Lost robot crosses city by asking for directions

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-- Lost robot crosses city by asking for directions

Posted by ziptnf on May-15-2009 20:18:

Lost robot crosses city by asking for directions

This is really cool. A robot was programmed to analyze people's stances to determine which direction they were pointing, analyzed routes, and built an internal map based on where he traveled. Of course, he only got about 1.5km in 5 hours, but part of that was based on him encountering a busy intersection and wasting a bunch of time talking to people.

quote:
Although it interacted with 38 people over a period of nearly five hours � ACE did eventually reach its destination. In fact, the team report that the robot was making very good progress until it reached a busy pedestrian area where its own popularity became a problem.

ACE had interacted with just 12 people before that point, but 21 curious passersby stopped to talk to the robot as it crossed the busy pedestrian zone.

Cool stuff, this marks a good example of robots being released and used in the real world, unmonitored the whole time.

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article...directions.html

Posted by Meat187 on May-15-2009 20:27:

Didn't know this was such a big thing, lol. This was one of many project here at the university and I know some of the people involved. But yeah, it's pretty cool stuff. The chair where this was developed does lots of what I call 'toys for engineers' and I'll seriously have to consider doing my master thesis for them.

Posted by Lebezniatnikov on May-15-2009 20:32:

That's actually really cool. Foreign Policy just ran an article last month about a coming explosion in robotic technologies - apparently there's been a ton of innovation over the last few years, and the product of many patent filings are just now starting to be created and tested.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/...p?story_id=4843

Posted by Joss Weatherby on May-15-2009 21:04:

Neat stuff... just wait till they add a straw hat and hawaiin shirt and make it speak with an american accent. TOURIST BOT 1.0!

Posted by Neon Sky on May-15-2009 21:28:

Posted by Brian Scott on May-15-2009 21:32:

quote:
Originally posted by Joss Weatherby
Neat stuff... just wait till they add a straw hat and hawaiin shirt and make it speak with an american accent. TOURIST BOT 1.0!

If they show up to the UK looking like that, they deserve all the ridicule they get!

Posted by THE_Chris on May-15-2009 21:40:

Balls to that crap

Tweenbots -> http://www.tweenbots.com/

Posted by ZeJayMan on May-15-2009 21:53:

awww . i love tweenbot.

Posted by Joss Weatherby on May-16-2009 00:20:

Man has no future now... we are going to be destroyed by tweenanators...

Posted by Capitalizt on May-16-2009 01:01:

quote:
Originally posted by Joss Weatherby
Man has no future now... we are going to be destroyed by tweenanators...

no, we're going to be destroyed by these..

Posted by Dj Nacht on May-16-2009 01:30:

quote:
Originally posted by Capitalizt
no, we're going to be destroyed by these..

Yeah, I could see this thing breaking my door down in 50 years and killing me.

Posted by Joss Weatherby on May-16-2009 01:33:

quote:
Originally posted by Dj Nacht
Yeah, I could see this thing breaking my door down in 50 years and killing me.

Or a swarm of these little guys...

Posted by Omega_M on May-16-2009 19:16:

quote:
Originally posted by Capitalizt
no, we're going to be destroyed by these..

This undoubtedly has to have a very sophisticated control system in it. Just imagine the kind of real-time computations, decision making and actuation events that must take place in order to keep the system stable when the thing is kicked or skids over ice. Very impressive.

Posted by Sunsnail on May-16-2009 19:26:

that last jump made me go "AHHH THATS BADASSS!"

Posted by Bernd_Gradish on May-16-2009 19:33:

quote:
Originally posted by Joss Weatherby
Neat stuff... just wait till they add a straw hat and hawaiin shirt and make it speak with an american accent. TOURIST BOT 1.0!

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Posted by Krypton on May-16-2009 20:23:

How much does it cost build a robot?

Posted by ziptnf on May-16-2009 20:33:

quote:
Originally posted by Krypton
How much does it cost build a robot?

$Africa

Posted by legendary_waz on May-16-2009 20:41:

quote:
Originally posted by Omega_M
This undoubtedly has to have a very sophisticated control system in it. Just imagine the kind of real-time computations, decision making and actuation events that must take place in order to keep the system stable when the thing is kicked or skids over ice. Very impressive.

I am as impressed as you. Having studied and worked with control systems makes you appreciate the system in something like this. Its ability to recover on ice is just amazing! Props to Boston Dynamics for putting this together.

Posted by Omega_M on May-17-2009 03:18:

good to find someone on this forum with a similar academic background