Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: sugarman@eris.cs.umb.edu (Steven R. Garman)
Subject: Re: "That's not robotics; that's toy building"
Message-ID: <1993Aug17.095858.27699@cs.umb.edu>
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Organization: University of Massachusetts at Boston, Dept of Math and CS
References: <CBHzGn.DI6@cs.uiuc.edu> <CBI6xH.nHx@ns1.nodak.edu>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1993 09:58:58 GMT
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In article <CBI6xH.nHx@ns1.nodak.edu> altenbur@plains (Karl Altenburg) writes:
>Carl M Kadie (kadie@cs.uiuc.edu) wrote:
>: One criticism I've heard of building little robots (such as those
>: build for the AAAI on-site building contest) it is not real robotics
>: but "toy building".
>
>: I think the problem here merely vocabulary. Does the field of robotics
>: have good phrases that distinish between robotics research and robot
>: building/customization?
>
>: So:
>
>: Computer science is to programming as "_____" is to "_____".
>
>:                                    "Robotics is to robot building"?
>:                                    "Robot research is to robotics"?
>:                                    ???
>
>Sounds like the difference between engineering and science, which is....?
>If you're going to build a robot of any size you're going to have to do some
>research on sensors, actuators, and control relative to the applied

You dont really need to do any research, this is just something we seem to
beleive.  If you want to build something all you really need to do is start
building.  Then mess with it untill it does what you want.  You may not
UNDERSTAND exactly how it does what it does or WHY it works; but these
things never stopped the march of progress in the past. 
	I know its a bit esoteric but if anyone is familiar with the
writings of Lewis Mumford, particularly The_myth_of_the_machine , he makes a
most convincing argument that the vast majority of true innovation occurs
during *play* and *recreation* because that is where people feel free to
take *real* risks.  Only later after the recreational uses have proven the
value of a thing is it taken up by the *serious* business oriented side of
our human nature.  But the sort of intellectual risk required of real
innovation is to dangerous in the working life.  I did not do it jusice, but
thats the basis of his argument.
	I guess I just wanted to counter the beleif that you must research
*before* you build, I think this is clearly wrong regardless of how many
folks may be doing just that.

Regards,  Jon Priluck jamcorp@world.std.com

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