Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!cat.cis.Brown.EDU!noc.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!uknet!festival!ainews!aisb!simonpe
From: simonpe@aisb.ed.ac.uk (Simon Perkins)
Subject: Re: QUESTION: REAL applications for mobile robots?
Message-ID: <CtKnwM.EEw@aisb.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: news@aisb.ed.ac.uk (Network News Administrator)
Reply-To: simonpe@aisb.ed.ac.uk (Simon Perkins)
Organization: Dept of AI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
References: <CtG5Ao.IxF@aisb.ed.ac.uk> <1994Jul24.163912.26484@news.csuohio.edu> <GAMIN.94Jul25115317@amadeus.ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca> <BS2R7Or.macduff6912@delphi.com> <313fqt$grv@cc.dixie.edu>
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 1994 23:57:56 GMT
Lines: 25


# : How about a somewhat silly, but very likely task?  I'm thinking along
# : the lines of robotic pets.  A cat or dog robot for those places where
# : real animals are not allowed (apartments) or those places where a real,
# : mischevious animal would be 'dangerous'.  A non-living companion for
# : such areas makes a great deal of sense, as psycholgically speaking, humans
# : need some type of companionship.  Just a thought to be pondered.

In fact there is a group of us here at Edinburgh who are working on
more or less just such a project. Our aim is to look at `persistent
robots' i.e. robots that can survive without human intervention for
weeks at a time, and our first attempt is to build a robot cat that
will perform fairly standard catty behaviour of sleeping, exploring
its environment, playing with brightly coloured balls and avoiding the
cleaners in the morning. Essentially not very much that could be
called useful but hopefully entertaining. More details on our web
page: http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/ err.. something.


-- 
Simon Perkins                             simonpe@aisb.ed.ac.uk

Dept. of AI,
Edinburgh University.
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