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Mark Tilden, Robosapiens Inventor Interviewed
An anonymous reader writes "You-Review.Net has an interview with Mark Tilden, the inventor of the Robosapiens line of products. In this interview, Mr Tilden reveals more information about the RSMedia bot, which will be the world's first walking, talking, MP3 playing, ARM9 powered programmable Linux computer (with a Subwoofer, just incase). No news yet on the GPL status of this beast."
These kinds of things are always interesting to look at. Currently the cost of most of the more interesting robot systems are rather prohibitive to the poor geek tinkerer, but I expect that will change in the next few years. I recently started an radio controlled tank project and got into looking at some of the the various robot sites around for parts and was surprised to see what kinds of things are available and what has been done even at the garage hobby level. I can't wait until some of the more advanced robot technologies become a little more available to the garage hobbyist, I imagine we will really start to see the creative uses come out then. On a side note, is that picture a little frightening to anyone else?
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
This afternoon, I played some Magic: The Gathering for the first time in two years or so. Some of my college aged friends and I sat around, doing nothing but playing with our decks, fiddling, trading, remembering old favorites, checking to see about old rules, and making plans to go get our old decks from our parents houses and, more importantly, make new ones using sweet cards.
.or something. I'm in a pretty vulnerable place right now, and if buying shit will make me feel less geeky, gosh-darnit but I'll do it!
Then I realized what I massively pathetic dork I was. Then I went to "read a book" for five pages or so in order to make myself feel better. I pick an old favorite: M. Mitchell Waldrop's Complexity. [How is the ol' emerging science at the edge of order and chaos doing?]
Then, thoroughly flabbergasted, I came back to the safest place I can imagine visiting at 4:30 in the morning: slashdot. And I find an article about what a scientist from the Santa Fe Institute is doing: building toys. For geeks to play with. Geeks who also play with Magic cards.
I guess I'll go buy an expensive toy robot that I don't need. .
I just want to point out that there is a typo in the article.
This device is called "Robosapien". It should be "Robosapiens", as the article and the summary write it, since it is based on "Homo sapiens", but alas, this is not the case.
If I had a chance to interview the creator of the product I would have asked him about this.
audioLibre - freedom of music
What next? Will the Pea-Bot get mated with a Roomba and do something more useful than carry around cans of beer?
Yes, it will carry your beer and your chips to you and then it vacuums up mess you make. A drunkards dream if I ever did see one.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Will have a tweeter?
Moderation in All Things... Especially Moderation - gurutc
That's smart. Aibo will be jealous if it's larger than his.
Maybe the guy is a supergenius and is allowed to answer like that, but his answers just rubbed me the wrong way. The interview seemed to be of the form:
:(
Q: Serious question?
A: That depends on what the meaning of the word "question" is. That's the question, whether 'tis nobler... And speaking of "depends", did you know that 3% of old people in Korea wear Depends? Short, informationless answer.
I was hoping for something more thoughtful and substantial rather than flippant stream-of-consciousness.
But that's just one guy's opinion.
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
I also realize that many of you will say, "Are you ill? Any slashdotter worth his salt would build his own robot..." So sue me.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.-TJ
Okay, I know I'm not the only one. How many of you read "RSMedia Bot" as RMSedia Bot" and thought, "Oh no, some crazy bastard has done it. Some crazy bastard has made the Free Software Foundation an army of RMSedia Bots to stomp out the use of proprietary software the world over. They'll be unstoppable! Wait... Oh God no! It has a subwuffer! We'll be forced to listen to the Free Software Song as well? The humanity!"
What if the entire Universe were a chrooted environment with everything symlinked from the host?
I think the RSMediabot would sell like hotcakes if it had a less voltron-like, more humanoid body and it had a face that could look like it was singing. How sweet would it be to have a tiny Elvis that you could say "Hey Elvis, sing us a song!" and then he'd put on a show. Every once in a while, he could even say "Look how big that lamp is, man! That's hu-u-uge!"
Our LUG (kwlug.org) got 3 robots (the new robosapien, raptor and dog) from this guy. We all put our names in a hat and raffled them off. This was all thanks to the fact that one active member of the LUG knows the guy personally.
Meh.
I've been an avid solarbotic fan for a year or so now. I'm kind of making a jump from software to hardware and the physical world. We should be teaching how to do electronics, play with robots, innovate with limited resources and the like in school along the lines of playing. Unfortunatly, too many standardized tests and controlled lesson plans get in the way.
So RSMedia is a walking, talking, reconfigurable MP3 player running a Linix kernel.
They're talking about some "Linix" kernel. Must be good.
This is not your signature.
yes, all the robosapiens stuff looks so cool and serious... until you read 67 pre-programmed functions: pick-up, throw, kick, dance, kung-fu, fart, belch, rap and more; 3 demonstration modes. ; after that, it looks a bit childish
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Good "The Band" reference
I seen demonstrations before (and I think it still holds) that it is easier to build stable locomotion with a robot that has one leg than two. In fact two legs is the most difficult case. So from one perspective robots would be better without being humanoid, on the other hand it is the more difficult problem and could end up with much better engineering knowledge if tackled.
He's got more than a little of the "showman" in him. His whole BEAM robotics competition encouraged kids to beef up their 'bots with lots of BS. One gimmic he used was to include the circuit from a musical greeting card in their periodic-avalanche-style motor driver circuit. It didn't matter what kind of card it was, because electrically it was only performing the role of a diode.
Then he went to work for the national laboratory with a grant to develop and study a "robotic jurassic park". Sounds cool, eh? The reality was that it was his same old little 'bots made out of wire. What about the "park"? It was a table made out of a door. It had a lip of cardboard around the edge to keep the things from hopping off onto the floor and he threw in some balls of wadded up paper for the bots to knock around.
He's a very clever man, no doubt. Some of the stuff he comes up with seems pretty cool, and he's definitely getting more kids interested in electronics and engineering.
But that doesn't make him a robotics expert.
Fortunately, he's a gentle giant: he's friendly, if a bit flippant and off the wall, and he's clever and inventive as well. Buy him a drink someday if you get the chance: odds are, you'll find it worth your while.
Good luck out there, Mark!
You're stating Commander Data is useless? ;-)
Seriously, sufficently advanced robots of this form could be very practical. But probably only in a small nich market. Robobutlers for example, could benefit from human locomotion, since houses are designed to be navigated by humans.
Humanoid robots won't be around (in the way microwave ovens are around) for a significant amount of time, since they need better artificial muscles and todays artificial muscles are too bulky (Shape memory alloys use too much power, airmuscles require a pressurized air source).