Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #05148
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Bob Shannon bshannon@tiac.net
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 19:54:58 -0400
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: What does purposeful mean, anyway?
Darrell Johnson wrote:
> ok... here's an example of why a 'wild' robot can be useful (as a
> starting block):
> Say you have a robot that can successfully roam around in the woods
> without getting stuck/destroyed. Cool but not useful for much.... no
> 'purpose' you would say.
> Now, put a higher level brain that has a sense of location that can
> recieve remote communication.. The robot is told to go from point A to
> point B. The robot takes this instruction and proceeds to go from point
> A to B on it's own, without needing a human operator babysitting it's
> every move, because it knows how to take care of itself, and navigate
> the terrain..
>
> Is this quite a ways off? You bet, but doesn't it sound like an
> effective path to take to build better robots? Build a smart body that
> can take care of itself, then give it a purpose. Whether that can be
> done with BEAM-tech remains to be seen...
>
> -darrell
This is not way off at all. Its done all the time, even commercially with
conventional
robotics.
What remains to be seen is of BEAM can compete with what already works.
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