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Linux-Based Robot To Explore The Forest
crashoverride025 contributes this link to a BBC story about Treebot, "A Linux-based mobile robot equipped with a webcam and sensors swings into action to help monitor forests." Despite the Tarzan reference, it looks like this robot moves along a cable, rather than swinging from place to place.
Now the forests are going to be polluted with non-indigenous directory trees!
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Rate Naked People at FuckMeter (not work-safe)
I hope they have a good HSF, lest it overheat and start a forest fire.
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
But this has actually been done before according to a Yahoo! News article from early this year. And yes, this is actually a different project, not the same one from the article.
what we all agreed before...
probes sent to mars should've been run by linux. Instead of worrying us to no end, now we would be discussing the data obtained and ways of improving the performance of futere missions.
Not only that, I'm sure that the code for those probes beeing opensource would've meant people contributing and finding solutions and apps no one would've thought of...
Wouldn't it be lovely that the routines of a mission to space would've been a truly world project, with programmers from all over the world taking part in it?
Well, I'm dreaming, maybe I'm not...
... y Dios vio que Linux era bueno... Genesis 99.666
Instead of remotely viewing a forest over the web, maybe a walk would solve some problems?
does it throw an exception???
how long until
..does it make a sound? My favorite line is "helps by being stealthy enough to travel through the forest canopy along specially-constructed cabling, night and day." Stealthy, riiight- it might scare the trees or the atmosphere.
"Never pet a burning dog."
ntext
Hooom... no one cares about the trees or free sharing of code anymore...it's all FUD and copyrights and lawsuits.... hooomm... time to rouse the forest!
We come, we come with roll of drum: ta-runda runda runda rom!
We come, we come with horn and drum: ta-runa runa runa rom!
To Redmond! Though Redmond be ringed and barred with doors of stone;
Though Redmond be strong and hard, as cold as stone and bare as bone,
We go, we go, we go to war, to hew the stone and break the door;
For bole and bough are burning now, the furnace roars - we go to war!
To land of gloom with tramp of doom, with roll of drum, we come, we come;
To Redmond with doom we come!
With doom we come, with doom we come!
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
It happens from time to time. Who cares who submits it? Just enjoy the discussion. :)
A blog like any other.
Finally, we'll find out...
* Do bears shit in the woods?
* If a tree falls and nobody's there to hear it, does it make a sound?
* Is the Pope Catholic...
Oh well, maybe 2 out of 3.
Just another day in Paradise
doesn't seem to be much discussion going on...
plus that makes me a bit less inclined to submit stories...oh well...
From the grant proposal: "As a source for ongoing additional funds, all Jane movies will be made available on a subscription website."
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
What runs the Jane robot? FreeBSD?
And Cheetah? Unixware?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
What happens if the kernel inside of it panics. I mean there are a lot of hazards in a jungle. It would be a lot better to use a specialised os than Linux. You cant just press a button to reboot it when its in the middle of nowhere. Linux is okay when its sitting on a rack serving up web pages or doing general workstation tasks, but when your in the forest, who knows what could happen.
The story isn't some ground-shattering news item, just a BBC link. There was no work involved on your behalf to do research or waste considerable amount of time.
Harry Truman once said, "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit"
i suppose, just outraged at first look! true...it really isn't that big a deal...
helps by being stealthy enough to travel through the forest canopy along specially-constructed cabling
I suppose a piece of metal crashing through tree branches hanging from a cable is more stealthy than, say a jackhammer. Wouldn't it be more quiet if many sensors were placed about the forest and used wifi to connect and send information? They could even still run linux to do so and get mentioned on slashdot!
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Squirrel
What this article really doens't say much about is that NIMS isn't just an open source program for controlling robots, it's a program developed by grants given to UCLA to develop AI, or Ambient Intelligence in this isntance. This robot isn't entirely remote controlled, and though the article touches on continual monitoring, it doesn't say that it's using open source robot AI developed by UCLA.
For more info about NIMS:
UCLA doc in PDF
Google HTML Cache
.. featuring web cam footage of the tragic demise of a team of SCO lawyers who went into the woods to impound the robot due to the makers not paying the Linux license fees for it, only to be eaten by a tribe of hithertoe unknown Cannibalistic Californian Forest Dwellers.
