Saying goodbye.

@inq 

Your position on your limits of helping/giving code is well known here and doesn't surprise me by being explicitly stated now.

Yes I am rather limited and in the past have had my hobby greatly enhanced from programming experts on various forums.  Fortunately there are expert programmers on the programming forums that sometimes help lesser skilled hobby programmers or beginners. Indeed the internet has a wealth of information making it so much easier for anyone to learn anything they want!

Not sure what the future of programs like chatGPT will be with regards being a useful means to learn new things and help with questions. My gut feeling is it will always be limited to the garbage in garbage out problem and thus not always be reliable, particularly if real expert humans don't place their know how, art works, music and code on the internet for these systems to steal and rearrange and regurgitate in response to text input.

I will probably occasionally check this forum in case something interesting comes up but at this stage I see nothing I can use or can help others with anymore.

Hi @robotbuilder,

   I understand you had a particular aim of building an AI controlled robot, and considering the name of the website, your aspirations are presumably rather similar to those of Bill's, at least in the site's early days. How realistic that aim is, remains for me, an interesting question. I am certain it is not a trivial aim.

Of course, assuming your robot is self-contained and mobile, navigation is a prime issue to deal with. Simple tasks like a vacuum cleaner can be achieved with relatively simple algorithms without invoking AI, but applying AI as an alternative approach is still valuable, because assuming it is successful, then it may indicate a means of expanding into a further 'skill' which may less amenable to traditional programming.

I have always been somewhat eclectic in my aims and interests, which has often resulted in me not really knowing which avenue to explore next. However, that interest overlaps with many of the electronic and software parts, both of which are constant areas of discussion here. Plus there are unexpected inputs, such as from @Inq and others, one result of which resulted in me starting to play with a cheap 3D printer ... something that was off my radar until a year or two ago. Hence, I find this forum an interesting place to be.

I confess I have forgotten about answering a question on a wheel encoder .. I hope my answer was helpful to you and apologies if it wasn't. Of course, some questions are difficult to answer in a positive manner.

So at present, I have so many things I want to have a look at, I know I will never have the time to do more than scratch the surface. If you or anyone else seems to offering an interesting insight into AI and robotics, I'll almost certainly look at it. Whether I will comment or contribute depends on whether I think my contribution will be worthwhile. I try to avoid sycophantic, or other 'false', 'low value' responses, and whilst I may get something entirely wrong, it will be an unintentional error. But, if something is too far out of my experience and understanding, I may stay mute in deference to those who can make a positive contribution.

Best wishes and good health, Dave

@robotbuilder,

Thought of you when I read this article with your preference to know what the code is doing.

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-09-physics-based-self-learning-machines-current-artificial.html