Intel combines Robots, WLANs, and Linux

An anonymous reader writes "This article by a researcher in Intel's Emerging Platforms Lab details some of Intel's current research into wireless, mobile robotics technology. A key goal of the effort, according to the article, is to efficiently combine the two technologies -- mobile robotics and wireless networks -- so that mobile robots can serve as gateways into wireless sensor networks. The Intel project is providing robotics researchers with a robotics development package that includes standardized silicon, a Linux-based open-source operating system, and open-source software drivers for robotics applications. Additionally, Intel has released a test version of a technical library for building Bayesian networks, which will help advance the ability of robots to navigate their environments, and pilot systems based on Intel's open-source packages are already being deployed in a variety of flexible environments in agricultural, security, and military applications."

Thought process

[worst_name_ever]

I imagine their thought process went something like this:

"Robots are cool. Wireless networking is cool. Linux is cool. So logically, wireless Linux robots would be the coolest thing ever!!!"

The only downside I can forsee is that imagining a Beowulf cluster of those might lead to a Matrix-esque apocalypse for us outmoded carbon units, which would be less cool.

Good idea!

[inaeldi]

Now we can provide Internet access to nuclear fallout regions.

Ok, ok, I'm sure there are plenty of good reasons for this, but I still like my idea more. I want to play my UT2003 after a nuke attack dammit!

Use?

[Dashmon]

Woohoo - run Apache and OpenOffice on your housekeeper! :P

Seriously, I wonder what use this... you don't need *mobile* network gateways that actually *think*, do you?

What happened to Windows for Robots?

[ites]

Didn't Microsoft release a "Windows for Robots" OS some time ago? I seem to remember that no-one would buy robots based on RoboWin because they only ran for three hours before needing a recharge. So Microsoft had to build their own Robots and sell them to people who never actually used them but thought they were cool 'coz they could read Excel documents. And then Sony brought out their range of household robots running on PalmOS, which was cool because the robots could recognize script and you could give them to your mother to use an she'd never call for help. But IIRC the final straw was that virus that infected every WinBot and turned it into a homicidal home-recipe machine, producing endless and ultimately fatal lunches of Belgian Waffles with corn syrup.

Uh... I'm sorry. I must stop with the blue pills. Does any company on earth (except MS and Nokia and Palm) bring out a new device that does _not_ run Linux?

The Three Laws of Robitcs

[march]

The Three Laws of Robotics....

1. A robot may not install Windows products, or, through inaction, allow a Windows products to be installed.
2. A robot must obey the orders set forth in the GPL except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect the open source initiative so long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

:-)

We already do that.

[grub]

We have a merging of bio-mass, networking and telephone services where I work: when people think the network is getting flaky, my phone starts to ring.

Re:What happened to Windows for Robots?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I'm really glad I took the red pill.

Kill them now!

[mental_telepathy]

Sorry, just finished watching the preview for T3

Re:Use?

[worst_name_ever]

Seriously, I wonder what use this... you don't need *mobile* network gateways that actually *think*, do you?

Yeah, really - and if they're not programmed with the Three Laws Of Robotics [evansville.net], they might rat you out to your ISP for running a NAT gateway [slashdot.org]...