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ED-209 Patrols University 109

Posted by michael from the it-gives-me-a-headache-just-trying-to-think-down-to-your-level dept.
Joel writes: "A security robot called Marvin is patrolling the corridors of Waikato University (New Zealand). Science students at the university's mechatronics laboratory built the 1.5m-high Machine, which runs on two 12-volt car batteries and can patrol the university corridors at up to 35 km/h."
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ED-209 Patrols University More

ED-209 Patrols University

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  • Indoor GPS? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Statement 1: Marvin ("Mobile Autonomous Robotic Vehicle for Indoor Navigation") is one of a kind, Statement 2: Marvin will be hooked up by satellite to a global positioning system, GPS, so he can navigate any room or floor

    Statement 1 + 2: They are planning to receive GPS signal inside a building. I will be quite interested about how they implement this. I do not have a GPS device, but I strongly doubt whether the signal can penetrate through....

  • I'd like to see this bot go up against GraffitiWriter [appliedautonomy.com].

  • But, then again, who would be crazy to make a killer bot ?

    Ah, the old "no one could be that crazy/stupid/fanatic" line of thinking. I live a rather sheltered life, and even I know better than that. There's always someone crazy enough.


    ---

  • I believe that's the TURING test, not the turning test

  • Well.. I wouldn't say "working on" as these suckers are quite real, and I think your friends will find it quite operational. It's call THEL, Tactical High Energy Laser. See information here: http://www.smdc.army.mil/FactSheets/THEL.html
  • At the University of Twente there has been a robot called Marvin as long as I can remember. There seem to be a lot of resemblances between the two.
    "Our" Marvin just doesn't have a function whatsoever :)
    The other Marvin [utwente.nl]
  • "We are no longer reinventing the wheel, we are starting to create. But Marvin will soon be learning for himself, so he doesn't need his creator. We just have to decide the level to which you want to get rid of humans"

    Ah! Get rid of humans? Why, this is a threat to Mother Earth! They obviously do not know what they are doing, they are foolishly tampering with the delicate balances of nature! I'm sure if something goes wrong, they won't have to means to make it right. Is this where the eco-terrorists step in?

    Hey, makes about as much sense as torching car dealerships (which is to mean: none)
  • They won't get it work - even with AGPS, which can work indoors. The position estimate wouldn't be accurate enough to rely on indoor navigation. It could be used only to get rough estimation of position and then use other methods to keep from hitting obstacles.
  • Marvin the Paranoid Android on patrol... he'll get the robbers so melancholy and depressed they'll just go turn themselves in.
  • Meat [howstuffworks.com], perhaps?
  • He has this pain in all the diodes down his left side. They've tried replacing them, you know, but it hasn't helped.

    and he's worked out that if he sticks his right arm in his left ear he can electrocute himself. Fatally.

    :)

    But seriously, hasn't the DoD been using robots like this for surveilance in Government buildings? I recall when I was working for the US Army Corps of Engineers that in some buildings there were painted tracks on the floor that were used as "tracks" by both mail delivery robots and robots that were essentially mobile surveillance cameras. It's sounds like Marvin is a bit more autonomous (since he uses GPS rather than a fixed painted track), but it still sounds like essentially the same idea.
  • It's much harder to avoid a roaming camera than a stationary one.

    But I do agree with you, security cameras are still best... for the time being.

  • Why use GPS at all, you know the starting point of the robot on the floor plan, you know how far it has travelled in each direction, why not deduce the position from that rather than using some over expensive, over complicated stuff...

    Gaz
  • Yup....as in "Put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply."

    ----------------------------
  • Your coffee is inadequate, I am now authorized to throw it in your face, then shoot you.


  • But this one is almost thinking like a human and is being configured by human brainwaves as we speak (just read the story). Not many years from now, it'll have to leave the university to discover the world on its own. By it's 20th birthday, it'll have found its mother. From then it's only 5 years with video scenes of training w/hip background music and arming itself with submarine guns, before it can exterminate the whole family in order to be loved by Mother alone. Looking forward to it.

    - Steeltoe
  • ...just the microcode, that is.
    The rest comes as a word macro...

