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2020-01-08 9:37 am
If you were wondering what you could get your half-pint robot to do when it is finished, then the real world has many stupid ideas, like this one;
This is only suitable for cubicle doors that have such a large gap at the bottom, that there is usually a sign "Beware of Limbo Dancers!"
HAL9000 reacted
2020-01-08 4:13 pm
OK, I like gadgets but, it would be a whole lot cheaper to simply have a spare roll nearby. Evidently Charmin engineers are done making the ultimate TP and have nothing better to do. ?
2020-01-08 11:37 pm
Yes a silly idea when a simple detector could signal that the roll was low (or empty) and the toilet roll container was also empty. Also an odour sensor can simply turn on a powerful exhaust fan so the cubicle is always usable. There is always the option not to use toilet paper and instead install a high tech Japanese toilet. It is also my personal view that all waste should be processed in situ with each house unit being fully self contained like a space ship.
But it does the raise the question for those here contemplating building a robot, be it DB1 or their own version, as to what they expect it to do. It is a costly and complex project so surely it wants to do more than just roam the house flashing its lights?
2020-01-09 12:32 am
But it does the raise the question for those here contemplating building a robot, be it DB1 or their own version, as to what they expect it to do. It is a costly and complex project so surely it wants to do more than just roam the house flashing its lights?
My approach is as follows:
1. Don't even think about trying to build a robot that actually does something useful until you can first build a robots that just roams the house with flashing lights.
So building the seemingly useless robot is a necessary prototyping step, at least for me. The main idea here is to keep the costs down during this first step. This is why I have chosen to go this routes for this first prototyping step.
It may appear to be a useless toy, but in fact, it's an extremely useful learning tool.
2. Only after I have been successful in getting this seemingly useless robot to dependably navigate the home will I begin to invest the cash necessary to build a much larger physical robot is capable of actually doing useful things. And none of this preliminary work will be lost as I should be able to just transfer the electronics and programming from the seemingly useless robot over to the more functional robot and just pick up where I left off. So it's not like I'll need to start over from scratch when I move up to a robot that has more useful functionality.
3. When it comes to building robots with more useful functionality I have several areas where I would like to incorporate this. One is the obvious home robot to hopefully do useful chores around the house. Not just doing silly things like bringing me a drink from the fridge. It would hardly be worth building a robot to do such a trivial thing. I'd like to have the robot do some serious cleaning chores to keep the house clean. And ideally I would even like to have it be able to prepared meals and possibly wash dishes. I know these are big hopes, but at least they can be set up as tangible goals.
Other robots I would like to have are yard maintenance robots. Robots that can clean leaves off a lawn or or clean out flower beds, etc. I actually enjoy mowing the lawn so I'll leave that task for myself. ? But an outdoor lawn robot could also work in a vegetable garden. This might even require modifying existing gardening equipment. Like a garden tractor or roto tiller turned into a robot.
Finally, I even have specialty jobs that I would love to have robots do. One idea is to have a robot that can climb trees and cut off dead or unwanted branches. The trees on my property are 60 feet or taller. So it's not easy to deal with cutting off limbs in high places. A tree climbing, chainsaw-wielding robot would be a great assistant. But alas, at 70 years old, it's highly unlikely that I'll ever be able to build all these things. None the less they do exist as ideas. But they all need to start with a toy robot that can find its way around the house. If I can't even get a robot to do that it's not likely that I'll be able to build the more sophisticated functional robots. So building "toy" robots is where it begins. Where it grows from there depends on how long I live. ?
DroneBot Workshop Robotics Engineer
James
2020-01-09 2:32 am
Don't even think about trying to build a robot that actually does something useful until you can first build a robots that just roams the house with flashing lights.
So building the seemingly useless robot is a necessary prototyping step, at least for me. The main idea here is to keep the costs down during this first step. This is why I have chosen to go this routes for this first prototyping step.
YES !!!
Exactly, precisely, the most logical path to follow. Start with simplicity, and add levels of complexity one level at a time
And none of this preliminary work will be lost as I should be able to just transfer the electronics and programming from the seemingly useless robot over to the more functional robot and just pick up where I left off.
My plan of action exactly. Get the jetbot working, then just transfer the whole kit and kaboodle over to the tool bot, where the body is already built and waiting for a brain
Now, for @pugwash . What in the name of all that's binary, were you googling for when you ran upon this... interesting creation ?
Because I'm trying to imagine what rabbit hole you went down, and am starting to imagine things I'd rather not imagine
Although, unless I could figure out how to read your mind, I can only imagine that I couldn't imagine whatever it was you were imagining
(Ya'd think I'd be able to fit that word in there just ONE more time)
2020-01-09 3:41 am
I thought you didn't wanna build toys
You must have me confused with someone else. I LOVE building toys. ?
I'm a little boy roboticist
who writes poetic noise
I have a never-ending passion
to build robotic toys
My hero's Doctor Spyder
whom I hope to emulate
to build a working robot
that can circumnavigate
It can follow me from here
to wherever I might go
and find its way back home again
even in the snow
And if I'm low on Charmin
and my toilet paper's gone
my robot can deliver me
a roll from Amazon.
?
