The Pioneer 3 DX is a robot base platform by MobileRobots Inc. (ActivMedia Robotics). This wheeled robot has been updated in its P3-DX8 version to carry loads more robustly and improve autonomy.
Although the P3-DX offers an embedded computer option it can be equipped with an onboard regular laptop computer thanks to the 23 Kg. allowed load. Obviously, embedded computer is a more robust and elegant solution, however it is more expensive as well. The main drawback of using an onboard laptop computer is the loss of the load surface where other sensor or actuator options could be installed (see image below).
As other MobileRobots robots, the P3DX8 is based on a core client-server model which provides a set of libraries and utilities for intelligent applications (the robots act as the servers). I will not get deeper in detail about this client-server architecture as my focus is using the Microsoft Robotics Studio to control these robots. We will visit this question again when we talk about software development for this robotic platform.
Salient hardware features of this unit are: ethernet based communications (optional), laser (optional), up to 252 watt-hour of hot-swappable batteries (which by the way add a great part ot the total unit weight), ring of 8 forward SONAR, ring of 8 rear sonar (optional), two independent motors, two 19 cms. wheels and one caster wheel. Maximum speed is 1.6 m/s. Other interesting options are bumpers, grippers, vision, stereo rangefinders, compass, etc.
P3-DX equipped with a complete surveillance system
New Pioneer 3 Robots have a 32-bit Renesas SH2-7144 RISC microprocessor, including the P3-SH microcontroller with ARCOS. ARCOS is the Advanced Robot Control and Operations Software client-server interface. If you want to develop your own control software application you need to talk to ARCOS interface. I am not particularly interested in using a specific interface/platform like ARCOS but better use a common development platform like MSRS. Of course, ARCOS will be always called by MSRS services, so at the end, robot control is calling the same undelying native API.
Another higher level software component that comes with every MobileRobots platform is the Advanced Robotics Interface for Applications (ARIA) software. ARIA is a C++ based development environment that also provides TCP/IP communications with the robotic platform. Typical applications available through ARIA are: mapping, teleoperation, monitoring, etc. As I said before, I won't discuss further on ARCOS and ARIA as my focus is on MSRS.
The following video shows a P3-DX wandering around autonomously avoiding collisions:
I-Cybie Review: I-Cybie robotic pet is manufactured by Silverlit Electronics and commercialized worldwide by several toy vendors. It comes in three colors: blue, gold and transparent cover. This pet robot is quite close to a Sony Aibo in terms of form factor, usage and features. The robotic dog is made of 1400 parts and 90 feet of wire. It has an onboard computer and responds to its environment with canine-like moods. For example, he becomes sad if you ignore him... This robot is endowed with voice recognition, behavior development, sound sensors, obstacle detection, dynamic drive, orientation sensors, touch pet sensors, and communication with I-Cybie is possible also using an IR remote, clap commands, and voice commands.
I-Cybie is able to wander arround without trouble. He can detect obstacle and avoid them with no problem. Even is you make he fall down, he can recover gracely. His sensors detect his position, so he knows when and how to move to stand up again.
The robot has four main emotional states: happy, hyper, sad, and sleepy. Depending on the mood the dog shows a different behavior and decides to obey or not... The emotional state of the dog is caused by your interaction with the pet and the environment. For example, a quite and dark room can make I-Cybie to feel sad.
I-Cybies can also do some tricks for your entertainment and amusement. For example, he can give paw, dance, or scracth ear. It also can be trained to recognise you voice, so you can tell him to do a trick if you want.
Walk Up Charger
A walk-up charger is also available. If you have it, I-Cybie is able to autonomously look for the wall charger when he feels tired (battery low) and re-charge by himself.
Programming the robot is also possible. However, a hardware hack is required in order to be able to program I-Cybie using C language. A so-called Super I-Cybie upgrade is needed. An SDK for development is also available. See the following links for details on programming and SDK:
"Machine intelligence is one of the most vital subjects for the future, perhaps the most important of all. No one is better at explaining it than Igor Aleksander, one of the leaders in the field". Sir Clive Sinclair"Here is the philosophy of a creative engineer. Igor Aleksander is a pioneer looking for keys to consciousness in intelligent machines he designs and builds. He shares his discoveries and hopes for future developments in this interesting, highly readable book". -- Richard L Gregory Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology University of BristolImpossible Minds: My Neurons, My Consciousness has been written to satisfy the curiosity each and every one of us has about our own consciousness. It takes the view that the neurons in our heads are the source of consciousness and attempts to explain how this happens. Although it talks of neural networks, it explains what they are and what they do, in such a way that anyone may understand.This book is also a story. A story of a land where people think that they are automata without much in the way of consciousness, a story of cormorants and cliffs by the sea, a story of what it might be like to be a conscious machine...
Can a machine really have feelings? Well, even a humble thermostat knows when it gets too hot -- and can do something about it. But can a machine think? Does it have a personality? How would you know? In this collection of essays we hear from an international array of computer and brain scientists who are actively working from both the machine and human ends of things to bridge the gap between the mind and the machine.
Amazon.com Consciousness is notoriously difficult to explain. On one hand, there are facts about conscious experience--the way clarinets sound, the way lemonade tastes--that we know subjectively, from the inside. On the other hand, such facts are not readily accommodated in the objective world described by science. How, after all, could the reediness of clarinets or the tartness of lemonade be predicted in advance? Central to Daniel C. Dennett's attempt to resolve this dilemma is the "heterophenomenological" method, which treats reports of introspection nontraditionally--not as evidence to be used in explaining consciousness, but as data to be explained. Using this method, Dennett argues against the myth of the Cartesian theater--the idea that consciousness can be precisely located in space or in time. To replace the Cartesian theater, he introduces his own multiple drafts model of consciousness, in which the mind is a bubbling congeries of unsupervised parallel processing. Finally, Dennett tackles the conventional philosophical questions about consciousness, taking issue not only with the traditional answers but also with the traditional methodology by which they were reached.
Dennett's writing, while always serious, is never solemn; who would have thought that combining philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience could be such fun? Not every reader will be convinced that Dennett has succeeded in explaining consciousness; many will feel that his account fails to capture essential features of conscious experience. But none will want to deny that the attempt was well worth making. --Glenn Branch
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