Article Journal Post #3: Baby Robochair

There are wheelchairs for disabled children and adults, but what about infants? Babies lack the coordination and fine motor skills needed to drive powered wheelchairs. Engineers at the University of Ithaca have developed a infant robot wheelchair that is guided by a Wii balance board.  An infant seat is attached to the robot so the baby has a place to sit. When the baby reaches for something, the Wii balance board senses the direction that he is leaning in and the robot moves in that direction. The robot uses a sonar detector to keep from bumping into things and has an override joystick for a therapist or parent to use.

This robot is a great idea. Handicapped babies have no way to get around and must depend on older people to carry them to where they want to go. There are wheelchairs for children as young as three, but require the use of a joystick, something an infant can't use. As soon as the baby is able to sit up, they can operate the robotic wheelchair. Using this robotic wheelchair allows the baby to gain independence and to explore their surroundings better than they ever could before. The robot relies on one things that babies can do easily, leaning, and does not rely on their weakness, limited dexterity. The robo-chair was used in a study with several babies and all of the babies responded well to the chair and mastered how to control it.

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Article Journal Post #2: Stickybot III

Scientists and engineers at Stanford’s Center for Research and Design have been building climbing robots for five years. Their latest robot, named Stickybot III, was inspired by the gecko and can climb any vertical surface, including glass. In order for the robot to be able to climb surfaces like glass, the scientists had to mimic a gecko’s toe. A gecko’s toe contains ridges called lamellae, with hairs on the ridges called setae. On the tips of the setae are even smaller strands called spatulae, the molecules in the spatulae are attracted to the molecules in the surface because of the van der Waal’s force. The robots mimics the gecko’s foot with a two layered structure with adhesive rubber and tiny hairs like the setae. The scientists involved in building the robot hope to use the idea used in Stickybot’s feet to create human sized pads that will allow a person to walk up walls.

The dry adhesive that the robot uses is very strong yet easy to remove. It is reusable and leaves no residue or damage. Robots that use this new adhesive could be useful in getting to dangerous, hard to reach places.

article: http://news.discovery.com/tech/sticky-robot-climbs-up-glass.html

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/august/gecko-082410.html

Major Payne

In the movie "Major Payne", the titular character has served in the Marines and is a trained killing machine. He has learned through his training that a leader needs to be forceful and uncompromising. As a result, when Major Payne must whip an abysmal JROTC troop into shape, he has a hard time being a good leader that inspires teamwork. His leadership style is Autocratic and Exploitative Authoritative. He tells the troop what to do and if they do not do it or disrespect his authority, he severely punishes them. However, by the end of the movie, Major Payne has changed slightly to Benevolent Authoritative. While less harsh to the troop, he recognizes that the military needs strong leadership and leaders that command respect, while not trying to kill their subordinates. He realizes when he is pushing them too hard. His relationship with Miss Walburn convinced him to changes his leadership style. The book that she gave him also influenced his change.  The changes that he made are effective because the troop is now willing to follow his orders and respect his for his leadership.

In the beginning of the movie, Cadet Alex Stone has a Laissez-faire leadership style and a devil-may-care attitude. He does not care what the other boys do and does only what he wants to. He disrespects Payne’s authority. When Major Payne promotes him to squad leader, Alex does not want to take up that responsibility. He does not want to be the one responsible for their defeat in the Virginia Military Games. Eventually, he learns to shoulder the responsibility and develops a Democratic/Consultative leadership style. He is able to inspire the rest of the troop to go to the Games and do their best.

Article Journal Post #1: Robonaut 2

NASA engineers recently completed a robotic assistant for astronauts, called Robonaut 2, or R2, for short. The robot, a humanoid robot with a torso, head and two arms and hands, will be the first permanent robot in space when he heads up to the ISS in November. R2 weighs 300 pounds, but is dexterous and is built and programmed to act like a human. His body is white and he wears a gold helmet so he can look just like the other astronauts. He has limited mobility, but in the future, robots like R2 will be able to stand in for astronauts on dangerous missions. The engineers will have a phased approach to R2 upgrades and could have a new version in about two years, depending on funding.
Robots like R2 are very important to space missions like they do on board the ISS. A robot can withstand extreme conditions better than a human astronaut can and is not limited to a certain amount of time for spacewalks due to the capacity of the oxygen tanks. Allowing a robot to do the difficult tasks involved in space exploration would let humans be much safer.

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/nasa-robonaut2-astronaut-helper-packed-100813.html

http://www.philforhumanity.com/Space_Exploration_by_Humans_or_Robots.html

Lost at Sea!

To test our individual logic skills and ability to cooperate within a group, we did a lost at sea survival scenario. The difference between my rankings and the Coast Guard’s was 45 and the difference between my group’s and the Coast Guard’s was 46. To come up with my rankings, I read through the entire list of objects and evaluated their usefulness and kept in mind what we needed to survive. I then ranked the most important 2 or 3 and then ranked the least important and filled in the middle.  As a group, we ranked #1 and #2 and then filled in the rest, starting with the least important. As a group, we tried to listen to what everyone had to say and weighed our decisions carefully. To get a better individual score, I could have realized that we weren’t going to be navigating anywhere and the sextant was going to be pretty much useless.  This would have helped my group’s score as well.

Leadership and Teamwork

Leadership- (n.) 1: the office or position of a leader
2: capacity to lead
3: the act or an instance of leading

But to me, leadership means something a little different.

To me, leadership is the ability to direct a group of people to what they are supposed to do and whose job it is to delegate responsibilities to members of the group. However, a good leader must always be able to listen to the members of his group and take suggestions on how to do things better.

Teamwork- (n.) work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole

Teamwork allows us to work together to accomplish a common goal. We learn to get along with types of personalities different from our own. When we work in groups, we are more efficient and get things done much faster than a single person would if he did the project alone. Through teamwork, we can bring out people’s best qualities and use them to benefit the whole group and get things done.

Why am I here?

Last spring, during course registration, I needed a couple more credits in my Business classes. I searched through the course catalogue for the most interesting business class. I found Robotics. “Robotics seems pretty cool, I thought, I’ll take that.”

I want to become an aerospace engineer, with a focus on space technologies. Robots are crucial to space exploration since not all missions are able to be done by humans. A good aerospace engineer would need to understand the complexities of robotics in order to build an efficient spacecraft that is able to withstand the harshness of outer space while also supporting the technology and robotics that goes into it.