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Cool Personal Robots
300e24 writes "I have always wanted a robot around the house, not the useless but fun Sony Aibo, but something which can actually do things for me. I always thought it was a pipe dream, until I found this review of a very interesting (and surprisingly cheap) robot. " The software unfortunately looks to be windows based, but its interesting: it maps out its space, and can automatically dock/recharge itself.
In Mondo Tronics' Robot Store catalog 17, page 12 is the cye robot for $695. Although not he same thing as posted, it does pretty much the same thing. The Map-N-Zap software is a pure graphics interface (which they say is a feature), and its shown on Windows 95. As a note, it says you can get an .ocx and program it in visual basic. The model shown in the picture at the website has the wagon attachment on it which can carry up to 9 pounds / 4 kg. There is also an attachment for a vacuum The specs (from the add): 40 x 28 x 13 cm / 16 x 11 x 5 in, weighs 4 kg / 9 pounds High-impact ABS plastic shell, rugged molded wheels Sealed 12 volt, 2.9 amp-hour rechargeable battery FCC approved 900 MHz controller in drive-up recharging station Low center of mass & 3.5 kg / 8 pounds pulling force Central mount for hardware add-ons and RJ-45 port with +12V, +5V, ground & serial lines for add-ons & your own devices. System requirements: Pentium 90 MHz (or better), Windows 95 or Windows 98, CD-ROM drive, Serial port
IPA? Doesn't that often stand for IsoPropyl Alcohol?
Great for cleaning your metal contacts, I wouldn't want to clean reality out of my system with it.
Jamaican rum cleans reality out for me just fine... Mmmmm...
Nope, it's been here before. Its name is Cye, Robot Cye.
Well, it is cool but for 1000 bucks I'd want more than that. Using your PC for processing power is a great idea though, this can help keep costs down for future robots, as well as the interface it provides.
We're still quite a ways off from a decent robot for home use. To be more than a novel conversation piece it needs to do a lot of things that depend on AI that just haven't been devolped yet (or at least at an affordable cost). High resolution sensors and powerful servos are just too expensive for the consumer marketplace. It would be really helpful for it to be bipedal as well. I've seen a few bipedal bots developed by scientists but it hasn't got very far beyond the research stage.
Shut up, be happy. The conveniences you demanded are now mandatory. -- Jello Biafra
The US Army and various SWAT units use a 'remote control' version of an AR-15 for situations too 'high-risk' for exposed personel. It's tripod mounted, and has a variable-zoom scope attached to a CCD camera. The whole unit is operated over wire with a CRT and joystick. They're available open market from the manufacturer. (General Dynamics, I think)
It could be swivel mounted on three of these 'bots, and with the addition of a 'Rabbit' type video transmitter could almost be a cost-effective means of World Domination!
.sig: Now legally binding!
Just think, Da Vinci did founding work and research on the subject five-hundred years ago!
--The more you know, the less you know.
Well, UF developed one, but I can't say that it's snazzy and such... Plus university students rarely produce mass quantities of such a device...
But, I'm not giving up hope. No, for there is a company once mighty in just matters of the chainsaw... now they too have the mower for nerds.. is now we turn to Husqvarna!
Now if they'd only make a robotic chainsaw too...
You say you want a revolution?
Just had a thought. (uh oh :-)
You could use one of these robots (or a wheelchair-size version) to map out the un/accessibility of a building...
--The more you know, the less you know.
Remember the Hero series of robots? Made in the 80's by Zenith, they were used for robotics instruction courses among other things. I have heard of a Hero 2000 memorize a path in a room using its sonars and other sensors, and power dock itself. Sure it took a ton of hand written code, but thats whats cool about it.
The most popular design uses X-Acto type blades spring-loaded around the edge of a spinning disk. Cuts grass but spring back against the disk if it hits something more substantial...like shoe leather. Some designs try to detect the edge of uncut grass while others just bop around randomly.
This is an intriguing bit of technology, but more importantly (at least to myself), is that it's nice to see such a clean approach to design. They're builing a practical robot from the ground up, in a staged/layered manner, instead of lumping a whole bunch of features into the product at once, and then trying to unravel the knots at a later date. The only problem I have is that the robot might have been released prematurely as there are hardly any real uses for it yet.
What I mean by all that is, cye is apparently a good stepping stone for future robotic products because it's starting as a simple device to which revisions can be easily applied. The future growth of something designed in this manner is greater than something like the sony AIBO, which would be something quite difficult to change due to it's greater base level of complexity.
