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magicman226 Loyal user San Antonio, Texas 234 Posts |
I was wondering if anyone here happened to know any good sources on beginning in the field of robotics. I have been doing computer programming, I love it, and I want to hopefully take on a career in it later on after the few years left in high school and college.
Also, I am quite short on money. That's probably a major loss for this endeavor. Thanks, Michael |
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MAKMagic Special user I got banned for one of my 555 Posts |
Michael, Doug Higley is an evil robot from hell - but for right #number of twinkies he'll help you get into the field.
.:Michael Kelley
On the Level, By the Square |
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airship Inner circle In my day, I have driven 1594 Posts |
Actually, Michael, there is quite an active group of people who build robots from junk, or who modify inexpensive toys to make robots. Check out these sites for starters:
http://www.makezine.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BEAM_robotics http://www.botmag.com/
'The central secret of conjuring is a manipulation of interest.' - Henry Hay
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MAKMagic Special user I got banned for one of my 555 Posts |
Airship...are you trying to say that Doug Higley is made of Junk?!?! Not what I would be telling an evil robot from hell. But different strokes....
.:Michael Kelley
On the Level, By the Square |
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Doug Higley 1942 - 2022 7152 Posts |
I am a Robot. But not evil nor do I squeak. Never been to Hell...nor Iowa...actually I've never been anywhere...I'm a permanent installation and real Robots Don't like pictures of people with broken necks.
magicman226...be sure to also look into Audio-Animatronics sources and sites. (As opposed to tomatoe sources) Be wary of MAK and cheese which can gum up your works..
Higley's Giant Flea Pocket Zibit
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
Robots? You mean like the workers in the Capek play R.U.R. where we get the word?
Industrial robots are a huge item (think car assembly) Robots of the "duplicate human functions" sort is a tough one as that gets into sensory and cognitive research. Anyway it's been a busy field since the late 1950s so "google" can get you lots of data. Have fun
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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airship Inner circle In my day, I have driven 1594 Posts |
Higs, if you DID come to Iowa you'd probably rust. Lots of snow here this last month, and it's melting fast.
'The central secret of conjuring is a manipulation of interest.' - Henry Hay
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acmp Elite user Nottinghamshire 466 Posts |
An interesting and related news article from the BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6425927.stm Anyway, you can make some pretty cool micro robots with watch batteries and tiny motors such as mobile phone vibration motors for very little money, have a google around. Starting with the basics will help as you progress to the more complicated machines.
acmp<><
"Well if I had one wish in this god forsaken world, kids It'd be that your mistakes would be your own" |
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ed rhodes Inner circle Rhode Island 2885 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-03-07 13:59, Jonathan Townsend wrote: There was a point made once in the SF community that the "robots" of RUR were actually androids (artifical life forms as opposed to sentient mechanical creations) whereas the "droids" of "Star Wars" were actually robots!
"...and if you're too afraid of goin' astray, you won't go anywhere." - Granny Weatherwax
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-03-08 06:31, mandrake01 wrote:...There was a point made once in the SF community that the "robots" of RUR were actually androids (artificial life forms as opposed to sentient mechanical creations) That's funny as the word comes from the play and does NOT describe mechanical creatures at all. Check the text. As best I recall the words were something like "way in which the components of life are brought together" and my guess is that the intent was to parody the way nobility intermarried versus the rest of the population was free to intermarry among themselves (perspective of the nobility for the sake of comedy ) Perhaps the term "mechs" might be more appropriate for the mechanical/assembled creatures some are calling robots? Are these the same critters who opine that the Tolkien stories take place in the past?
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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ed rhodes Inner circle Rhode Island 2885 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-03-08 08:07, Jonathan Townsend wrote: Not certain. It's hard to tell with SF fen (that is not a typo). I remember reading the play and realizing they weren't mechs (I like that term) but by then, the term "robot" had come to mean "mechanical worker." Lucas has no one to blame but himself for misappropriating the term "droids."
"...and if you're too afraid of goin' astray, you won't go anywhere." - Granny Weatherwax
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
Thanks re "mech". I look for linguistic bridges and precedents in literature when seeking labels.
