BIG BOB

JENNY'S BIG BOB

One of the lovable robots you are likely meet while learning Player/Stage is Jenny's Big Bob. Jenny has written some excellent tutorials for the Player/Stage newbie. Lot more can be found at her blogspot.

 

SIMBAD - THE ROBOT SIMULATOR

SIMBAD

Simbad is a mobile robot simulator for simulations in 3 dimensions and can be programmed in Java and Jython.  To use the simulator, one needs to install Java 3D.
 

JAVA 3D INSTALLATION

Java 3D can be a messy installation in Linux, the Java 3D bin file has to be installed into the jvm folder.

I am on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS this worked for me;

:~$ cd /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk/jre

:/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk/jre$ sudo sh /home/acer/j3d-1_5_2-linux-i586.bin

After a long EULA agreement, if something like the following comes up then we are through with the Java 3D installation.

STARTING OFF WITH SIMBAD

Running the Simbad bin file can be done as;

:~$ java -jar simbad-1.4.jar

If Java 3D is properly installed, then the following window should pop up;

Playing around with the robot ! ....

SIMBAD WITH JYTHON

If you are a python enthusiast like me, then you may prefer to use jython than java.

BEST BOOKS FOR MOBILE ROBOTICS

BEST BOOKS FOR MOBILE ROBOTICS

An near exhaustive list of books for mobile robots.

  1) Classics

     a) Behavior-Based Robotics
     b) An Introduction to AI Robotics

     c) Robot Motion Planning

     d) Computational Principles of Mobile Robotics

     e) Planning Algorithms

     f) Probabilistic Robotics

  2) For The Newbie

      a) Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots 

      b) Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementations
      c) Introduction to Robotics: Analysis, Systems, Applications
      d) Mobile Robotics: A Practical Introduction
      e) The Robotics Primer

 3) Particular Topics 

 3.1) Behaviour Based Approaches

      a) Robot Programming : A Practical Guide to Behavior-Based Robotics
      b) Designing Autonomous Agents
      c) Designing Sociable Robots

 3.2) Robot Vision

      a) Learning OpenCV

 3.3) Bio-inspired

      a) Bio-Inspired Artificial Intelligence: Theories, Methods, and Technologies
      b) Flying Insects and Robots

 3.4) Multiagent Systems/ Robot Societies 
     a) Robot Colonies 
     b) Swarm Robotics: SAB 2004 International Workshop
     c) Swarm Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial Systems  
 
 3.5) Natural Language Processing
     a) Natural Language Processing with Python

 3.6) Fuzzy logic route to robots 

     a) Fuzzy Logic Techniques for Autonomous Vehicle Navigation 

 3.7) Building Robots
     a) Arduino Cookbook 
     b) Getting Started with Arduino

 4) Related - but not really Mobile Robots

 4.1) Robotic Manipulator

      a) Robotics: Control, Sensing, Vision, and Intelligence
      b) Introduction to Robotics: Mechanics and Control
 

 4.2) AI related

      a) The Society of Mind

 4.3) Philosophical

      a) Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid 

      b) Metamagical Themas

Feel free to suggest any more ...... I will keep adding as I find them ..... !