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Evolving the Wireless Robot
An anonymous reader writes "This article is one of the first to discuss wireless robotics from an integrated approach. It explains the ins and outs of wireless robots: their components, their shortcomings, and how they can interact in a competitive or cooperative team within professional environments. Learn how smarter robots can relieve us of the most tedious -- and dangerous -- tasks."
Like reading Slashdot articles on SCO vs IBM? Slashdot Dupes?
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
You mean like tripping over phone and ethernet cables?
I guess you'll save that tetanus shot for another day. You got it!
Support Israeli punk bands. Man Alive.
...that could tool around wardriving would be pretty cool.
Like using a p2p so the *IAA doesn't know who I am?
-Valiss
I mean, I wonder if these things run Lunix!
Learn how smarter robots can relieve us of the most tedious -- and dangerous -- tasks.
I tell you, if I had a wireless robot, I would never have to use my hand again. Hands. I meant plural. For typing.
The coolest voice ever.
Wireless robots performing dangerous tasks? You mean like competing in death matches inside "the box?" Hmm...
Do not read this sig.
Make me miniature RF-controlled mechas, controlled by a PC, so that I can have a real-life table-top equivalent to Battlechess and Carnage Hearts (PS1). Of course, they should repair themselves, I don't want to have to clean up and glue them together after every match. :-)
:-)
:-)
If they're under $100, I'll buy more than one. Under $50, I'll buy a lot. Under $10, I'll buy tons.
Ok time to stop dreaming.
The ENIAC Demo Competition
I want to see cool robots like Asimo doing cool stuff like surfing. If you can't provide pictures of this nature then don't bother me with these boring stories. MmmK?
egad! there==they
Pak Chooie Unf!
please do; and stop posting just to get a post in.
There have been wireless robots for decades in the form of missiles.
Sure the first generation cruise missiles and guided missiles were dumb, pointed in a direction or steered by a wire but ever since Sidewinder they've gotten pretty danged smart.
DARPA and the DoD came very close to a roaming missile in the Tacit Rainbow program in the 1980s and theres been work on missiles which carrier smaller missiles.
I understand that this piece is focused on ground robots but alot of what the writer is talking about has already been done with missiles.
Air to Air and Surface to Air seem to be the most advanced when it comes to fuzzy logic and self-guidence in a variety of situations.
That's pretty cool. I wonder if google directory has a category for wireless robots. *fires up Mozilla*
"Pitfall 4: Security. Hackers can exploit a robot's vulnerabilities and turn it into a weapon or completely disable it. Solution: Install safeguards to counter these vulnerabilities."
Brilliant, I say.
Kallahar
This is a fluff piece on robots by IBM to sell their wireless networking solutions. Nothing to see here folks.
It's that evolving robots and humanity don't mix!
User Expectations. The double-edged sword
There are two kinds of egotists: 1) Those who admit it 2) The rest of us
Radio Shack sells wireless/radio controlled robots for $19.95. I use mine to roam the halls with a wireless X-10 camera. Skirt cam is online!!! Just be careful to shield your eyes when it runs into that fat chick down in accounting. I don't know if she doesn't wear underwear or if she does and it is simply lost in those huge rolls of fat but, which ever it is, it is grosser than most men can stand!!!!!
Since when is vibration a big problem? Printers, scanners and all sorts of other devices have vibrating motors and can still work accurately at over 1000dpi. They can also be damn quiet.
Uh!?? You have to be a moron to make a robot that can't handle underutilization. Come on! Is this article a spoof?
Use Ada? This isn't for real. Here's news for you: your OS was probably written in C and does it blow up all the time. Even XP is stable these days and it has millions of lines of C. What in heaven's name are you talking about?
You must be one of those overpaid consultants. We're under threat from terrorism. Hey! Easy! Just install safeguards doh!
Er? Is this a robotics problem? Sounds like a marketing problem to me.
See 4 above.
And a keyboard lets you type only at a certain speed. Solution: invent a faster input method. Wow! Can I get paid to write articles like this.
