

Arrington Gets an Anybot - ed
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/08/anybots-arrington-robot/

======
nostromo
That was awkward on so many levels. It makes me think that when people are
driving these things, they'll be just as annoying as they are online.

~~~
robobenjie
That is something we worry about. There seems to be a little bit of a
disconnect at first, like interactions that happen in a computer screen are
somehow less real than face to face ones. The hope is that bumping in to
people with a robot is sort of like making faces in a teleconference: it's
maybe something you do when you are first trying it out, but once you start
using it for actual work you stop.

I know that we have certainly moved past that here using them (we use them to
keep in communication with our manufacturer). Hopefully having 2 way video +
the fact that the robots will be used almost exclusively in business settings
will help us avoid the Penny Arcade Internet Fuckwad Theory <http://www.penny-
arcade.com/comic/2004/3/19/>

~~~
nostromo
... or maybe Arrington is always that annoying in the office. ;-)

------
hxr
Very cool! My wishlist:

1\. 360 degree camera (so I can walk in any direction without turning around)
2\. 3D vision (in the operator interface!) 3\. Wings, jet pack 4\. Multiple
lasers 5\. Vuvezula

~~~
hussong
1\. would also allow you to strafe...

------
marknutter
Wow. Absolutely incredible. How annoying Arrington is, I mean. The robot's
pretty neat too.

------
uuilly
A far as telepresence for Chinese / Indian factories goes, wouldn't it be
cheaper / less awkward to hire a guy to walk around w/a laptop running iChat /
google voice-vid? Labor in those countries is practically free.

------
jl
This video just made my day!

~~~
tmsh
More videos:

<http://www.anybots.com/>

<http://anybots.com/#anyblog>

~~~
banjiewen
I suspect jl has better ways to see anybots than videos ;)

------
troygoode
First thing I thought about after reading this was the robot waiter in Rocky
IV.

While this is certainly very cool (and I would totally buy one just to play
with if money was no object), I'm rather skeptical about how many of these
things they're going to manage to sell - $15k is pretty steep for iChat on
wheels.

~~~
MichaelApproved
Don't forget the green laser pointer.

I agree that this is way too expensive. I bet, just like the Segway, a lot of
the money goes to keeping it on two wheels when a 4 wheel device would do just
fine. I'd like to hear the economical justification that a company uses to buy
this.

~~~
veemjeem
I don't think it's that expensive -- seems like it would be pretty useful in a
warehouse to check up on things. Still cheaper than flying an engineer in San
Fran to the UPS warehouse in Kentucky.

I think people are assuming it will be used in the way Arrington used it --
remote presence. It's more useful as a way to survey places that you normally
don't want to hang around in due to danger or noise, such as noisy server
rooms, giant inventory/shipping warehouses, buildings that are in the middle
of construction, outsourced manufacturing facilities in china, chemical
plants, water/sewage sanitation facilities, chip manufacturing clean rooms,
etc.

When my dad worked for Monsanto, he had to drive 60 miles out of his way to
the chemical plant just to look at pipes, knobs, and dials to ensure that the
manufacturing process was properly replicated -- that would seem like a
perfect fit.

~~~
MichaelApproved
I know something _like_ this is useful but there are other devices that cost <
$1000 that do the same thing.

For example: If you put the head/camera of the Rovio on a stick you
essentially have the same thing, except this device costs only $300. What is
the extra $14,700 for? It just doesn't make sense to spend so much on a simple
device. [http://www.slashgear.com/wowwee-rovio-videos-wifi-remote-
web...](http://www.slashgear.com/wowwee-rovio-videos-wifi-remote-webcam-
demo-2317185/)

~~~
jazzdev
Rovio is currently $159 at Amazon:

[http://www.amazon.com/WowWee-Rovio-Enabled-Robotic-
WebCam/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/WowWee-Rovio-Enabled-Robotic-
WebCam/dp/B001CQLGD6)

I don't know how much longer I can hold out before clicking the buy button.

[Edit:] After reading the product reviews, the Rovio appears to have a number
of issues (i.e. poor battery life, poor video) Does anyone on HN have one of
these?

------
ra88it
"...$15,000 per unit. That may sound a little steep, but keep in mind that the
robot can be used by multiple people, though only one can be logged in at a
time."

What does that even mean?

