Robots and Physical Computing

Reblogged from:  http://scott-ltattempts.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/robot-behaviours.html Behaviour based robots was used in the teaching as way of getting the students to think out AI a little deeper and in particular  Do we need Human Level intelligence ? or rather  Do we  always  need to aim for Human Level Intelligence? Lego Mindstorms robot are a good vehicle for students to start trying out idea around behaviour-based robotics. They are inexpensive, programmable and with the  LeJOS  software installed on them; have behaviours built into the programming which is done in Java. A good example to use comes from Bagnall's book (B Bagnall (2002) Core Lego Mindstorms:  Programming the RCX in Java , ISBN:  978-0130093646) code 1: HitWall //Taken from Bagnall (2002) import josx.robotics.*; import josx.platform.rcx.*; public class HitWall implements Behavior { public boolean takeControl() { return Sensor.S2.readBooleanVal...

Ok, I need to read the manual! Managed today to play with Aldebaran NAO again and was struggling to get it to interact - this is the should have read the manual bit, it was all in there. Mistake number 1 - I hadn't set a channel for all the apps so it was reacting to sounds and movement but not much more. So I set it. Mistake number 2 - not understanding the meaning of the changes in the colour of the eyes, when the eyes go blue NAO is listening. Now  it does what I was after - to be lead by the hand using the follow me app and react to some vocal commands. The video below shows "Red" in action. I would be interest in others experiences with these robots, if you would like please add your comments below. All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with.

Robotics within the teaching of Problem-Solving Volume/Issue:   Vol 7, Issue 1 Date: Sunday, 1 June, 2008 Journal Name:  ITALICS Author(s) Scott Turner Gary Hill Abstract This paper considers the experiences of teaching on a module where problem-solving is taught first, then programming. The main tools for the problem-solving part, alongside two problem-solving approaches, are tasks using Mindstorm (LEGO, Denmark) robot kits. This is being done as a foundation step before the syntax of a language (Java) is taught to enable a Graphical User Interface (GUI) emulation of a previous robot problem. Results of student evaluation and feedback will be presented and the use of two simulators will be considered. Full paper available at:  https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/robotics-within-teaching-problem-solving  or PDF version https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/ital.7.1h.pdf All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any w...

I have just finished  building an OhBot ( http://ohbot.weebly.com/ ); a robot face (see picture to the left - I fixed the cross-eyes later). This cool little kit actually comes with some very nice software, that includes face tracking and a Scratch-like blocks programming language. One bit of advice is put as aside several hours to do this, my experience is takes quite a while to build (that might just be me though). It is worth it, when you see the head, eyes, etc moving it is very engaging.  The site has links to all the software needed and some very useful sample programs. This is nice engaging robot that comes with a user-friendly programming language.  The finished robot reminds me a bit of Cynthia Braziel's Kismet robot ( http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group/kismet/kismet.html ) from MIT in the 1990s. So this might also be a good introduction to the area of social robotics  and, as at the time of writing this, only £99, a relative ine...

This time not my experimentation but by a colleague and student I was supervising. Some interesting work has been developed by Narinder Singh (MSc Computing student and Technician) in the Department of Computing and Immersive Technology, University of Northampton. The work revolves around investigating the use of relatively simple robots, kilobots, to investigate swarm robotics. The kilobots ( http://www.k-team.com/mobile-robotics-products/kilobot ) are relatively low-cost devices specifically designed for work of swarm/collective intelligence experiments. Example: Dancing Kilobots   For more examples go to:  Kilobot videos s Supervisor Scott Turner opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with.