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Student's Robot Becomes Intel's Processor Demo

by - source: Tom's Hardware US

A final project for a senior's UA cognitive robotics class led to Intel knocking on his door with a check.

Mat Bunting, a University of Arizona electrical-engineering senior, saw dollar signs in his eyes when Intel came knocking on his door. Apparently a video he uploaded to YouTube (seen below) prompted the processor giant to track down and flash cash in his face. Why? It's all because of a dancing hexapod robot he built using an Intel Atom processor.

It only took two days for the YouTube robot to spark a glimmer in Intel's eye. On a hardware level, the robot uses the 1.60 GHz Atom Z530 processor and the US15W chipset. The robotic spider also runs on the Ubuntu open-source operating system, and features a camera on its "face" that helps the robot determine where it's going. The robot even "adaptively learns" how to best achieve its forward-moving goal.

"One of the things I wanted to explore was the idea of reinforcement learning," Bunting said. "What I wanted to do was not pre-program any of those walking algorithms, I wanted it to figure out how to walk straight forward on its own. It has the ability to figure it out itself."

According to CNET, the spider robot was the result of a final project in Bunting's UA class on cognitive robotics using spare parts. After spotting the robot, Intel ordered two units to use in Atom demonstrations on the road. CrustCrawler Robotics was also impressed, and signed on Bunting to develop software for several of its products.

Spider Bot

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killerclick 02/10/2010 10:38 PM
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-16+

Look, you either build cool robots or get laid, you can't have both...

Tech-Boy 02/10/2010 10:38 PM
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Were is the video???

JasonAkkerman 02/10/2010 10:40 PM
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Student's Robot Becomes Intel's Processor Demo.... also searches for Sarah Connor.

botabota 02/10/2010 10:42 PM
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-16+

should try putting an octacore in there ... maybe it will be like transformer

JasonAkkerman 02/10/2010 10:42 PM
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The robot even "adaptively learns" how to best achieve its forward-moving goal.

"My CPU is a neural net processor; a learning computer."

tomtompiper 02/10/2010 10:43 PM
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Nice to see Intel supporting young talent.

kodamakage 02/10/2010 10:53 PM
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Heres a better source (with videos)
http://www.engineering.arizona.edu [...] php?id=114

Upendra09 02/10/2010 11:02 PM
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should have copyrighted it and used different processors

and then created a new company and sold them all

then we would have AMD vs Intel dancing robots

mtyermom 02/10/2010 11:18 PM
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Mr. Bunting has a bright future, indeed!

flyinfinni 02/10/2010 11:18 PM
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That is a SWEET robot, and a brilliant kid. Wish I was smart enough to do that.

touchdowntexas13 02/10/2010 11:42 PM
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killerclick :
Look, you either build cool robots or get laid, you can't have both...



What if building these cool robots brings in loads of cash? I think he might be able to get both then...

grieve 02/10/2010 11:49 PM
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flyinfinni :
That is a SWEET robot, and a brilliant kid. Wish I was smart enough to do that.


no doubt... im not a dummy by any means but some people are just impressive.
that spider moves awesome. "imaginary springs" very smart!

ikefu 02/11/2010 12:07 PM
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Quick! Kill it before it turns into Skynet and spawns more cheesy movie sequels!!!!!

PS I wish my senior project was cool enough to get me paid.

gayan 02/11/2010 12:24 PM
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-4+

Oh no...it has begun... The Attack of the Dancing Robots...

matt87_50 02/11/2010 12:29 PM
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yeah thats cool. so did he build a custom motherboard?

he could have just as easily done his experiment in a simulation.

but robots are so cool! the only thing cooler than programming games is programming robots!

milktea 02/11/2010 12:31 PM
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First off, nothing on that robot looks like spare parts to me. Second, it would be cool if it ran off of solar power instead of a wired external power. If that Atom process ran off of solar, that would have caught everyone's attention.

None the less, Bunting made a very cool robot.

karenskym 02/11/2010 1:56 AM
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I think we've found the guy who creates skynet... We must stop him before the inevitable happens.

Anonymous 02/11/2010 3:23 AM
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mildtea said
First off, nothing on that robot looks like spare parts to me. Second, it would be cool if it ran off of solar power instead of a wired external power. If that Atom process ran off of solar, that would have caught everyone's attention.

None the less, Bunting made a very cool robot.

That's when robots start harvesting humans for energy

pythy 02/11/2010 3:57 AM
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Very cool indeed, but that's no robotic spider: it's only got 6 legs!! Should be called a robotic ant instead.

karenskym 02/11/2010 4:02 AM
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pythy :
Very cool indeed, but that's no robotic spider: it's only got 6 legs!! Should be called a robotic ant instead.



Good observation Taxidermist!

Kelavarus 02/11/2010 6:17 AM
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karenskym 02/11/2010 6:21 AM
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Kelavarus :
You guys are waaaaay behind: http://www.army-technology.com/projects/skynet/



Oh SH*T - Head Asploded

anamaniac 02/11/2010 7:20 AM
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Upendra09 :
should have copyrighted it and used different processorsand then created a new company and sold them allthen we would have AMD vs Intel dancing robots


Oh, would life be ever so sweet only if.
AMD robot dance crew vs. single massive Intel dancing robot.
Opterons scale better in 4P systems anyways. Intel makes awesome chips though.

Then, just as the dust settles from the duel, Via and IBM enter the stage. VIA with a million small bots that all join together to form one large bot, and IBM carrying a BFG to blow everyone's ass up. =D

shiroikaze 02/11/2010 7:54 AM
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It's pretty reminiscent of the tachikomas / fuchikomas from Ghost in the Shell.

sonofliberty08 02/11/2010 8:29 AM
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put atom on the robot will make it sounds dumb

jfem 02/11/2010 11:42 AM
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Impressive, no wonder it caught intel's attention.

xahydra 02/11/2010 12:54 PM
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If this guy plays his cards right, he'll soon be comissioned by DARPA to build Monkeylords

drksilenc 02/11/2010 2:52 PM
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they prbly meant spare parts as in stuff they had in the engineering lab as extras for other projects. seeing as how most places order atleast 10% over maybe they were building something similar for there actual class and then this is just stuff that had left over for there lab

WyomingKnott 02/11/2010 4:52 PM
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Didn't I see one of these last Halloween, with a Jack-o-lantern on top?
Seriously, I think I saw that on Utube.
Not to detract from this impressive accomplishment, of course.

martin0642 02/11/2010 9:14 PM
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This is a replicator attack! Everyone, through the Stargate!

Anonymous 07/22/2010 9:11 PM
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Have you seen FlowStone? It's a FREE Robotics programming Language!

It's quicker to programm so you can have both!


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