Batteries can run out? You don't say. And the way to deal with it is do design the robot so the battery lasts longer? Wow! Never thought of that one!
Now you're really making stuff up. I'm not even going to comment. I think a 5 year old wrote this
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I want to see a Beowulf cluster of Beowulf clusters. Then by Gawd you'd have something.
Like starring in a movie with Steve Gutenberg?
May your signals all trap
May your references be bounded
All memory aligned
Floats to ints rounded
Remember
Non-zero is true
++ adds one \
Arrays start with zero and,
NULL is for none
For octal, use zero
0x means hex
= will set
== means test
use -> for a pointer
a dot if its not
? : is confusing
use them a lot
a.out is your program
there's no U in foobar
and, char (*(*x())[])() is
a function returning a pointer
to an array of pointers to
functions returning char
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/90q2/ode.html
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Let's see. It's been ~12 minutes since you said "*fires up Mozilla*". Has it made it past the splash screen or is it still drawing the interface?
We are programmed just to do, exactly what you want us to.
doodle oodle doot, doot doot (doot doot doot-doot)
The article could easily have been written by an undergrad just finishing an introductory course in artificial intelligence or robotics. I'm a bit dissapointed that it was posted on Slashdot at all.
I'll wager that this thread about evolving robots, evolves into a slam fest of Michael bashing.
Yea, it is a sucker bet. Afterall, we are talking about Michael, eh?
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Hi, this site is all about robots, REAL robotS. This site is awesome. My name is Robert and I can't stop thinking about robots. These guys are cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet.
Facts:
1. robots are mammals.
2. robots fight ALL the time.
3. The purpose of the robot is to flip out and kill people.
Testimonial:
robots can kill anyone they want! robots cut off heads ALL the time and don't even think twice about it. These guys are so crazy and awesome that they flip out ALL the time. I heard that there was this robot who was eating at a diner. And when some dude dropped a spoon the robot killed the whole town. My friend Mark said that he saw a robot totally uppercut some kid just because the kid opened a window.
And that's what I call REAL Ultimate Power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you don't believe that robots have REAL Ultimate Power you better get a life right now or they will chop your head off!!! It's an easy choice, if you ask me.
robots are sooooooooooo sweet that I want to crap my pants. I can't believe it sometimes, but I feel it inside my heart. These guys are totally awesome and that's a fact. robots are fast, smooth, cool, strong, powerful, and sweet. I can't wait to start yoga next year. I love robots with all of my body (including my pee pee).
Q and A:.
Q: Why is everyone so obsessed about robots?
A: robots are the ultimate paradox. On the one hand they don't give a crap, but on the other hand, robots are very careful and precise.
Q: I heard that robots are always cruel or mean. What's their problem?
A: Whoever told you that is a total liar. Just like other mammals, robots can be mean OR totally awesome.
Q: What do robots do when they're not cutting off heads or flipping out?
A: Most of their free time is spent flying, but sometime they stab. (Ask Mark if you don't believe me.)
It's close enough to the article text - trust me.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Otherwise known as my boss.
I had to work some about A.I. last year and I went across this site here Most might be in French though. I know there are several universities in France that do such research, and in North America too. I'll admit I'm quite curious about how it will evolve in the next years.
___
*insert sig here*
It crashed so it'll be about 20 more minutes :(
well i switched back to internet explorer, and after the .63 second wait i was at google and found no such category
So, if I can teach it a repetative motion task it can do it? That should be great assuming I always put my laundry in the same place at the end of the day, the dishes on my counter and my vacuum in the same corner.
if the property is under $10, why not... ;-)
The ENIAC Demo Competition
Thanks Slashdot!!!
P.S. Does anyone read these submissions, or is it done by wireless robots?
Anothr win for Open Sorce!!!!!!1
You win.
We are wirelessly networked robots. Your tasks will be assimilated.
--- "1.21 Jigawatts!" -Doc
that these robots are taking away their jobs. Re:"Learn how smarter robots can relieve us of the most tedious -- and dangerous -- tasks" :-)
Vote for Pedro
I need diffs!!!
