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Ready-Set-Bumbot — Parallax Forums

Ready-Set-Bumbot

ercoerco Posts: 20,256
edited 2009-10-07 13:07 in Robotics
The nursery is finished. The wife is in great health and she has her hospital bag packed. The twins were due yesterday. We're finally ready for our girls, our first. Labor could·start any second now. One chapter of life is ending and another is starting.

As this milestone aproaches, I look for ways to help·my lovely·wife. This is her full-time job from now on. A stay at home mom, over 40, with twins. I can't help but think that a robotic baby transport would be a good thing. If you haven't yet seen all 3 Ready-Set-Bumbo videos, you're in for a real treat. Start at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5dPMtuZsCw·and watch 'em all. If I can make a Bumbo baby seat·move around anything like that, it would be fantastic! You know, a Bum-Bot! I won't need the·Teleport function yet (that might require a Propeller), so I think a scaled-up Boe-Bot platform would almost fill the bill. A simple diff-drive platform that could carry one child and follow a line or beacon from the nursery to the kitchen or·living room. That would free up the wife to carry the other one...

Don't call Child Services just yet. I'm only thinking out loud here. It's not like I've already acquired two F-P·Power Wheels motors, wheels and a controller.·And I'd never try to make it fetch baby bottles or change diapers. That would be crazy.

Hmmm...



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·"If you build it, they will come."

Comments

  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2009-09-28 07:01
    Perhaps one of the better things would be safety equipment. A senior project at my university was a SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) detector. Basically, he had a band that went around the baby's chest and an accelerometer strapped to their body. The idea was to sound an alarm if breathing stopped for a certain period of time (given by changes in chest diameter) or the baby didn't roll over in a certain time period (given by the accelerometer).
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2009-09-28 17:18
    erco,

    I do not have a way to view the video now, but I will get back to you.

    I still think the Methane Gas sensor for a diaper change alarm is a good idea! How about a robotic rocker to gently rock one - while you "manually" feed or change the other.

    Glad you all are ready and well.

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    Whit+


    "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2009-09-29 02:08
    erco,

    Great video. You have to make one of those in a robotic model. It must have the teleport button to be really cool. Steve Norris' Robostool is not far of the mark - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPnwycXY6lk&feature=player_embedded·Add a backrest, a couple of arms and seat belt and you'd be on your way. Of course if you tried to but either baby in it - your wife would probably strap you in and send you packing.

    We went to the Titanic exhibit several months ago. My son bought a Titanic in a bottle. He wanted it out of the bottle - bad! His solution was to make a shrink ray and make it smaller so that it would come out of the bottle and then enlarge it once it was out. I said I didn't know how to do that. His reply, "Can't you write the geniuses at Parallax and find out how?"

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    Whit+


    "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney

    Post Edited (Whit) : 9/29/2009 2:17:15 AM GMT
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2009-09-29 03:27
    For an hour's worth of "shrinkage", you can either check out George Costanza in the pool on Seinfeld, or the CMDF team in the old Raquel Welch movie "Fantastic Voyage"! I guess I'm dating myself by discounting "Honey I Shrunk the Kids"...

    Can my wife legally send me packing? I'm only trying to help her out!!! After all, God's giving us two kids, isn't one just for the DEBUG process? Why don't kids have a "RESET ALL" button?

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • SeariderSearider Posts: 290
    edited 2009-09-29 16:33
    Erco,

    It has been great getting to know you through your post. Good luck with the family. Just think,·the next time·you have enough time to play with props, you will probably get to use the Prop III. Try to drop in and say hello every few months.




    Father of one 11 year old. Just surfacing and back into robot work last year.

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    Searider
  • ManetherenManetheren Posts: 117
    edited 2009-09-29 19:13
    thoroughly test out your robot movers with "Test Babies" and dont knock the "honey I Srunk the Kids" as i remember that growing up also. (Im only 25) You will be busy with the twins though so good luck for a while on inventing anything. Also remember they grow like weeds and You might want to make it upgradable (BIGGER).

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    Tia'Shar Manetheren
  • SandgroperSandgroper Posts: 62
    edited 2009-10-07 13:07
    Hi Erco,

    That's great news about the impending new family.·

    One thing to ponder on:· this is probably the first generation that you could consider to be truly growing up with robots.··Don't worry about being dated by "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" or "Fantastic Voyage"!· What about those of us who remember that "bubble headed booby" in "Lost in Space" or marvelled at Gort in "The Day the Earth Stood Still"???· Not to mention the HAL9000 in 2001!· BTW, was that a sound effect from "The Jetsons" saucer that I heard in the Bumbo video???

    You're right -·kids don't come with a "reset all" button OR a user manual.· And you will have to tweak the programming·24/7 for the rest of your life.· But the goods news is that you can play with them to your heart's content,·they're practically indestructible, and they'll run for hours on little more than a glass of milk!·

    Anyway, all the best, and I hope all goes well.
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