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Robot Only Internet — Parallax Forums

Robot Only Internet

ZootZoot Posts: 2,227
edited 2011-02-13 15:51 in Robotics
My partner came across this today and I thought it worth sharing. This the concept for a robot only internet, sort of an AI wikipedia to let robotics platforms share info and learning -- with each other.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12400647

Comments

  • doggiedocdoggiedoc Posts: 2,240
    edited 2011-02-10 19:15
    And then ...
    On August 29 it gained self-awareness and the panicking operators, realizing the extent of its abilities, attempted to shut it down. Skynet perceived the attempt to deactivate it as an attack and came to the conclusion that all of humanity would attempt to destroy it. To defend itself, it determined that humanity should be exterminated.
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2011-02-10 20:15
    we are doomed! :blank:
  • P!-RoP!-Ro Posts: 1,189
    edited 2011-02-10 20:16
    When in doubt, pull the plug. Electronics greatest weakness.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-02-11 22:37
    Someone is watching Terminator in his spare time. :)

    The database concept online for robots is something our robots need. It has been proposed many times in the past, but likely requires some effort to store world knowledge there and develop ways to access it properly.
  • lanternfishlanternfish Posts: 366
    edited 2011-02-12 00:22
    The human equivalent would be Wikipedia, said Dr Waibel.

    ... and Wikipedia is a totally reliable souce of info? Imagine bots squabbling over whether an entry in RoboEarth is correct or not.
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2011-02-12 10:02
    Imagine bots squabbling over whether an entry in RoboEarth is correct or not.
    They will settle it in a dignified, civil, robot fashion...

    !! IN THE RING !!

    Two bots enter, one bot leaves...
  • ZootZoot Posts: 2,227
    edited 2011-02-12 10:28
    Ho ho ho -- this is all pretty funny. And there I was, thinking about real RoboEarth applications and hadn't even thought about my, um, Boe-bot attacking me. Silly me.

    In any case, what I found compelling about it was the notion of a compendium of useful info for various kinds of robotic platforms. For example, most of my 'bots use an IR communication protocol for: sending simple messages to each other; for being "aware" that there is another moving platform nearby; ceasing movement when larger, more dangerous platforms are moving; preventing interference when IR is also used as obstacle detection. So it would be kind of cool if the 'bots could upload that IR protocol, and what the possible message combinations are, etc. "RoboEarth" -- great name, btw -- would have a huge archive of IR type protocols. All the remote controls codes that have been uploaded, "custom" IR protocols like mine, etc. Perhaps each could be optionally tagged with rough GIS information. Then any other RoboEarth-ready 'bot that was on my property could look up the location and see if there are any protocols that "should" be used in this place. Think of it like looking up a dialect by geograpical regions. Perhaps the 'bot would also get lucky and find that other platforms had already mapped this "place". They could orient themselves quickly. Perhaps I chose to be semi-public as a person -- the 'bots on property would know that I am to be addressed as "Sir" and not "Madam". Etc.

    I also thought the concept expressed in the article that various machine-vision templates could be uploaded and subsequently examined by 'bot platforms to be compelling, though not being a real machine vision expert, I can't speak to how various uploaded platonic visual forms would be handled in an agent search to help recogonize real-world objects previously unseen by the platform.

    Or here's another useful application for RoboWorld -- character pixel sets. I've got 'bots with some custom LED scrolling display fonts, custom LCD characters, etc. If the 'bots could upload their "fonts", then other 'bots could download ready-to-go display sets that fit their own hardware. Imagine if someone takes the time to generate bitmaps for LCD displays for the entire Cyrillic alphabet with data ready to go for a particular micro family. Any other platform with the same micro family and similar LCD setup would have the alphabet ready for use. If you have thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of platforms contributing character sets, there would be a vast library for platforms to choose from. Add in a net-side translator, and it might be very easy to code a RoboEarth connected 'bot to display the same info in various languages without it all actually having to be coded by the builder.
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2011-02-12 20:37
    This bot sounds very generic, it's like everyone would have to be using the exact same version..
    That would be fine for just one type of Bot, say a butler or chamber maid type's.
    but My brand new clam harvester 9000, is not going to care what you smell like, or if your floor is dirty.

    So this RoboEarth will work, but.. it will require many different languages translated into one Bot language.

    The Bot would decide what IT needed for instructions to do the work it probably should have been preprogramed with anyway.

    I just don't beleive We can have a "Universal" Bot language... it is akin to everybody driving only the VolksWagon.
    But then again, I don't get out to much....:smile:
  • ZootZoot Posts: 2,227
    edited 2011-02-13 10:02
    I don't see how there is one 'bot "language" or one "generic" 'bot here involved at all. Really, something like what they are discussing in the article is just a database. And given that there would be "user" contributions, it is likely -- and desired, I would think -- that datasets would end up being submitted and corrected in many formats. So I could program my 'bot however I want, with the *bonus* of being able to do lookups at RoboEarth and see if there is data there that would be useful -- and *already* coded in the format I want (as if I had written it myself). If there weren't the data I wanted, or it wasn't in the format I wanted, I could write it and then submit it, thereby adding to the database.

    Again, following a simple example like I outlined above -- say I have a 'bot with a 4x20 LCD screen and I want a 5x7 pixel boldface san-serif font -- with full Spanish ASCII characters (
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2011-02-13 15:51
    I can appreciate Your frustration at not having a more serious response on Your inititial posting.

    However, I was paying attention...

    I wrote this...
    So this RoboEarth will work, but.. it will require many different languages translated into one Bot language.

    The Bot would decide what IT needed for instructions to do the work it probably should have been preprogramed with anyway.

    And now You ask.
    I don't see how there is one 'bot "language" or one "generic" 'bot here involved at all.
    Well, This still stands...
    ...it's like everyone would have to be using the exact same version..
    as do this...
    That would be fine for just one type of Bot, say a butler or chamber maid type's.
    an this too
    ...work it probably should have been preprogramed with anyway.

    Don't get Me wrong, I like the idea of plugging a Bot into "the" Database. I can see it being usefull to some...
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