Hi all -- had my first FRIAM experience the other day, lots of fun,
very interesting. So this is something that came up in conversation on
Friday, it's an autonomous vehicle robot.
http://irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=141There used to be a demo video, but now it's just a few pictures. The
video was very cheesy, some kind of corporate sales presentation, but
at the same time it was also very interesting. The video said the
vehicle used "off-the-shelf" lasers as its primary sensory apparatus,
and showed it avoiding obstacles in its path, including people walking
towards it, as well as following people around, following other
vehicles, and other sort of standard robotic navigation challenges. It
was more a sales-y executive-speak thing than a technical overview,
but it did show the robot in action.
The robot's being developed for the military, but the consumer
applications are much more interesting. Give the military a decade of
getting these things blown up and we might start to see them on the
highways. Could be the perfect solution for the local DUI problem (at
least until the first autonomous robot vehicle virus).
--
Giles Bowkett = Giles Goat Boy
http://www.gilesgoatboy.org/
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