368.htm
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/46
http://www.evolution.com/product/consumer
Sony's AIBO provides a much more sophisticated legged design, and has a freely available OPEN SDK to allow you to create whatever kind of program that you want. You can even get refurbished models for $699!
Which would you rather have in your living room?
Voice identification, natural speech recognition, facial identification, autonomous navigation (land, sea and air,) character recognition and an enormous spectrum of heuristic algorithms used throughout the modern world from thermostats to missiles...
I've been thinking for some time about awareness. After I read Creation: Life and How to Make it book by Steve Grand, I began thinking that perhaps awareness isn't the mystery it is sometime built up to be. What if we eventually discover that being "aware" doesn't require the phenomenal amount of computation that is often estimated? What if we discover that natures method of achieving it is actually highly inefficient (in terms of...physical complexity?) and easy to replicate using digital hardware?
At this point it is feasible to build a machine that can find you in a crowd (you, specifically, from among many others) talk to you, understand your commands and then travel where you tell it. This is already beyond the means of most animals.
If what I suspect is true, cognition is a relatively simple closed loop goal seeking (that seems to be a contradiction) parallel algorithm connected to a vast repository of highly lossy associative storage that ceaselessly works to achieve reproduction. Awareness is an emergent property of the process. You are a side effect, in the same way the useful work of a LISP function is often implemented as a side effect.
I'm not a professional AI researcher and it probably shows. I'll take it from someone who is. Martha Pollack, a professor at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Michigan and executive editor of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research recently said, "It's a crazy position to be in. As soon as we solve a problem, instead of looking at the solution as AI, we come to view it as just another computer system."
The significant progress made in AI to-date appears to be the result of reverse engineering nature until the core implementation of some basic function becomes clear. Just how many interconnected functions are necessary before you have a "who"?
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Our expectation of this product was that it would be relatively similar to setting up an Erector set, except with more complex circuitry.
:-P
I always considered erector sets to be better for robotics experiments than legos, but I don't see erector set stuff much anymore. Did they go bankrupt? If so, why hasn't a Chinese toy firm resurrected the concept?
Maybe its the name
Table-ized A.I.
"Operation Dark Storm is GO! I repeat..."
One thing is for sure, we aren't going to have to worry about a slave race of robots revolting in the real world. Why? Because we automate all the good, fun jobs and leave all the crap jobs for humans to do.
Examples of fun jobs:
Manufacturing - Working in a factory can be rewarding. there are lots of other people in blue coveralls to talk to and the lunch room is awesome. Now done by robot welders.
Writing Short stories - AI does this all the time.
Clerical jobs - the biggest slacker job in the universe is now performed by a small shell script.
Playing Chess -
Playing First Person Shooters - Is fun for us. I don't know how eraser bot feels every time it gets shot, but it can't be too bad. It can feel pain, but it can never truly die.
Being an air plane pilot - I got invited to the cockpit of an airbus once, and the pilot was asleep with a book in his lap and his feet on the console. Apparently he could stay like that during takeoff and landing too. Maybe he was just joking.
Sales: Think-Geek. Their webserver is their salesman. The people who write the pages are like the sales managers who write those three ringed binders of what to say.
Examples of crap jobs:
Bus-boy/girl - In the Animatrix, we see a robot waiter being taunted by a patron who throws a glass out the window. That would never happen. I've been in a chaotic nightclub floor as a worker before and my brain which is the product of at least 2 million years of R&D couldn't get me safely from one end of the dance floor to the other without dropping a few glass bottles from my armload of crap. None of the patrons or the managers seemed to mind though.
Child rearing - unless we keep the children in battery hen environments, there is no robot technology to change a nappy. The small, fragile, autonomously wiggling target would be pulped between the grippers in no-time.
Outbound telemarketing - Robots are barred from this job by law. So we use humans instead.
So here is Jin's Law of Robotics: "If it is fun to do, it is probably easy to automate."
robots won't have to revolt. we will have installed them in the cushy center of our lives while we are the ones working down the pit mines and fighting in the wars.
After all, show me the most evil man among you and I will show you someone who is nice to his kids. And that's what we're doing- giving our metal progeny all the good jobs.
see it at the hack gallery robot rights protest page.
One poignant thing is that there are now some automatic flush urinals in posh hotels which have a sigle red indicator LED in the center of a large black and chrome setting to tell you that the IR proximity sensor is working. It looks almost exactly like MIT's rendition of an unemployed HAL9000.
Geez. from being an astronaut to the guy who flushes rich mens toilets. tough break for robots indeed.
seems to like evolution robotics video files ;)
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
everything done. Thank you for downloading a media file containing proprietary and patentend technology.