I'm thinking of cye as the kernel around which a real robotic appliance can one day be built. All the sensory features, and manipulators and fancy things can be gradually introduced as they become useable as well as feasible.
I also like that it's brains are your PC. This provides an easy upgrade path that isn't based on any one particular hardware platform. Try upgrading an AIBO to do something other than what it was initially built for and the differences will be apparent.
As it stands, I can't afford one anyways. :-(
-- kwashiorkor --
Leaps in Logic
should not be confused with
Jumping to Conclusions.
Was I the only one who had a hell of a time trying to find a price for the damn thing. I probably was, so please don't answer.
Here's the run-down for the price-ticket impared:
Cye-sr special, robot=bbn, Wagon=bn, ac=120VAC, shirt=Black-L (wbd) 1
$995.00
+ $48.50 shipping
=$1043.50
**>>BELCH
The only problem with the Sybian is that Vanessa Chase doesn't come with it.
No, wait.
I mean Vanessa comes with it, but she doesn't show up at the door with it when you buy one.
Sorry for the potential confusion. We now return to our regularly scheduled program.
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
In my AI course in college, we spend a godawful amount of time working on different ways of programming a simple automatic vacuum cleaner to learn the best way to clean a room.
The technique was fairly simple: give the robot a certain number of points for changing a grid square from dirty to clean, and subtract a certain number of points for every unit of energy expended. After each run, the robot changes its algorithm and tries again. Eventually, you end up with a robot that will clean up the maximum amount of dirt with the minimum amount of energy.
(Forgive me if the details are fuzzy--too much LDS in the '60s...)
To implement this in a real system, it seems like you could even dispense with the sensor, and just weigh the vacuum bag at the beginning and the end of each cycle. You just have to make sure the robot doesn't cheat by going outside to vacuum up all of the dirt in the garden...
That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
Yeek, it sorta hurts to think back that far, but didn't he respond to claps or something? He'd change direction when you clapped?
(It's also possible that I just heard those "Clap On! Clap Off" commercials *way* too often)
Dana
Hi, I work for probotics, the makers of Cye. Yes, slashdot is popular with us also. It's been great reading the feedback from you guys. I'd like to add a few things, and maybe clear up some misconceptions: Linux support: You're preaching to the converted. We know how important this is. I'm personally pushing for it very hard. I first installed Linux in '93, and haven't looked back. As the faq says, we're willing to release our comm protocol and code, so people can develop linux drivers. In fact, check out the linux cyedaemon project (still in infancy) at: http://www.tambra.com/linux/cyedaemon/ In mid-January, we are putting out Java classes (and code) to communicate with Cye. This is being developed by Tucker Balch at CMU, who is using a team of Cye's in the robosoccer contest. There's information on his stuff at: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~coral/minnow This will allow linux and mac and palmpilot users to communicate w/ Cye. The radio modem hooks up to a standard serial port, so even a pilot should be able to control Cye. Cost: Ya, it's expensive. We know it. The main cost right now is the radios and motors. They motors are quite nice - we have no problems pulling 30lbs with the attached cart. The radio modem also works well - it's in the 900Mhz range, and operates at 19.2K (which is a limitation, but we're working on it). We also, unfortunately, have to tack on a bit of a profit, if we're going to stay afloat. :) The color - someone mentioned that the color is cheesy. It's available in orange, yellow, and black. Lego Mindstorms - Ya, they're cool. I've got a set myself. However, we're really aiming for more sophistication. Vacuuming is just a start. We're adding a webcam soon for telepresence, and we've got other irons on the fire as well. Overall, we're very interested in supporting the linux community. Until now, we didn't know if there was much of an interest. However, noticing that our website has currently come to a crawl, I think there may be some interest. My email address is parag@personalrobots.com . Feel free to email me comments/suggestions. THanks. Parag Batavia Probotics, Inc http://www.personalrobots.com
The US Army and various SWAT units use a 'remote control' version of an AR-15 for situations too 'high-risk' for exposed personel. It's tripod mounted, and has a variable-zoom scope attached to a CCD camera. The whole unit is operated over wire with a CRT and joystick.
type video transmitter could almost be a cost-effective means of World Domination!
It's been done already, and they are called Daleks. Created by a guy named Davros.
Radio-Electronics (now known as Electronics Now) published an article on building one many years ago. Check the archives of your local library.
