[comp.robotics] I need a Scientific American refrence

kilian@cray.com (Alan Kilian) (05/18/91)

  Well after several years of thinking about it I am building
my second robot. The platform is a tractor tread style toy from
Children's Palace with new motors and LEGO gears so it will be
quiet.
  I am starting to think about the controls and I remember a 
Scientific American article a few years ago that had some simple
robots that sensed light bulbs and would drive around seeking
or avoiding the light based on their neuron like programming.
  I would like to read this again so I went to the library
today and looked at the table of contents of 5 years of SciAm
and I couldn't find it. I looked in the 1978 - 1988 index under
a lot of subjects and I also couldn't find it. So I'm depressed.
  Does anyone remember the date of this article or the Author?

  I'll keep you informed as the construction proceedes. I am not
very familiar with this group but I'll keep an eye out and try to
stick with the style of postings I find.

                Thanks,
                  -Alan "What another robot? Not in MY house" Kilian

-- 
 -Alan Kilian kilian@cray.com                  612.683.5499
  Cray Research, Inc.           | If god had meant us to use the metric system
  655 F Lone Oak Drive          | he would have given us ten finger and ten
  Eagan  MN,     55121          | toes. The author of _Lighter Elements_

compton@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov (Michael Compton) (05/20/91)

In article <161108.10771@timbuk.cray.com>, kilian@cray.com (Alan Kilian) writes:
> 
> ... I remember a Scientific American article a few years ago that had some 
> simple robots that sensed light bulbs and would drive around seeking
> or avoiding the light based on their neuron like programming...

I can't remember when the article appeared, but after reading it I bought
a book by the same author that elaborates on the topic:
   "VEHICLES - Experiments in Synthetic Psychology"
   by Valentino Braitenberg
   MIT Press, 1984

Hope this helps.

-Michael Compton
 AI Research Branch
 NASA Ames Research Center
 compton@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov

schlue@gmdzi.gmd.de (Bernd Schlueter) (05/21/91)

Dewdney, A.K.: Computer Recreations - Braitenberg memoirs: 
vehicles for probing behavior roam a dark plain marked by lights. 
Scienbtific American, March 1987.

Hope that helps.

Bernd.

Bernd Schlueter  schlue@gmdzi.UUCP
GMD [German National Research Center for Computer Science]
Schloss Birlinghoven
5205 Sankt Augustin 1
Germany