~~~
flannell
I think they mean you can't have two or more people trying to control the bot
at the same time.

~~~
ra88it
Yes, but then why does he say 'keep in mind that the robot can be used by
multiple people'. Is this any different than, say, two people sharing a
pencil?

~~~
dpritchett
He's just pointing out that a business wouldn't need to contemplate buying a
$15,000 anybot for each employee when they can be handed off depending on who
needs it at any given moment.

Not sure why the author felt like pointing that out.

------
robryan
Very cool, I guess the next step would be to give it a decent sized screen for
2 way communication.

------
tudorachim
That's some pretty pathetic collision avoidance, given that the website
advertises "Its built-in guidance system takes care of the rest by avoiding
furniture & people..."

~~~
palish
Really? It experienced the worst-case scenario -- running directly into
something at full speed -- and came away completely unharmed. "Rock solid"
would be how I'd describe it.

It would be very tough to implement "collision avoidance" without being
overbearing on what the user can or cannot do. For example, it would be
extremely annoying if the robot's collision avoidance made it actively try to
stay away from walls "because the user could potentially make a sudden turn at
full speed towards the wall, and then a collision could result, so therefore
we should try to avoid that scenario because, damn it, we _promised collision
avoidance!_ ".

The net effect would be that the user might have a very good reason for
wanting to drive close to a wall, but can't because of artificial limits
imposed by the software.

It's better to not waste time on those kinds of 'features' and instead focus
on making the core experience better. In this case, focusing on the two-way
video and reducing chat lag time.

Incidentally, those kinds of 'features' seem like exactly the kind of thing
that a mature company would focus on (waste time on) and lose sight of making
the actual product better, because it combines so many things that mature
companies would like -- delivering on promises to the user, it sounds good on
paper, etc. But it loses sight of the fact that the goal is to make the end
product better, not to deliver a laundry list of things.

~~~
pavs
Why does the collision avoidance has to be a hard limit? Allow it to be
toggled on and off at will by the operator and it solves all problems you
mentioned.

Collision off on cramped places with furniture.

Collision on when too many moving object (people walking around).

~~~
robobenjie
Actually we allow people to hit walls, for the reasons you mention above, but
we make sure that the robot slows down a little before hitting them. Basically
we allow any movement but you can only go fast when you are in an open area
and if the robot detects that you are going to barely clip an obstacle you
barely miss it instead (thats the hope anyway)

-Benjie, anybots obstacle avoidance guy

~~~
spoon16
what happens if I drive it down stairs?

~~~
robobenjie
It depends on how long the stairway is. It has a bumper around the head to
protect it, but odds are you are going to need some repairs.

We are using the Hokuyo Lidar sensor: [http://www.hokuyo-
aut.jp/02sensor/07scanner/urg_04lx_ug01.ht...](http://www.hokuyo-
aut.jp/02sensor/07scanner/urg_04lx_ug01.html) which sees an ankle height slice
of the world so stairs down are invisible to us at the moment. :/

~~~
tudorachim
Hey, I think my original post was totally misinterpreted. I was referring to
the instance near the beginning where Arrington drove the robot forward,
directly into Dan Casner, a few times. That mistake will almost certainly be
repeated by everybody who uses QA, as they try to get a better view of the
people they're talking to. So, I was commenting on the lack of a hard limit on
how close one can get to objects directly in front of the robot. Will this be
addressed in the final implementation?

I believe there might also be a ROS package that detects ankles (well, legs)
in 2D scans, which could help.

------
talonx
That looks a lot like Daniel Graystone's household robot (in Caprica)

------
mgkimsal
I'm reminded of the robots from Suspended (Infocom game). We'll have some
anybot robots that tuned for audio, some for video, some for ... what were the
others?

------
jroes
You should be able to drive it to a power outlet or docking station for
charging. Or maybe it should drive there itself?

~~~
robobenjie
It has one. Autodocking isn't finished yet, but on the work queue. You can see
the dock in the background of the video (it's the white C shaped thing sitting
on the ground)

------
flannell
I would love to get a couple and race them around the office. Friday
afternoons just got more interesting!

------
greenlblue
The title should say Arrington becomes an Anybot.

~~~
dasil003
How about Arrington becomes an Annoybot?

------
danbmil99
nice work

