Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by ptan

For what it's worth, you may want to check out CMU's intro to robotics course

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu...1/www/current/

Especially check out Lab3 which has the some useful dead reckoning code (Yes, we are using their code in our robots).

I purposely did not want to use the CMUCams because I honestly want to experience the process of making such algorithms. Because this is not all about winning. I first took this challenge to push myself and really dedicate and learn. I am also purposely staying away from OpenCV and other libraries for the same reason. Yes I have read in a lot of posts about why not to reinvent the wheel. I do it because I love doing it, it builds character and you learn a lot more than just reusing what some one has made. I push myself now so I don't have to push my self later, I wish I had learned earlier on. I wish I have learned it in elementary or middle school because that really is a valuable thing to learn. When I am doing my graduate work, the things I work on will not be canned projects like the ones we do in science class, I would be the forefront of my area of expertise. If I learn to do it on my own, its alot better than learning it too late. Its different from just plugging in the variables in a equation and getting the right answer than understanding why and how you got that answer. I believe the latter is what I strive for.

People will disagree with my mentality especially engineers, but I feel that is what I need as a student and as a person. My counselor told me that no one will just wait for me to help me, I have to actively seek help if I need it. I always think that if you reinvent the wheel, chances of you doing it better is greater than just reusing it. If you just reuse it, you will never be able to improve it.

Also if I fail, I learn, which in my book is success.
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

I purposely did not want to use the CMUCams because I honestly want to experience the process of making such algorithms. Because this is not all about winning. I first took this challenge to push myself and really dedicate and learn. I am also purposely staying away from OpenCV and other libraries for the same reason. Yes I have read in a lot of posts about why not to reinvent the wheel. I do it because I love doing it, it builds character and you learn a lot more than just reusing what some one has made. I push myself now so I don't have to push my self later, I wish I had learned earlier on. I wish I have learned it in elementary or middle school because that really is a valuable thing to learn. When I am doing my graduate work, the things I work on will not be canned projects like the ones we do in science class, I would be the forefront of my area of expertise. If I learn to do it on my own, its alot better than learning it too late. Its different from just plugging in the variables in a equation and getting the right answer than understanding why and how you got that answer. I believe the latter is what I strive for.

People will disagree with my mentality especially engineers, but I feel that is what I need as a student and as a person. My counselor told me that no one will just wait for me to help me, I have to actively seek help if I need it. I always think that if you reinvent the wheel, chances of you doing it better is greater than just reusing it. If you just reuse it, you will never be able to improve it.

Also if I fail, I learn, which in my book is success.
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

I think you're getting caught up on this reuse concept. Based on your logic, pretty much every respected innovation currently on the market is not innovative, as it reused something.

Your goal of biting off 100 times more than you can chew is probably going to slow your learning process overall, there is nothing wrong with learning things in smaller steps.

Your ambition is good, your plan isn't so much.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

I push myself now so I don't have to push my self later, I wish I had learned earlier on.

I have a high level of confidence that you will wish something completely different later on.

Trust me, you really don't want to set yourself up for a mindset of already having put in your effort and wishing to relax early. Ignoring resources now will only make you work harder to get to the same place others will be, and you will still have to "push" once you get there if you don't want to find yourself falling behind.

People will disagree with my mentality especially engineers,...

You got that right.

I always think that if you reinvent the wheel, chances of you doing it better is greater than just reusing it. If you just reuse it, you will never be able to improve it.

On the other hand, I think you got that part wrong. If you refuse to reuse it, you do not have the opportunity to make it better. You might eventually come up with something different that works better, but without building on earlier work you will find it takes a lot longer to succeed than if you had used the head start offered to you. In the meantime, others who did reuse it will likely already have improved on it before you get to that point.

I'm not belittling your goals. It's your plan for achieving them that I think needs some tweaking.

[theprgramerdude]

Has anyone tried yet to simply use the Crio as an I/O device, and use it to send all images/Sensor data to a super-extra-beefy laptop with a modern GPU that can handle all the thinking for it? I'd imagine using something like a few cameras and then trying to perform a SLAM on the inbound stream would easily exceed what the Motorolla is capable of doing, but easily within the reaches of a CUDA-powered laptop.

[ptan]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

I purposely did not want to use the CMUCams because I honestly want to experience the process of making such algorithms. ...

hmmm... Interesting. The link I provided did NOT have any reference to CMUCams. It is a basic Introduction to Robotics class, where all the math and materials are put online. (My daughter is being a teaching assistant in this course next semester).

I find it fascinating that people here are jumping to conclusions without checking out the facts (or links in this case). CMU does NOT just make the CMUCam !!!

In any event, the course itself is useful to take a look at for the ideas and the math behind a lot of the robotics. Why do you want to go ahead an reinvent the math when you can just look at the math and find out if you want to use it, or better still, find something better!?