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Subject: 
Re: Interactive human-controlled bots
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Mon, 26 Jul 1999 22:06:36 GMT
Viewed: 
1837 times
  
   Check out the reports on the RoboGladiator event which was held in May 1999
at:

   http://www.teamdelta.com/roboglad/index.html

   It's everything you want, all done with LEGO!

In lugnet.robotics, Todd Lehman writes:
> 
> At a local toystore last night, they had a big setup of Rokenbok (a
> pseudo-LEGO-compatible construction toy system) with a bunch of radio-
> controlled dump-trucks, ramps, bridges, balls to move around, and so forth.
> 
> OK, Rokenbok certainly leaves a lot to be desired as a construction toy
> (compared to LEGO), but the Cool Thing was that each of the trucks was
> interactively controllable via a Nintendo-like joypad -- forward, reverse,
> left, right, and four action buttons (up/down on the front loader, etc).
> 
> The first thing to do when you walk up to the area is to try picking up a
> few of the balls with the scoop and dropping them in the hopper (or one of
> many various ball-related tasks).  But heck, that gets boring pretty
> quickly...it's all thinking and no adrenaline.  :)
> 
> What's fun is when there are two or more people there each controlling a
> separate truck -- and trying to knock the living daylights out of the other
> "player."  It's tricky, but not impossible, to actually flip another truck
> on its side, rendering it "dead."  The motors are fairly strong.
> 
> I kind of think of this as a sort of wrestling, where you try to pin the
> other guy by flipping him.  I think there are some species of turtles that
> actually do this in real-life -- they have a special protrusion beneath
> their necks for flipping other turtles in mating-ritual combat.
> 
> Anyway --
> 
> I really can't get too excited about programmable bricks doing super-cool
> thinking-type combat yet when the sensors and onboard chipsets are still so
> primitive as what the RCX has.
> 
> OTOH, if there were a system which directly connected a host computer's
> keyboard to the RCX via a dedicated continuous link, and if the key-commands
> mapped to convenient motor controls, then I bet some really fun interactive
> combat stuff could be done...  (Has anything like this been done yet?)
> 
> I wanna be able to play a game where I knock the other player off onto its
> back -- or off a cliff, into a steaming tar-pit -- in order to gain a point.
> Or maybe sever its IR link by climbing on top of it.  :)
> 
> I always liked the "Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots" commercials when I was a kid,
> but the problem I have with those is that they're in permanent fixed
> proximity to one another.  CyberSlam has the opposite problem: it's too
> mobile and therefore too easy to evade the opponent.
> 
> What kinds of things could be done relatively easily with a human-controlled
> mechanism, but would be very, very difficult as autonomous "thinking" bots?
> 
> Two RCX's:
> - Interesting combat matches (natch :)
> - One-on-one robo-basketball
> - Brick launcher:  try to hit the opponent's fortress or bot across the room
> 
> One RCX:
> - Indoor 9-hole miniature golf
> - Billiards or pool on a real pool-table
> - Cat toy:  know when to run, when to hide, and when to attack
> - Maze runner:  navigate maze in shortest time without bumping into a wall
> 
> Just some food for thought...
> 
> --Todd
> 
> p.s.  David Chen reported in January that he was able to reliably achieve a
> 20-ft RCX IR transmission distance:   http://www.lugnet.com/robotics/?n=2520



Message is in Reply To:
  Interactive human-controlled bots
 
At a local toystore last night, they had a big setup of Rokenbok (a pseudo-LEGO-compatible construction toy system) with a bunch of radio- controlled dump-trucks, ramps, bridges, balls to move around, and so forth. OK, Rokenbok certainly leaves a (...) (27 years ago, 23-Jul-99, to lugnet.robotics)

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