  • Won't get bored - see the source code:

    <snip>
    #define idle mopping_floor
    <snip>

  • Dale Carnegie (the guy walking beside the robot in the picture) used to be my 1st year electronics lecturer... If you're ever in one of his classes, wear a Pink Floyd tshirt to avoid getting asked hard questions. :)

    Now why didnt I major in electronics?
  • This would've been moderately amusing had it lead to some kinda gay Ed 209 - RoboCop fanfic. Instead it was just some crappy story.
  • http://phys.waikato.ac.nz/research/microelectronic s.shtml [waikato.ac.nz]

    the publications link has a list of Master Theses which seem to be part of the project - e.g. "Laser Range Finding for an Autonomouss Mobile Security Device"

  • ...to an article that was obviously intended to be read by people whose VCR clocks flash "12:00" at them.

    I agree. The article over-hypes the whole thing a bit. My favorite excerpts:

    "[the robot] is not far from thinking like a human"

    "But Marvin will soon be learning for himself, so he doesn't need his creator"

    "His voice recognition will be advanced, so that he accepts commands only from his creators."

    "Once Marvin is completely functional his skills can be applied to anything."

    ...yawn

  • Yeah right. They're not even as closely related to each other as man is to the chipanzee.
    When was the last time you flirted with a chimp?

    ---
  • I don't think, when referring to a "laser dazzler," I would use the term "weapon" in the same sentence. A bright flashlight is not a weapon. It's more along the lines of a spike strip for people. But not a weapon.. Anyway, that's just my opinion..
  • Just after that bit,we see Zaphod after the Total Perspective Vortex. I always thought that was a metaphor for LSD!
  • Id like to know what kind of GPS they have that will work indoors ... my handheld unit NEVER works indoors, and sometimes not even in my car :)

    Is you handheld GPS unit 1.5 metres high?

  • I have a Garmin GPS 2 (or 3, not sure) +, which has a BNC attached aerial about 7 centemetres is length. It happily receives an adequete GPS signal indoors if I am close to (like within three metres of) a window. Better results could be obtained with a larger aerial I suppose or by bouncing the signal off the roof.
  • Remind me never to go near a computer there.
  • Step 1: build robot to patrol building at night
    Step 2: give robot the ability to learn and adapt, sensors to detect intruders and communications equipment to contact backup (ie campus rent-a-cops with whistles)
    Step 3: strap a frickin' laser beam to the robot (or other energy-based weapon systems)
    Step 4: run away screaming "why god? why?" when robot goes berzerk and mows down an entire class of "intruders" after straying too close to the water fountain and shorting itself out.

    I'm just kidding, a patrolling robot is cool, it frees up a normal guard from having to walk the same hallways all the time.

    But doesnt it look really unstable? one kick and that thing is helpless on the floor calling for help because it's "fallen and can't get up". I'm all in favor of a smaller, tank-based design.

  • geez you're thick..

    go up on the roof if you want, I dont care. The robot is designed to patrol the HALLWAYS. I imagine the building has an elevator system to get to the upper floors to have a look around.

    and the article said the thing has a laser range finder. I just took it one step forward and said "why not put some type of energy-based weapon system ala Star Trek on it?". The "frickin laser beams" comment was straight out of Austin Powers, duh.

    Laser "dazzlers" are being tested by the military, as are large laser missle defense systems. Yeah they're only prototypes but they're making progress.

    you're probably that guy at the party who likes to analyze the logic behind people's jokes too right?

  • Science students huh? I kinda doubt that... read the hitchhikers guide again on who built that fellow...
  • ED-209 (the real one from Robocop) was cool!!! I remember making a lego model of it, it was almost in a comparable scale to minifigs (well it was actually twice as tall as a minifig), I managed to construct moveable arms on it too.. hehe "ED-209!!".. Ah nostalgia..
  • Hehe. Funny.

    Big Whoop about the robot thing. Michigan State University's engineering building has had a robot touring it's halls since I started going there (1995). Of course it's better now and moves around by itself. I don't think it had the job of security, but it was cool, especially since it runs linux!

    Anywho, I have to leave for work now. The grammar nazi has a busy day ahead of him.

  • The police wouldn't arrive. Instead, Marvin would convince the robber to blow up the supports for the ground beneath his feet. Then the hallway would give way and the robber would plummet into the basement. When the police arrived, the entire building would be missing, but as long as our hero exits via the office window, then all is well.
  • "We are no longer reinventing the wheel, we are starting to create. But Marvin will soon be learning for himself, so he doesn't need his creator. We just have to decide the level to which you want to get rid of humans."

    "Get Rid of Humans" is just the kind of thing that makes me worry. I just wish they would have rephrased this bit...


