First time at MonkeyTaco? This post builds on concepts from Part 8 — Decision Logic and Part 9 — Scheduling. You don’t need to read them first — but the threading concept here will feel more natural if you’ve seen the state machine and scheduler in action. Let’s start with an honest question. In the…

First time at MonkeyTaco? This post builds directly on Part 8 — How Robots Think: Decision Logic. You don’t need to read it first — but the state machine code we upgrade here will make more sense if you have. Here’s a scene that plays out in homes and hospitals everywhere. A Weekly Pill Box…

First time at MonkeyTaco? This post builds directly on Part 7 — Building a Virtual Nurse Call Button. The code upgrade at the end will make more sense if you’ve seen that project — but the concepts here stand on their own. The Robot That Couldn’t Make Up Its Mind Cast your mind back to…

First time at MonkeyTaco? This post builds on our earlier projects — particularly the YOLOv8-pose work from Part 4 and Part 5. You don’t need to read them first — but if something looks unfamiliar, those are great starting points. Let’s talk about buttons. Specifically, let’s talk about pressing the wrong one. You’re drafting a breakup text, still…

First time at MonkeyTaco? This post builds on our earlier projects. You don’t need to read them first — but if something looks unfamiliar, start here. Let’s take a quick step back and look at the big picture. Over the last five posts, we’ve been quietly building something real. Our laptop robot can now: Not bad…

First time at MonkeyTaco? This post builds on our earlier projects — particularly Part 4, Fall Detection. You don’t need to read them first — but if something looks unfamiliar, that’s a great place to start. Here’s a question worth sitting with — ideally with your back straight. How are you sitting right now? If…

First time at MonkeyTaco? This post builds on our previous three projects. You don’t need to read them first — but if something looks unfamiliar, start here. Let’s talk about something that doesn’t make headlines but probably should. Every year in the United States, more than 14 million older adults fall. Worldwide, that number is around…

First time at MonkeyTaco? This post builds on Your Laptop Is Already a Robot and When Your Robot Sees Someone, Make It React. You don’t need to read them first — but if something looks unfamiliar, those are great places to start. Let’s take stock of where we are. Our laptop robot can see. It can detect a…

First time at MonkeyTaco? This post builds on Your Laptop Is Already a Robot. You don’t need to read it first — but if something looks unfamiliar, that’s a great place to start. Let’s be honest about something. In the last post, we built a robot that could look at the world through a webcam and…

Open any news site right now. Scroll for ten seconds. I’ll wait. Yep — there it is. AI. Robots. Some headline about a robot doing something a human used to do, followed by either breathless excitement or mild existential dread, depending on the publication. Robots and AI are everywhere. In the news, in your social…