Photo by Kaylin Bowers, courtesy of The Daily Progress
Jason Davis (left), 11; Sydney Givan, 10; Nell Ackerman (kneeling in back), 12; and Daniel Johnson, 12, test their robot.
The first responders to the city devastated by hurricane-force wind and rain were robots named Mantis, Twitchy and Kamikaze Watermelon.
Each robot lumbered along its own chosen route, picking up supplies along the way. As each brought aid to pockets of stranded survivors, the robots coordinated their efforts with one another in order to be as efficient as possible.
In reality, having an autonomous army of robots involved in a coordinated effort to assist humans is still in the future. But making it possible is something systems engineers are hard at work on.
On Friday, July 27, a few dozen middle-school students from the area used the hurricane scenario to test the robots they built. Each robot, with positioning sensors flashing red, was timed as it traveled along a maze of electrical tape laid out on the floor of Room D-223 in the University of Virginia’s Thornton Hall.
With a number of different routes from which to choose, each robot was programmed to follow the path that best corresponded to its particular traits and abilities. The robot race was the culmination of a weeklong summer camp created by U.Va.’s Systems and Information Engineering Department.
Systems Robotics Design Camp served to introduce children to a few of the exciting and challenging problems facing systems engineers today. At various times during the races, the herky-jerky robots had the kids and adults in the packed room groaning, laughing and yelling encouragement.
Donald E. Brown, the engineering professor who came up with the idea for the camp, was rarely seen without a smile as the robots whirred and the kids yelled.
“The purpose of the camp is to excite children about math and science so they will then take the necessary classes in middle school and high school so they can get into Engineering School,” said Brown, W.S. Calcott Professor and chair of the Systems and Information Engineering Department at U.Va.’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.
“Science and math can appear to be very difficult and not so interesting to kids, and we don’t want them to feel that way. Hopefully through a camp like this, they’ll discover it can be fun, exciting and that it can be a wonderful career.
“Judging from the success of the two week-long camps we held, I think we can do it. I will take credit for this only to the extent that I told my staff that we needed to do something to reach middle-school kids, and they took it from there.”
Peter A. Beling and Reid Bailey were two of the U.Va. educators who figured out how to get kids literally jumping up and down with excitement. They accomplished this by turning objects usually perceived as toys into powerful learning tools.
With guidance from graduate and undergraduate engineering students, the children used Lego’s Mindstorms kits to build the robots and Nintendo’s wireless Wii remotes to control them. Each Mindstorms kit costs about $250 and comes with everything needed to build a programmable robot.
Hot gaming devices
The kit includes enough extra gears, axles, beams and pneumatic parts to ensure that an almost infinite number of ways can be found to build the robot. The handheld Wii remote is one of the hottest gaming devices on the market today, incorporating control technology that’s so sophisticated it’s capable of detecting motion and rotation in three dimensions.
“I think one of the most exciting things about this technology is that we can use it to introduce kids to some of the hardest problems engineers are facing today — systems engineers in particular,” Brown said.
“We can get them to [address] an incredibly hard problem in real life by doing a version of that problem with these little robots. They get exposed to a problem and it gets them thinking.
“The next thing you know, they’re saying, ‘Wow, that was fun. And oh, by the way, maybe I’d like to do this for the rest of my life.’”
Sydney Givan is only 10, but she has already decided on a career in engineering. The rising fifth-grader at St. Anne’s-Belfield School was technically too young to attend the camp, but with letters from her headmaster and math and science teachers she was granted permission.
“I’ve been interested in robotics, so this camp has really been fun for me,” said Sydney, who was on the team that built Twitchy. “The most fun was testing the robots for the first time, because they usually didn’t work.
“We would all laugh and then figure out what was wrong. I’m going to take more math and science so I can learn more about it.”
Sydney’s mother, Tracey Givan, said as soon as she heard about the camp she knew her daughter would enjoy it.
“Sydney has always been interested in science and wants to build rockets and fly them,” Tracey Givan said. “Her room is filled with Legos, Bionicles and those kind of things.
“She is really excited about robots now. I think the camp is great. This is where an interest in math and science can start.”
James H. Aylor, dean of U.Va.’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, feels it’s imperative that educators get kids excited about math and science at an early age.
“This is the group of students that we have to get interested in science and engineering,” Aylor said, having to raise his voice a bit to be heard above the enthusiastic clamor in the room.
“If you wait until high school, then you’ve lost a lot of them. It’s at this level where we need to capture their imaginations.
“One of the things we’re seeing with the industry now is that they’re really starting to panic about the next generation of engineers. They got the problem with the retirement of the baby boomers, and they’re worried about not having the people they need.
“I’m very proud of Don and the others for stepping up and getting these kids excited about science and engineering. In a few years, I hope to see all these kids here at U.Va.”
During the two week-long camps the kids teamed up in four- to five-member teams to build and program the robots. Some of the robots were built with speed in mind and others maneuverability.
Think tank
Getting robots to think for themselves and work in unison are a few of the most vexing problems currently facing engineers. The creators of the camp used the behavior of ants and bees to illustrate how the robots should work together.
“The kids got to hear about ants from an ant expert, and about bees from a beekeeper,” Beling said. “They not only learned a little bit about the kind of problems they’re going to be facing with a robot, but how bees and ants actually solve some of these problems in the real world.
“When ants go out to find food, they’re not scattering in random directions. When an ant finds food, it leaves a chemical trail as it returns to the nest that the other ants can follow back to the food.
“For the hurricane scenario, the kids came up with a bunch of sets of numbers that helped them decide on the best route to take for their particular robot. Those numbers are analog to the ants’ chemical trail.”
Because of generous sponsorship by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, the cost of the camp was kept to $225 per child. Scholarships also were provided for need-based children.
“Helping sponsor this camp gave us a chance to give back to the community,” said Keith Richards, a systems engineer with Sperry Marine, a local branch of Northrop Grumman. “The camp also helps young children learn a little about the practices we work with as a company.
“What the kids are doing here today is a great example of exactly what we do at Sperry Marine. The children are building a little system that controls robots, and we do much the same type of thing for cruise ships, commercial vessels and Navy ships throughout the world.
“Hopefully some day we’ll see some of these kids putting their newfound engineering experience to work.”
Because this was the first year a camp of this sort has been held at U.Va., it wasn’t certain how popular it would be. Because of its success, there is a good likelihood that the camp will be offered again next summer.
“In talking with parents of the campers I was really surprised at what a hit it has been for the kids,” said Bailey, who served as camp director and is assistant professor and assistant chair of the Systems and Information Engineering Department.
“Some of the parents were saying this was a highlight of the summer for their kids. My anticipation was that it was going to be a little too academic and have a little too much of a school feel to it.
“So I was impressed that it went so well. I think a lot of the credit for that goes to the counselors, who really pulled it off and adapted it to the kids.
“We’re certainly planning for it to happen again next year.”
Wayne Luckado had so much fun learning about robots that he wants to take the camp again. The 11-year-old was on the Mantis team that ultimately won the race of the robots.
“I’m very interested in robots, and I like Legos, too,” said Wayne, who will be entering the sixth grade at Walton Middle School. “This camp was better than I thought it was going to be.
“I didn’t know we were going to have a race course and be able to use Wii remotes. I learned a lot of things, like how to program a robot and what makes it go faster.
“I kind of think of robots as people, because you need to treat them nice, too. And you have to take good care of them. I see them as a friend.”
Those interested in more information about the camp can contact Jill Bratton at 434.982.2074 or e-mail jrb3ej@virginia.edu.
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