    Viv
    -----------
  • See all that stuff inside, Homer? That's why your robot didn't work!

    Just watch out for flash photography...

  • Yes! I can see it now...

    ED: "You have two seconds to put down the pot"
    Student: "But, man, like, duh"
    ED: "One."
    Student: "Ok, ok, it's done."
    ED: "Zero. (sound of guns spinning up)"

  • For some reason, when I read your post, my Futurama-vision was on and I had these hilarious images of animated flaming people running from an animated killerbot with those cheesy blue sparks emanating in an animated way from its head...

    I can just see Bender coming upon the supine robot and, after a quick glance, kicking it whilst it's down!!

    GTRacer
    - Needs more Futurama

  • I'm all in favor of a smaller, tank-based design

    Just what I want, a fireplug-high gizmo flying down the hall at 20+ MPH. At least this way it will injure you uniformly all over instead of knocking your feet out from under you and breaking your neck.

    I'm guessing they'll end up with some injuries if they ever set the speed up to eleven....

  • OK, I've found a few non-informative links, which at least indicate that the story is not a hoax: Here [waikato.ac.nz] is a link at the University in question, indicating that work really is being done on a "robocop", and here [waikato.ac.nz] is the home page of Dr. Dale A. Carnegie, the person behind the project, who however (unfortunately) does not seem to have a list of publications so that one could find out a bit more about his robocop...

    Enough kiwi hunting for today. Maybe some other slashdotter can find more info, I'm giving up.

    Ron Obvious

  • Why, that's simply none of your business, is it?

    Go buy some survellience cameras from the Tampa Bay Police if you want to know that sort of thing!

    Ron Obvious

  • Very good work, finding that URL! I was quite close (one click away), but gave up too soon...

    However, none of the publications are downloadable, and all the most recent ones are from "Seventh Electronics New Zealand Conference, Lower Hutt, August, 2000", which I doubt my library has a copy of.

    And please, don't offer to sell me a copy, dear slashdotters, I'm not that interested... anymore...

    Ron Obvious

  • Anyone else find it interesting that the machine's creator is (allegedly) named Dale Carnegie?

    As in, how to win friends and influence people? At 35 km/h?

    Another question: Anyone got a link to the people doing this research to find out if this thing is more than a toy? I mean, we had an automated post-cart at the company I used to work at in the 80's... Is this really much more? I've found the URL for the Univ. where this supposedly was developed: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/ [waikato.ac.nz], but, although they have a search page, I've yet to find any mention of their "mechatronic lab" or this project --- but then, I have only begun to search...

    Ron Obvious

  • Whoever modded this up to "3 informative" shoulda followed the link first, only to see that the link leads not to an informative, on-topic page, but to a rather off-topic bit of fiction/porn...

    Or is that what the moderators find informative these days?

    Anyone got a real link about this 'bot? I'm surfing around it's University in another window but have yet to find this "mechatronic lab"...

    Ron Obvious

  • At first I didn't even see the typo. I thought going straight was some reference to the fact that Turing was gay.
    My mistake.
  • here's a good story [very.net] about an ED-209.
    --
    "I'm not downloaded, I'm just loaded and down"
  • Anyone else find it interesting that the machine's creator is (allegedly) named Dale Carnegie?

    As in, how to win friends and influence people? At 35 km/h?

    Just a note ... The Dale Carnegie who wrote, "How to Win Friends and Influence People," lived from 1888 to 1955.

  • I didn't see anyone else point out that the cartoon character plastered on the front of Marvin the Robot is Warner Brother's "Marvin the Martian," not Marvin from "Hitchhiker's Guide."

    Compare:

    Marvin the Martian:

    http://www.angelfire.com/pa/lkmarvin/

    Marvin of Hitchhiker's Guide:

    http://www.jeffbots.com/marvin.html

  • "Hey, guess what, me and my buds are the ones that made marvin the robot that chases up and down the halls"

    "Get lost geek"

    Geek turns to second geek.

    "Did marvin at leask get an upskirt shot?"

    "Ya..... heheh.... coool"

  • His voice recognition will be advanced, so that he accepts commands only from his creators.

    Unless they have a cold. Den bwe are sqwood.

  • But Marvin will soon be learning for himself, so he doesn't need his creator. We just have to decide the level to which you want to get rid of humans.

    I feel sorry for the temp. cleaner who takes over the regular persons job

    STOP- INTRUDER
    Hey mechanical dude, I'm just filling in for ...

    Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! [ZAP]

    Big pile of ashes left for the supervisor to sort out the next day.


    :)
  • Aww man, it uses preprocessor directives? Lame. :)
  • As Jon Stewart said on the Daily Show about a similar robot, "it can be an effective security robot/killing machine, as long as you don't kick it over or throw a blanket on top of it." :)
  • Yet another post to an article that was obviously intended to be read by people whose VCR clocks flash "12:00" at them.

    "Hey Maw, thur gonna use them new fangled neural networks on that robot!"

    How about sticking to links for people who hack into their TIVOs and put extra drives in them so that they can record all of their favorite shows and then watch them on their laptop via an 802.11 connection from the hammock in the backyard.
  • man, you are such a dork. get out of your bedroom every once in a while and take that stick out of your arse. the guy was joking around.
  • Well I'm sure it couldn't pass the turning test, and it will probably identify inflatable dolls in dorm rooms as intruders.

    -------------------
  • *squeal*
    ARE YOU BOYS COOKING UP THERE
    *pop*

    "No..."

    *click, whirr*
    ARE YOU BUILDING AN INTEROCITER

    "NO!"
  • >inventory
    You have:
    a bathrobe
    a screwdriver
    tea
    no tea

    >show Marvin tea and no tea

  • I'm more concerned about the Dalek quote. I mean, what good is a robotic security guard if it can't vaporize things?

    Does it have manipulators? Can we at least duct-tape an acetylene torch to its arm or something?


    Chelloveck
  • In this "robot".

    In /. for posting this story.

    Why?

    This has to be the lamest robot "story" on the planet. Similar "security" robots have been built by companies and individuals for years. I remember several companies in the 80's doing this, when robots were the "thing" of the "future".

    GPS? Why GPS? A white or black line (or even one done in a flourescent "invisible" paint or something) would be much cheaper for navigation. In a new building, a buried wire under the floor or carpet could be used. Coded tags at doors could further aid navigation (UPC or IR "active" tags).

    Nomadic Technologies [robots.com] used to sell research robots with this kind of use in mind (sadly, I just found that they stopped production).

    IRobot [irobot.com] has a research robot that seems ideal for this as well.

    Of course, nothing would beat Odetic's Odex-1 [inebraska.com] for the "scare" factor in security - too bad this 80's robot never went into production...

    Now, homebrew bots - that is where the action is:

    Karl Williams [golden.net] seems to have many projects of the type that would make interesting security platforms - or at least something to build off of (mount the vortex cannon or coil gun onto the home drone - yikes!).

    This [wizard.org] machine might even be better for security - simply because it could be smaller and faster for such a job.

    The truth is that there are a lot of homebrew and commercial robots that can easily do what this robot does - probably at a fraction of the cost (actually, some of the commercial bots are quite expensive). There were many robots built in the 80's that were capable as well.

    That is the article I want to see. Somehow I was hoping for a two legged chicken walker (not ED-209 sized, but something) patrolling the halls, maybe packing low powered pea shooters for "defense" (actually, one homebrewer managed to build such a robot with a "pea-shooter"-style, multi barrel "gun" - it couldn't hurt you, but it could knock over empty pop cans - I wish I had a link to it - probably do, but it is buried in my link list somewhere deep).

    Oh well...

    Worldcom [worldcom.com] - Generation Duh!


  • Okay, side note: when you're responding to a sentence with two phrases, and you're disagreeing violently with one of them, don't use pronouns. "Anyone who says what" -- the part about the Daleks or the part about the thinking? I either strongly agree with you, or I thnk you're an idiot, depending on which one you meant. :-)

    Anyhow.

    I remember shortly after the Matrix came out, some folks in a newsgroup were discussing how such a malevolent AI could come about in the first place. One suggested some bad code someplace. Another responded with, "It's extremely unlikely that an AI could turn hostile due to sloppy programming. On the other hand, that fucking paperclip in Word 97 seems to do whatever the fuck it wants."

  • Maybe they have a repeater that runs on 802.11 or something?
  • But, then again, who would be crazy to make a killer bot ? There is no robot designer who would do this in a real life situation for the defense of a building.

    Do you mean like this one [slashdot.org] ?

  • What's \. - an MS-DOS advocacy site?

