RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] airborne bots running Linux!

["Spurling, Shannon" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I was thinking about this the other day, and I really wonder the utility
of using an operating system designed for a general use computer in an
embedded system. 
I mean, don't you get too much overhead for the amount of usefulness? Of
course, it's not like making an embedded system run Windows. That would
be ridiculous, since it's main focus is on providing a GUI similar to
the way the old MacOS was designed.
You do get things like RTLinux
(http://www.linuxdevices.com/links/LK8662675028.html) Which is a step in
the right direction, but you have to wonder about all the abstraction
and how useful it actually would be. Some people were talking about
making AI's based in Linux to run a robotics project. If you wanted to
do that, think about how much faster and better the system would be if
you stripped out all the complicated abstractions and ran it straight on
the same hardware. These modern operating systems do wondrous things for
PC's, but they also put quite a demand on the hardware just to run them.
I'd think there would be better uses for those CPU cycles. Either that,
or you could save the weight and power consumption by using a simple
microcontroller. 
And I'm the guy who wants to run Linux on his camera! :-)

Just my $.02


Shannon Spurling
WAN Engineer -Specialist

MOREnet, Network Services, Core Network
3212 LeMone Industrial Blvd.
Columbia, MO 65201

Main:(573) 884-7200   Fax:(573)884-6673

EMAIL:PROTECTED
EMAIL:PROTECTED


-----Original Message-----
From: EMAIL:PROTECTED
[mailto:EMAIL:PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike Miller
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 10:08 AM
To: MLUG discussion
Subject: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] airborne bots running Linux!

LINUX POWERS AIRBORNE BOTS
from Wired News

British researchers are turning to Linux and embedded processors to
build 
a fleet of tiny, robotic helicopters capable of swarming like angry bees

and evaluating their surroundings with a single hive mind.

The University of Essex's UltraSwarm project is an experiment in swarm 
intelligence and wireless cluster computing that might one day spawn 
military surveillance applications. In one scenario, a flock of unmanned

aerial vehicles, or UAVs, with video cameras could take in a hostile 
landscape from a variety of angles and process the image locally, in the

sky.

For their proof of concept, the researchers are using lightweight $69 
Proxflyer Bladerunner toy helicopters equipped with gumstix processors
-- 
tiny self-contained computers weighing 8 grams (0.28 ounces), but
packing 
enough power to run the Linux 2.6 kernel and communicate over a built-in

Bluetooth module.

full text:
http://tinyurl.com/bwo7e
_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion

_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion