EZ-AI development is on hold right now, well kind of...
We are in the process of working with some services that will allow the capabilities of EZ-AI to be far better than what they currently are. These include Wolfram|Alpha and IBM BlueMix/Watson. Speech Recognition will be performed through Nuance Cloud services. Advanced vision features will be available through OpenCV. A quick search of these services will allow you to see the end goal of what we are doing. These will be in the Rafiki project which is the primary focus at this time for CochranRobotics. We will release a limited use version for free which will replace EZ-AI. All of the current features of the EZ-AI database will be available through the new version. All of the services provided by EZ-AI will be available through REST queries and exposed services. This will allow plugins to ARC to be able to use these services.
There has been a huge amount of changes to what is possible since I first started working on EZ-AI. This huge shift of improved technologies has made it necessary to rework EZ-AI so that it can continue to grow and mature.
We are also toying with the idea of allowing programmers to write their own business logic layer within Rafiki. This would allow a programmer to be able to use the core services of Rafiki/EZ-AI and write their own applications with the data that is returned. It will probably be a while before this is implemented, but it is something that we are trying to make happen.
I have probably said too much, but wanted to give you all a picture of what is happening and why EZ-AI isn't being worked on directly. We hope to have our new AI available around the end of the year. There are multiple developers working on this while I find come up with solutions to other problems that arise.
As far as Rafiki goes, the pods are functioning great and additional code/abilities are being added almost daily. The models for the pods are being tweaked to expose the HDMI and usb ports and network port to the outside of the case. This will allow someone to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor to the pod and use it as a computer if they would like. The Rafiki Bot is about 1/3 of the way printed. I am making modifications to the models as needed and reprinting some of the parts as needed. There will be 6 subsystems on this robot. 3 of these subsystems have been written and are ready to use. The other 3 subsystems cant be worked on until more of the Rafiki Bot has been printed. The 3 that are not complete are all very similar for motor control. I hope to have these ready in a couple of weeks. I should be able to show a demo of the Rafiki Bot in about a month, and then all of the robot programming starts. I will work on the charger base shortly after the robot has been completed and the pods are all working with all of their functionality.
One more thing on EZ-AI... As a part of this rewrite, you will just need to have Java installed on your computer to install and use EZ-AI. The days of the huge install will be behind us so it should make it far better in the long run. The other thing that this allows is robot platform independence. I will be working on modules in ARC to allow the features of EZ-AI to be accessible far more easily. This will probably not be worked on until December at the earliest.
Okay, going back to my robot cave. Have a great day all.
permissions granted.
Back from my trip to Dallas. I met with my invester who is committed as ever, delt with work stuff, became a member of the 2000+ member Dallas makerspace, had a great conversation with the GetSurreal creator and found out about his plans for code changes, met with the Dallas Personal Robotics Group, introduced EZ Robot and the idea behind Rafiki to about 5 people, and overslept this morning. It was a productive 2 day trip. I will do my best to make the promised video tomorrow or this weekend.
Glad to hear you made it home safe David, Sounds like you had a very productive time in Dallas. interesting on the getsurreal person who is changing code.
Great to hear your investor is 100% behind you. Can't wait to see the video by the way check your other email.
Thank you Mike. I appreciate it very much!
As promised
very educational video.
Dave,
Thanks for taking the time to explain Rafiki's background, concept and design points. It shows that this is the real thing, not a toy. The heavy duty components, and modular controllers will allow years of use, flexibility and expansion.
Regards, Ron
I have the base documentation updated and mostly completed for the DIY build. There are a couple more things to add at the end of the document. I made a couple of changes on the board after the first build of the board. These changes allow me to use locking headers for the wires from the communications board to the main sensor controller board. I am also changing a couple of the USB headers on one of the boards and giving an easier way to attach the encoders from the motors to the main sensor controller board. There are also small changes that will allow the USB connectors to fit better and small changes to the way the BEC mounts to the communications board. Also, there is a change to the power connectors from the BEC port on the communications board and the main sensor controller board. I also changed the board layout to not include the flip flop boards as I think I will have plenty of these to fulfill any orders for quite some time.
My hope is to have the kit available for sale this summer. The printed parts can be completed prior to that so that then the build is simply adding the electronics and such. If you choose to go down this path, don't assemble anything above the base until you have the electronics. It will be much easier to add the electronics as you build the robot. I am working on adding access panels under the arms so that you have more access to the inside of the robot. I will update the STL files when this is complete.
One other note... The first Rafiki was printed when I had my office setup. I could keep the office pretty hot. This allowed the tall body pieces to be printed well without layer separation as the print got to its taller sections. My office has moved to the living room to allow my son to move in, so I don't have the climate control abilities that I did when in an office. It was also printed in the summer which just really meant that I had to close the door to the office and block the vent to make sure heat stayed high in that room. I have had to order a lexan box to sit over my 3D printer due to the location of the 3D printer now. This box could have been built but I figured that I would rather pay for something that will work instead of going down the path of building something that might work for this. This should help the prints to complete without the separation issue. I mention this because you might experience the same thing. It has been my experience that even though the printer is enclosed, there can still be issues with this due to heat.
Another effect that I hope to gain from this is to make the printer more quiet while printing. The printer isn't loud, but being that it is now in the living room, I like for it to be quiet so that others in the family are not disturbed while watching a movie or TV or whatever.
Anyway, all of this is said because I am now waiting for the box to arrive. Once it gets here, I will start printing the body again, and then start making modifications to these parts as needed and such...
Another note on EZ-AI... My son is planning on starting work on this again in the coming weeks to complete the plugin for ARC. I hope to have this completed shortly and go forward from there.
Thanks David