REM%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (06/18/83)
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM @ MIT-MC> For practice at their main task, mining random moondirt, we could have the robot cars carry water in buckets from some canal to the tomato field. We could send them on a remote-controlled treasure hunt. The humans have the clues and do the brainwork, the robots go around turning their cameras on likely spots according to the human's interpretation of the clues, and actually lugging the treasures back. Going to various places, and lugging random things back, would really test the ability of the rover to perform on the Moon and the ability of the human/robot symbiosis to make field decisions and carry out useful actions based on them. The more I think about this idea the more I like it. The first remote-controlled treasure hunt in the world, making a place in Guinness book of world records. -- Go to the tall cactus, turn right, go 3 meters, turn right, find the next clue. -- Follow the dirt road North 0.4 Km, find abandoned service station, find vending machine, press specially-marked button, collect treasure that comes out, look at inscription on treasure for next clue.