--GnrcMan--
Does anyone believe that everything that sells in great numbers "must be effective"? Ever heard of Windows?
..speaking of hopelessly naive..
+&x
At the moment, Probotics don't appear to support Linux, but if you look in the technical section, they actually ask for someone to write a port. Also, the drivers appear to be open-sourced, so if someone wanted to use Cye with Linux, ther shouldn't be any problems.
From their FAQ about linux support:
Linux Linux Linux.. Need I say more? Open up
your libraries to the Linux community and you
will find your product improving daily at no cost
to you from the efforts of the Linux development community.
I couldn't agree more. Our libraries are open any time. We have yet to refuse anyone who wanted a copy of our source code. Please, take the bull by the horns and start writing the Linux rev for us. We are swamped with new features and bug fixes just sticking with one operating system (let alone 2, 3, or 4 (Linux,Mac, Unix)).
I know what I want for Christmas, or my birthday next month =)
C'mon! *Every* one wants a giant battle robot of their very own.
Just up scale one of those babys about 50 or 60 times, and stick on some laser cannon...
Although, when I start thinking about it, mapping out a whole city for it might take a while... and don't even *think* about trying to take over the world.
Hmm. I'd probably be better of welding an M16 to the back of an AIBO.
Shawn Poulsen (Fruan)
"On Slashdot, many obvious things are insightful." - Annonymous Coward, 2000/7/9
I don't know that I would actually want something like this. It would be cool to play with and all, and maybe if you could get one that vacumed I'd think it was cool - except I'm such a slob letting any machine clean my room would lead to either something I really wanted being thrown out, or some sort of bizzare damage to the robot.
So, if something like this was cheap, how many people could honestly see themselves getting it for a practical use, and how many are just entranced by the neatness of the idea?
oh yeah, and it would scare the hell out of my cat, and if I get a dog it would chew on the robot (or play shake games... how sturdy is this thing?)
...will work for Chick tracts...
There was another robot-like vacuum cleaner mentioned earlier. This is more general-purpose, but what's really needed is a use for the beasts that will drive design. We're still in the phase where personal robots are being designed because they're interesting, but there's no real use for them yet. (At least none that the average consumer will see.)
This happened to PCs, it will happen to PRs as well.
-dwd-
R&D
Usually, as a product becomes more widely used, the cost goes down. The quality also goes up :) Anyways, I think that in a reasonable time we'll see these things being used for practical purposes and being sold inexpensively in Walmart.
Whee!!
-BrentIt has a wagon. Therefore I'm guessing that it can carry stuff for you.
-BrentFAQ: http://www.personalrobots.com/technicaldirt/faq/fa q.cgi?FAQ Linux ?: http://www.personalrobots.com/technicaldirt/faq/fa q.cgi?SHOW_ANSWER=01-general.txt+24 "Linux Linux Linux.. Need I say more? Open up your libraries to the Linux community and you will find your product improving daily at no cost to you fromthe efforts of the Linux development community. I couldn't agree more. Our libraries are open any time. We have yet to refuse anyone who wanted a copy of our source code. Please, take the bull by the horns and start writing the Linux rev for us. We are swamped with new features and bug fixes just sticking with one operating system (let alone 2, 3, or 4 (Linux, Mac, Unix))." ---- cool
Jazilla.org - the Java Mozilla
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Hey, you're in luck. Check out the store (page). It comes in dozens of different color combinations. Yes, even black.
-Brent...Cye is selling in great numbers, so it must be effective.
I realize that the robot-buying public may be a wee bit savvier than the general buying public, but isn't the above sentiment hopelessly naive? Does anyone believe that everything that sells in great numbers "must be effective"? Ever heard of Windows?
I understand that Cye's navigation probably is remarkably effective, but offering big sales as evidence is poor logic.
Why the $1000 price tag?
Simple: economies of scale.
once you have come up with the design and written the software
This costs lots of money; R&D usually does.
shouldn't it be fairly inexpensive to produce a robot like this?
Sure. Mass production is a wonderful thing.
When you combine the previous two with an expected market of 50 million, you can amortize R&D costs over many units - the manufacturing costs winout. However, if you expect to sell a relatively small number your R&D costs dominate.
I've wanted to build something to mow the lawn. It's not like I have a big yard in Arizona. It takes all of about 5 minutes to mow. But that requires the following sequence of events:
So, science fiction aside, anyone want to work on building a robot lawn mower? :)