Hello Everyone!
I want to develop an AI that controls an Android powered robot, that can be constructed on next to zero funds. It looks like your Truckbot might be the cheapest possible to build, and meets most of my design criteria so I think I'm going to give it a try! I've been a professional programmer / software engineer for 17 years and am currently going back to school for something completely different, so I have the skills, just not a lot of money. :)
What I have in mind will eventually be an automated bot that can:
- Recognize electrical outlets and plug itself in for charging.
- Seek out and connect to local wi-fi networks to communicate with mission control which will be running in a cloud on the internet.
- Record sensory data and "learn" about its environment, reporting back to mission control, which will also have an AI that learns about the environments of any bots on its network.
Think of the bot as a sensory organ that only holds enough data long term to navigate its environment and communicate with mission control which acts as the brain, giving the bot missions, telling it what it wants explored, etc.
I think I can do this, just a matter of how much time I want to put into it. If nothing else the bot will be fun for the kids!
Here are my questions for you:
- Do you think Truckbot will be well suited to this task? Would another one do better?
- I have a Huawei Mercury (M886) smartphone with a broken touch screen sensor (my 7 year old pulled the screen off and in the process tore the ribbon cable that connects the touchscreen to its sensor) but otherwise works ok. Would this be suitable for this project? If not I have multiple other Android phones that aren't quite as dead but I'd rather let that one be my guinea pig.
Thanks in advance for any answers or feedback you can give! I look forward to communicating with you all while going through this project.
Kris