    --
  • Anyone who has been to Wildwood NJ should immediately be thinking about that annoying message:

    Watch The Tram Car Please
  • Hey, sure it's cool, but I don't think it's too practical. All this robot do is to search for intruders, right ? Security cameras, or motion detectors could do this, couldn't they ? At a fraction of the price.

    Robots are fine when you have something repetitive that requires physical presence. Such as cleaning. There are cleaning robots, wich I think is much more useful than a walking-camera.

    Unless, of course, you give ED-209 some real ammo. Now you're talking a different ball game. :) But, then again, who would be crazy to make a killer bot ? There is no robot designer who would do this in a real life situation for the defense of a building. Yes, there are some belical bots at the army, designed to destroy the enemy. But it's a war zone, not a building.
  • Id like to know what kind of GPS they have that will work indoors ... my handheld unit NEVER works indoors, and sometimes not even in my car :)
  • I believe he is now working in the UK. He writes regular BOFH columns for the Register at http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/30/ [theregister.co.uk]
  • Well I'm sure it couldn't pass the turning test

    Neither can any other college security guard that I've seen.
  • Law enforcement uses a diffused laser to dazzle suspects. They basically shine them in your eyes and pulse the signal. Since your eyes are trying to constantly adjust to the varying light levels, it becomes very difficult to see and as a bonus you get a sort of vertigo feeling.

  • Forget pronouns, I'd say that prepositional phrase "about AI" was specific enough. :)

    I agree with the sentiment though, this robot is a very small machine, it _does not_ think anything like a human (the dubious quality of some human thought notwithstanding).
  • Do you think that this would prevent me from sneaking up to the roof of the engineering building?

    I doubt that it could climb the ladders into the utility rooms.

    Regarding your comment, Rackemup, how exactly is a laser beam a weapon system? I've never seen a laser beam used as a weapon. Perhaps one could use a laser beam for some sort of weapon guidance, but nothing energy based.

  • Your future looks good... but does that mean at the present time you are aspiring to become a competant campus security guard?
  • "Once Marvin is completely functional his skills can be applied to anything."

    Anything?

    That's a pretty bold and all inclusive statement. I'll expect him at my door soon to help satisfy my..er, needs.

  • Maybe their building is a modern all fiberglass and glass job that is transparant to microwaves.. Think Radar Dome.. It couldn't be built out of things like steel, concrete, wood, sheetrock etc..
  • I like the idea, but instead of using GPS for a building, build a custom TX / RX set for the building. Each corner in each room or hall would have a transmitter and using timing + TX id's, it would be possible to calculate the location in the building with high precision. Of course it wouldn't be cheap and would require an atomic master clock for the system.
  • I tried it. It doesn't work more than about 2 feet from a window. My house is wood. Maybe it will work better there in a concrete and brick building with many stories. ;-) NOT! Maybe they are planning on building a better GPS system also that will work indoors.
  • The robot is cruising along the coridors at 35 kph when suddendly it slips on a puddle of spilled coffee, crashes into a wall, and falls over on its (back?). Its rangefinder and camera, now staring at the unfamiliar ceiling cause the robot to initiate a series of intruder alerts to local and national security. MSG: Intruder Alert! Marvin Incapacitated, Intruder considered armed and dangerous. Last seen wearing offwhite tiles and several flourescent lighting fixtures.
  • Why this must be the work of none other than..


    The original BOFH, back yet again to make people's lives miserable! Er..wait..I mean good..er..no I mean bad..er..I dunno whether this is good or bad! I guess good as long as the robot doesn't freak and kill people. But Marvin's a cool name..

    ----------
  • I saw those mail delivery robots at two different companies back in the 1980's: Lear Siegler (sp?) in Grand Rapids, MI, and Texas Instruments in Dallas. In both cases, a favorite prank was to lay down new stripes on the floor with masking tape. If you ran a dead-end path into someone's cubicle, the machine would get stuck there, start beeping madly, and have to be shoved around and basically removed by brute force.

    Sounds like this 'bot is at least a small improvement on those wonders of yesteryear, but I found the article quite low on details to convince me that it's really newsworthy. And surfing around it's creators' web site(s) didn't prove terribly informative either... (see my other postings)...

    Ron Obvious

  • What was your username again? *clickety click* What do you mean your files? I don't see anything here...

  • Hang on... we're talking about thinking like a human security guard here. I can just see the code now.

