house 'bot questions

[Anonymous]

Hi guys and gals. So if you were to biuld a robot for your house, what are some things that you'd like it to do? My first guess is security. While I'm asleep or away, I'd like it to 'patrol', possibly move towards sounds of intruders or even a knock on the door, maybe record the time of the event and what was happening so that I could see what was going on when I got home? Going further, perhaps take a digital image of and intruder into the home and/or call police? Or call my cell phone with details and a picture? That sounds kind of cool. I'd imagine the robot greeting me at the door, I'd say or do something to let it know that I was me, but is voice recognition technology advanced enough to do this just with a word? The house bot could then maybe give me a rundown of phone messages, and a rundown on visitors of the day, if any. The usual tasks of course are to remind one of what day it is and not to forget to bring in my uniforms for cleaning on Tuesday, and a whole host of entered things to remind me of when the time comes. What else could a house bot do? My own thoughts are to repeatedly throw a tennis ball for the poodle to fetch. What platform, if any, might be adequate on which to design and build this robot? Iw would never want to have a dead battery, so a self rechargeable robot would be great. What do you think? -Larry 7

[Anonymous]

http://www.mobilerobots.com/ has some cool stuff. I'd also want it to check dog food and water, since that chore seems to be a problem around my house.

[TheDuck]

Checking on the dog and cat food and water! That's a great one!!

I'm also thinking it patrols the house looking for things to pick up and put in a particular place.

How about lawn mower? Not a great big "roomba for the lawn", but more a swarm so that if something goes wrong the others continue.

My cats say they want something small, preferably with a tail that keeps running away when they chase it. :D

[HarryBotter]

There's actually a bunch of robot vacs now on the market, and I was surprised to find out there are multiple mowers as well. Google "Friendly Robotics Robomower" and you'll see these have been on the market globally since the mid '90s. In fact, Friendly says Guinness gave them the record for the most sold!

I understand, though, that the race is on to provide these mass market vacs and mowers with true mapping capability. Many, if not all currently available models use sophisticated statistical calculation to do what they do. One company, Evolution Robotics, has developed a couple of vision/mapping/navigation technologies to take these house bots to the next level. Check out www.evolution.com

[PeterD]

Hi all,

I've spent a few cycles thinking about the idea of a house 'bot and my conclusion is that it would be more cost-effective and reliable to integrate these functions into the a house network than to build an autonomous robot to perform them.

There are aleady commercially-available products, like webcams, motion detectors, and digitial answering machines that perform these functions. All they need is to be integrated with a central control system (PC?).

Imagine, for a moment that you have a biometric door lock connected to a central computer. When the door lock sees your fingerprint (or retina!) it logs the activity, unlocks the door, turns on the interior lights at that enterance, adjusts the temperature, and greets you over the intercom. Cool and "do-able" with current technology.

Doing all this on an autonomous robot would definitely add to the 'cool factor'. However it also increases the complexity, because indoor navigation, battery life, and so on.

[TheDuck]

I have to agree, Peter. I like solutions to a problem rather than creating a problem and trying to find a solution.

The concepts you suggest have been around for a while now. They include such setups as X-10 and the Java programming language that even had a protocol for interactive, self-publishing and -discovering components called JINI. The idea was that if you bought an appliance, for example, that it would have some basic features. If it detected a JINI network it would interact with it. So a coffee maker would interact with your alarm clock and the front lights with the garage door opener. One demo had a fridge asking your cell phone if it could let you know you needed milk the next time it noticed you started your car.

Now, doesn't all of these specialized, semi-intelligent, sort-of-autonomous components sound like robotics? :) Maybe it's because they don't move around too much (no offence, Roomba). One of the issues of Robot brought up the discussion of what a robot is. Whether this "intelligent home" is a robot or swarm or community of robots is up for debate....but you'll have a hard time convincing me it's missing a Coolness Factor! ;)

[wrighthobbies]

My cats say they want something small, preferably with a tail that keeps running away when they chase it. :D

You know, that would be an interesting project. Cats love toys but once they realize the toy doesn't interact with them, they get bored. Think it woul be possible to build a cat-proof toy that would keep a cat entertained by emulating the behavior of a mouse?

Another use for those gear pager motors :)

[TheDuck]

You know, that would be an interesting project. Cats love toys but once they realize the toy doesn't interact with them, they get bored. Think it woul be possible to build a cat-proof toy that would keep a cat entertained by emulating the behavior of a mouse?

Another use for those gear pager motors :)

My cats eagerly await any result from your surplus pager motors. It is amazing what people will spend on their pets. I work in New York City and I'm blown away by some of the stuff for sale. So I think I have a market for them, too!

If you need requirements I'll be happy to provide them. :)

[Kevin Berry]

Duck, I think this is a very marketable idea. However, the thought of my kids having access to a realistic robotic mouse, given the anti-rodent sentiments of my wife, doesn't bear thinking about. I think some sort of product disclaimer is in order :-)

[TheDuck]

Funny you'd say that....I just noticed the R/C spider at discoverystore.com. I think I'll get it for my son to scare the daylights out of my next-door neighbour. Then when he's bored with it I'll hack it to go after anything that moves and the fun will start all over again!

Hang on, that just might double as a handy patrol critter as requested by the original poster on this thread!

[dporter]

BEAM robots do a pretty good job at keeping cats entertained. I've built a few and the cats love them.

[RoycePipkins]

I'd like a house bot to pick up clothing on the floor and put in the laundry basket. I'd like it to get glasses and dishes from around the house and put them near the sink. Finally, I'd really like it to change the kitty litter! :mrgreen: