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Robots Learn To Follow
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Sep 01, 2008 04:15 PM
from the no-sinking-ships-available dept.
from the no-sinking-ships-available dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Three years after the development of robots that act like rats, UC Davis engineers have designed a control system for robots allowing them to pick up on cues that the leader is about to turn, predict where it is going and follow it. This system mimics the human ability to capture signals — consciously or not — from drivers on the road or people walking in the streets to predict what they're about to do. As the team leader said, 'Robots that are better at following could be easier for people to work with.' With this system, a hospital robot could follow doctors during their rounds."
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Re: (Score:2)
What the world needs today is a strong leader, not a follower. Wake me up when the Messiah arrives.
Wake me up (Score:2)
When robots are taught to lead.
Where's R. Daneel when we need him.
Re: (Score:2)
Aren't you a couple of millennia late?
I've heard of oversleeping, but...
Re: (Score:2)
1) Aren't Christians waiting for the Messiah to return? Serious question, I thought that they are.
2) I'm not Christian!
Re: (Score:2)
Not sure, but I am waiting for the rapture to take all the fricken christians away!
A super-rapture that took _all_ religious people would be even better.
Sign me up! (Score:5, Funny)
i wanna be the first kid on the block with Stalkerbot 5000!
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah. And for version 2, it repeats everything you say.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah. And for version 2, it repeats everything you say.
Re: (Score:1)
I know how to stop stalkerbot 5000!
Where can I get a doormat that says:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
H.E.L.P.eR. (Score:4, Interesting)
As said the team leader, 'robots that are better at following could be easier for people to work with.' With this system, an hospital robot could follow doctors during their rounds."
Cool. Sounds like we're not far from the development of a real life H.E.L.P.eR. [wikipedia.org]
H.E.L.P.eR. has a wide range of devices in him and knowledge. He can perform surgery (as he once did to retrieve a kidney each from the boys), can fly the X-1, and holds a number of various gadgets in his body -- enough that Dr. Venture could even use him as a makeshift kidney dialysis machine.
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
Cool. Sounds like we're not far from the development of a real life H.E.L.P.eR.
We're probably closer to having autonomous armed drones (flying and/or driving) that better anticipate an enemy's evasive maneuvers.
Sad, but true.
Overlords (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Overlords (Score:4, Interesting)
Read up on the DARPA Urban challenge winners, especially the stanford and carnegie-mellon vehicles. Not only could they adjust themselves according to other vehicle behavior (i.e following the directions and speed of multiple objects on the road) they even learned to negotiate intersections. They sure as hell could follow you around ;)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
negotiating intersections is a completely different problem. all it takes to negotiate an intersection is to know the rules of traffic priority/right of way (or abide by other traffic control devices like traffic signals).
when there's a pre-established protocol for prioritizing traffic, there's little need for complex decision-making on the part of the individual. that's the way our road systems are designed so as to minimize accidents. it may take a new driver a little while to learn these rules, but they
I, for one... (Score:5, Funny)
I, for one, welcome our new robot followers...
Oh no! (Score:5, Funny)
With this system, an hospital robot could follow doctors during their rounds.
As if the hordes of medical students weren't enough! Now robots are going to get in the way too?
Re:Oh no! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Also with this system, a Dalek robot could follow the Doctor during his rounds.
But Daleks do not take orders!
Next Month (Score:5, Funny)
"Robots Master the Conga Line"
Screw hospital robots (Score:1)
Mechanical Squirrels on the other hand is where all the R&D should be at. High tech enough to follow me wherever I go; through water, lava, speeding down the road at supersonic speeds. The sheer volume of applications would be tremendous.
Re: (Score:1)
Darth Vader wasn't a robot though. He just had artificial limbs and lung assistance, and needed a cool suit to make it all look less grotesque. It's not that far out of the realm of possibility to do something like that at this point, really.
Re: (Score:1)
Help Me (Score:2, Insightful)
One way to lead the McCain (Score:2)
Supporters to the john....
when I was a kid... we had Omnibot Jr. (Score:2)
and there was a radio shack version as well, Robie Jr.
and the japanese had a version, called "charmmy"
the remote had an ultrasonic transmitter, and you input fwd, back, left & right commands which were transmitted
inaudibly, but as the robot had two microphones on his sholders- he followed commands.
then you flipped the 'follow me' switch- and he just homed in on the remote--- using 'stereo'
this was back in the 1980's
what's the big deal? can't the doc carry something that can be tracked from two points
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
There's goes the last advantage to being German (Score:3, Funny)
I was always precise, fast, and prone to crashing at work; but what really set me apart from the crowd was, being half German, I was a "born follower". I *hate* leading, what with all the decisions and vague metrics of success. I much prefer basking in the flawless execution of my assigned tasks, even when they were morally ambiguous or made no sense at all. I make a great programmer because computers also demand you do things "their way", even it only a tiny fraction of the population can stomach it.
It's only a small step from following leaders physically to following them figuratively. I can only hope that *some* company sticks with the current approach of producing software that treats me as the spineless meat-bag that I am.
Re: (Score:2)
In all honesty, I think the vast majority of people are like this. German heritage only comes into play because we get raised with a perspective of strong pride in being part of well organized group rather than a perspective which values you according to how high up the ladder you are. It's a good perspective we have, because any society will need more followers than leaders (or as my first well-run programming outfit put it, "We need more Indians, not more Chiefs").
However... the qualities that make *most*
Forever Following (Score:1)
Not only will it follow you, but it can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear, and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until....
Well, you know the rest.
what's so hard about it? (Score:2)
You'd think following robots would be a no brainer. Put an infrared beacon on the human & program the robot to always be within a certain distance of it.
Creatures that follow you around? (Score:1, Funny)
Thanks, but I already have cats.
It's a trap! (Score:2)
finally (Score:1)
But human following robots already exist.. (Score:1)
ohnoitsroland (Score:2)
Perhaps one day... (Score:1)
I read this as.. (Score:2)
"Robots Learn to Swallow"
then I reread it
imagine my disappointment
Shadow Caddy (Score:2)
Come back to bite us... (Score:1)
Human ability? (Score:2)
How precisely does following a leader based on signals they give qualify as mimicking a human ability? Ants, bees, and sardines can do this without colliding with whoever is in front or those going in the opposite direction, with bees and sardines managing to do it in three dimensions. Anyone who has seen ducks and geese migrating in neat triangular formations knows that birds also follow leaders quite happily, possibly because nobody's bothered to tell them that it's a human ability which creatures with ti
Follow? (Score:1)
Or persue?
Robotics (Score:2)
21st century fairy tale! (Score:2)
So now if we can just teach a robot to play the flute, we can have robot pied pipers followed by robot rats all over the place. Then at last humanity will be fulfilled.
Re: (Score:1)
No.
Re: (Score:2)
Strange. I see no ads on his site... (I opened it for the first time, to check if it really was that ad-laden.)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
OMG! I LOVE you, Firefox! :D
I had AdBlock Plus enabled. And I will leave it that way, never knowing how much ads are there. Sorry Roland. No cookie for you.