In this video segment from NASA, robotics researcher Ayanna Howard uses engineering to improve the intelligence of robots in space exploration.
MIT high school students competitions in aerial design, robot design, robocraft programming, manufacturing and much more.
In this segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members use computers to program a robot in preparation for the FIRST LEGO League Challenge tournament. Despite meticulous planning and programming by its designers, an autonomous robot can encounter unexpected challenges. This is true for both LEGO® robots and Martian rovers. In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members enter the FIRST LEGO® League Challenge tournament and work as a team to program their LEGO® robot to navigate a complex obstacle course. Grades 3-8.
This Mars and robotics learning module offers hands-on, minds-on activities while investigating the Martian environment and robotic technologies of space exploration. The learning module contains 16 national standards-based lessons designed to progress logically from learning about Mars and why scientists and engineers want to explore Mars with robots (lessons 1 through 8) to the fundamental principles of robotics and how these principles are applied to design, construct, and test robotic explorer (lessons 9 through 16). The MarsBots module is integrated to support fundamental concepts and skills in language arts, mathematics, and science. A background section along with teacher notes throughout the module gives the necessary background information to present each lesson.
Examines the intellectual foundations of the new discipline of deep sea archaeology, a convergence of oceanography, archaeology, and engineering. How best are robots and submarines employed for archaeological work? How do new technologies change operations plans, research designs, and archaeological questions? Covers oceanography, history and technology of underwater vehicles, search strategies, technology development, archaeological technique, sociology of scientific knowledge. Case studies of deep-sea projects include the wrecks of the Titanic and Monitor, Roman trading vessels in the Mediterranean, and deep research in the Black Sea.
This interactive timeline from NASA journeys through the last century, detailing key discoveries, experiments, missions, and other events that brought robotic space exploration from science fiction to reality.
In this video from ThinkTV Dayton, a robotics engineer describes what robots do, the rewards and challenges of his job, a typical workday, the schooling that prepared him for his career, and the future of robotics.
This course examines the issues, principles, and challenges toward building machines that cooperate with humans and with other machines. Philosophical, scientific, and theoretical insights into this subject will be covered, as well as how these ideas are manifest in both natural and artificial systems (e.g. software agents and robots).
One of the biggest challenges scientists face when studying the ocean is observing the interplay between physical processes and biology in fine detail. Join Jules Jaffe, a research oceanographer in Scripps' Marine Physical Laboratory, as he describes his latest scheme to uncover these processes with swarms of inexpensive, miniaturized robotic floats that travel with currents, sense the environment and report their findings back to us. (58 minutes)
The LEGO MINDSTORMS system provides a rich simulation environment for evolutionary adaptation and animal behavior. It includes both hardware and software that may be considered analogous to anatomical features and behavioral repertoire respectively. The system is off-the-shelf which minimizes set-up and preparation time. Conversely, its components are capable of considerable customization and expansion if desired. The MINDSTORMS system makes clear that form, function, and behavior of animals are inextricably linked. The MINDSTORMS package also indirectly introduces students to technologies such as object-oriented computer programming, infrared data transmission, and basic mechanical principles such as gear ratios and levers.
Welcome to the online Robotics Alliance Project VEX Course. This course has rolling admission and enables students to complete it during the course of a school session. By completing this course, you will be eligible to receive 3 units of high school credit. This is provided through the Santa Clara County Office, Regional Occupational Program* (ROP). Students outside of this district will need to contact their individual school administration regarding the application of this credit to their academic transcript. All students will earn a Pass/Fail grade. At the successful completion of the course and the exams, you or your high school will receive a letter of completion from ROP. Homeschool students welcome.
Students will build a small robot based on a controller similar to the one used in FIRST Robotics competitions. Fast Intro to C programming. Concepts on working with a micro controller, map inputs to outputs, read sensor input. Discussion of DC PM motor torque-speed current characteristics, encoders, current protection and open/closed loop control. Discussion of common mechanical design issues such as tradeoffs between tolerance, backlash, stiffness, weight, precision, and speed vs torque.
The course is divided into five main video sections, to be viewed at your own pace. Each session includes a concepts lecture, guest lecture from engineers at NASA, and a laboratory section during which you will build different models of VEX robots.
*Students that are within the California, Palo Alto Unified School District, Fremont Union High School District, and the Mountain View-Los Gatos District will automatically receive 3 units of credit for this course.
