Build A Robotic Arm
Background/Rationale
Robots with cameras are good tools for creating "telepresence" in a harsh environment. But what happens when there are soil samples to gather, marine organisms to collect or other tasks requiring a tool? Robots that interact with their environments are often equipped with a robotic arm, as is "MARS ONE", a grasping device that lets the robot pick up and manipulate things. In this lesson your students will design their own robotic arms and use them to perform a simple but sensitive task.
Objectives
- Students will work cooperatively to build their own robotic arm, write a set of sequenced directions and perform a simple task.
Vocabulary
- commands
- manipulation
- depth perception
- stereo cameras and stereo vision
Materials (enough for teams of two)
- blindfolds
- cups
- marshmallows
- salad tongs, tweezers, chopsticks
Preparation
Organize your students into pairs. Gather enough blindfolds, cups and marshmallows for each pair to have one set. Ask students to bring in common household items to use in building a robotic arm: suggest salad tongs, and chopsticks, as above, but invite them to use their ingenuity to come up with "spares" of their own.
Class Activity
- Explain that the class teams will be simulating a robot arm that can perform a multitude of tasks. You won't be telling them ahead of time what the task will be, so the arm they design and build must be flexible in its abilities.
- Constraints:
- The arm will be operated like the "Robot built of Humans" _ the Manipulator is "blind" and must take direction from a "Brain" or Human Operator.
- The arm must be made from common household items (salad tongs, tweezers, chopsticks, etc.).
- Only 12 one-word commands will be allowed, such as "Forward... Backwards... Up... Down... Open... Close."
- Give the students time to design their arm and select 12 commands. Allow them time to practice and refine their method. Have Robot Arm teams perform a simple task such as putting a marshmallow in a cup.
Wrap Up
Have students evaluate their success. How could they improve their arm? What would they do differently the second time?
Follow Up Discussion/Journal Entry
After seeing the first and second video segments have student compare their robot arm with that of the TROV.
Options
Set up a timed competition between Robot Arm teams on the tasks specified in this lesson.
Have teams devise alternate tasks for other teams while still using the same basic materials, for example, this time place the cup upside down over the marshmallow so that it first has to be removed.
Have students remove blindfolds. Have them perform a simple task at arm's length, with one eye closed. Have them see if they can successfully judge distances without the aid of both eyes. Discuss stereo vision and depth perception.
Let teams research, design and build better robot arms, and then have them compete on the same task. The NASA publication ROBOTS IN SPACE, provided with this Guide, has suggestions for books and other activities.
Follow Build a Robotic Arm, with Mapping Unseen Landforms.
This lesson adapted from the "Life From... Other Worlds" Teacher's guide.
November 1993 GHSP/INNERSPACE FOUNDATION
THE "LIVE FROM... OTHER WORLDS" PROJECT
PROJECT DIRECTOR & EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Geoffrey Haines-Stiles