Nay. Either you're new here or you intentionally forget The Wipo Troll. Truly a troll among men.
You suckers all have to read it, I was at the Linux Users Victoria meeting and seen it.
Its a good article and it is definatly worth reading, but if you want to know it just points out that SCO are whores. If you want proof read the article!
Was this anything more than a marketing article intended to suggest (in market-speak) that the technologies behind the quality consumer-level products of IBM and associates will be an integral part of existing new robotics technologies? Oh, and wireless(tm)! Wireless!
Wireless!
Do you want to hear me say "wireless" again? Because "robot" and "wireless" are really cool words!
Did you notice that specific products of IBM and associates were mentioned several times as potential solutions? I hardly think that we need an article to realize that wireless transfer of data may have a role in future autonomous robotics developments. We certainly do not need an article to suggest specific IBM and associates products which might be used.
That wireless transfer of data will be used is not where the technology is most or even significantly lacking; much less do the particular IBM and associates products mentioned contribute in any meaningful way to solving existing robotics technology limitations and problems.
Perhaps there is more worthwhile content in the linked resources.
It was as if the article was written as part of a 6th grade science project.
It had less depth than even a newspaper article on the subject might.
the language things is very true. You don't think industrial robots are programmed in C, do you? Yes, the operating systems on some of the controllers might be.. but when it comes to coding the actual behavior, it's done in one of several languages that would probably not be well suited to operating system design.
...a dopey 6th grader for a science fair project.
Yes!
If someone had said five years ago they collected radio control cars that are the size of the Hot Wheels I used to push around in the dirt thirty years ago, I'd have thought they were nuts. If they said these tiny R/C racers cost less than the slots I used to race twenty years ago I'd have been certain they were nuts. The one thing certain about the future is its uncertainty.
Pitfall 4: Security. Hackers can exploit a robot's vulnerabilities and turn it into a weapon or completely disable it. Solution: Install safeguards to counter these vulnerabilities.
If it were truly that easy, there would be no hackers. It sounds like a movie solution.
"The bad guy is hacking us!"
"Enable safeguards!"
"He's backing out sir! It's working!"
Comment removed based on user account deletion
And a keyboard lets you type only at a certain speed. Solution: invent a faster input method. Wow! Can I get paid to write articles like this.
Actually, this is a problem that should have been solved by now. Yes, ball mice can only do two axis - but "camera mice" today cost what.. 20 bucks? And they're USB so there's no need for legacy support. We COULD have x,y and z-axis rotation right now if one of these manufacturers would just think a little. Logitech, MS - doesn't matter to me, I would just really, really like to have bettter control of 3D models, and using today's devices it would cost absolutely nothing beyond the NRE to impliment it.
I am intrigued by your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
There are of course no wire guided cruise missiles but there are a large number of wire guided missile with fairly good range.
BGM-71 / M-220 Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided missile (TOW) was the standard US helicopter mounted anti-tank weapon from the early 1970s through the 1990s for the Marine Corps and through the mid to late 80s for the Army. It is still the standard truck or tank mounted ATGM for the Army and Marines. It carries 3700 meters of control wire for command input.
Euromissile HOT is the standard EU helicopter mounted ATGM. It carries 4000 meters of control wire for command input.
Euromissile Milan is the standard EU guided manpack ATGM. It carries 2000 meters of control wire for command input.
AT-5 Spandrel was the most advanced Soviet wire-guided ATGM from the late 70s on. It carries 4000 meters of control wire for command input.
All of these missiles exceed 600 mph during thier flight
The referenced article is 100% fluff. It's purely crap, too. The current state of the art is NOT the stuff of television's battling shoeboxes, as the author seems to envision it.
Warning: This signature may offend some viewers.
A real time operating system is of great use in robotics.
I am actively working toward the completion of several autonomous systems.
RTEMS (by OAR) is available as well as RTLinux (by FSMLabs) for those interested in developing robotics software using GPL. Big boys buy vxWorks or something from WindRiver (Asimo by Honda).
