Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #05133
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Steven Bolt sbolt@xs4all.nl
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 23:50:00 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Task for walker?
On Thu, 8 Jul 1999, Don Papp wrote:
[ Lawn nibbler ]
> > Systematically giving all of the lawn equal nibble attention is
> > another tough one.
> This reminds me of a current project of mine - a common push-style
> floor/rug cleaner (the wheels on the bottom power a spinning desbris
> collector that dumps debris into a pocket for removal) is given two servo
> motors, some LEDS, and some touch sensors and is allowed to roam the
> apartment. A challenge which I anticipate will require much tinkering is
> an effective way to cover the whole home (corners will go untended in this
> version) effectively.
Because the real world is a very difficult environment, the
Egg Hunt and Playground were designed as an intermediate step:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbolt/Other/e-EasterEggHunt.html
Three real world applications were used as reference: vacuming a
floor, mowing a lawn and hunting mines.
The first two applications are closer to most natural search
problems. Every animal does plenty of `Egg Hunting' when it
forages, looks for a place to build a nest, a mate and so on.
Searching something is perhaps the most basic intellectual
interaction between individual and environment; a good task to
encourage robot autonomy :)
> I plan to start with a simple "seek brightest spot" that toggles
> with "seek darkest spot" mixed with obstacle avoiding and see where that
> takes me. Possibly the shifting of light due to the rising and setting sun
> may affect the pattern enough to get good coverage. We'll see.
Obstacles in the environment will tend to create spots that are
visited too often, and others which get no attention at all.
Thorough coverage is quite a challenge.
Best,
Steve
----------------------------------------------------------------------
# sbolt@xs4all.nl # Steven Bolt # popular science monthly KIJK #
----------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/alt-beam
http://www.egroups.com
- Simplifying group communications
Home