Programmable Robot: Cozmo by Anki

[tarator]

I just heard about this neat little guy called Cozmo[1] developed by Anki.
I like the idea, that it comes with an SDK[2] and is programmable via Python.

For me this seems to be a quite nice device to get started with robotics.

Sales just started in Germany/Austria with a price-tag of € 270,- which is not that cheap imho.

Has anybody her on the forums experience with this device?
Do you think it's a good device to get started with robotics?
Can you prefer another robotic-kit to get started with?


[1] https://www.anki.com/en-gb/cozmo
[2] http://cozmosdk.anki.com/docs/
[doublepost=1505891534,1505891181][/doublepost]Some additional thoughts:

* The SDK can be installed on Windows/MacOs/Linux.
* A draaback is, that the robot needs a smartphone (Android/iPhone) to be operated.
* They claim, that the robot doesn't contact some cloud-servers while operated. So the whole logic and AI is on the device itself (Which is important imo because it uses CV).

 

[tarator]

Here a teaser-video:

 

[elw3]

* A draaback is, that the robot needs a smartphone (Android/iPhone) to be operated.

A drawback?
I insist boycotting the entire company and everyone behind it just for this bullshitery.

And if you want to get _started_ then just get a plain RC car and start programing the remote.

 

[tarator]

@Elw3 I'm more interested in the KI- and CV-Features of the robot. For me it might be too sophisticated to program an autonomous RC from scratch.

But you're right. This stupid mandatory smartphone connection also nerves me. They should've chosen a more generic way to communicate with the robot...

Do you have any concrete alternatives you would recommend?

 

[Bernd]

When there is an video which has animated / altered parts in it like this video, it gets really suspicious.
I don't think there is a advanced KI in it.
There is more like a collision detection & some basic reactions to a light sensor built in.

I would recommend to get some Lego Mindstorms or its ancestor Cybermaster.
They're much more flexible and have an nice SDK.
I played a lot with their Spirit & Ghost ocx & dll and C++.

If you want to stay cheap, get some Arduino or some other flavor of prebuild microcontroller boards, some RC-components like servo, motors,... from chinese shops like Hobbyking.com and build your own platform.
And if a AVR / Pic microcontroller gets to small, grab one of the linux powered fruit-boards and step up a level.

(If you use one of the linux powered fruit-boards, use a AVR / Pic,... powered board to manage the whole low level comunication with sensors, motors,... and talk to the fruit-board using a bus like I2C, SPI or UART)

 

[elw3]

I'm more interested in the KI- and CV-Features of the robot. For me it might be too sophisticated to program an autonomous RC from scratch.

Wait, so you want to create a KI without knowing how to make it move back and forth?

 

[tarator]

Wait, so you want to create a KI without knowing how to make it move back and forth?

Ähemmm... no... I have already some experience tinkering around with microcontrollers.
Starting/Stopping motors based on sensor-data is not that difficult to achieve...

For example: I built a automated plant watering system. When water level drops, a small pump pumps water from a container into the pot.
So I know the basics of sensors/actors

The only reason I would buy this gimmick is to get an easy start with CV and AI.

 

[Binky]

How about a RasPi, a cheap webcam and a kit vehicle chassis?
Pis have exposed GPIOs for driving hardware directly (or commanding a motor-control board?), and are powerful enough to run openCV (which has bindings to various popular languages)

 

[ible]

yep, nope on the smart phone. otherwise interested.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Not strictly related but how cool is this http://www.epicheroes.com/2017/08/25/transformers-toys-optimus-prime-self-transforming/

 

[tarator]

How about a RasPi, a cheap webcam and a kit vehicle chassis?
Pis have exposed GPIOs for driving hardware directly (or commanding a motor-control board?), and are powerful enough to run openCV (which has bindings to various popular languages)

Yes, indeed, this would be doable. A spare RasPi 1 is lying around here somewhere. Also a webcam. Ok, I think I simply get startet with plugging the webcam to my computer and install and use openCV[1]...


[1] http://opencv.org/opencv-3-3.html

 

[tarator]

Another big drawback with the Cozmo: Not only it's necessary to use the smartphone app, also the whole "AI"-stuff is packed into the app, and not processed by the robot itself.
This makes it even harder to get rid of the smartphone-app itself writing/using (open source) third-party-libraries.
So this little robot will be completely useless once the company doesn't provide you with upgrades for the smartphone-programm (which will most likely happen sooner than later, and will happen for sure...)

 

[levi]

Not surprising - you don't really want to be putting a smartphone grade CPU and GPU in a box where you've also got plenty of servos and motors to consider. Whether it's portable or not mainly depends on whether it's open sourced or not, I suspect - if it did have the smarts internally, you'd still need to sniff the bluetooth controls to work out how to make it stop and go and stuff.

 

[pmprog]

I must admit, I do like the look of their Anki Overdrive racing set. I had always thought about trying to hack together a RC car controlled by a raspberry pi with CV and sensors, and manual control for players via phone/pandora/laptop. Get a few of them together, you can race with friends, but also have some AI drivers too.

 

[___]

I must admit, I do like the look of their Anki Overdrive racing set. I had always thought about trying to hack together a RC car controlled by a raspberry pi with CV and sensors, and manual control for players via phone/pandora/laptop. Get a few of them together, you can race with friends, but also have some AI drivers too.

omg real life mario kart!!!

anyway, this reminds me of a project a dude I worked with developed:

adding AI players through OpenCV would be so cool. but you gotta have an arcade cab style control booth ^^.

 

[WizardStan]

Several years ago I bought a pair of video glasses, a tiny video camera, a wireless video set, and a remote control monster truck.
Built a pair of 12v battery packs to drive the camera and wireless transmitter, mounted the camera on the truck, and sat on my balcony while I drove my truck around the nearby park in first person.