Remotely control surveyor bots over the web

Inertia-Labs makes these cool little surveyor robot kits. The BP Explorer site in Australia built a miniature city and populated it with five surveyor bots you can control over the Web. BP Explorer

[#1 posted by grimc , August 8, 2008 3:40 PM]

"The Vehicles are all running on batteries charged exclusively from BP Solar panels and as such are required to be recharged overnight."

Note to BP: Second set of batteries.

Looks amusing, though.

[#2 posted by Takuan , August 8, 2008 4:04 PM]

needs guns and sides

[#3 posted by guvnor , August 8, 2008 4:09 PM]

Difficult to build up any kind of speed, but it is incredibly fun trying to play bumper cars with the other vehicles, or Austin Powers-ing yourself in the middle of the narrow hallway.

[#4 posted by KurtMac , August 8, 2008 4:13 PM]

It was also fun to watch the "People In Queue" number jump from 8 to 30 in a matter of seconds after this BoingBoing post. I think I'll try in a few days when the BoingBoingery ceases.

[#5 posted by muteboy , August 8, 2008 5:24 PM]

Reminds me of Patrick Farley's online comic, The Spiders: http://www.saturn5.com/~esheep/spiders/

[#6 posted by TomHynes , August 8, 2008 5:29 PM]

The surveyor robot is a very cool robot made in the U.S.A

www.surveyorcorp.com

[#7 posted by guvnor , August 8, 2008 5:51 PM]

Actually, what this really needs is a family of cute little hamsters that we can try to herd around.

[#8 posted by Takuan , August 8, 2008 6:19 PM]

http://www.planearium2.de/bilder/wallpaper-lemmiwinks-800.jpg

[#9 posted by Foolster41 , August 8, 2008 6:26 PM]

It'd be pretty cool if these things looked like Daleics, running through the empty city streets. "All hail the Daelics!"

[#10 posted by Talia , August 8, 2008 9:09 PM]

Oooh, fun fun fun. I just joined in. 26th in the queue. *waits*

[#11 posted by Talia , August 8, 2008 9:12 PM]

as a further aside, there are "live camera feeds".. hahah. Watch other players playing! (if they go past those points).

[#12 posted by mdhatter , August 8, 2008 9:14 PM]

"The Vehicles are all running on batteries charged exclusively from BP Solar panels and as such are required to be recharged overnight."

BP has solar panels that work at night?!?

[#13 posted by Talia , August 8, 2008 9:34 PM]

Well, that was fun if slow. Hehhee. I found it almost impossible to even think of trying to solve the puzzle, but I enjoyed trying to get past the other equally clueless drivers. :p

[#14 posted by certron , August 8, 2008 10:23 PM]

I was watching on one of the live cams AND SOMEONE WALKED PAST THE CAMERA. I was concentrating on the tiny car trying to drive down the road into the valley without hitting the sides too much and suddenly a pair of pants with tennis shoes decides that I need something to liven up my rechargeable car experience.

I... was a little taken aback by that and ended up missing my turn to drive.

[#15 posted by OM , August 9, 2008 10:16 AM]

...Dammit! Site appears to be broken now. Looks like they got Boing'd :-(

[#16 posted by hg , August 9, 2008 3:03 PM]

Looks like the entire BP Australia site is down, not just BP Explorer. It's still early Sunday morning there (local time there is 17 hours later than west coast US), but hopefully they will get things back online before too long.

[#17 posted by wmzpc , August 9, 2008 4:14 PM]

It is back up and operationl now - yay!

[#18 posted by MaximusNYC , August 9, 2008 8:20 PM]

The photo looks like a hazmat accident happened in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

[#19 posted by Anonymous , August 9, 2008 11:43 PM]

I'm such a haxxor. I think I got one of the cars stuck on a flower pot in the city area. Either that or my internets just failed as I hit it and stopped sending instructions.

Why does the internet still provide such glee at the possibility for controlling things remotely even after all these years. Seeing another human-driven car? Its almost like you can communicate with these people, who live miles and miles away! Incredible!

[#20 posted by Takuan , August 10, 2008 10:49 AM]

suppose someone dumped a dozen of these in the forest, desert or jungle somewhere. Then it becomes an internet game where the winner is who can pinpoint the real world location by gathering clues driving around. Make it more interesting by having the bots capable of traversing natural barriers by chaining together. Maybe cross-chat ability, maybe not.A treasure hunt? Capture the flag? Find the other tribe to"cross-breed" and survive? Differen "species"models with different mutually needed abilities?

[#21 posted by Squirrel X , August 11, 2008 2:17 AM]

I actually managed to roll mine on it's side after ramming another robot accidentally.

"Them Duke boys tried to outrun ol' Boss Hogg on their little robot, and managed to escape by poppin' a side wheelie to escape down the alley behind Drucker's grocery market."

[#22 posted by arkizzle , August 11, 2008 12:18 PM]

Tak@20, we'd need mounted weapon system to keep them pesky kids off our bots.

[#23 posted by Takuan , August 11, 2008 12:48 PM]

bear spray

[#24 posted by Takuan , August 11, 2008 1:57 PM]

game on BTW

[#25 posted by kurokikaze , August 13, 2008 7:34 AM]

Whoa.