THIS MONTH:
Pavlov’s
Bots
THE UNDISCIPLINED ROBONI-I
In November 2009, we had the privilege to introduce the Roboni-i from the
ambitious folks at Robonica. The Roboni-i aims to
revolutionize the electronics entertainment
industry with its unique blend of a personality
filled robot, structured game play, and an online
world. While our playtime with the Roboni-i
convinced us that the game of Space Pods is
enough to keep even dedicated gamers busy for a
long time, we are sure that a lot of SERVO readers
are perhaps even more interested in the hacking
capabilities of the lunar-roving bot. The shell of the
Roboni-i includes a transparent blue panel that
gives users a glimpse of its inner workings that
should intrigue tinkerers and send them
scrambling for a screwdriver.
Unconditioned
Behavior
often flips over when you rapidly change
directions. The flipping takes some getting used
to, and it seemed like sometimes by just driving
the bot around it was flipping out more than Jeff
Lewis. We knew this was more a function of our
poor driving than of the robot’s rebelliousness, but
it inspired us to pursue some behavior
modification in the hopes of making us passable
drivers.
We thought that pursuing some operant
conditioning would be a fine way to alter the
driving habits of the Roboni-i. The persistent
flipping was the unconditioned behavior, and we
thought that a punishment stimulus would help
achieve our conditioned behavior of steady driving.
B.F. Skinner might scoff at our
methodology because we
really want to condition the
driver by punishing the robot,
but with so much personality
we think empathy with the
Roboni-i is an understandable
presupposition.
By punishment we didn’t
mean to do anything truly
traumatic to the robot, but
rather to elicit a response that
would discourage the driver
from testing the bot’s
acrobatic capabilities. We
thought an added sensor that
would activate upon the
PROPOSED BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION CIRCUIT.
The Roboni-i comes with a
compelling personality. If you
leave it alone for too long it
will go exploring on its own,
with its responses to obstacles
and adventurousness
determined by how much you
play with it. The Roboni-i is fun
to drive around with its
cantilevered wheels and a
distinctive swaying gait. It is
an acrobatic automaton, and it
70 SERVO 03.2010
