Does Your Robot Do Anything?

Question

So I was just wondering what everyone uses their creations for? Im talking about what "real- world" application does/will it do besides just run around the rooms and not bump into a wall?

Robot Doc · Answer

I'm working on one that will vacuum an area I define and then go empty itself.

Sudo the Banned · Answer

My robot is planned to be sort of a companion humanoid robot. Hopefully one day I can add a better chat AI and more sensors, but for now he's still a cool little robot (even without a EZ-B, hopefully even better with one)

Steve S · Answer

RoboHappy, My robot Entertains me, my family, and friends. She reads the weather, news, bible quote for the day, jokes, and more. She reminds me to charge her batteries, "I am sorry I require maintenance, but you enjoy me." She responds to 36 voice commands, with a high .90,s confidence level. Tells me my grandkids names, family history, about her, about me (in case I someday forget?)my siblings, her siblings. Recites poetry, with movements (The Raven), naps snoozes, strectches when she wakes up, working on a dance routine, does what she wants when she wants to do it after I tell her to enable her 13 personality generators (including movements), complains when I ask her to deactivate them (shakes her head no and sais "I will deactivate them if you really want me to", anwsers questions, she has an Irobot cousin that vacuums (closest thing to real work), have service functions in mind when I can improve her navigation, tests her circuits, always being upgraded and updated with new features because of the new advancements of EZ Robot. Provides an excellent learning experience for my grand kids, and most of all, provides me an avenue to pursue my robot building adventures that I truly enjoy. Steve S

Dave Schulpius · Answer

Mine just stands there and looks really cool.

Antron007 · Answer

@dschulpius, I could be mistaken for your robot

irobot58 · Answer

@dave and @Antron you guys crack me up! Steve's explanation is very similar to my own robot in progress. Entertainment is !highly! useful. It keeps us happy and as Steve says " an avenue to pursue my robot building adventures that I truly enjoy. " there many members who do build robots for purely useful functions..Jstarnes projects come to mind .....good question @RoboHappy

Dave Schulpius · Answer

@irobot58, Long time sense out posts have crossed. How have you been? Hope your robot and life are doing well. Actually my B9 does a huge service to me. He's made my childhood dream of owning the actual TV robot from Lost in Space come true. Thanks to EZ Robot he sounds and acts as close to the real thing as I could have ever hoped for. Although he wont move around (He could if I wanted to install tread drive motors) he down respond to questions with hundreds of statements recorded from the actual voice actor that original B9 voice, The twist and bend at the waist and hips, The bubble goes up and down and the radar and ear sensors rotate along with a lot of other neat movements. With a little creative but easy script writing I'll have him interacting and moving on his own with remarkable realism. I know your looking for answers taking about how robots are actually doing things like getting a beer from the fridge or washing the windows. However I thought I'd chime in and say that fulfilling dreams is a huge thing that a robot can do for someone.

thetechguru · Answer

I have a small tread robot that I was working on adding a claw to that I could use to pick up the cat's toys and bring them to me after I have thrown them alll and she still wants to play (l had a cat when I was a teen that would fetch, but haven't been able to teach this one). I stopped work on itbwhen EZ bits were announced and ordered a 3 servo arm, but once it arrives I'll finish it up. I am slowly working on a Steampunk Dog that will be a companion robot, but also do security duty when I am not home. He will have a "garage" that will hold the little tread bot so he can send it on expeditions to places he can't fit.

DJ Sures · Answer

Hi robohappy everyone has their own reason for having a robot - and I don't think any one here has a robot to "not bump into a walk". That's more the arduino or parallax style robots you're thinking of. Every EZ-Robot can have conversations with you using the AI control, understand Vision or be scripted to perform tasks. Now, not every one builds an eZrovot for a specific task that you may find useful, but you must respect that it is useful to them Some people want a robot as a companion or pet. That's why I like these robots. I like to come home to a personality robots which greet me at the door and say or do funny stuff. One of my robots likes watching tv because of the colors and motion - that's clearly not a useful task but it entertains me! There are thousands of ezrobot users from our previous product. And not all of them are active on here. Many of them are companies that license our product to be used in their product. You'll see a lot of products released in the next year with eZrobot inside. There's also a few community members who have been inspired to build robots for their own personal reasons - which range from smart wheel chairs to fire/disaster recovery. There's also a school that was making a robot cart to move books from room to room. There's people making ez robots to control home automation. EZrobot is a blank canvas for your robot creation. We provide an environment which let's you focus on creating rather tha all the hard low level stuff. As an example, to create a robot without eZrobot would take hardware circuit design, microcontroller programming, algorithms for servos and audio and video. Then you have to program graphic interfaces and speech recognition. Now yiu have to merge in opencv or create your own algorithms for vision processing... By the time this is all done, it's taken you years. So starting with eZrobot, you can focus on the robot instead of everything else

Dave Schulpius · Answer

@RoboHappy, thanks for starting this thread. It's a great one and has turned into a good and useful conversation. It's always good when DJ chimes in.

