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Science Technology

Cyberbees Score MIT Prize 157

Posted by timothy from the to-avoid-the-sting dept.
DeAshcroft writes "The Boston Globe has a nice story on the winner of this year's Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. 125 infrared-communicating 4.5-inch swarming bee-like robots. Businessweek even covered this one here. Next year's prize may go to the creator of 4.5-inch long swarming cockroaches."
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Cyberbees Score MIT Prize More

Cyberbees Score MIT Prize

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  • Why wait.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Selfbain ( 624722 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @04:39PM (#5420123)
    ...for the killer bees to come to us when we can make them ourselves.

  • I just hope (Score:4, Funny)

    by burrfux ( 654443 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @04:42PM (#5420134)
    he uses the robot fleet for good. for example sending the fleet over a city and have them steal every Microsoft cd in sight, replacing them with Debian GNU/Linux cd's.
    • I just hope he uses the robot fleet for good.

      If you had a fleet of robots, would you use them for good or for awesome?

    • Next year Microsoft will enter Microsoft Bugs 1.0 in the contest. (Hmm. Damn I was going to say more. But Microsoft .. with swarming Bugs as product .. Other than Bravo for stepping out of the closet, what else can I say?)

      Umm, their excellent work in the field, and, umm, the work on swarming worms and zombie DDOS attacks wouldn't have been the same without them.

  • You! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You're here to steal my robot bee, aren't you!
  • Ahh, but can they too survive nuclear winter?

  • 2 words you don't normally hear together (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02, 2003 @04:46PM (#5420159)
    "MIT" and "score"

  • metrobots (Score:5, Interesting)

    by suhit ( 171059 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @04:52PM (#5420189) Homepage
    How about the Metrobots [columbia.edu] that are Sony AIBO robots [aibo.com] used as embodied multi-agent systems that play robotic soccer too.

    They are planning to enter the RoboCup American Open [cmu.edu] at CMU in Spring of 2003 and hoping to participate in RoboCup 2003 [robocup2003.org] in Padua Italy.

    Suhit

  • Great...Bees with Wheels (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02, 2003 @04:58PM (#5420211)
    "James McLurkin and a few assistants built 125 wheel-footed bugs... The machines measure 4.5 inches on a side and communicate with the same infrared technology used by television remote controls."

    You need a MIT Doctor to figure out the Lego Mindstorm kit?

  • I am the walrus (Score:5, Funny)

    by porksodas ( 515690 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:04PM (#5420239)
    From the article :
    Sandra Lawson, McLurkin's mother, figured out she had a gifted child at age 2 when her boy stuck a french fry up each nostril during lunch and said, ''Look mom, I'm a walrus.'' Though unimpressed by his nasal hygiene, she was astounded her child knew what a walrus was.

    He then smeared the rest of his food all over his face and listed three more Beatles songs.

    Sandra wept and thought : 'My boy is truly a genius'.

  • Wow, he's gifted! (Score:5, Funny)

    by LongJohnStewartMill ( 645597 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:08PM (#5420254)
    Sandra Lawson, McLurkin's mother, figured out she had a gifted child at age 2 when her boy stuck a french fry up each nostril during lunch and said, ''Look mom, I'm a walrus.''

    That's weird. When I see a kid with something stuck up his nose, 'gifted' isn't exactly the word that comes to mind. It's more like 'doofus'. The only sign of genius would be that he didn't eat the fries afterward.

  • Damn news sites! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Azureflare ( 645778 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:11PM (#5420271)
    Those damn news sites! Why don't they ever have pictures of cool stuff?????? Man, I want to see these little guys zipping around, maybe an avi =)))))) Sounds like the ultimate geek toy.

  • Great minds think alike (Score:5, Funny)

    by scotay ( 195240 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:11PM (#5420273)
    Sandra Lawson, McLurkin's mother, figured out she had a gifted child at age 2 when her boy stuck a french fry up each nostril during lunch and said, ''Look mom, I'm a walrus.''

    I remember when, for some unknown reason, I stuck a little wheel from a Matchbox car up my nose and said "Look mom, I'm a Pep Boys." I didn't really say that. If I was a genius I might have said something like that.

    I do remember that 4 people had to hold me down at the hospital. I screamed at the top of my lungs as the doctor came at me with what seemed like a meter long pair of tweezers. I think I know what people that have gone through an alien abduction might have felt, but from the other end.

    Community college, here I come!

