Re: Techno Games

[andy.powell@xxxxxxx]

Even worse last night in the 'high jump' a couple of people had a small=20
spring - which basically had absolutely nothing to do with robots at all.M
ethinks they are a little slack in their vetting process.=20

The micromouse event is clearly the 'real' robotics event and the others=20
are the equivalent of remote control car racing.=20

With regards to the bicycle event - it wouldn't have taken much to make itf
ollow the line around the competitors lane, if fact following a=20
light/dark line is one of the basic out of the box abilities of the lego=20
mindstorms stuff....  not only that but I disagree that buying a kids=20
bike, adding some stabilisers, batteries and steering mechanism and=20
putting it together in a functioning system is going to require masses ofR
&D.


I've found the whole program a little bit iffy.... especially as, again,=20
last night, when it came to the swimming event most of the competitors=20
hadn't even tested their machines! Perhaps we should enter a machine, I'ms
ure with all the electronics abilities etc is this list we could get a=20
super machine to compete in multiple events!

A.






"David Paterson (Pixi)" <david.paterson@xxxxxxx>
06/03/2001 23:30
Please respond to ukha_d

=20
To:     ukha_d@xxxxxxx
cc:=20
Subject:        Re: [ukha_d] Techno Games

On Tue, 6 Mar 2001 09:36:30 +0100, you wrote:

>I watched it last night, to be honest I was disappointed I expected
that>
the robots would NOT be remote controlled (certainly for the races) ie=20
>they would 'sense' their surroundings.... I mean how difficult is it
to=20
>take a remote controlled car and turn it into  a robot (all be it
with=20
>legs)...

I thought there might be a bit more "autonomy" too, but it's a
lot
harder than you might think to really put any intelligence into stuff
like this.  I was involved in a micromouse team many years ago (the one
part of the contest that does show some real AI) and there are a lot of
very hard problems to solve.

Even in computer games or simulations, where you can have complete
knowledge of the environment, perfect sensors, perfect physics etc.,
it's still very hard to get effective AI that is worth playing against.

Something like a bicycle riding system would take a lot of development
and research, and most of the teams are very amateur school or similar
groups - some of them have done amazingly well with what they've
produced.

I think it bodes well for the future that there are so many young people
interested in trying stuff like this.  Even if it's not cutting edge,
they're learning and developing their skills, which can only be good for
the country - and some of them might even go on to develop some neat HA
gear for us :-)

DP


--=20
David_Paterson =3D david.paterson@xxxxxxx =A6=20
david.paterson@xxxxxxx;

R & D programmer        There are three kinds of people in the world -
Visual Sciences Ltd.      those who can count, and those who can't...

=20

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