Gidday from Down Under mate.

[puglover]

Haha.......Yes, stalk all you want, As long as it is from across the internet. I don't want to look out my window one day to see your face pressed against the glass!
Although I left university over 20 years ago and judging by your (masked) photo I'd say you were still there so I'm probably a bit old for you to stalk.

No idea about blogs, I don't read any regularly and don't have anything to say myself.

I'm currently programming the Nintendo DS, a lovely little machine to code on.

Oooo any free samples?

Do you make like software for it or just like the togetherness and trouble shooting stuff?
Do you have a trouble shooting hotline? lol.

If you ever need somebody to test it.. I'd be good at that LOL.

[leo-rcc]

WOAH.
Ok, so I take it that everybody loves Robotwars.
Atheists are totally not science buffs or geeks.
lol.

Haha.....Sorry to disappoint but I hated it!

I always felt they were nothing more than heavy duty radio controlled cars, not "robots".

Autonomy has absolutely nothing to do with the definition of robot. Robot means nothing more than worker (it even comes from the Czech word for hard work). A robot is a machine (or software) that is programmable to do a certain task, it has nothing to do with doing that tasks on its own.

[Darwinian]

Oooh! How do you programme for the DS?

What do you need? I could write some new games for my son which would be fantastic.

[puglover]

WOAH.
Ok, so I take it that everybody loves Robotwars.
Atheists are totally not science buffs or geeks.
lol.

Haha.....Sorry to disappoint but I hated it!

I always felt they were nothing more than heavy duty radio controlled cars, not "robots".

Autonomy has absolutely nothing to do with the definition of robot. Robot means nothing more than worker (it even comes from the Czech word for hard work). A robot is a machine (or software) that is programmable to do a certain task, it has nothing to do with doing that tasks on its own.

Hrmm.. I shall call my Robot.. GOD! So original i know!
What shall it do?
Attack christians???

I want to build something!!!

I'd imagine they spend a fair amount of money building those robots...

Can i build something that flashes lights, destroys things..
like one for robotwars lol?
Is there like a robot 101 guide?

Did you ever build stuff out of leggo with leavers and wheels and stuff?

[leo-rcc]

I also want to start building robots!!
How does one begin building when they have VERY limited funds and knowledge?
Is building robots out of lego and electronics like the high school days a good place to start?

You are in Australia I guess (down under, technically incorrect). There is a community of roboteers (as we call ourselves) that have meetings and competitions in Australia, in various parts of the continent. You can see their website on http://www.robowars.org

[Tiberius]

Haha.....Sorry to disappoint but I hated it!

I always felt they were nothing more than heavy duty radio controlled cars, not "robots".

Autonomy has absolutely nothing to do with the definition of robot. Robot means nothing more than worker (it even comes from the Czech word for hard work). A robot is a machine (or software) that is programmable to do a certain task, it has nothing to do with doing that tasks on its own.

If you ever did a university course in Robotics allan, you'd probably understand why creating a autonomous fighting machine is impossibly hard. The Control Theory on such a robot would be horribly complex code, and you would have to create a Localisation system that was able to detect the difference between walls, objects, and other robots. I'm afraid that if the robots were all completely autonomous, the fight would last for hours as well. It would be very boring. The human element adds the excitement and tactics to the robot.

[allan175]

Oh yes, I realise it is a *very* hard problem and any actual fight would be as dull as anything ("robot football" anyone?).
I just always felt cheated when they went on about their "robots" which were just radio controlled cars!

---

I'm currently programming the Nintendo DS, a lovely little machine to code on.

Oooo any free samples?

Haha.....That is everyone's usual response! Along with "That must be fun, playing games all day!".
Quickly followed by "Do you know a cheat for the game XXXXX?".

If I am lucky I will get a copy of the game I work on but that's about it I'm afraid.

I am actually writing the software for it.

[leo-rcc]

Our robots have about as much in common with radio controlled cars as your refrigerator.

[allan175]

Oooh! How do you programme for the DS?

What do you need? I could write some new games for my son which would be fantastic.

We mainly use C++ here. It would be possible to use assembly if you *really* wanted but since the ARM processor is a RISC chip the instruction set is quite limited and it's not worth the hassle.

Have a search on Google for "DS homebrew" and you can find *loads* of info about how to get started with development.
You can download all the tools you need and off you go!

---

Our robots have about as much in common with radio controlled cars as your refrigerator.

Haha......Really? That's not the impression I got from watching the telly programme.

[Tiberius]

I suppose, but I think leo is correct when saying the definition of a robot is a programmable machine designed to do a certain task. I have to say that all the robots we built on our course were autonomous and performed things like maze solving, finding its position in an environment, following a person around, balancing on two wheels, etc.