🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9956@pt.cs.cmu.edu> gerry@cive.ri.cmu.edu (Gerry Roston) writes:
}In article <18653@ttidca.TTI.COM> hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) writes:
}> ...
}>The one part that was designed specifically to be easy for people (the
}>touchscreen) is the part that gives the robot the least trouble.
}
}In the above statement, Jerry SEEMS to be implying that tasks
}which humans can do easily are tasks which robots can do easily.
}I do not agree with this. ...

And neither do I.  Sorry if I gave the wrong impression.  As a counter
example, one of my robot's tasks is to insert mag stripe cards in the
ATM's card readers.  Teaching the robot to do that taught _me_ great
respect for the human hand and hand/eye coordination.  However, if the
card readers had been made easier for a robot to use, they'd have been
easier for a human to use, too.

As for the depository problem, I got that working yesterday.  Whoever
designed the depository system appears to have been more concerned with
keeping things out (rain, soft drinks, dynamite, etc.) than allowing
things in.  Had it been better designed for use by people, the robot would
have had an easier time, too.  Had it been designed for use by a robot,
people would have had a much easier time with it.

}... A task which we all face every day is
}opening a doorequipped with a door knob).  For a robot to 
}accomplish this task is quite difficult.  ...

I'd think that depends on the constraints placed on the robot and the
door.  There are some amazingly sophisticated pattern recognition systems
available off the shelf today.  Even if the requirement is "any arbitrary
door with a door knob" I can envision a relatively simple system for doing
it with mostly off the shelf components (might need a custom gripper or
two).  It wouldn't be cheap (in a few years it will be), but it would
work.

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: hollombe@ttidca.tti.com)
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