The Explorer
Meriwether is an experimental explorer. He is intended mostly as a simple testbed to try out various ideas. The intent is that he starts our simple and gradually gets new capabilities.
Meriwether will be exploring in and around my house. He will look for "interesting" things and feed his "desires." He can detect different colors of light, temperature, sound, and obstacles. What exactly is "interesting" has yet to be finalized, but a few ideas are certain colored objects, particular types (frequencies?) of sound, and as a basic "desire" or need, certain temperature ranges. He may also include a solar panel for recharging, which will give him a need and desire for sunlight.
Anatomy
This is a very low budget, simple project. Meriwether's main body is made from a cheap pressboard clipboard and a cheap plastic storage bucket. He has two yellow gear motors and wheels from ebay for drive and an arduino clone for control. An RGB LED is used to detect different colors of light. A transistor in super-diode configuration is the temperature sensor. A cheap sound input module is used for detecting sounds. A series of bumper switches are arranged along the base to detect collisions. The drive wheels are placed up front and a third caster wheel is at the back. Rechargeable NiMH batteries provide power. I will probably add a solar panel for recharging, which will also add some basic survival needs.
Programming / Intelligence
For now, the programming will be conventional. It will consist of typical C/C++ code to achieve the goals listed below. At some point in the future, various types of artificial intelligence coding may be added, such as a neural network. His goals are listed here, in decreasing order of importance:
1. Survive: Meriwether doesn't want to die. He knows he has to feed (sunlight) and avoid dangerous obstacles. He doesn't know all the things that are dangerous, but running out of energy is one. He knows that loud noises may mean danger and will mostly avoid them. Perhaps a sensor to detect rain so he becomes smart enough to get in out of the rain.
2. Explore: Meriwether wants to find new things. New patches of color, new obstacles, or perhaps new sounds that aren't dangerous can be explored. Places where light is bright or dark can also be of interest. Areas with certain temperature ranges should also be interesting.
3. Map: Meriwether wants to remember where the interesting things are; they may be useful later. So he will try to remember where he found the interesting things.
4. Learn: Meriwether wants to do new things, not the same old things. He also wants to be able to associate interesting things he finds with helping to meet other goals. As an example, if he finds that purple objects (flowers) are usually in bright sunlight, he can associate the purple objects with possible places to go to recharge. Or if darker areas associate with more comfortable temperatures, he can learn to look for shade if he gets too hot.
Beginnings
This project is just beginning. It's a personal research project, so where it will lead is yet unknown. Arent' the best journeys the ones you take without a firm destination, just for the journey itself?
I will be updating this post as the project proceeds.
"Where you headed?"
"Wherever I end up."
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/meriwether-x1804-the-explorer