Open-source robotics

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An Open-source robot is a robot whose blueprints, schematics or source code are released under an Open source model.

Current projects

Full robot projects

Open-source software

Open-source hardware

Further information: Open source hardware

Advantages

  • Lower-cost. Costs of a robot can be decreased dramatically with prominent examples being the robots being build by Hanson (300$) and project aiko (25000$)
  • Interchangeable software and/or hardware

Popularity

A first sign of the increasing popularity of being robots yourself can be found with the DIY community. What began with small competitions for remote operated vehicles (e.g. RobotWars), soon developed to the building of autonomous telepresence robots as Sparky and then true robots (being able to take decisions themselves) as the Open Automaton Project and Leaf Project. Certain commercial companies now also produce kits for making simple robots. One example being DeAgostini.

Uses

At present, open-source robots are not yet sophisticated enough to perform much of the tasks a person can do, nor perform difficult or complicated tasks that only robots may -one day- provide; this being:

  • metalworks (precise metal sheets and pipe-bending, sheet/pipe cutting; e.g. via Multimachine and/or other embedded tools as cramps, pliers, ...)
  • translator for many languages (including the main languages as Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, ...)
  • calorie-counter for the robot-owner; counting the calories of food items the owner eats and preventing him from eating more that day when he reaches 2000kcal
  • building electronic circuitry (PCB-boards)
  • transportation; this e.g. by riding on the back, similar as on a horse (the latter allowing the robot to return to the appearance of a normal person after disembarking)
  • personal protection (robots, being made of metal, are able to withstand quite some beating and may be learned to incapacitate attackers by punching or Less-lethal weapons [4])
  • bomb disposal and/or making of explosive compounds for bomb disposal (e.g. on the owner's farming fields e.g. in developing countries as Cambodia, countries south and north of the sahara as Angola, Western Sahara, Libia, ..) or destruction of obstacles or to prepare building sites
  • providing communication through a small computer (e.g. Linutop, EeeBox, gPC, and integrated satellite internet uplink or long-range Wifi or WiMax-antenna). The type of communication may include: active searching on webpages (browsing), e-mail, text and or audio based communication with others (e.g. VoIP calls; both to distant users via internet as local VoIP-communication to team members in close proximity), ...

Despite this however, some DIY builders are already looking to helpful activities that can be performed today as vacuum cleaning, floor washing and automated mowing.[5][6]

See also

References

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External links

  • ↑ Willow Garage RPA
  • ↑ Roboware E3 as open-source robot
  • ↑ Gostai Urbi goes open source
  • ↑ Tmsuk security robots
  • ↑ DIY commercial vacuum robot
  • ↑ DIY Roomba preposition on Arduino motherboard
    • Retrieved from "http://ssf.f15ijp.com/wiki/index.php?title=Open-source_robotics&oldid=27785"