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[ Home | Blogs | Events | Robots | Humans | Projects | About | Account ]Name: Robert Oschler
Member since: 2004-02-13 03:49:41
Last Login: 2009-07-01 15:23:19
Homepage: http://www.robotsrule.com/
Notes:
I am a hobbyist roboticist and AI enthusiast. I
once
built a 6 jointed robot hand, using the Robix RCS
toolkit, to look for the brightest source of light in
a
room. It held a light receptor in its gripper hand.
It's movements were controlled by genetic
algorithms.
Each chromosome in the population contained 6 genes;
one
gene per motor position angle. The fitness test was
the
strength of the light coming in from the photo
receptor. I never entered it in any competitions, but
I
had a great time building and testing it. A funny
anecdote about the hand. I tested it in a dark room
and
at one point, the two best solutions for the robot
ended
up being a light I turned on in the room, and my
forehead (reflected light)! It eventually settled on
the light.
Some more detail on the robotic hand. I built the hand in the middle 1980's. I used two computer systems to drive it; a Windows 3.1 system and a pure DOS machine. The DOS machine ran the Robix driver programs which communicated with the robot hand joint motors over an RS-232 port. I had to use two machines because the Robix drivers needed real time access to the robot hand motors. This meant you could only run low level programs that used it's robot programming language and not Window 3.1, on the same machine. The genetic algorithm code was much easier to write and test under Windows 3.1. The Windows 3.1 machine communicated to the DOS machine over a custom written RS- 232 comm bridge module.
Besides being an avid fan of this site I am also an ODP editor for Computers/Robotics/Robots, a MusicMoz editor, and an Open Site Project editor for the Science/Astronomy and Computers/Robotics categories. If you like map I've been playing with the Yahoo! maps API and built an online map of texas with local search ability.
I also moderate the Robots.net Robot forum and
maintain a web site for robot
and android enthusiasts at RobotsRule.com. I
can't wait for the
Robosapien V2 to be released so I can adapt my
software
to it's advanced capabilities. I've just started a new
blog for owners of the Robosapien V2 robot titled the Robosapien
V2 Review. I just picked up a RC
Roboraptor, the robot dinosaur, and my own little Robopet
robot dog. I just added the i-Cybie
robotic dog
to my collection so that my Robopet would have a
friend.
I am obviously dying to see the new Robosapien
RS Media, and
Roboreptile
robots shown at the 2006 Consumer Electronics show by WowWee
Toys International. My latest blog reviews robots and my
first entry covers reviews
on Roomba. I just added a new forum section for the
fabulous and adorable
UGoBe Pleo
forum robot dinosaur and have begun to blog about it on
my blog for the Pleo,
which is a different dinosaur robot from the animated 3 foot
tall Kota
The Triceratops.
I’m looking forward to getting a Ugobe
Pleo soon. The buzz floating around the Pleo
dinosaur is tremendous and growing. I have not seen one
up close yet, except for Pleo
videos I have seen, but as soon as I do I'll add my
opinion to the growing list of Pleo
reviews for the Pleo
robot. For now, I am entertaining myself by creating a
portal for the Pleo
Dinosaur that I will grow slowly during the coming year.
The latest news of course is the amazing Flytech Dragonfly. The new flying insect robot that beats its wings. The Consumer Electronics 2007 show gave us the following new robots from WowWee and other companies:
Robopanda, a bear shaped mood changing robot that can hug you. i-SOBOT, the world's smallest mass produced bipedal humanoid robot (I have one now). or the Spykee, a wireless Skype compatible spy robot (formely known as Spyke), and the Roboboa robot snake.
[Update] Fresh from the CES 2007 show. WowWee has announced a brand new spider robot called the Roboquad, a four legged robot with a high accuracy object sensing and motion detection infrared system. WowWee has also announced a pair of movie themed robots, specifically a blue and red webbed Spidersapien robot and another model done up as famed cartoon character Homer Simpson, dubbed the Homersapien. However, the zaniest robot WowWee created may be the three wheeled Tri-Bot robot.
The CES 2008 show has many creative and interesting new robots from WowWee. My favorite is the Rovio telepresence robot that allows you to watch your house remotely. With the WowWee Rovio you can quickly make patrol routes with the included point and click navigation software. My second favorite was the FlyTech Bladestar, a flying blade which is a spinning propeller (blade) that has the unique feature of having infrared sensors that can sense obstacles thereby allowing it to fly on autopilot. If you like dancing robots, then the female Femisapien is sure to catch your eye, the first female robot ever created by WowWee. A great video example of what this agile and talented female robot can do can be seen in my Barbie World parody of Aqua's popular Barbie Song. Fisher Price has upped the bar in its robotic toy line offering with the brand new Elmo Live robot, a singing, dancing, joke telling Elmo bot. But Elmo will have fierce competition now that the Thinkways Ultimate Wall-E robot has been announced. The Ultimate Wall-E robot brings the animated movie character to life and features an innovative touchpad on his remote control for navigation. This high end entertainment robot really spruces up the Wall-E Toys family. The other movie making line of robots that I like are the transformers toys, even though they are more action figure than robot. They really capture the essence and spirit of the transforming super-robots from Michael Bay's move "Transformers". You can't buy these robots yet but you can pre-order Elmo Live if you want to buy Elmo Live. Similarly, you can pre-order Ultimate Wall-E to be one of the first to buy Ultimate Wall-E. Lots of robots means lots of batteries and I have put up a web page titled Batteries Plus with tips on how to save money on rechargeable batteries.
On the Robodance software front, I'm looking forward to adding support for the WowWee Roboremote remote control to Robodance as an inexpensive alternative to the currently supported batch of infrared transceivers. For those of you that get Robodance and want to get the full Nintendo Wii console instead of just the remotes for use with Robodance, read my web page on how to get a good Nintendo Wii price on a console.
CES 2009 is underway as I write this and WowWee's new offerings are on display. First in their new line up is Spyball, the spy robot that can change from a ball to a camera dynamically and is the little brother to the self-driving Rovio spy robot. Femisapien now has a new boyfriend in the shape of Joebot made from the same design style. He too dances well and is the first WowWee robot to respond to voice commands. Tri-bot appears to have morphed in to a Tank Tread sporting explorer named Roborover that also plays driving based games. They also have branched out into a family of DLP micro projectors that can project clear video on any flat surface and includes three models: Cinemin Swivel, Cinemin Stick, and the Cinemin Station. Not shown at the show but hopefully appearing this year will be iRobot's ConnectR telepresence robot; a competitor to WowWee's Rovio.
To see this page in other languages please use Google Translate. Finally, what would life be like without a new blog? My latest blogging passion is a blog I call The Best Selling Toys blog. It will focus strictly on the toys side of the burgeoning gadgets and gizmos market.
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