  • But will i need a license for... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cyno01 ( 573917 ) <Cyno01@hotmail.com> on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:13PM (#5420288) Homepage
    Eric my half robot bee?...

    Half a robot bee, philosophically,

    Must, ipso facto, half not be.
    But half the robot bee has got to be
    Vis a vis, its entity. D'you see?

    But can a robot bee be said to be

    Or not to be an entire robot bee
    When half the bee is not a robot bee
    Due to some ancient injury?

    La dee dee, one two three,

    Eric the half a robot bee.
    A B C D E F G,
    Eric the half a robot bee.

    Is this wretched demi-robot bee,

    Half-asleep upon my knee,
    Some freak from a menagerie?
    No! It's Eric the half a robot bee!

    Fiddle de dum, Fiddle de dee,

    Eric the half a robot bee.
    Ho ho ho, tee hee hee,
    Eric the half a robot bee.

    I love this hive, employee-ee,

    Bisected accidentally,
    One summer afternoon by me,
    I love him carnally.

    He loves him carnally,

    Semi-carnally.

  • Yay! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Loki_1929 ( 550940 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:15PM (#5420294) Journal
    "A 30-year-old MIT doctoral student won $30,000 yesterday for designing a swarm of little robots..."

    Which covers what, about 1 semester at MIT?
    • Not including books.
    • About, a year, realistically, considering the 0 money they give for finaid.

      MIT doesn't want you. Go someplace where you're appreciated, and make a difference.
    • of course as a grad student he probably has a research assistant position, which means tuition + stipend... the stipend isn't terrible, but just barely enough to get by in the overpriced cambridge housing market..

  • Lemelson (Score:5, Informative)

    by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:16PM (#5420299)
    The Lemelson Foundation was created by Jerome Lemelson, one of the more polarizing figures in modern day patent life. Lemelson obtained more than 500 patents in his life. He did not use these patents to create companies geared toward manufacturing products, however. Instead, he filed lawsuits against a number of companies, including General Motors and Otis Elevator, when elements of his designs allegedly showed up in later products such as bar-code scanners.

    Settlements and verdicts in the more than 135 so-called Lemelson lawsuits led to millions for Lemelson and his allies.

    This could be taken out of context but the sounds suspiciously like this guy was a patent squatter (although I assume these were legitimate as opposed to the ones ignoring prior art we keep hearing about).

  • Another old idea... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by devaldez ( 310051 ) <{devaldez} {at} {comcast.net}> on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:19PM (#5420315) Homepage Journal
    The idea of complex adaptive systems composed of a swarm of simple nodes with very simple rules is neither new or interesting in and of itself. The fact that this garnered a prestigious award and some press is made all the more disturbing because I've seen more than one software proof-of-concept for this idea in the past five years.

    My favorite was a Java-based applet called "Ants" where each entity only 3 rules...

    1. where home was
    2. what it "liked" (food)
    3. communicate food locations to peers when contact was made

    Within 20 seconds, the entire "colony" had been notified of the food location and the ants were swarming in a straight line between the colony location and the "food."

    I hate it when something that is neither novel nor compelling wins a prize like this...

    Hell, my father-in-law thought of this idea for a lawnmower grid, even...
    • aww :( ;)

      if it makes you feel any better, I think you should have won.
    • devaldez: Do you have this Java applet online? I would like to see it. :)
      • It was in a presentation given to, I believe, the Santa Fe Institute in NM. I don't have a copy any more, but I would suspect that it got posted somewhere. A quick google showed plenty of possibilities.

    • Re:Another old idea... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ItWorkedLastTime ( 649595 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @08:21PM (#5421174) Homepage
      > Hell, my father-in-law thought of this idea for a lawnmower grid, even...

      Aye, but it's one thing to have the idea, another to actually knuckle down and make it work.

      > The idea of complex adaptive systems composed of a swarm of simple nodes with very simple rules is neither new or interesting in and of itself.

      There is a lot of new and interesting stuff going on in that area, tho' ...

      last week's "Nature" (vol 421, p 780) had a news feature on how systems of multiple units achieve synchrony ;

      check out Steve Strogatz [cornell.edu] work ;

      read Arthur Winfree's book "The Geometry of Biological Time" (Springer-Verlag 1980) [OK, not so new ...]

      This stuff isn't so obvious. Christiaan Huygens, the Dutch physicist, couldn't get the Royal Society to pay attention to his observation that two pendulum clocks hanging on the same wooden beam eventually adopted the same rhythm. That was in 1665. Next stop : the 1960s, when Winfree started looking at coupled oscillators as an explanation for fireflies synchronizing their flashes. Still plenty of stuff to find out here.

