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Open Design for ~$800 Swarm Robots
An anonymous reader writes "There are lots of multi-robot designs out there. Most are either research platforms well over $2K (often $10K or more), or are hobbyist bots under $400 with tiny brains and few sensors. But George Mason University's new FlockBots wiki is interesting. They're trying to pack as much functionality as possible into a roughly $800, 7" mobile swarmbot, and publish the design and software as a free and open spec. So far their design includes a wireless 200MHz Gumstix Linux computer, a camera, range and bump sensors, wheel encoders, a can gripper, and lots more. It's a great-looking design and I think the cost could drop to $500 with vendors doing consolidation."
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
When the time comes to start smashing up robots, count me in!
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
No "traveling beowulf" jokes?
Not a single Skynet reference?
Where the hell AM I?!
> should developers of open source software license their software so as to prevent it from being used in such killing devices?
This is a great thought. By forbidding using open source software in killing devices we will cause great numbers of lawyers to approach the fighters to serve notice of the lawsuits. The fighters, of course, are already killing people and killing a few lawyers that get in their way won't bother them.
Killers use up their inventory of killing robots.
Software developers feel good about being on the moral high-road.
Lawyers die.
It's a win-win situation.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Make sure the switch is set to 'serve', not 'kill'.
...seems the ultimate goal is to fetch another beer without leaving the couch (and without organizing the fridge). AI has officially arrived when that has happened.
Table-ized A.I.
I'll take "Before and After" for $2000, Alex.