Researcher gives AIBO rat-like abilities
By Donald Melanson 
posted July 5th 2007 12:32PM
posted July 5th 2007 12:32PM
While the AIBO is certainly no slouch as it is, a researcher at the ITAM technical institute in Mexico City seems to think it still has plenty more to learn, particularly from rats. To that end, the institute's Alfredo Weitzenfeld recently gave the AIBO a brain transplant of sorts, ditching its quasi-canine instincts in favor of some "rat-inspired" control software he developed. The result, it seems, was quite effective, with the AIBO able to navigate a maze in a manner "remarkably similar" to real rats, including the ability to recognize places it had already visited and distinguish between locations that look alike. As NewScientist reports, the goal of the research is to increase robots' proficiency in simultaneous localization and mapping (or "SLAM"), which allows them to create maps of their surroundings while working out their location at the same time. In the meantime, it looks like a few poor robots will be suffering from a rather severe identity crisis.
This is something similar to what we were doing in FIRST robotics. It's just using the camera to find the correctly colored square.
Next up: 8 foot tall Robotic Aibo's outfitted with advanced weaponry able to navigate through urban environments
AND KILL ALL HUMANS
What's with all you noobs and the robots destroying the world thing?
I, for one, welcome our newly reprogrammed dog-rat robot overlords.
So I assume this uses no RFID or GPS-like devices? Very interesting, one more advance toward a real "thinking" device. I'd be interested to see a contest where people build the best maze-navigating robot with very similar locations and color patterns throughout the maze.
Actually, there probably have been. Anyone know of any?
Like a chihuahua. An _evil_ chihuahua.
I'm unimpressed. I want to see how they negotiate real world stuff on the floor - power cords, angled table legs, etc. From here it seems very overdue. The gadget ought to be able to take multiple 360 degree stereo shots of the room, combine 'em and with radar, live cam confirmation, etc., sort it out from there. How big would an AIBO need to be to carry the power and processing and memory required to keep track of most of the things in a living room from second to second (and move a bunch) for 3 hours? It's a complex puzzle, the house-breaking of automatons. I thought we were further along.
I'm eager to see your working prototype next week, Dan.
I mean, assuming it's as easy as you seem to think it is.
Read again, 'Nate'. It's a complex problem. We humans have been working on it - the self moderated movement and work of robots in the home - for several decades. As I said - I thought we were further along. Sheesh! We have fairly sharp critters on Mars, what's the dealio? It seems that several different research groups are re-inventing the wheel again and again. Phooey. Oh well.
They've been doing this with real robot in a real lab (no colored squared) at the university of Queensland for the last few years.
Check it out at http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~milford/