      I for one don't begrudge a student winning a prize for this.

    • From what litte experience I have with robotics I think it's safe to say that "proof of concept" in software means nothing in hardware.

      Well, it means that you idea is sound enough that it might work. But there's no guarantee that it will actually work in hardware.

      Kind of like hardware development in simulation and actual hardware. You can get anything working in the simulation. ;-)

      And the stuff that generally trip you up with real hardware is stuff like the light sensors don't work 100% all the time, the engines don't work acurately, you internal maps get corrupted etc.

      Or like Minsky pointed out: Robot AI people treasure their videos ... because often they can't repeat the results.
  • If you read the article you'd see this geek actually used to put up french fries in his nostrils. Still, he wonders why he was consideed geek in his neighborhood; man, this dude deserves the prize.

  • military apps (Score:5, Informative)

    by wattersa ( 629338 ) <andrew@andrewwatters.com> on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:24PM (#5420336) Homepage
    Just wait until they turn this into a distribution system for chemical weapons or a way to conduct surveillance in cities. A swarm of the other side's robots coming at you? I'd either be running for cover or pulling out the shotgun, depending on how many there were. Great...
    • You should read The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson. Not only is it a fabulous book, but it kinda has what you are talking about, on an even smaller scale.

      Also, Prey, the new Michael Crichton book, which is about nano-technology run amock.

      Justin Dubs

  • Lifetime achievement award goes to ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by captainboogerhead ( 228216 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:29PM (#5420360) Journal
    Next year's prize may go to the creator of 4.5-inch long swarming cockroaches.

    You know it's the Golden Age of awards shows when even God makes an appearance at some b-list event like this.

  • The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize (Score:3, Informative)

    by golo ( 95789 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:31PM (#5420368) Homepage Journal
    From the BussinessWeek Article:
    The
    Lemelson Foundation [lemelson.org]was created by Jerome Lemelson, one of the more polarizing figures in modern day patent life. Lemelson obtained more than 500 patents [aimglobal.org] in his life. He did not use these patents to create companies geared toward manufacturing products, however. Instead, he filed lawsuits [lemelsonpatents.com]against a number of companies, including General Motors and Otis Elevator, when elements of his designs allegedly showed up in later products such as bar-code scanners.

    This guy made his money from bar-code scanners' patents (and lawsuits). Still his is "one of the larger student grants in the country"
    • " This guy made his money from bar-code scanners' patents (and lawsuits)."

      And while I normally jump all over overly-litigous corporations and individuals, I must say that I find his particular abuses of the patent and judicial systems quite appealing. Seems he took somewhat of a Robin Hood approach, with a sue the rich, give grants to the poor (students) philosophy. Is this one instance where the ends truly do justify the means? Or are the means, themselves, wholey justified by the participants and their intentions?

      • The reason why he donated all that money is that he couldn't POSSIBLY use all that money himself.. What's a 65 year old going to do with 1.5 Billion dollars (he only got insanely rich in the 90's - a few years before he died).
  • ...kicked the ground in unison and took their stinking RED ribbon and wouldn't give their parents a hug.

    Robot parents report they were testy whenever any of their robot friends asked how the meet went.

  • Hey I learned to use an old 80's vcr when i was 18 months old. And he's gifted for knowing what a walrus was. Damn, I must be the next einstien :-)
    • My VCR does date back to the late 1980's! (Yes, it flashes 00:00. Information on Time is on a need-to-know basis. It doesn't need know -- until the networks show something worth resetting it for.)

      As for the "next Einstein", let's just see if you're Y21-safe yet.

  • You have to know how to spell "Al Gore" and "dense wave-division multiplexing" and every word in RFC 1180? What's the prize for winning?

  • culture comentary (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wornst ( 317182 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:56PM (#5420463)
    " . . . making him, he says, the neighborhood geek in a black culture where adolescents rewarded only athletes and tough guys."

    I don't know how to respond from this observation in the article. On one hand being a "geek" in middle/high school really sucks. On the other hand, is it "black culture" that doesn't like geeks, or "white" culture that has traditionally railroaded blacks into those two categories? I definitely don't want to play the race card here. I just thought the observation in the article was interesting.
    • Did slavery and racism prevent blacks from getting educated? Yes, absolutely. But that does not change the fact that it is black culture that does not respect and admire intelligent young people.

