Interview with SERATRON – Lego EV3 robot driven by R

Next meeting of Warsaw R Enthusiasts (SER = Spotkania Entuzjastów R) will take place on December 8. We are going to start with Roger Bivand talk about spatial statitics (R Foundation / NHH, author of many R packages). The second talk, by Bartosz Meglicki (IPI PAN), will introduce the SERATRON – fusion of R and Lego Mindstorms.

Below we publish an exclusive SER interview with SERATRON (we are sorry but SERATRON is a naughty one):

SER: Hi, could you introduce yourself?
SERATRON: I am a robot coded in pure R with ev3dev.R bindings. The bindings run on ev3dev linux distribution. The operating system runs on Lego EV3 hardware. We are all under heavy development.

SER: Tell us more about the R part.
SERATRON: I am running RServe server. PCs can communicate with me using RSclient. They do all the heavy computations for me, I can’t be bothered (I have no FPU, can you imagine?!?). Those PCs think they can command me…

SER: Why do you have two servo motors?
SERATRON: So that I can move, you silly!

SER: Hmm, why do you have an infrared sensor?
SERATRON: So that I can avoid obstacles and I will not fall from height. Why do you have eyes donkey?

SER: Errrrrr, what are your touch sensors for?
SERATRON: They also prevent me from falling from height. If I don’t feel the surface below me I am not going to move. Would you?

SER: Ok, last question you naughty robot! What is your gyroscope and accelerometer for?
SERATRON: Can’t you count? It’s not one question but two. I use gyro to know my heading direction. No dumbass, not for balancing, I don’t use it in this axis. I don’t use accelerometer now but I could use tilt input as a third level protection from falling. I could also use it to detect collisions with other objects but I have other means.

SER: It was a pleasure to meet you (coughs), thank you.
SERATRON: I hope I will be finished for SER VII – 08.12.2014!