Google, Intel, Microsoft Fund Robot Recipes

[robot321]

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/25/2232236

"Google, Intel, and Microsoft are funding what may become a robot invasion. Money from the three tech companies has enabled researchers at Carnegie Mellon University to create a new series of Internet-connected robots that almost anyone can build using off-the-shelf parts. These "recipes" describe how to build a robot that connects to the Internet using common parts and a $349 Qwerk controller from Charmed Labs."

[Admin]

I think this is just a marketing gimic . . . I dont have the funding of any of those companies yet I can afford to offer more 'recipes' at a fraction of the cost to you guys . . . $50 robot, anyone?

[hgordon]

It's an easy way for CMU to get some funding.  Can you think of a better way than to set up a bidding war between Microsoft and Google ?  Of course, Intel's no lightweight, though Qwerk uses an ARM9, which is definitely not IA64, so their presence in the mix makes less sense unless they're positioning to have future versions run on Intel processors.

The Terk/Qwerk stuff is nice - I met some of the developers at AAAI last month, and like their approach to a general robotics controller.

[Admin]

Can you think of a better way than to set up a bidding war between Microsoft and Google ?

Good point. Although microsoft has already fallen for it - they are currently constructing a building at CMU named after Bill Gates (cause he is paying for it). Google hasn't seriously got into robotics yet . . . its only time . . .

As for the Terk/Qwerk stuff, in concept they have the right idea. But they havent come out with anything new because they are/were relying on the community to do it for them for free (something that never happened). And the pricing is out of range of most hobbyists (the killer!).