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Taiwan University Students Build Tour-Guide Robot
BobB-nw writes "A group of engineering students and their professor at National Taiwan University have built a robot that can map out the area it's operating in and offer guided tours. The robot, named 'Hsiao Mei,' uses laser mapping and GPS technology to navigate on its own, including around corners and obstacles such as tables and chairs. In the first public demonstration on Thursday, an engineering student with a wireless remote control first took the robot through the floor of a small museum on the university's campus so it could create a map for itself. After the initial run-through, the robot was able to make an unaided journey around the floor."
I've worked on a similar project, but we avoided GPS, since it doesn't work very well indoors.
What I want to know is if TFA is wrong, or if they're really using GPS. If it works fairly well, that would have made our lives a lot easier during my project.
One of the problems I have with the Roomba is how it only operates in a pattern and uses sensors to adjust its path. However, if it were able to map the floor, it could more efficiently cover the entire area without having to retread its steps all the time. Naturally, it would need to test the boundaries every once in a while to see if the boundaries are still valid, but that wouldn't have to be done every single time it swept back and forth.
I wonder if such mapping technology could be used to automatically surf websites in the manner of actual users (as opposed to text spiders which just scan the text for interesting tags). The use of visually mapping the screen would be to simulate actual user interaction with the page. Is the user skipping over large parts of the page. Is the user confused by the weird +- bar in the middle of the story? Wouldn't a couple buttons on the upper right side of the story be preferable to a bar cutting right between the story and the comments link.
I wonder what the name means in Chinese.
"On your left, you may observe a thirteenth century representa... GZHRRRZT... ANNIHILATE HUMANS! ANNIHILATE HUMANS!"
Combine this with the evil and deceptive AI being worked on, and we can have a real laugh watching these robots direct museum visitors into open elevator shafts, or into puddles of water on marble floors. "Beep, you're on Candid Camera" will be all the rage amongst our new robotic overlords (which I, of course, welcome).
'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow
http://idw-online.de/pages/de/news12995
Thats the google query where you can find more articles about the project: http://www.google.com/search?q=roboter+baumarkt+ilmenau
Sorry but obviosly that project was mainly covered in the german press.
English Homepage: http://www.tu-ilmenau.de/fakia/Projects.2202.0.html?&L=1
bickerdyke
Or is it just robot season? We've had throwable robots, fleash-eating robots, evil robots, deceptive robots...
Don't get me wrong, I love robots, it's just I've never seen so much robot related news in a week before.
Bite my shiny metal ass.
I had sort of assumed that all university tour guides were robots. They sure seemed that way to me.
Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
... as a tour guide unless it can dodge traffic crossing an Italian traffic circle.
Have gnu, will travel.
The problem with this sort of article is that it doesn't say how the thing actually works. They are trying to solve the 'SLAM' or Simultaneous Localization and Mapping problem. The best approaches have recently been particle filter based. See the work by Sebastian Thrun at Stanford or Montemerlo's dissertation at CMU. I would have to guess that they are using a similar approach.
But of course this has been done before. The discussed project looks very similar to Minerva.
The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.
..."show me"? If so, great name!
There's a different between: "where the sun doesn't shine" and "where the satellite doesn't shine"
So you mean a Protocol Droid???
Pffft. Let me know when they get to the T3-M4...
NO TOURBOTS.
That which does not kill us makes us... st
"with a wireless remote control"
1. Pretend you made a tour guide robot
2. Hide the remote control when using said robot
3. Post story about the robot on slashdot
4. Profit!
(As you can tell I didn't read TFA...)
Does it contain self defense mechanism against theft and dismemberment? Will it use deadly force to assure its own continued existence? Oh wait...
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
"On your right is a chair. On the left is the roommate, he's always passed out on the floor. Here is where I ..fall..down..the..stairs. Tour continues when someone picks me up."
It's called "Johnny Cab".
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.