31–40 of 50 posts
The hardware required to prototype the Bilibot is a lot more expensive than to prototype one of these Romos, so I don't get what they need 6 times the funding of the Bilibot project for. $78 per Romo seems fine, but the overall goal seems a bit high.
This type of thing could actually spark a robotics revolution. One of the large barrier to entry to robotics is that it is generally built on costly specialty hardware running costly specialty software. Some people have used laptops as 'brains' for robots but they are bulky and often still quite costly. Because of their size, long battery life, gps support, camera, touchscreen, microphone, accelerometer and potential…
I disagree on "sparking a robotics revolution". It is akin to suggesting that Songsmith sparked a music revolution. Just because something is easier to do does not make it revolutionary, nor does it necessarily advance the field. The barriers to entry that you speak of do not exist, unless you consider an Arduino, a motor shield, some sensors, cables and a breadboard costly speciality hardware. Take a look at www.spa…
Just as I'm sure there are many people doing serious work in robotics now that got their start with Mindstorms, if this comes to fruition and is marketed successfully, I'm sure there will be many people who get their start with a simpler-to-understand smartphone robot now and later move on to bigger and better things.
Think of it as a gateway robot. :-)
seriously, I don't get it. There are tons of off-the-shelf electronic kits that already do this (ARM, PIC, AVAR, etc)... And most of this is just simple logic. Follow a light beam, follow color, bla, bla, bla... Anything really useful, to me, appears one would need a bit more than a smart phone. Honda's robot comes to mind and that quadraped that supposedly is suppose to help military carry heavy things through tough…
The Romo is something a primary school kid could assemble. I'm actually doing various projects (robotics-related and non-related) with AVR and Arduino, and they are definitely not primary-school-friendly.
not buying it.
I've seen this in person and it's v cool - just ordered mine!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree on "sparking a robotics revolution". It is akin to suggesting that Songsmith sparked a music revolution. Just because something is easier to do does not make it revolutionary, nor does it necessarily advance the field. The barriers to entry that you speak of do not exist, unless you consider an Arduino, a motor shield, some sensors, cables and a breadboard costly speciality hardware. Take a look at www.spa…
Revolution may be overstating the case, but taking a technology that is accessible to enthusiasts with the technical ability to program an Arduino and construct a robot out of components and making it accessible to users with the technical ability to plug in a smartphone and use a GUI opens up the technology to a whole new audience. Expanding the number of people interested in robotics is a good thing. Just as I'm su…
It may be just the matter of personal preference, but to me this project is closer to the RoboSapien than it is to, say, making things with LEGOs or Arduino. It does not aim to teach anything about the mechanical aspect of robot building, connecting wires, soldering. Simplifying robotics for the sake of attracting everyone to it may be diminishing returns because at the point where a huge crowd is attracted not much of actual 'robotics' is left.
For those really interested in building robots, picking up a micro board and some parts online would be much more educational. Also, ability to program micros, connect wires and put parts together is something that robotics enthusiast should strive to learn, it's a big part of the hobby!
This being said, I still wish them best and hope they will succeed with their project. After all it is a cool ting to build! :)
Didn't we see something like this at Google I/O? I wonder if that's where they got the idea.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Revolution may be overstating the case, but taking a technology that is accessible to enthusiasts with the technical ability to program an Arduino and construct a robot out of components and making it accessible to users with the technical ability to plug in a smartphone and use a GUI opens up the technology to a whole new audience. Expanding the number of people interested in robotics is a good thing. Just as I'm su…
I understand the sentiment for a getaway robot, however, I believe there are better alternatives for introducing people to robotics such as Mindstorms that you mentioned or Arduino. To clarify, by "better" I mean such that actually get you building and making things, rather than what to me at least boils down to playing with a toy. It may be just the matter of personal preference, but to me this project is closer to…
Even if it were modular -- so that you learned nothing about connecting wires, soldering, etc. -- having the experience of getting to choose how you build your robot and what sensors and drive train and such that you use would make a huge part of the experience. It's definitely fundamental to what makes Mindstorms so valuable.
This type of thing could actually spark a robotics revolution. One of the large barrier to entry to robotics is that it is generally built on costly specialty hardware running costly specialty software. Some people have used laptops as 'brains' for robots but they are bulky and often still quite costly. Because of their size, long battery life, gps support, camera, touchscreen, microphone, accelerometer and potential…
I disagree on "sparking a robotics revolution". It is akin to suggesting that Songsmith sparked a music revolution. Just because something is easier to do does not make it revolutionary, nor does it necessarily advance the field. The barriers to entry that you speak of do not exist, unless you consider an Arduino, a motor shield, some sensors, cables and a breadboard costly speciality hardware. Take a look at www.spa…
I agree that maybe this 'Romo' project is too simple to do much. I am not a fan of these 'graphical programming' platforms but it's just a start. I think using mobile phones for robotics has much more potential to advance the state of the art than Arduino except maybe as part of that Android-Arduino combination Google did.