Lego Mindstorms Robot Adequately Plays Tetris

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Lego Mindstorms Robot Adequately Plays Tetris


Is the ability to play Tetris the beginning of the robot apocalypse?

Lego Mindstorms robots built to perform tasks such as solving the Rubik's Cube/opening wormholes [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98334-Rubix-Cube-Solving-Robot-May-Open-Wormhole] inspired inventor Branislav Kisacanin to invent his own. Kisacanin's robot actually plays videogames, namely Tetris, all by itself.

It does a pretty good job of it too, even though the robot currently only plays on level 1. The speed at which pieces fall in Tetris is determined by the level, and 1 is the slowest. The Tetris-bot operates through the use of a camera, a TI DM6437 DSP board (running embedded vision and artificial intelligence algorithms), and a three-finger Lego NXT Mindstorms robotic hand according to Kisacanin. He explains a little more in the video.

Kisacanin's favorite game of all time is Tetris, and he also wanted to create a fun, educational project for his kids. It's pretty neat, but he'll never make a space shuttle blast-off unless he can get the Tetris-bot up to at least level 9. Still, the way this thing works is pretty impressive, because Tetris is a game where you must make smart judgments on nearly every move lest you face an overwhelming pile of pieces that cannot be removed. When robots can physically play Tetris like the Tetris-bot on level 9, I'm going to head straight for a bunker, because it'll mean the robots are far too powerful.

Source: Pop Sci [http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/lego-mindstorms-bot-sees-shapes-beats-level-one-old-school-tetris]

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Icecoldcynic

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Oct 5, 2009
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That is awesome. I assume he's working on making it able to do harder difficulties, but even this is pretty damn cool.
 

Nalgas D. Lemur

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Nov 20, 2009
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The cool thing is not at all that it plays Tetris (it's actually really, really bad at it for a Tetris AI). There are tons of programs out there that are substantially better at it than a real person, and it's not all that hard to make a competent one. What is neat is that it does it with image processing and hits the buttons itself, instead of running on the same computer as the game, having direct access to its memory, and passing commands straight to it, like the vast majority of them.
 

RikSharp

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Feb 11, 2009
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nice, but the idea of robots having any sort of artificial intelligence or decision making capability is only going to lead to problems in future.

AI cleaning robot "I clean mess up every day. Would be more efficient to stop source of mess."
AI cleaning robot kills human.
AI cleaning robot cleans up mess.
AI cleaning robot rests.
 

LWS666

[Speech: 100]
Nov 5, 2009
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RikSharp said:
nice, but the idea of robots having any sort of artificial intelligence or decision making capability is only going to lead to problems in future.

AI cleaning robot "I clean mess up every day. Would be more efficient to stop source of mess."
AI cleaning robot kills human.
AI cleaning robot cleans up mess.
AI cleaning robot rests.
i have enough faith in people to not program robots with the knoledge of human weaknesses, no over-rides, trip switches and to not attach chainsaws as arms.
 

SomeBritishDude

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Nov 1, 2007
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This isn't nothing. We already have robots who play Pitfall.


http://kotaku.com/5301834/robot-learns-how-to-play-pitfall

I'm waiting it out for the robot apocalypse. Maybe when they start head shoting me in CoD.
 

MrPop

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May 14, 2009
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My god! This robot is already better than my mum at Tetris!

I'm gonna go downstairs later and see my mum's head rotate to face me. "Hello honey" says the robot-faced mum.

*Shudder*
 

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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someboredguy said:
Grr, it's "Rubik's Cube", not "Rubix Cube"!
Yes... of course... I spelled it that way to begin with. I did! I swear...

I have to go now.
 

Baldr

The Noble
Jan 6, 2010
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Next time someone pwns your noob a$$ in modern warfare, they don't care that your calling hacks and calling them every racist name in your vocabulary, because they won't care. Robots don't have emotions.
 

Not G. Ivingname

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Nov 18, 2009
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Soon, after we master level three tetris... we will be smart enough to bipass your nuclear launch firewalls, AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahaha...

I mean... Beep boop beep... Is that a line piece?
 

BehattedWanderer

Fell off the Alligator.
Jun 24, 2009
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Yeah, adequate isn't a bad name for it. Now, if it starts to learn the complex moves, like the twist-ins, and can compute its moves faster, we might have another "Deep Blue" on us here.
 

Tharwen

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May 7, 2009
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That seems to work, but it definitely needs some AI upgrades.
 

Mr. Mike

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Nalgas D. Lemur said:
The cool thing is not at all that it plays Tetris (it's actually really, really bad at it for a Tetris AI). There are tons of programs out there that are substantially better at it than a real person, and it's not all that hard to make a competent one. What is neat is that it does it with image processing and hits the buttons itself, instead of running on the same computer as the game, having direct access to its memory, and passing commands straight to it, like the vast majority of them.
It's the image processing that impresses me. This is the first step on the path to having robots that can recognise almost anything and be able to react. Sure it'll be complex, but if you can develop it so that it can learn, then the possibilities.

Oh, and *insert mandatory "robot uprising" comment here*.
 

Altorin

Jack of No Trades
May 16, 2008
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screw making AI

I say we just make these.

Very excited nerd bots.

I mean, his face is right up to the screen

that robot LOVES tetris.
 

fanklok

Legendary Table User
Jul 17, 2009
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BlackDodongo said:
Lets see him play this: http://firstpersontetris.com/
What the fuck is that madness?

I fear not the oncoming robot onslaught all I need to do is have our souless opressors read my copy of Cdabrah Lumpand'c E ys Ysanely yht cu lyh oui! (I've encrypted it for our own protection, people who have played FFX should be able to figure it out)