I'd say it's been the fark effect. Read: the post description is more amusing than the story itself.
Probably if you included Tarzan in your post you'd have get it. You know, makes it easier for those who don't RTFA to make quick jokes.
2003-12-29 08:55:57 Linux powered tarzan robots (articles,linux) (rejected)
I have suffered a dodgy cable to my sky tv box, a powercut, my second best laptop burst into flames, and now rejection by slashdot. oh woe is me.
blog and junk
As the article says, the treebot is part of a "Networked Infomechanical System", a type of wireless sensor network, developed by the UCLA Center for Embedded Networked Sensing. The forest network is used to develop practical wireless sensing technology while simultaneously providing an example of its utility. The use of a mobile network node in a wireless sensor network requires some engineering of the multihop message routing protocol, since such networks are usually assumed to have stationary nodes. I don't know what they've done to address this; it could be anything from MANET-style routing (e.g., AODV, in which they accept the resulting increase in route establishment overhead), to a quasi-static approach in which the treebot reassociates to the network every time it stops.
http://flightlinux.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Or by proxy Like these
Oh, and I forgot to mention the NIMS website, which has a lot more pretty pictures.
Despite the change of venue, the bot, nor the scientists who created it, are going to get laid.
Hell, Tarzan had fewer cycles than the box they have swinging from tree to tree, but rain is the only way that box or its makers are going to get wet...
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
Maybe NASA should take note and start using Linux to save tax payer money powering their multi million dollar space shuttle toilets. If robots can watch logs, they can flush 'em too.
I heard about this some time ago. I seem to recall that due to the fact it's travelling along the tree tops, it has a problem actually seeing the forest because the trees get in the way ...
seek counseling....?
FlightLinux is a customized copy of a standard Linux distribution, adapted to the unique environment of a spacecraft embedded control computer.
The first instance of FlightLinux will be on the 80386EX processor of the currently in-orbit UoSat-12 spacecraft, of Surrey Space Technology, Ltd (UK). As a basis, we are currently using the ELKS distribution, due to its small size. We will migrate to BlueCat Linux from LynuxWorks, and add real-time features as required.
[...]
At the moment, we have not posted any downloadable code, due to issues of export restrictions on satellite control software.
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make install -not war
I wonder if we can spots them Hobbits... yesh...
You've discovered the slashdot conspiracy against you.
define discovered...
"rather than swinging from place to place."
This is one of those comments that make you say "well, duh!", and then somebody just goes on and invents something that does this. It is quite a challenge on numerous levels.. would be impressive if someone pulled this one off..
With great power comes great electricity bills.
Put cables with robots in every forest! They'll get in the way of people trying to cut down trees. Wait. How much will the forest be impacted by installation, maintenance, and resulting debris?
Using Linux in any way you choose is not restricted by the GPL.
Restrictions based on agreement with the licensing conditions of the GPL are limited to the manner by which YOU offer code up for distribution.
So if NASA chooses not to distribute their copy of the code, how are they in violation of the GPL?
(I admit I'm not sure how, in this case, distribution within an organization might be regarded by the FSF law team.)
mefus
In Open Society, GPL Software frees YOU!
That's a joke! Insightful? You need to rethink that one.
"It can move where it likes, night and day"
NO IT CAN'T! IT IS ON A FREAKIN' CABLE..what a bunch of idiots.
make one that can actually swing around like tarzan, and I'll be interested. until then...
Where does the organization end, an another begin? NASA is a good place to examine this murky, yet fundamental, factor of the GPL. Can the GSFC use it internally, without triggering the distribution clauses? All of NASA? The US Federal Government? US Citizens? The American People?
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make install -not war
Maybe they can use this device to finally find those poor kids out in the woods near Burkittsville, MD. They've been missing since 1994, I understand.
Bush is a cylon.
Where does the organization end, an another begin?
If the source code is provide to the recipient, it is a moot point. The GPL has been satisfied.
Presumably this would only happen where (satellite) security concerns have been satisfied.
mefus
In Open Society, GPL Software frees YOU!
Fangorn Forest?
EHC
While a year around season should be maintained for treebots, shotguns should be limited to 20 gague or smaller, a bag and possession limit of three bots per week should be imposed and it should be considered bad etiquette to shoot a stationary bot.
he wants you to click his website URL
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"