Programming Artificial Intelligence in Robots/Autonomous Robots

Question

Im looking into to starting to do some AI programming especially aiming at robots. Creating robots that think and act for themselves. Just wanting some advice on what coding platforms/languages are out there that are best suited to this area?

Im a microsoft developer through and through, so would I be able to accomplish this with the MS Robotics studio at all. Or is that all based on remote control robot development?

Am a little confused because there is so much contradicting information out there. Please help.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

What kind of robotics are you trying to do? (i.e. is it a robot where a laptop or another powerful device might be an acceptable controller? Or are you looking at a small true embedded robot?)

If it's the first, MS Robotics might be right for you. It uses .Net IIRC so there's a nice low entry barrier. If you wanna do something smaller, maybe look at Arduino, which has so much support around its platform that you'll probably find what you need. Arduino uses something very very much like C++.

Regardless of what you choose, find a kit robot. I can't stress this enough. You want to spend time doing AI, not getting hardware to all work correctly.

If you wanna try something weird and interesting, the Parallax Propeller Microcontroller is a relatively cheap arudino-weight processor with 8 cores. Might be nice for AI, where thinking generally is best done in parallel.

Answer 2

Try using webots for designing the control. I found it very intuitive and friendly... lets you focus on your core programming logic. Hardware should start from Boebot (the very basics) and graduate to Arduino platforms as you gain knowledge.

Try getting a Pioneer, once you move to real robotics (excellent sensor suite but prohibitively priced). Or try flying bots like A.R.Drone etc. It would be nice to program and will give you insight into UAVs as well.