

Video of Anybots robot using a Roomba - andr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdEuFhJit0o

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ericb
Ok, that's awesome! Is Monty being "controlled?" I would love to hear, in
broad strokes, what his brain is like, if not.

edit: Ok, I see the driver now (Trevor?). It's still amazing. How is the
control UI done--I was expecting more like puppeteering...

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andr
Yes, by the end of the clip you see a person in the back with VR goggles on.

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pg
It's fascinating how much more anthropomorphic it seems when it seems to have
desires-- when it's trying to get into a box, rather than just rolling around
shaking hands with people.

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alex_c
That's what I was thinking - it looked excited to get a new toy, then
frustrated by the packaging. We've all been there.

It's also an interesting reminder that something we take for granted as simple
- opening a cardboard box - can be ridiculously complex for something that's
not human... even if it's remotely controlled, let alone autonomous.

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ivankirigin
It is indeed amazing that the hard problems are those that most 5 year olds
can do.

Turning pages in a book and folding a paper backs are actually mechanical
tasks of immense subtlety.

Playing chess is easy because it is so well defined.

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sown
Robots are neat.

I wonder, does anyone have a suggestion about how a proper self-taught
"curriculum" would look like?

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ivankirigin
Just learn how to build big software systems. This might be as simple as a usb
camera in a linux box with a serial port connection to some motor controller.
That is actually really complicated, but all the components are pretty cheap.

If you can get a wifi streaming webcam with tele-operated control, you have
the basic components of a PackBot. It's not rugged, or self balancing with
arms, but it's there.

One mistake aspiring roboticists make is thinking that robotics is something
different. Actually it's just a lot of mechanical, software, electrical, and
systems engineers working together. Autonomy algorithms for robotics are
certainly domain specific, but the skills needs have broad application -
meaning most coders have them.

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sown
I see. I think I will take your advice about a simple system, though. It's
that Anybot's <a href="<http://anybots.com/join.html>">career</a> page seems
to imply that I should have built something. :)

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jorgeortiz85
But when does Monty get a chariot?

<http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=757>

<http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=758>

