|
Robot ships is a unique projection interactive based on current research carried out at the University of York. It lets you interact with virual robots. In this table top activity you work with virual ocean tankers and robots. If the tankers crash into islands they leak their cargo of toxic goo into the sea. Autonomous seeker Robots search the tabletop ocean, navigaing around the movable islands, in search of toxic spills. Once found, a spill is cleaned up by cleaning ships. You can help or hinders the progress of the tankers, seeker robots and cleaning ships by moving the islands around the tabletop.
The Technology behind Robot Ships is computer vision video camera watches everything that happens on the table and real-time processing works out how the boats' world is affected. Earlier public video augmented environments have been in carefully controlled lighting, usually in darkened rooms. But Robot Ships must work continuously in a gallery whose ceiling is mainly a large skylight. This meant we had to devise new video analysis methods to adapt reliably to changing illumination and shadows says professor Robinson
Much of the work in this fields has concentrated on understanding what can be done with such robots. The robots themselves can be real or, as in the case of this interactive, simulations to allow exploration of diiferent Programming options. In future, the programming that has been developed for this virtual simulation could be used to control real robots on search and retrieve missions.
|