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

The one I am working on is a remote presence robot. It is basically a mobile web cam that my girlfriend and I can use to check up on our cats while we are away... I have a lot of vex robotic kits that make a great robot platform.. Down the road with some wherewithal I am hoping to add some sort of claw/arm manipulator so maybe making it possible to feed, give fresh water and even clean the litter box as well... Like DJ says, the possibilities are endless...

RoboHappy · Answer

Thanks DJ, and everyone one else who chimed in. Lovin all the responses and am very impressed with some of the applications. I do hope to hear some more too. I right now, am just trying to simple, getting a bot to move my laundy basket around to/from the laundry room of the condo complex (leg and back issues lately). My dream robot someday maybe would be to build a Terminator (or Cylon). I just kind of find them to be the ultimate bots off all time.

Steve S · Answer

RoboHappy, After reading your last post, I remembered someone built a Robo Belhop with a IRobot Create, an add on Create $Module$, a laundry basket, and an IRobot virtual wall. Here is a simpler, cheaper solution (maybe less features) that I discovered today. I used my IRobot Create ($129), an IRobot virtual wall (cheap on Ebay), a rubber band to strap the virtual wall on my foot, and a piece of electrical tape to block all but a small opening on the front of my IRobot Create IR sensor. The Create comes with built in Demo modes. I used Demo #7 "HOME". After applying the tape restricting the IR sensor, I strapped the virtual wall to my foot, enabled both, and my robot would circle till it located me and drive toward me. If I moved slowly to a new location it would continue following me! If I let it bump into me it would stop and stay stopped if the beacon was near. If I walked away, it would start up again automatically and hunt me down! I am staying no more than 8 feet away during the video. I had tried this demo before but with the virtual wall stationary. I never realized the Create would restart if I had the wall strapped on my foot and walked away! What a cool bonus! I am also thinking I may be able to execute this from my EZB by sending Serial commands. EZ Robot and the IRobot Create are both great, and they are both great bargains! Steve S

CardboardHacker · Answer

Lol, steve! Imagine if you pit this on another robot and drove it around! Robot tag!

DJ Sures · Answer

Steve that's awesome. The ezb connects to the roomba easily. Look under "add controls, robots" in ARC. You'll find a roomba control that makes it even easier!

Troy · Answer

"What's your robot suppose to do when you finish it?" That's what my co-workers ask when they here about my project. Then usually followed by "is it going to get you a beer, vacuum the floor, answer the door....?" then I reply with a simple answer that it's simply for my entertainment and a hobby to tinker with. They don't seem to get it. That doesnt matter to me because its for me. When finished I will have something to show my young son to get interested in electronics and show him that he can make one too when I get back to the states.

Nomad 6R · Answer

the world is struggling to survive.but robot are always there. it keeps you ocupied.make you smarter.you do things lot faster. it makes you alive.aslong there are robots ,the world keeps turning and survive. DJ you solve one big issue about robots.and that is they are very exspencive. so many loose there interest off bying.its importent that EZ becomes very big, so avery person can make his dream come true. when i was young there wasn even a tin robot ,aldo the dream was there. i wich you where there.my life would surten be different and better. and thats what the robot must do,keep your spirit burning.

thank you DJ and all the guys here.

jstarne1 · Answer

Well I have 1. the Squeegee Robot that wet mops the floor 2. Two modded robots with airsoft guns for arms. You can have a battle Royale 3. Beer robot in progress brings beers from kitchen to marked stops in the living room 4.fishtank "robot" controls the lighting , timers , automatic fish feeding , variable wave makers there are all kinds of things you can do , a robot is as practically useful as you make it.

Darathian · Answer

When my robot is not chasing the dog it makes a pretty good door stop

RoboHappy

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