Rovers That Act Like Dogs

Posted 5 Mar 2003 at 17:33 UTC by steve

Gomemphis posted a short article recently on work being done to make planetary rovers and other robots behave more like biological creatures such as dogs in the way they perceive, understand, and navigate their environment. The Symposium on the Dynamics of Perception and Cognition was sponsored by NASA, the NSF, and the University of Memphis.

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Not exactly acting like a dog, posted 5 Mar 2003 at 22:07 UTC by earlwb » (Master)

To me a dog, is very territorial, smells things, pees and poops so as to mark it's territory. Wild dogs hunt in packs when their hungry. Domesticated dogs beg and mooch a lot. Then you can teach it things like fetch, rollover, jump, play dead, etc. Although bomb and drug sniffing dogs are pretty neat.

But maybe a robot dog could have extra senses for determining a rock of some type and fetching it back. Seems to me you'd have to show it the rock your looking for, so it can analyze it before it goes off looking for it.

earlwb has a point, posted 5 Mar 2003 at 22:31 UTC by ObsoleteSuperMan » (Observer)

who wants a robot that acts like a dog? why don't you just go get a dog? they are cheaper and act more like a dog than a robot ever will. robot dogs dont pee or poop. thats what alomost all dogs are netorious for. let robots be robots and dogs be dogs. talking about this almost makes me wanna make a cat that pees on fire hydrants and publish an article on how we made cats that act like dogs for this and other reasons.

why not just call it a robot that searches for things.

rofl, posted 5 Mar 2003 at 22:37 UTC by ObsoleteSuperMan » (Observer)

hehehe i can just imagin watching these rovers.

"planetary rovers and other robots behave more like biological creatures such as dogs in the way they perceive, understand, and navigate their environment"

so would the robots mark their territory with scented chemicals? rock marked. territory added.going east from the marked rock.

Remember that MARS SIFI movie a while back?, posted 5 Mar 2003 at 23:31 UTC by earlwb » (Master)

The movie with Val Kilmer playing the maintenance/janitor guy.

The robot dog in that movie looked cute but was quite viscious. Maybe that's what they are thinking about. I'm sure the military would love to have a bunch of those robots. Programmed for guerilla warfare too.

"Here honey, see this rock sample. Go fetch some more. Now honey that wasn't nice, please give my hand back now."

Oh my.. , posted 6 Mar 2003 at 10:48 UTC by Jhoffa_ » (Journeyer)

"You want to say, 'You go pick it up and put it in a box.' NASA would love to have a machine that could do that."

But such an activity is beyond the capacity of even the most expensive devices, at this point, Freeman said.

"Planetary rovers today can only go a few meters a day - a day! - because they have to stop and call home and ask, 'What should I do?' "

So we're watching dogs as a result? I fail to see the benefit here. Seems to be that the answer is on the other end of the spectrum.. Mainly sensor and AI research.

I don't see how fluffy, wandering aimlessly about the living room and sniffing things contributes to this in any meaningful way.

Especially since fluffy can't provide feedback, so you are left to make assumptions about fluffy's thought's, motivations and behavior..

It just seems pointless to me.

They can't be sirius., posted 6 Mar 2003 at 22:26 UTC by The Swirling Brain » (Master)

"Planetary rovers today can only go a few meters a day - a day! - because they have to stop and call home and ask, 'What should I do?' "

They act like the robot has the limitation. Actually, it's the limitation they placed on the robot. If they wanted it to go driving all day it could if they would let it.

I guess aritifical intelligence now has grades? Smart as a bug. Smart as a dog. Smart as a baby. Smart as a toddler. Smart as a teenager. Smart as an adult? Have they done smart as a bug yet? Are they already up to smart as a dog? When they first can make a robot maneuver as well as an ant or a bee that has a pin dot size of a brain, then and only then should they attempt to move up to "smart as a dog."

All they really want is to be able to give the robot commands and it be able to carry them out a little smarter than what they currently have. It's just wow-speak to say they're making them as smart as dogs. Don't believe it, just accept it.