Roombas Used To Reenact Pac-Man

If you have a Roomba, then you know that it does wonders for your floor. And, if you've ever watched it as it went along its pre-ordained path, you've probably thought about making it do some other crazy things, like terrorize your poor cat, as has been demonstrated on YouTube plenty of times. But, for a few engineering students out there, that wasn't enough. They gathered a few Roombas, took advantage of some military-grade Unmanned Aerial Systems, and went to work on creating a life-like Pac-Man.

Considering all the work these guys had to do on the software and engineering side of things, there's no wonder that the Pac-Man and Ghost "outfits" for the Roombas aren't that great. The team utilized the UAS to make the Pac-Man scenario as "real" as possible, as the Ghosts chase Pac-Man around a laid-out maze, just as they would in the classic game. The Pac-Man Roomba moves around the maze, picking up paper pellets, while the Ghosts try to catch up with their adversary.

The rules set forth in the software delegate where the Ghosts go, and how aggressively they chase the Pac-Man Roomba. And yes, there are "special" paper pellets on the ground, so that when the Pac-Man robot picks them up, it's Pac-Man's turn to chase the Ghosts. The whole thing was caught on video, as it should be, so go ahead and check it out below.

[via GearLog]