      Whites played a big part in how that black culture developed. But it is, nevertheless, still black culture. It is blacks who are calling each other oreos for studying too hard. As John McWhorter, (a black) UC Berkeley linguists prof, said in his recent interview in Salon, the fact is that Asian culture in the US puts a high value on academics, while black and Hispanic culture do not.

      Again, whites played a big part in the development of black culture. And black culture can change - culture is not static. But that doesn't change the fact that today, black culture - the culture of black people who live in the US - does not respect intellectual achievement.
      • Yeah, but don't forget that white culture doesn't respect intelligence either...it respects money, power and physical prowess. Not intelligence...geek is a 'white' word.

        And the upshot of this is that someone who can throw a ball gets paid millions (litterally), someone who can steal and abuse an idea gets billions, someone who can sell himself gets to fleece a nation and someone who is smart (in everything but maybe marketing and/or finances) gets a comparable pittance for finding out how the universe works and translating that to something usefull (like artificial hearts, computer chips or stronger materials).

        Strange, isn't it.
    • " . . . making him, he says, the neighborhood geek in a black culture where adolescents rewarded only athletes and tough guys."

      I think this was the reporter's attempt to subtly inform us that McLurkin is black. It adds some interest to the story - probably not many black engineers have won in the past - but he feels awkward coming right out and saying it. The reporter is trying to be cool about it, like, "oh, he's black? I didn't even notice, that's how color-blind I am." But he has to let us know. This lets him do it without admitting that he's doing it.

      It's sad to see that this kind of pussy-footing is still necessary for some people.
      • If the winner is black, you can point out that he is black and get away with it. If he is white and you point it out you are racist.
        • No, when you point out someone is white you are a moron not a racist. Its automatically assumed that in the US when reporting about someone unless their ethnicity is mentioned that the person in question is the default majority ethnicity in this country, caucasion.

          Now go take your race baiting and shove it up your ass!
    • culture where adolescents rewarded only athletes and tough guysIm not fully in agreement w/ this statement. TOTALLY OFFTOPIC.

      Adolescent culture is only what they inherit and learn from their environment. They do not create the culture themselves, they are taught it by their community.

      I believe that brash, consumer culture teaches adolescents this shallow "idol worship". Not the kind of thoughtful, in-depth role-models which might be a rewarding experience for children. Capitalists, bent on creating the most fluid and influenceable market possible, bombard this group (children/young adults) with twisted images of reality (commercials) whose 'heros' or 'stars' are these simple people (athletes). Life itself is cloaked in a weird Brand Lifestyle shimmer, the products themselves are secondary, but necessary props in a life you can purchase at the mall. Or so they're told.

      Incapable of understanding more complex ideas or views of the world, the Capitalists quickly interfere and make impotent their development. These people don't grow out of this influence, they remain mired in this sphere of simplicity - all their thinking done for them - and delivered through their Televisions.

      In the End, you have millions of ill adjusted 'adults' shouting about sports teams and watching the 6 PM news. These broken adults become the cheering section for anything presented to them: Sports, OldNewDiet CokePepsi, bad literature, bad television, Orwellian Wars on Iraq, The Swifter, irrational fears of all stripes, etc etc etc.

      So, whats my point? Adolescents idolize whatever you present to them. Modern marketing has one goal: create/reinforce/encourage Consumerism; a wholly unrewarding(unsustainable) existence.

      Why would anyone be surprised when they see a gaggle of nike-clad mall punks smoking and acting like idiots? Look at the shallow, self-serving nature of the world that is presented to them. Further, why are we surprised when some "Geek" is ostracized because he doesn't follow the herd? Everything around him is guaranteed to make exactly that happen.

      ewww, i feel dirty - like ive just channelled john Katz. eek.

  • where are they called bees specifically? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anderlan ( 17286 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @05:57PM (#5420472) Homepage
    One linked article compared the bots to ants, one to "ants and bees". Why did you call them cyberbees? They don't fly. Thanks for the sensationalism I thought someone had made 4.5 inch flyers. That would have been a huge deal. Bigger deal than further study of swarm algorithms.

  • Next year's prize may go to the creator of 4.5-inch long swarming cockroaches.

    Like that doesn't exist already? (And for a long long time.) On the bright side, maybe the patent office will still patent their idea? *sigh* It still won't work, of course: Trying to get a lawyer to serve cockroaches, hell, most of them already serve cockroaches.

