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."

Comments

Been around for years

[Wyatt Earp]

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.

Fluff piece

[gpinzone]

This is a fluff piece on robots by IBM to sell their wireless networking solutions. Nothing to see here folks.

expectations

[geekmetal]

Pitfall 5: User Expectations. Users sometimes unrealistically expect that robots can make decisions. Solution: Educate users on what robots can do (learning tasks and motions) and cannot do (reasoning and making decisions).

User Expectations. The double-edged sword

I have never read such crap in my life

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Check out this stuff:

Defeat the defects...here are some ways you can overcome the pitfalls

Pitfall 1: Vibration. Many robots vibrate due to their fast motors. Vibration can cause a robot to move from its designated location and not perform its task successfully. Solution: Test the robot for stability and reliability and change parts when necessary.

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.

Pitfall 2: Overload. A robot can overload when it underutilizes tasks with respect to its speed. Solution: Change the design to properly balance out the tasks and the speeds needed to perform those tasks.

Uh!?? You have to be a moron to make a robot that can't handle underutilization. Come on! Is this article a spoof?

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.)

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?

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.

You must be one of those overpaid consultants. We're under threat from terrorism. Hey! Easy! Just install safeguards doh!

Pitfall 5: User Expectations. Users sometimes unrealistically expect that robots can make decisions. Solution: Educate users on what robots can do (learning tasks and motions) and cannot do (reasoning and making decisions).

Er? Is this a robotics problem? Sounds like a marketing problem to me.

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.

See 4 above.

Pitfall 7: Dimensions. The mouse can only provide two-dimensional positioning for a three-dimensional robot. Solution: Use a program that lets you create and view a three-dimensional robot or a game of robots in progress.

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.

Pitfall 8: Batteries. Battery power can wear off and slow down, for example, the speed of the arm and the agility of its fingers. It can cause the fingers to accidentally drop an egg, creating a mess on the floor. Solution: Implement power management software that can sound an alert when the robot reaches a low power level; redesign the robot to lengthen the battery life; or switch to better-grade batteries.

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!

Pitfall 9: Analog to Digital Conversion. When using wireless technology for robot communication, human agents and external objects are impacted by the technological limitations in converting analog inputs into digital outputs. For instance, the conversion process can distort soft sounds in voice recognition (analog "hear" converted to digital "held"). Solution: Take advantage of conversions not significantly affected by technological limitations.

Now you're really making stuff up. I'm not even going to comment. I think a 5 year old wrote this

tiny cars

[poptones]

Exactly. And "connnected to the internet" means nothing today - you can buy a PIC and do it the hard way or you can buy an FPGA and put PIC, wireless NIC and who-knows-what-else all on the same die. There's the entire "brain" of a battle-mech. Now just make some durable actuators and bodies cast of PVC for durability...

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.