Open Source robots on the horizon
By Leslie Poston
New start up company Willow Creek is using an Open Source philosophy to shorten delivery time of its robots. The company has given the prototype robots an Open Source operating system and has shipped them to various universities and labs for testing and improvement. By making the operating system open source, the company hopes to receive necessary feedback on improvements that will eliminate years of costly lab testing.
In addition to possible quick fixes for any operating system problems, having the robots in the hands of university testing labs from its inception should also inspire creation of applications to run on the operating that the start up may not otherwise have thought of. Interestingly, the prototype robot has a rather clunky body style that seems as if it would prevent it being much use for delicate tasks like cleaning a home, something people probably would want it for.
The start up company will only be delivering ten robots for testing at first, but hopes to have another 50 deployed in the near future. The robot is making news for more than just an innovative idea. It’s a privately funded startup that was invested in by none other than visionary venture capitalist Scott Hassan. He was the person who funded Google boy wonders Larry Page and Sergey Brin back in the 90s, before Google was even an inkling, much less a household name or an empire.
The start up is also working on a series of transportation vessels like unmanned cars and other autonomous vessels. Currently all of their robotic devices require control by hand. The goal is to make each robot or device self controlling to avoid the need for human intervention altogether. The company says the idea has legs if the popularity of devices like the Roomba can be any indication.
Related:
Entry was posted
on Saturday, March 15th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
under 
Print This Post
Read more entries by Leslie Poston.
Stumble It!