  • .. was an ant colony at MIT. He's probably using something about the same for his 125 robot swarm.
    Take a look at:
    http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/ants/

    It's really quite interesting how they're designed, even if the tech is from a few years back.

    Too bad there aren't any websites showing the new ones? Or are there?

    -m_xiphias

  • not impressed (Score:2, Interesting)

    by nailchipper ( 461706 )
    i went to the the mit website when they showcase the robots, link [mit.edu]

    i downloaded a few of the videos and was not that impressed. i am sure there is a lot of time and effort put into this, but i worked a summer camp where we taught kids a half of the things they were show casing... this [parallax.com] company sells little robots and we can even buy little ifrared recievers [parallax.com] imiters [parallax.com], light sensors, etc. we program it with BASIC to follow the light/dark, take commands from a remote control, pick things up. all this for just a 200bucks.

    now, many of the "crown control" things were odviously a bit more complicated. but is it THAT special? sending signals that push away or get closer to other bots.. not that new.

    one thing that i must say is that programming for these premanunfactured bots is easy, but if you ever try to linux-fy, and tweak, or play with the goodies inside, goodluck. Me and friend tried to make a linux compiler for it, and got no support from the company, no techdoc, nothing. (we were not surprised)
    • one thing that i must say is that programming for these premanunfactured bots is easy, but if you ever try to linux-fy, and tweak, or play with the goodies inside, goodluck.

      Are you talking about the Parallax robots powered by BASIC Stamps? Those are standard PIC microcontrollers. If StampBASIC isn't good enough for you you should be able to directly replace the PIC with the StampBASIC microcode interpreter with a plain one and program it in machine language. I believe there is even a C compiler for the PIC.

      As for compiling to StampBASIC p-code there isn't much point; you'd still have a very limited instruction store and you'd still be limited to the functions supported by the p-code interpreter, which are quite primitive.

      • As for compiling to StampBASIC p-code there isn't much point; you'd still have a very limited instruction store and you'd still be limited to the functions supported by the p-code interpreter, which are quite primitive.

        we were bored. we weren't trying that hard.

  • Bee-Like? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @06:07PM (#5420526) Journal
    First, I read the post, which talked about 'Bee-like robots', and was impressed. Making anything that flies under its own power and contains some kind of logic is pretty clever, and incorporating swarming algorithms is even better. Then I read the article (yes, I know this is /., I'm sorry, it won't happen again). I don't know about the US, but in the UK bees have wings, and fly. These were just ground crawlers. About 3 years ago, I saw something similar at Oxford Uuniversity, I think it was an undergrad's final year project. They used slightly bigger robots, but the principle is the same. This really isn't a new idea, and does not merit a prize. Flocking algorithms have been around for ages (we had to study them as part of a second year course) and small robots can by bought in Toys 'R' Us. Combining the two would be a good high-school project, but there's nothing particularly original in this work (at least as portrayed by the article).
    • A swarm of electric hobby helicopters [helihobby.com] with this swarming-control scheme could be easy (?). Strap on some instrument package and youve got an instant 'survivor recovery system'. The "goal discovery" could be a heat-signature for avalanche-victim recovery for instance.
  • 4" long robots, communicate via IR, sound familiar [thinkgeek.com]?
  • The Replicators have been using far more advanced technology than this throught their entire existance.

    I'd like to see these pissy bee-bots bringing a hyperdrive to 800% efficiency. Or evolving into cellular units that are invincible even to our projectile weapons.

    Pah.

  • Wait a minute... (Score:4, Funny)

    by funkhauser ( 537592 ) <zmmay2 AT uky DOT edu> on Sunday March 02, 2003 @06:41PM (#5420688) Homepage Journal
    Those aren't bugs... they're features!

  • it has to be said... (Score:3, Funny)

    by g4dget ( 579145 ) on Sunday March 02, 2003 @07:16PM (#5420857)
    I thought the Lemelson price was for commercializable, practical inventions. So, the thinking must be something like:
    • 1. build little toy robots on wheels with infrared sensors
    • 2. call them "cyberbees"
    • 3. ???
    • 4. profit!
    • Sell it to the Military.
    • "..commercializable, practical inventions"? I don't see why you would look for that in this competition. Jerome Lemelson, the originator of the prize, never commercialized a practical invention in his life. He made his money largely by patenting concepts (which he seldom if ever reduced to practice), then shaking down subsequent inventors and developers for royalties. I suppose you could argue that he commercialized the "submarine patent", but that's about all...
  • Cyberbees Score MIT Prize

    I don't see what all the buzz is about...

