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I myself have some interest in the software side of this. I see the robot is remote controlled - but I think a large degree of autonomy would be required for a

I myself have some interest in the software side of this. I see the robot is remote controlled - but I think a large degree of autonomy would be required for a 50Km trip. The current self driving technology relies on a trunk full of Nvidia cards sucking data in from a few dozen cameras, lidars or radars all working to create a coherent world view, the whole system drawing hundreds of watts of power. I wonder if it's possible to capture 90% of the performance of that system with simple hardware that can fit such minimal hardware and other applications where failure is an option and has limited consequences. A thing I'm thinking about lately are lightweight, electric self driving bikes (or more exactly, trikes) running on existing, dedicated bike infrastructure, augmented with some embedded instrumentation. As long as the speed does not exceed 15Km/h and they are guaranteed to never run a red light or run over any object crossing the path, they could be as safe as a human driven bikes.

TaylorAlexander 8y ago
Yes autonomy is super important for a robot like this! I build rover as a platform for autonomy research, as smaller robots I’ve built in the past didn’t have enough room for a high powered compute and an array of sensors. I’m particularly interested in camera only navigation, localization, and obstacle avoidance, and I hope to get an NVIDIA Xavier board and multiple cameras to use as the sensing system. I’m trying to get myself in a position where I finally have to learn machine learning, and Rover is the project for that!
tomp 8y ago
Why would you want a self-driving bicycle? It’s not like you can relax and read a book during the ride, and it’s not very autonomous either (unless it can stand upright without moving).
- cornholio 8y ago
  That's the idea, to relax for the bulk of the trip on dedicated infrastructure, then pedal the last mile to your final destination: https://www.coroflot.com/hadley/enclosed-bike https://www.coroflot.com/hadley/enclosed-bike With solar panels and the right weather, it barley needs to recharge.
  - tomp 8y ago
    Ah, so the bicycle is just a legal term; in common speech, this would sooner be called a one person tiny car.
    - cornholio 8y ago
      Is the windscreen the defining feature of a car? It can be replaced with a plastic, zipper tarpaulin. I see the distinction more as a weight-power-danger thing.
      - tomp 8y ago
        For me it’s closed vs open, and less so stable vs unstable (although 3-wheel motorcycles break that pattern).
    - KozmoNau7 8y ago
      It's a distinct category of human powered vehicle: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velomobile https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velomobile
  - Anon1096 8y ago
    That's not a bicycle, it's a tricycle. I guess you've solved the problem of balancing but I don't think many bicyclists would be happy with your design.
    - cornholio 8y ago
      Well, I did say trike in the original post above. I think the relationship with the bicyclist community depends on the safety and weight/speed of the vehicle and how well it suits their own needs. Trikes and electric trikes are allowed on bicycle tracks depending on jurisdiction, an example upper ceiling of power is 250W.
- dayofthedaleks 8y ago
  'Get a horse!'
52-6F-62 8y ago
Not sure how relevant, but it appears he has the code for Rover's control on Github: https://github.com/tlalexander/rover_control https://github.com/tlalexander/rover_control

TaylorAlexander 8y ago

Yes autonomy is super important for a robot like this! I build rover as a platform for autonomy research, as smaller robots I’ve built in the past didn’t have enough room for a high powered compute and an array of sensors. I’m particularly interested in camera only navigation, localization, and obstacle avoidance, and I hope to get an NVIDIA Xavier board and multiple cameras to use as the sensing system. I’m trying to get myself in a position where I finally have to learn machine learning, and Rover is the project for that!

tomp 8y ago

Why would you want a self-driving bicycle? It’s not like you can relax and read a book during the ride, and it’s not very autonomous either (unless it can stand upright without moving).

cornholio 8y ago
That's the idea, to relax for the bulk of the trip on dedicated infrastructure, then pedal the last mile to your final destination: https://www.coroflot.com/hadley/enclosed-bike https://www.coroflot.com/hadley/enclosed-bike With solar panels and the right weather, it barley needs to recharge.
- tomp 8y ago
  Ah, so the bicycle is just a legal term; in common speech, this would sooner be called a one person tiny car.
  - cornholio 8y ago
    Is the windscreen the defining feature of a car? It can be replaced with a plastic, zipper tarpaulin. I see the distinction more as a weight-power-danger thing.
    - tomp 8y ago
      For me it’s closed vs open, and less so stable vs unstable (although 3-wheel motorcycles break that pattern).
  - KozmoNau7 8y ago
    It's a distinct category of human powered vehicle: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velomobile https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velomobile
- Anon1096 8y ago
  That's not a bicycle, it's a tricycle. I guess you've solved the problem of balancing but I don't think many bicyclists would be happy with your design.
  - cornholio 8y ago
    Well, I did say trike in the original post above. I think the relationship with the bicyclist community depends on the safety and weight/speed of the vehicle and how well it suits their own needs. Trikes and electric trikes are allowed on bicycle tracks depending on jurisdiction, an example upper ceiling of power is 250W.
dayofthedaleks 8y ago
'Get a horse!'

52-6F-62 8y ago

Not sure how relevant, but it appears he has the code for Rover's control on Github: https://github.com/tlalexander/rover_control https://github.com/tlalexander/rover_control