On Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:19:31 -0500, Ignoramus20906
scribed:

Yesterday, I was practicing with a skateboard and wondering about
something. Do people know enough to program a computer, with a motion
system attached to it, to ride a skateboard?

This seems to be a far more difficult task than, say, a CNC
metalworking machine. In the CNC application, all that matters is that
the axes are moved precisely according to a pre-programmed
sequence. In the skateboarding application, precision also matters,
but it needs to react to the real time balancing situation.

To somewhat simplify this, could a robot ride a skateboard on a
surface that is well known to the robot (no need to recognize the
surface from vision sensors).

I was at a toy show in Rosemont last summer, and they had some
enthusiast club show off "Linux robots". Those robots were physically
fighting each other, in a very funny way. They looked like one year old
kids as far as their ability to move and balance was concerned.

i

Check out this Big Dog... Pretty F'ing cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2bExqhhWRI

Fred III