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Unread 09-01-2008, 16:30
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Jon Stratis Jon Stratis is offline
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Re: How many RoboCoach Commands?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate Laverdure View Post
If your robot ever makes this decision, then IMO, you have sent a command to the robot, even if you HAVE NOT sent any signal to your robot:

1. Doing Action A for 3 seconds...
2. Has a signal been sent to the robot in the last 3 seconds? If so, GOTO 3. If not, GOTO 4.
3. Doing Action B...
4. Doing Action C...
So how do you account for default behavior? The hybrid mode isn't supposed to be a different form of teleoperation - it's an automated period with guided oversight. You can send signals to your robot that are designed to change its behavior, so the whole concept of "if signal received goto 3, else goto 4" is perfectly legitimate. I would say that a communications window (like the 3 seconds posted above) is also perfectly legal - in fact, it's a concept that is used all the time in industry. Do you think the Rover has it's modem powered on 24/7? My guess would be that it is set up to turn on at set times to receive any new instructions - that saves on power consumption, which is a pretty important part of such a device - without it, they would have to design the rover to be able to draw more power at any given time than it does if only some parts are on at once. That means that the rover would be bigger, and weigh more, and thus be more expensive to send to Mars.