Learning Abilities

Question

I was wondering if the EZB could be given a set of instruction ie; move to some location, or raise an arm where the person would Train the EZB and show him what to do. Then could play back later. I think there is a record function. Could this be used? I haven't worked with the EZB in a long time because my robot is down.

JustinRatliff · Answer

How do you envision training the robot?

Rich · Answer

I don't know if the record function has been 100% fixed yet, I know there was an issue with long recordings. As Justin has asked, how do you plan to train him? There are many controls at your disposal, one being Auto Position which you could use to "teach" your robot moves and then play them back.

jstarne1 · Answer

@moviemaker , the record function records inputs from a controller and converts them to a script. There is not current a "write" and " read" table function for a robot to develop it's own memory or learn right now. I'm sure it will happen eventually Self learning is a more complicated aspect.

MovieMaker · Answer

It seems that it would not be hard. Other robots are doing it. You just say Learn and move their arms or legs, etc. to where you want the to go and say stop. Then you can run that complete movement with one click or call from a script like a subroutine. Thank You very much for your answer.

Rich · Answer

Connect a servo to D0 Centre the servo Release the servo Move the servo manually to a different position Run the command $servoposition = GetServo(D0) The result will be the last known servo position, in this case 50 (or whatever centre is) Therefore moving arms in to place manually wouldn't work. Also, the recorder function would corrupt saves if the recorder is long, I haven't seen an update state this has been solved. It also only records controls in ARC not positions of anything moved manually. The auto position and scripts are the better option. Other robots probably do it by reading feedback pots etc. This is achievable in ARC using scripts but is redundant really since it makes more sense to do things the other way around, i.e. program movements with auto position to move limbs from position a to position b, auto position fills in the gaps for smooth movement over set time periods. There are file reading and writing functions which will save values to text files, these could be utilised quite easily. There are also functions to read and write variables to the cloud. It's also possible using PHP and running a small server with MySQL to save values to tables in an SQL database and retrieve them. All of these features are already existing in ARC. Melvin has always written every variable to files and had permanent long term memory. I have experimented with the various ways above. The easiest was the PHP/MySQL method as it saved from having to host a lot of text files for each variable. It may be possible to read/write more than one variable to a single text file, I didn't spend too long on that method as it didn't suit my requirements (I wanted the memory there from any location and when connected to any PC, the HTTPGet function was more suited).

DJ Sures · Answer

MovieMaker, if you are refering to physically moving the limbs into positions, then what you are asking for will require Dynamixel Servos - and they are about $60 USD each. The EZ-B v4 supports them. quite honestly, I don't prefer that method at all. You can move the servos into position manually, but they're never perfect. You will have to fine tune them with the Auto Position Control anyway. So for me, it's much easier and less time consuming to use the Auto Position Control. The "program by moving with your hands" feature of Dynamixel is gimmicky. Stick to the Auto Position Control and youll be much happier.

jstarne1 · Answer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poPeO7xxA90&feature=youtube_gdata_player First thing I think of is a child posing the robot and playing the movement back or something. This is a demonstration but it's impractical to do this with multi legged robots smoothly. The demonstration only works well with one limb. Even then you can see how far off the mimicking arm is portraying the servo positions.

Steve S · Answer

MovieMaker, That is a great desire to have a robot learn and train. Any new ideas and functions are always great. My old Basic programs are out dated. I am glad to see you back on the forum. What is disabling your robot? Just keep trying. Try to keep ever thing basic, and build on that. You are appreciated on the forum! Thank you Mel, Steve S

MovieMaker · Answer

Thank you all. My Sunshine robot has been paraplegic for many months now. I was waiting on parts to get in, but they never came. I had some health situations also. I LOVE A.I. and I dream of singularity before death. But, I don't think it will happen in my life-time. Thank you, Steve for the kind words.