Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: PeteCress on July 14, 2013, 09:55:22 AM

Title: Deer-Seeking Robot?
Post by: PeteCress on July 14, 2013, 09:55:22 AM
This is probably a hopelessly naive question, but I do see turnkey devices like  Scribbler (http://tinyurl.com/28zmfxs (http://tinyurl.com/28zmfxs)) and Roomba (http://tinyurl.com/pel8x75 (http://tinyurl.com/pel8x75)).

I also see some home-made efforts like the light-seeking Aduino device at http://tinyurl.com/p52qmt3, (http://tinyurl.com/p52qmt3,)

The application would be discouraging deer, the bane of many homeowners, from browsing on whatever they find tasty in the owner's yard.

Existing methods are varied and numerous, but seem to share the same fault: deer get used to them and/or learn to tolerate them.

I'm thinking that a little tracked vehicle that would be attracted to anything that presented a certain mass a certain height off the ground could be made to approach it, identify a leg, and bump up against it repeatedly - something that I'd hope deer would not learn to tolerate.

Is this a hopelessly-complex undertaking?

Might somebody already have done it?
Title: Re: Deer-Seeking Robot?
Post by: jwatte on July 14, 2013, 02:12:09 PM
It is probably possible, but building something that is robust enough, and big enough, to work reliably, is likely a matter of many thousands of dollars of investment.

You'd need some advanced sensors (Kinect style or at least webcam style) plus some way of re-charging plus some logic plus enough stiffness/robustness to not die when the deer try to kick it or step on it.
Title: Re: Deer-Seeking Robot?
Post by: waltr on July 14, 2013, 03:51:51 PM
Besides everything jwatt said.
Instead of detecting a deer (tough vision problem) maybe all that is required is detecting motion (easier vision problem).
Title: Re: Deer-Seeking Robot?
Post by: PeteCress on July 14, 2013, 05:14:30 PM
Besides everything jwatt said.
Instead of detecting a deer (tough vision problem) maybe all that is required is detecting motion (easier vision problem).

What I was really trolling for was some existing implementation - either exact or close enough tb adapted.

As a one-time computer programmer,  my mind reels at the complexity of such a task.

Is this the world's most difficult forum to post to or what?

Do they really need all that verification given that an already-verified member is posting?   Something to do with the subject matter challenging a certain subclass?