Engineer William Osman decided to create a remote controlled reward-based robot inspired by the “carrot-stick theory“, using his bulldog Barkley as a subject. Osman built the robot as a backpack for the dog to wear, using a combination of hardware, firmware and software and then added a dangling hot dog (carrot). He also made it so that the robot would turn left when the dog turned right and vice versa as he moved forward. Unfortunately, Osman didn’t consider the fact that his very clever, stubborn and funny bulldog would ever reach upwards or downwards to get at the yummy prize. Which he did. Repeatedly.
Welllllllllll it kind of works. I think I need a better dog. I’m not going to try and explain how it went down, so go to ~4:30 into the video for the full test.
Osman demonstrating the robot.