    *bah* *dum* *cha!*

    thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week :)

  • issues (Score:2, Funny)

    by Dizzo ( 443720 )
    ''Socially, I suffered tremendously. I couldn't have bought a girlfriend in high school. But I survived by sensing I was on a different course from my peers,'' McLurkin said. ''I knew I had a future.''

    At least he isn't bitter...
  • I'd be more impressed if their comm link wasn't foiled by little things like line-of-sight.

    Infrared = no progress for most applications, e.g. exploring earthquake ruins.
    • Actually, it's logical that the major problem would be the drive system. A slightly larger robot designed for all terrain movement, a faster processor, and RF communications would probably be the way to handle earthquake ruins. What he has demonstrated is something like a protocol for getting the robots to interact, now it just has to be applied to real hardware.
  • A beowulf cluster of those swarms.
    Ooooh.
  • ''Socially, I suffered tremendously. I couldn't have bought a girlfriend in high school. But I survived by sensing I was on a different course from my peers,'' McLurkin said. ''I knew I had a future.''

    30 years old, still in school, and won 30k for building a hobby type robot and then duplicating it 124 times. Ya, on a different course alright, the rest of his peers have been working in the real world for 26 years, and have made 40x his prize money in real income. Plus most are married and like to be social.

    His mommy sure can be proud of the french fry walrus now.
    • Hardly a waste. This man has his masters degree, and is on his way to getting his doctorate, from MIT no less. Far more than your average 30 year old.

      Im not sure where you came up with 26 years for how long his peers have been working in "the real world", but Ill go with it. So, 30k * 40 = 1.2mil...spread that out over 26 years, and thats only a little over 46k a year.

      Meanwhile, by the time this man has 26 years of "real world" work experience, he will be pulling in well over 46k a year with his masters, let alone a doctorate. As the article indicates, he has already taught civil engineering at MIT, is the lead scientist at iRobot, and winning this award will only give the company better recognition.

      As for it being a hobby type robot, that would only make it all the better. Noone would turn down 30k for something they put together as a hobby, let alone thier doctoral thesis.

      You also indicate he does not like to be social, and is not married, neither of which are addressed in either article.

      At least you got one thing right, his mommy sure can be proud.

    • Re:What a waste (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      30 years old, still in school... the rest of his peers have been working in the real world for 26 years

      start working at 4? your peers must all be Nike employees I take it...
  • So I guess these devices, like most living things, would be attracted to this [cyberhoney.net] then... :)
  • This certainly reminds me of those retina-scanning, robotic spiders in Tom Cruise's "Minority Report [minorityreport.com]."

    Also check out this guy's company at iRobot which offers real life robotic product like the "Roomba [roombavac.com]" - a robotic vacuum cleaner.

    I guess we may be only half a century away from commericialized robot similar to Honda's Asimo Humaniod [honda.com].
  • I saw an actual demonstration of these by McLurkin a few months ago. What actually impressed me the most about these things was that he used music and sounds to indicate what each robot was doing. He had about 20 of these things running around on the floor, and it's amazing that by just listening to them, you can figure out what's going on. One example was the use of a musical scale to indicate the distance a given robot is from its leader. He said it was a great debug tool in that you can actually hear when there's something wrong... faster than looking at a screenful of log files.
    • I had a two-line LCD on a robot I built at Cal Poly. It was very useful to have print statements in my code so the robot could tell me what it thought it was doing. In real time I could observe the behavior and the screen output. When the screen says "turning left" and the robot is turning right, it's time to take another look at that stepper motor drive sequence!
  • I'm sure that what we're all REALLY afraid of is when those kooky kids at MIT invent robot CRABS. Talk about ants in your pants....
  • I don't see what's so impressive about this, except that this guy built a large number of dumb bots. We've known about flocking behaviors for years, since Craig Reynolds did the original boids [red3d.com] animations in the 1980s. It's neat that someone finally built enough bots that those behaviors appear with real machines, but it's not original.

    There's a lot happening in mobile robotics, but the action is with the smarter machines. DoD is pushing hard on this. Look up "Demo III" and "XUV".

  • Ok, so it's popular trash literature - but did anyone else who has read Michael Crichton's Prey [crichton-official.com] get a little uneasy after seeing this article?

  • "You want my mechanical bee!"

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