    Patrol_Corridors();
    if (TimeSpentPatrolling > 30) {
    get(Donuts);
    get(pr0n);
    sit_down(fat_ass);
    eat(Donuts);
    read(pr0n);
    scratch(fat_ass);
    sleep(60);
    }

    --
    This post is about truth, beauty, freedom, and above all things, Karma

  • Re:Unfortunatly he got fined... (Score:3)

    by garcia ( 6573 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @03:38AM (#111580)
    yeah, but he kissed some ass w/the coffee machine that is right outside the door of the district court judge's office and he got them to find against ACME ;-)

  • Did they program it to say... (Score:3)

    by rnturn ( 11092 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @04:29AM (#111581)

    ...something along the lines of:

    ``Here I am with a brain the size of a planet and I'm on the lookout for students cooking in their rooms. I'm so depressed...''


    --

  • Stop Intruder! (Score:3)

    by Steve B ( 42864 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @03:59AM (#111582)
    ...of I shall be forced to activate the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator!
    /.

  • Re:What ELSE has come from Waikato? (Score:3)

    by Criggie ( 74150 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @06:58PM (#111583) Homepage
    I'm sitting back in the Operations Armchair, watching the computer room closed circuit TV, which just happens to be connected to the frame-grabber's video player (sent off for repair, due back sometime in 2007) when the phone rings. That must be the 2nd time today, and it's really starting to get to me!

    "Hello?" I say.

    "Who is this?" they say

    "It's me I think" I say, having successfully attended a telephone skills course

    "Me Who?"

    "Is this like a knock knock joke?" I say, trying to concentrate on the cute secretary picking up a jar of paperclips that somehow fell off her desk, via the security camera I located in her office last night.

    "uhhh.... I have a problem here" says the slow drawly voice down the phone.

    I hit pause on the video; can't concentrate with this voice whining in my ear. "What is your issue?" I enquire politely.

    "I can't reach my keyboard from here - its too far away. Can I use a keyboard extension cable?"

    I'm puzzled by this... I've done nothing to this particular beancounter moron lately that I'm aware of.

    "Perhaps you've shrunk since you last used your workstation?" I suggest.

    "No", says the user. "I'm hiding under my desk, because theres a tall white plastic scary robot wandering around."

    I think - shit! is Christine Rankin [stuff.co.nz] in the office? Quickly I flick the CCTV on to channel 27, which covers that area of the building to find that its Marvin the new Security Droid (no, too star-warsy) Dalek (no, thats taken too) Big Scarey Robotic Vehicle (yeah) has ended up banging repeatedly against a table.

    "I see the problem" I whisper down the phone. "Be very quiet - this unit has fantastic audio tracking techniques."

    "errrp" is all I hear

    "You need to sneak around your desk, to the rear of the robot, then put your arm around the front and press the button on the front. It's about 50 centimetres above the floor level. Remember - QUIET or else it'll hear you."

    God I'm a bastard - the poor moron can't ask me any questions cos Marvin will hear him speak.

    "Nod if you understand" On the CCTV I see him slowly lowers his head and raise it again.

    "Go to it Tiger!" I encourage.

    I can see the pleb clearly on the screen... he is quivvering with fear. He lays the phone handset gently down on the carpet and proceeds to crawl around the end of his desk.

    This is amusing! I quickly shove another tape in the video recorder... ya never know when something blackmailworthy will happen...

    Beancounter Bob has reached a position behind Marvin. He reaches his hand out slowly and ever so gently presses the button.

    Immediately Marvin blurts out "EXTERMINATE!!!" and his head starts to rotate faster and faster. I quickly patch into the office PA system and yell out "RUN FOR IT!!!"

    The twit jumps two metres in the air (I know - I measured it later) and runs out of the building screaming "RUN!!! IT'S COMING TO GET US ALL!!!"

    Damn that was a good reset routine I slipped into the eprom data files down in the R&D labs.

    (major appologies to Simon)

  • Re:Hmm... (Score:3)

    by lovebyte ( 81275 ) <lovebyte2000 AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @03:21AM (#111584) Homepage
    Well I'm sure it couldn't pass the turning test, and it will probably identify inflatable dolls in dorm rooms as intruders.
    The turning test? The robot is only intelligent enough to go straight then! I hope they have long corridors.