DroneBot Workshop Robotics Engineer
James
2020-01-09 4:17 am
Yes I have little robot base but I can't sit my laptop on it which I use to run my visual processing routines 🙂
Here I used it to test RPi motor code in another thread. It is perched on two white drinking mugs so I can spin the wheels. Unfortunately Jaycar (Australia) sells the RPi but not a suitable battery to go with it.
At some time in the future I might come back to talking about what practical things a home built robot might be able to do.
2020-01-09 4:31 am
Yes I have little robot base but I can't sit my laptop on it which I use to run my visual processing routines
You already have a Raspberry Pi on it. Just connect your laptop to the Raspberry Pi via a WiFi dongle and you can have full control over the robot from your laptop.
I control my little robots from my laptop. I'm currently using an ESP8266-01 module to exchange information between the robot and the laptop. There's no need to have the laptop physically mounted on the robot.
I have full two-way communication. So as far as my laptop computer is concerned it is onboard the robot. It doesn't need to be there physically.
DroneBot Workshop Robotics Engineer
James
Topic starter
2020-01-09 9:56 am
Now, for @pugwash . What in the name of all that's binary, were you googling for when you ran upon this... interesting creation ?
Because I'm trying to imagine what rabbit hole you went down, and am starting to imagine things I'd rather not imagine
Although, unless I could figure out how to read your mind, I can only imagine that I couldn't imagine whatever it was you were imagining
You probably wouldn't want to follow me down the rabbit holes that I frequent!
But not this time, this little gem was mentioned in a Tech newsletter that I subscribe to. And the piece got really interesting (eccentric) when they started talking about voice activation perhaps with Alexa or a smartphone.
Now for the rabbit hole!
I was trying to figure out the odds of sitting on the throne, with the excretion process almost completed and realising that I hadn't checked whether the toilet paper holder was loaded, and is my iPhone within reach. Or can I remember the IP address of the robot and when I finally make contact have I remembered to place a spare roll on the bot.
All these variables to consider, but at the end of the day, it will ultimately mean a stiff legged walk to the other end of the bathroom. I think I might just buy a bidet, at least I could drown the little beast in it. ?
2020-01-09 10:11 am
the piece got really interesting (eccentric) when they started talking about voice activation perhaps with Alexa
I've used Alexa to activate my 3D printer, and it works. Unfortunately, they killed off the version of node.js that I used, and I haven't gotten round to writing a new one
I've been looking at SNIPS for voice activation, and leaning very heavily toward it due to the fact that it activates your hardware without first going to the internet. It can run your bot completely "on the edge" with no internet needed
2020-01-10 8:24 pm
But it does the raise the question for those here contemplating building a robot, be it DB1 or their own version, as to what they expect it to do. It is a costly and complex project so surely it wants to do more than just roam the house flashing its lights?
My approach is as follows:
1. Don't even think about trying to build a robot that actually does something useful until you can first build a robots that just roams the house with flashing lights.
Well I guess our views part there. It is what I imagine my robot could do that motivates me that is why my current interest is in getting it to navigate the house. As for toy robots I simply don't have the time or money for them I want a real robot up and running to experiment with. It has been 7 months now and all I have to show for it is a robot base that can bounce off walls and do some crude dead reckoning navigation.
How cool would it have been if I had been able to build one to serve hors d'oeuvres at the xmas party!
Or deliver the guest some toilet paper should it have run out 🙂
2020-01-10 8:54 pm
As for toy robots I simply don't have the time or money for them I want a real robot up and running to experiment with.
We all have our own approach to design and engineering. And this is good. We can share the different ways that we do things and give each other new ideas that we may not have thought of on our own.
As far as the time and money spent on "toy robots", I personally have no problem with this because neither commodity is lost. All the time I spend developing code for these prototyping robots will carry over to any robots I may build that have greater functionality. The same is true of the bulk of the hardware involved.
The toy robot base costs me just under $6 a piece. All the microcontrollers, sensors and other electronics are indeed far more costly. However, all of those components can easily be transferred over to any more functional robots I may build in the future. So once again, nothing lost.
So when you say that you don't have time or money to build "toys" (i.e. prototyping models) that simply doesn't apply to my situation. It's not like I'm going to toss these toy robots in the trash can when I'm done with them and start all over again from scratch when moving up to a more highly functional robot.
I have a vision for my final robot. I call her Alysha. I can't afford to just dive in and build her from scratch. So I start the project with these small robot "toys". In fact, I even see this first robot toy as being Alysha in the form of a baby. This hardware and programming will carry over to become the basis for Alysha.
So considering the method of development I'm using. Nothing is lost.
Caveat: Would I prefer to just build the finished version of Alysha directly?
Sure I would. But I don't have the money or resources to do that right away. So my plan is to dive right into it using cheap toy robots so I can at least get a lot of prototyping done until I can afford to build Alysha's final body.
My theory is that starting with toy robots is better than not starting at all. If I'm going to wait until I can build Alysha's final body, I might not have anything to program for quite a long time. And then when I finally do get started I'll have zero experience with programming robots. This way at least I'm gaining experience in the interim. When I finally get around to building Alysha's final body I'll have a lot of robotics programming experience under my belt. That's the value of the "toy" robots.
DroneBot Workshop Robotics Engineer
James
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