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Autonomy, Pharmacists, Intel, Toys and Cows!
Autonomy, Pharmacists, Intel, Toys and Cows! Those robotics and intelligent control fanatics out there are going to be happy today! ** deep breath ** The Citizen - Robot Helps Pharmacists Spend More Time With Patients An article that describes a mechanical arm that finds the right medication in a set of drawers, scans the barcode, and places it inside a bag for the patient to pick up. The robot can fill around 80+ orders, which is about 3 times as much as a human pharmacist. NY Times - Toyland Is Tough, Even for Robots Looks into robotic-toy fanatic Mark Tilden, who created the hit Bugs last year. He's currently working on an automated dragon for next Christmas. The article looks into "nervous networks" that perform reactively, and shows that this is fine for toys! EE Times - Intel Eyes Robotic-Controller Sockets for Xscale Describes Intel's recent efforts to get into robotic research. They invited 8 top research groups, and noted the crucial points: low-power, high-performance with a focus on wireless. The remain chapters mostly describe the technology, and the interest for Intel. Gazette Extra - <a href="http://www.gazetteextra.com/roboticmilking022602.html"> Robotic Milking Making Inroads Into Farms</a> A milking system that locates the cow's udders with laser guided approach. It places the vacum milking claw automatically -- which removes the need for humans. Cows can be milked 3 times a day now, which increases productivity. NY Times - Designers Take Robots Out of Human Hands Looks into the future of autonomous robots, describing the latest MIT helicopter. Self-organising systems are also discussed. And interesting read! Dominion Post - <a href="http://www.dominionpost.com/a/news/2002/02/27/bi/"> A Moving Goal: MHS Joins Regional Robot Race</a> Describes students efforts to assemble a robotic arm from a self-assembly kit. It must then be taught to pick up a ball. Well that was fun! Comments welcome, as usual :P | Alex J. Champandard 935 posts. Friday 01 March, 12:31 Reply
Milk it! CNN has a follow-up on that robotic milking system: Robots Do The Milking At Some U.S. Farms. The interesting part is that the cows are trained to use the system! They walk up to it, and have a milk while they're munching some grain... is that cool or what! These smart cows reminds me of my cow 'Pat' in Black & White ;) | Alex J. Champandard 935 posts. Sunday 03 March, 18:06 Reply
Cows It is interesting to note, that while most people consider cows to be somewhat stupid, they are actually somewhat intelligent. They are quite well aware of when they need to be milked. (If they aren't milked regularly, it causes them pain.) You can tell when the cows are ready to be milked as they will be milling around the barn waiting for the farmer. | wyldeling 16 posts. Monday 04 March, 14:30 Reply
Cows & Sheep I guess it's a stereotype: cow's aren't that clever. I guess humans believe anything they eat isn't smart! It makes them feel better ;) Then again, cows are close to having life figured out... they stand around eating grass all day. Sitting and smoking would probably be a better combination! Just give them another few generations for evolution to quick in :P | Alex J. Champandard 935 posts. Monday 04 March, 15:38 Reply
Cows and Sheep I definately agree that cows are not clever. But, I think they beat out sheep in that regard. While sheep will run from a dog, cows will just look at it like they're saying "you have got to be kidding me." I agree that they definately have life figured out. It reminds me of a passage in one of Douglas Adams Hitchiker's Guide series about dolphins and humans. While I don't remember the exact wording it went something like this "Humans thought they were the most advanced life on earth. Citing as evidence all they created and accomplished. Their days were so full compared to Dolphins who just ate and played all day. So, obviously they were the superior species. Dolphins considered themselves the superior species for the same reason." Not to take this to far adrift, but maybe cows are just that more "advanced" than us. :) Back on track, I think we use trainability and responsiveness to our demands as crude measures of animal intelligence. (It seems this measure is, also, applied to AIs.) Cows aren't that responsive to our demands, and exhibit many traits that we would consider stupid. (A friend of mine in High School worked on a farm, and the stories he told during math class...) However, from what I have seen they're above sheep in the rankings of intelligence. Both are tasty, though. | wyldeling 16 posts. Tuesday 05 March, 08:56 Reply
Cows having access to other dimensions ;) >> Dolphins considered themselves the superior species for the same reason. right, it's just a matter of definition. if we consider cows as stupid, maybe they consider us stupid for sitting in a cubicle and hitting strange grey rectangles. You see, seen from human's point of view, cows are stupid. But they may have other qualities which we just haven't found out yet, because we can't think that high. Maybe cows have evolved so high that they can think in more dimensions than we can and hence have other problems to solve ;) Crazy thoughts. Yes, I just have had another physics lesson with theory of relativity :) Johannes | Johannes 13 posts. Wednesday 06 March, 08:57 Reply