~8^]
"Learn how smarter robots can relieve us of the most tedious -- and dangerous -- tasks."
I thought that is what negroids were for. You know, niggers.
Dont troll, please.
In time, at the proper age, youll learn these jokes are just what one needs after a hard days work.
Again, think twice, measure your words and refrain from asking silly questions.
Allow others to breathe.
We are little Borg.
Prepare to be... wow... youre too big to be assimilated! Mummy!
Without subtracting at all from these advantages of scale, why do we not see more in the way of growth for practical robots?
.
For example, once it was clear that a dot matrix color printer was "the thing". HP and others created a superior solution in a matter of years.
I would suggest that a printer is no more a complicated project than a useful robot such as irobots vacuum cleaner.
But it seems to me that robots are so task specific that it's difficult to create economies of scale - a computer on the other hand can do many different things without being constructed differently - likewise a printer etc . .
What will the killer robot application do? It seems split between really difficult things like navigating a distant planet, dangerous things like mine clearing, or tedious things like vacuuming a room.
The question might be - how do we raise the standard of living by the introduction of a mass produced robot?
It occurs to me that a. dangerous jobs don't affect the quality of life very much - and the dark side of automatic lawn mowers is unemployment of the unemployable.
Robots don't suffer from high technical costs - the advancement of robotics is mired in social issues.
>> And "connnected to the internet" means nothing today
:-(
>> There's the entire "brain" of a battle-mech.
Yep.
Distributed computing.
Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.
Search for Robotic Intelligence.
Latency.
Another protocol with better pings? (a company already sells this)
>> The one thing certain about the future is its uncertainty.
Actually...
This article is extremely flawed, has typos, major omissions, and should not be used as a serious reference. Wireless robots are in use now, with the iRobot Packbot series as the best known from it's deployment in the Middle East though other DARPA robots use wireless as well. Wireless robots were used at the World Trade Center, with one robot lost due to comms dropout. The Predator and Global Hawk are "wireless" robots, too; they provide some insight into the bandwidth management problems, loss of connectivity, and other real issues.So there's good information to be had, but it's out there not in this article. Oh yes, the real Behavior-Based Robotics book is by Ron Arkin and is a classic, somewhat like Stroustrup only for mobile roboticists.
The article sounds like it was written by a wireless AI robot. Oh well, it's a start I suppose.
3. The purpose of the robot is to flip out and kill people.
No, silly, the purpose of robots is to protect people and shove grandmothers down the stairs.
Using C and C++ to program your robot might cause problems with arrays and pointers.
Using a keyboard to write your article might cause problems if you don't know what you're talking about.
I don't think the author had linux in mind when he wrote the article:
Pitfall 4: Security. Hackers can exploit a robot's vulnerabilities and turn it into a weapon or completely disable it. Solution: Install safeguards to counter these vulnerabilities.
Pitfall 6: Viruses. PCs that are wirelessly communicating with robots might contain viruses. Solution: Install anti-virus programs and present security awareness programs for programmers and users.
In general, I think the article isn't worth much, I mean, when I read this:
Pitfall 3: Development. Using C and C++ to program your robot might cause problems with arrays and pointers. Solution: Use Ada to help you apply software-engineering principles and better track the progress in each life cycle stage, from concept to deployment. (See "Using Ada-Based Robotics to Teach Computer Science" in Resources.)
What the f*ck? How about this "pitfall" then?
Pitfall x: Using Notepad to edit your Ada code can be really annoying. Solution: Use a real editor, like vim.
This guy is pushing his personal preference in a non-related article. Why Ada? Why not Java? Or perl? What has Ada to do with robotics?
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
OK, I know I've read something like this before, but I think it was about ninjas. Where'd this originally come from?
Karma: NaN
At least, for now, IE is allowing you access to Google. That may not be the case in the near future. Enjoy it while you can.
Have a nice day!
How do you think castrated mice do their thing? Modern "optical mice" employ a crude camera to track motion. If they can track x and y translation, it makes sense they could also be made to track rotation.