  • Re:Multipath (Score:3)

    by Technician ( 215283 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @07:15AM (#111585)
    Umm... I thought GPS worked by measuring doplar shift and time of arrival to compute a position fix. If you lengthen some or all of the signal paths randomly by reflections, the GPS could not calculate a precise position fix. It would however be able to tell the signal is poor and properly display the estimated position error as a large value. You would make your own building a SA encoder to the signal by providing random multipath signal timing errors. There would be no precise phase and time shifts of individual satelite signals to calculate an accurate position due to the added lengths of the reflected signal paths. For an real life example of this, drive downtown in a large city where the signal bounces between buildings to reach the ground. The signal is fair much of the time, but the positioning is lousy.

  • Not far from thinking like a human? (Score:3)

    by Jagin ( 243283 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @03:19AM (#111586)
    "The robot cannot exterminate people in Dalek fashion but is not far from thinking like a human."

    Yeah right! Anyone who says this about any AI we have today is full of it.

  • Re:What ELSE has come from Waikato? (Score:3)

    by Tyler Eaves ( 344284 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @04:02AM (#111587)
    Okay, since no one seems to be getting it... (What a surprise on \.) Simon Travaglia, writier of the Bastard Operator From Hell Series is employed (last time I checked at any rate) by Waikato University as a sysadmin.

  • 35kph? (Score:3)

    by Richard Bannister ( 464181 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @03:23AM (#111588) Homepage
    Isn't that slightly dangerous? I can see it now... robot comes swinging round a corner at 35kph and collides with a lecturer - but instead of stopping, keeps running, causing severe injury as it mutters "Kernel Panic"...

  • He'll be there forever (Score:4)

    by precize ( 83096 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @03:16AM (#111589) Homepage
    They say he'll be upgraded...do you know how often a working project is upgraded at a university?

    "`The first ten million years were the worst,' said Marvin, `and the second ten million, they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.'"

  • Robots need love too (Score:4)

    by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @03:16AM (#111590) Journal

    How long before he gets bored on the job and starts flirting with the vending machines?

  • Unfortunatly he got fined... (Score:5)

    by Sabalon ( 1684 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @03:31AM (#111591)
    Turns out the GPS on him showed him doing 35km/h in a hallway that had a posted speed limit of 25km/h. ACME car rental sent then a notice of the violation.

  • Re:Cost / benefit (Score:5)

    by Tim C ( 15259 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @04:36AM (#111592)
    The benefit is research. They're not suggesting that people rush out and buy these things, they're learning stuff the old-fashioned way - by doing it.

    If you want AI and autonomous robots and other (imho) cool tech like that to be developed, there's going to have to be a lot more "useless" stuff like this done first.

    Cheers,

    Tim

  • I can just see it now... (Score:5)

    by swf ( 129638 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @03:21AM (#111593)
    Robber: Out of my way you little robot.
    Marvin: I'm afraid I have been left here to stop you.
    Robber: You? Stop me? Go on.
    Marvin: No, really I have.
    Robber: What are you armed with?
    Marvin: Guess
    Robber: Guess?
    Marvin: Yes, go on, you'll never guess.
    Robber: Errmm... laser beam?
    Marvin: No
    Robber: No, too obvious I suppose. Anti-matter ray?
    Marvin: Far too obvious
    Robber: Yes... Er... how about an electron ram?
    Marvin: No, not one of those
    Robber: I know, you must have one of those new Xanthic Re-Struction Destabilised Zenon Emitters.
    Marvin: Nice, aren't they?
    Robber: That what you got?
    Marvin: No.
    ...

    And so on until the police arrive.

    Credit to Douglas Adams.

  • Re:Robots need love too (Score:5)

    by Xoro ( 201854 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @04:44AM (#111594)

    How shallow. Looks aren't everything, you know.

    Vending machines are like people. It's what's inside that counts.

  • Guard worth more than the guarded? (Score:5)

    by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @06:31AM (#111595) Homepage

    This thing is worth $10,000? And it actively seeks out intruders?

    • Marvin: Halt, evildoer!
    • Evildoer: Here boy! C'mon! C'mon boy!
      (Squeal of robot tyres on floor tiles)
    • Marvin: Cease your ambulation, meat creature!
    • Evildoer: This way! This way boy!
      (Rumble of robot tyres on wooden ramp)
    • Marvin: Resistance is... Bzzzt... scanning new environment...
      (Sound of van door slamming. Squeal of van tires on tarmac. Sound of cash register as Evildoer sells $10,000 robot.)

  • What ELSE has come from Waikato? (Score:5)

    by Tyler Eaves ( 344284 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @03:11AM (#111596)
    Why the BOFH of course....

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