The Steam Deck Is Now Being Used To Control Mars Rovers
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View original on sopuli.xyzhttps://steamdeckhq.com/news/steam-deck-being-used-to-control-mars-rover/Open linkView original on sopuli.xyz
19 replies
It's a fully functional pc that can run any software you need, with built in controls that are ergonomic and familiar to almost any potential user. It's basically perfect for controlling things. Saw a guy on YouTube using it to control industrial robots or something since you can use the back grips as a dead-mans switch.
I think capacitor sensors might make better dead-man switches here, especially with chords (requiring both being active at the same time), as holding the grip buttons feels kinda tiring quickly and awkward to my hands.
But it's still so cool.
Capacitive buttons can get pressed by drops of water, so I personally think the physical buttons are better for a safety system.
It probably depends on what the robot is, but it might not be something you need to hold down for very long, just at the same time as a joystick movement.
Yeah, good point, hadn't thought of that.
This feels like the opposite to a cheap logitech controller driving a submarine
And somehow, Tom Scott doesn't even know what it is! He just calls it "basically a gaming console" with no further clarifications.
But it is basically a game console. What clarifications do you need? It would be kinda awkward if he started explaining that a steam deck is technically a pc that runs linux and so on.
Knowing him, I expected something like: "Turns out, it's a Steam Deck, and half of you will have been screaming at the screen about how I could possibly not know that."
That's it. Not an explanation of what it is, just an acknowledgement of what it is. This kind of thing happens on Lateral pretty often.
Why do you even assume he doesn't know what it is?
His videos are edited to tell a story and to flow better than a podcast. Stepping away from the main event to point out the product's name and making a comment about it sounds like an unnecessary distraction.
Every one of these comments have been correct, despite sounding like they're disagreeing.
However, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't know what it is. Gaming has never seemed to be something that's interested him. It could be, but it doesn't seem like it'd be a high priority. Most non-gamers probably do not know what a Steam Deck is. Hell, a lot of gamers probably don't if their only platform is a console, and they don't engage with gaming spaces online.
Not really, he makes a lot of short side comments like this in the Tom Scott: England series.
You wanted them to turn this into an advertisement?
No idea how you got that from my comment
"Yoooo bro your ping is fucking dog water. Fix it."
I use mine to shitpost at work and for my DND character sheet.
Shout out to Mars First Logistics, a very fun game where you build rovers out of Lego-style connecting pieces, then use them to deliver things from point A to point B.
I got really sucked into it and spent like a month straight playing only that game. 5/7 perfect score
With the one-way latency being upwards of 20 minutes, I wonder what the software looks like... They've basically got to queue up an hour worth of actions before they'd even see the first response from the rover.
I'm guessing that's in the Tom Scott video, so I'll have to watch that later.
Edit: It looks like they're only using it for manual driving of the test rover on Earth. The autonomous driving is a whole separate system.
"The new mars rover simulator looks awesome"
And runs great on a steam deck! Ping to servers awful tho.