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African Robotics Network Challenge Spurs Rash of $10 Robots

Posted by timothy on from the isn't-rash-a-good-plural-for-robot? dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this story from Wired: "When the African Robotics Network announced their $10 robot design challenge this summer, co-founder Ken Goldberg was careful not to share too many expectations, lest he influence contestants' designs. But he never imagined one of the winning entries would prominently feature a pair of Spanish lollipops. The challenge, hosted by AFRON co-founders Goldberg and Ayorkor Korsah, emphasized inexpensive designs to help bring robotics education to African classrooms." Winners include "the lollipop-laden Suckerbot and traditional (roaming) category first prize winner Kilobot, a Harvard-spawned three-legged, vibrating, swarming robot."

11 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. ideas of what a robot is by Osgeld · · Score: 4, Insightful

    seems to be loosening. I could take my old pager, stand it on end and watch it walk on the table, but I never considered it a "swarmbot" ... and it had more brains packed inside.

    I know that's not the point of the exercise, but it just seems like any gizmo that wiggles around gets classified as a "robot"

    1. Re:ideas of what a robot is by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2

      You're not thinking about the possible applications of this technology. You're suppose to fill your pockets with Harvard-spawned three-legged, vibrating, swarming robots, and then enjoy your commute to and from work more.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:ideas of what a robot is by jkflying · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe robotic farmers.....maybe they could figure how to feed themselves for a change....

      You realise one of the reasons Africa has famine is because westerners keep dumping free food on them, putting the local farmers out of business? It's a bit of a vicious cycle - you can't just ignore millions of starving people - but every time free food gets given out it upsets market prices as well.

      It's a bit like the H1B situation in the states keeping skilled professionals' wages low.

      --
      Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
    3. Re:ideas of what a robot is by jkflying · · Score: 2

      If you could control the direction it walked, then why would it be any different from something with wheels?

      Full disclosure: my MSc supervisor was involved in judging the competition.

      --
      Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
    4. Re:ideas of what a robot is by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      seems to be loosening. I could take my old pager, stand it on end and watch it walk on the table, but I never considered it a "swarmbot" ... and it had more brains packed inside.

      I know that's not the point of the exercise, but it just seems like any gizmo that wiggles around gets classified as a "robot"

      Many robots are, indeed, deeply pointless; but the 'swarmbot' thing is actually an arguably genuine category and one with some interesting work being done: The idea is, cribbing shamelessly from organisms like ants and termites, to examine the behavior and capabilities of multiple(generally low-capability) robots collaborating on a task with limited or no central command-and-control.

      The robots people build for this research tend to be pretty trivial(because it needs to be cheap for the lab dozens of them bumping around as test subjects); but the task of designing rulesets for individual agents that, when dumped into a test area with a bunch of identical peers, result in the desired outcome is hardly a simple problem. The people working on individual highly capable robots certainly do get the cooler hardware, though.

    5. Re:ideas of what a robot is by jkflying · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Interesting how, from your point of view as a white European, I'm so very very wrong. I live in Africa, so I think I'm a bit more qualified on this topic than you are. And no, I never said anything about a surplus. But there's no incentive for a farmer to plant if he knows that he'll have to compete with 'free' by the time his crop is ready for harvest. For example, in Mozambique the UN-donated flour is a staple, meaning that it's almost impossible to locally produce any carbohydrate food source because it isn't profitable. People are poor, and they're not going to pay for food when there is a free alternative.

      How the hell are sanctions going to help with disease, no tarred roads and no houses? What really needs to happen is the EU/US needs to export skills and education, while ensuring the children they're teaching are properly fed and have the infrastructure to use their newly acquired skills. Ever tried learning on an empty stomach? Ever tried doing IT when your electricity is unreliable? Ever tried delivering perishable food when there aren't reliable roads? How useful would your skills be in a rural village in Uganda?

      What the Chinese are doing is using local labour with Chinese foremen to build roads and bridges, but that's just so that they can extract as much mineral-wealth as efficiently as possible. Any positive change they're making in the region is just a lucky side effect.

      --
      Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
  2. Sign me up by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm intrigued by this $10 Suckbot.

    What? Oh. Once again, misread the summary and disappointed by the actual article.

  3. Great Recycling by epSos-de · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Most of the robots appear to be build from up-cycled trash that gets dumped in Africa. Imagine the potential, if they had real access to cheap processing units and cheap sensors. Imagine, if they could get an Arduino board for 3 dollars from China.

    --
    ~ Best man at your service.
  4. So everything is a robot now? by Lumpy · · Score: 2

    The definition of "robot" is pretty useless now. Because my cellphone meets the definition of a robot, my video camera does, a RC car seems to be a highly advanced "robot".

    I learned that a robot is a mechanical device that can perform tasks automatically. It may – but need not – be humanoid in appearance. Some robots require some minor degree of guidance, which may be done using a remote control, or with a computer interface.

    All of these need Major guidance, as in "remote control car".

    But, let's call them robots as it makes people feel better.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  5. Not needed. by goodmanj · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Africa doesn't need robots for its kids. It needs highways, and trucks, and rails, and trains, it needs stable electrical power, it needs industrial water treatment networks. Starting in its coastal cities, and building into the interior. That's how China got where it is today: infrastructure.

    1. Re:Not needed. by rolfwind · · Score: 2

      Africa doesn't need robots for its kids. It needs highways, and trucks, and rails, and trains, it needs stable electrical power, it needs industrial water treatment networks. Starting in its coastal cities, and building into the interior. That's how China got where it is today: infrastructure.

      First off, why should Africa build highways? China and India built the classical western-style consumption oriented infrastructure... in the 90s and today, lots of places and roads empty -- and peak oil is looming. Railroad (which they have) is good but the car may be hammer in a time when a screwdriver is needed.

      And second, just because a nation/continent hasn't solve all of it's problems doesn't mean it should make a full-stop until everyone is caught up. Poverty is still a problem in the US, but somehow I doubt we'd be better off if we never had NASA, or work on transistor and later microchip. With so many people, we can concentrate on more than 1 problem at a time, and sometimes, solving some in a seemingly unrelated domain will open solutions in another one.