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Parrot Drives Robotic Buggy
grrlscientist writes "Proving that robots aren't just for people any longer, an African grey parrot, Pepper, has learned to drive a robot that was specially designed for him. Pepper, whose wings are clipped to preventing him from flying around his humans' house and destroying their things, now manipulates the joystick on his riding robot to guide it to where ever he wishes to go. This robotic 'bird buggy' was the brainchild of his human companion, Andrew Gray, a 29-year-old electrical and computer engineering graduate student at the University of Florida."
It's like having a 2 to 5 year old that lives longer than you do.
That said, they are damn smart birds.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
...that the same human who had the birds wings clipped so it can't move has had to build him a fucking go kart so he's able to move around again.
Fuck you, Andrew Gray, and the horse you rode in on. IF you haven't clipped its hooves at the knee, that is!
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Like, if someone broke his legs and build him a joystick wheelchair and posted the video, oh I am sure he would be oh so thankful.
I can see both sides. Without his wings being clipped he would never be allowed outside, and escape would be a constant worry. Caged birds are dead meat on the outside.
You know what this means right?
Cats with roller skates.
crazy dynamite monkey
I tried t get my Norwegian Blue to drive a buggy but it just sits there and does nothing.
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
Don't get your panties in a knot unless you know more.
Well, I'm not GP but I am a parrot owner so I'd like to "get my panties knot".
Removing a parrot's main form of movement is comparable to keeping a dog on a leash in one corner of the house, all the time. What's cruel is removing their ability to fly and after that it's just semantics whether you clipped their wings or feathers. Removing a parrot's ability to fly and forcing them to move only where human decides they should move, when human decides they should move there, is a horrible thing to do to animals as intelligent and independent as parrots. It also tells about very twisted attitude towards the pet: Anyone who considers taking a parrot and does some research (and you really should research as they tend to live many years or even many decades) learns that they do tend to chew on stuff. If your reaction to that isn't "I'll have to come up with enough toys for him to chew that he doesn't touch much else" or "I'll have to study positive reinforcement a bit and train him" or "I'll have to come up with a way to keep some things out of his sight" or "Okay, I can't have a pet like that" but rather "Oh, I'll just clip his wings", there is something very wrong.
My parrots fly freely around the house whenever I'm awake and at home (when I'm asleep or at work, I have to keep them in cages for their own safety). They don't tend to ruin anything too valuable though they do occasionally ruin book covers, photo frames and the like... which I knew they would do when I got them six years ago.
For the record, the practice of clipping parrot wings (which means clipping the wing feathers) isn't really alive in many countries anymore (here in Finland it certainly isn't recommended by either of the large pet bird associations).
With larger birds such as African Grey's, there is a really high risk of injury to the bird if they are allowed to grow up flying inside a house. Young birds do not understand glass for instance, and will attempt to fly into it, ultimately doing harm to themselves. To offset this, the non-permanent wing clipping is employed to prevent them from taking flight. This doesn't prevent gliding, however, so they can still leap safely off ledges to the floor to get around. Once they're older, you have to take into account that the nearly or fully grown bird has never flown, so you keep clipping the wings as they don't know how to use them.
I've never owned a Parrot but I grew up with one and my parents opted to not clip his wings. The net result was a lot of snapped feathers and a bird with neurological damage from running into things full tilt. Not pretty.
- No Bounce, No Play -
Forget parrots in buggies. What about dogs in real cars?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20614593
99% sure this is not a hoax.
Man, lotta PETA supporters or something on /. today. Are you against neutering cats and dogs too?
1. It's not a "free bird". A free bird would be one that's outside in the trees. This is a domesticated bird in a house. But I assume you just threw the "free" part in as an emotional word of some sort to get people onto your side anyway.
2. Clipping the wings is exactly NOTHING like breaking the legs. Since it's only temporarily trimming the end feathers, it's more akin to clipping a cat's nails. It stops the cat from gripping the ground when running, so therefore it must be cruel. If a bird that large were allowed to fly about freely inside, it'd likely do more damage to itself than to objects.
3. Before you even think about talking about declawing, just stop with that horribly incorrect analogy already. Clipped feathers grow back, removing the top knuckle of the cat's paws doesn't. And no, my cat isn't declawed, that's cruel.
4. You're an idiot, and god help you if you ever own a pet.
I just took a cone off my cat from him having had surgery. Are advocating that I should have left the cone off and let him chew away at his stitches instead, because the cone isn't natural, and hinders him?
Not all things people do to pets are for the sake of cruelty. In fact, I would argue that the vast, VAST majority of things we do for pets is because we love them, and it's better for them.
Heaven forbid you have a giant mirror in your house. We had parakeets that would go ape shit over the other birds and try to fly to them. We ended up clipping their feathers just so they wouldn't hurt themselves on the mirror.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
People limit pets' movement all the time. Dogs go on leashes or are stuck inside the house. Same with cats, often. We have 2 rabbits. They have to stay inside their pen when not accompanied by humans. Our tortoise has to stay inside its terrarium. Our fish may not swim in the ocean. I'm sure the rabbits would love to run around outside or even all over the house chewing on whatever they can, but it's not safe for them (predators, cars, electrocution), and it's not safe for our stuff. So maybe you're saying nobody should keep pets, but that's a different argument.
If I could rearrange the keyboard, I'd put U and I together.
When the parrot cuts you off in traffic, does he give you... the bird?
...Yeah. Yeah it is. Are you fucking retarded?!? Like no, seriously... are you mentally handicapped.
Anger aside, this is actually a very valid, important thing to mention.
Case in point - a few months ago, a 17-year-old autistic boy was struck and killed by a car. it was 2 AM, and he was sitting in the middle of the street just past a low hill, which made him impossible for the driver to see until it was too late.
When asked why their autistic son was sitting in the middle of a public street at 2 o' clock in the morning, the parents responded, "we always let him do what he wants."
Incidentally, the parents are attempting to sue the driver for - brace yourselves - negligence.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
To be fair, the vast majority of pet parrots, not just in the US, but in the world are raised by humans not by their parents. And usually their parents weren't raised in the wild either. So that ship has already sailed. If the parents decide to breed (and it's not like you can force them) those babies cannot be shipped back to Africa or South America and set free in the wild. Only a small percentage of them would survive at all without instruction from wild parents. I think that would be more cruel. It is already illegal to collect these birds from the wild.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.