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Slightly off-topic but related. BEAM robots created by Mark Tilden who later founded WowWee might be of interest to readers. From Wikipedia[0]: BEAM robotics (
by richardboegli 10y ago
Slightly off-topic but related.
BEAM robots created by Mark Tilden who later founded WowWee might be of interest to readers.
From Wikipedia[0]:
BEAM robotics (from Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics and Mechanics) is a style of robotics that primarily uses simple analogue circuits, such as comparators, instead of a microprocessor in order to produce an unusually simple design.
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BEAM robots may use a set of the analog circuits, mimicking biological neurons, to facilitate the robot's response to its working environment.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BEAM_robotics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BEAM_robotics
- hexagonc 10y agoI would also suggest anyone that is interested in BEAM robotics to take a look at Braitenberg Vehicles[1]. These are simple reflex-based robots that can exhibit complex behaviors due to their interaction with their environment. Originally, they were thought experiments by the psychologist Valentino Braitenberg who showed in his book, Vehicles[2], how one might ascribe complex emotional and mental states to a simple automaton if one only observed its external behavior. For a fascinating earlier example of analog robotics, (and the first example of true autonomous robotics to my knowledge) one has the work of Grey Walter and his "tortoise" robots[3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braitenberg_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braitenberg_vehicle [2] https://books.google.com/books?id=7KkUAT_q_sQC https://books.google.com/books?id=7KkUAT_q_sQC (there appears to be excerpts available for free as pdfs) [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grey_Walter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grey_Walter