Robots means "mechanical as in CONSTRUCTED OF METAL?? ) Sorry, no speakie newspeak. Mechanical has its older meaning of "by rote" so there we can almost agree but ... going all the way to say non-human is a stretch. No comment about Lucas beyond that his "droids" were the only sympathetic characters in his saga and (one might suspect) its motivating force. One could easily project an AI independence movement creating the Sith and managing the entire affair. Quite a commentary that a republic would collapse and an empire crumble as backdrop to a couple of mechs deciding to demand autonomy. I also think they make a nice couple and expect our next generation to see the story as a romance. Anyway, ROBOT means WORKER (think "serf/slave") Remember, metal does not have feelings. How nice to believe that one's workers/peasants... are unfeeling and somehow fundamentally inferior. But to miss the very point of that play and pervert the word to mean "workers which are created by man and hence inferior by design" is to succumb to the very ill which R. U. R. cured (in the story). I feel that is sad. When "what if" becomes dogma...
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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ed rhodes Inner circle Rhode Island 2885 Posts |
Read the original "I, Robot" by Eando Binder (find the Outer Limits episode if you can) then read Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot." (Stay away from the Will Smith film, they took a completely different story and attached the names of characters from Asimov's book.
"...and if you're too afraid of goin' astray, you won't go anywhere." - Granny Weatherwax
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MagiClyde Special user Columbus, Ohio 871 Posts |
Wasn't the term robot first used in the 1920's film "Metropolis"?
I still think the three laws of robotics would be essential to the creation of an intelligent, self-aware machine. Robbie from Forbidden Planet seemed to have been programmed with these laws. My understanding of the term android was that it was supposed to be capable of totally independent thought and action, being able to determine for itself a correct course of action, even if it meant disobeying orders. In that sense, Data would be considered an android, not a robot. Would that not also mean that androids, by their nature, are closer to being truly sentient beings?
Magic! The quicker picker-upper!
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ed rhodes Inner circle Rhode Island 2885 Posts |
R.U.R. was first produced in 1920. Metropolis premered in 1927.
Isaac claimed he was stunned that no one had actually put the laws together before he and his editor worked them out. they do have some flaws. In the film "I, Robot," (let me see if I can do this without a spoiler) the robot's actions in the flashback would probably cause it to lock up since it would unable to fully implement the First Law. This was ignored by the writers who were actually taking another story and grafting Asimov's character names onto it. The general consensus as to "robot" vs "android" is that an android is an artifically created organic being. Data is actually a highly sophisticated robot, capable of self awareness. But he's still a thing of wires and circuits.
"...and if you're too afraid of goin' astray, you won't go anywhere." - Granny Weatherwax
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Doug Higley 1942 - 2022 7152 Posts |
WE forget that the Star Wars evironment was "A long long Time Ago and in a Galaxy Far Far Away..."
The term Android is not used and the word 'Droid' is not a derivitive of Android but Jawa slang for 'Stupid'.
Higley's Giant Flea Pocket Zibit
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ed rhodes Inner circle Rhode Island 2885 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-03-10 11:19, Doug Higley wrote: Hmmm, you're a professional voice actor, you make SF props <and> you live 62 miles from Disneyland. Understand I mean it in the best possbile way as I say; "I hate you." We won't even go into the fact that <you> get to look like Geppetto whereas <I> keep getting mistaken for "Weird" Al Yankovich!
"...and if you're too afraid of goin' astray, you won't go anywhere." - Granny Weatherwax
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Doug Higley 1942 - 2022 7152 Posts |
With a Playboy logo cemented to your shoulder.
:)
Higley's Giant Flea Pocket Zibit
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MagiClyde Special user Columbus, Ohio 871 Posts |
Mandrake01, here is another definition of android:
Quote:
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) As you can see, there are at least two definitions of the term android, just as there are two different definitions for "computer". Both terms can refer to organic devices or machine devices.
Magic! The quicker picker-upper!
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ed rhodes Inner circle Rhode Island 2885 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-03-10 20:53, clynim wrote: I'm just going by the definition that's been floating around the SF world for the past 70 years or so.
"...and if you're too afraid of goin' astray, you won't go anywhere." - Granny Weatherwax
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