 Winter/Spring 2007 |
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Robotics Research — in Brief
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ROBOTICS RIVALRY
This summer, Georgia Tech will host an annual international robotics competition in which teams of robots compete in soccer games and search-and-rescue missions. The mission of the RoboCup competition is to foster artificial intelligence and intelligent robotics research by providing a standard problem in which a wide range of technologies can be integrated and examined. The ultimate goal is to develop a team of fully autonomous, humanoid robots that can defeat the human world champion team in soccer by 2050. RoboCup 2007 is expected to draw more than 1,500 students and faculty from colleges and universities and about 500 middle and high school students from 20-plus countries. For more information, contact Georgia Tech Associate Professor Tucker Balch at tucker@cc.gatech.edu or see www.robocup-us.org. |
DESIGNING TECHNOLOGY FOR THE SEXES
“There's a rise in digital housework, such as the maintenance and repair of home computers, printers and networking equipment. Roomba (a robotic vacuum) would be included in digital housework, even though it's closer to traditional notions of housework,” says Beki Grinter, a Georgia Tech associate professor of computing. Studying this phenomenon may suggest ideas for design. For example, some technologies might be designed for the 49 percent of the population that is male. “We don't think about technology as having gender consequences,” she adds. “But if it does, we must understand that as part of the design process.”
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TEACHING THE YOUNG
Ayanna Howard, a Georgia Tech associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is developing curriculum to spark interest in fields such as computer engineering among those middle school students who don't traditionally pursue math and science careers. Funded by the National Science Foundation, Howard and Brian Blake, a collaborator from Georgetown University, will offer a one-day, proof-of-concept course this summer using a video game approach. “Kids play lots of computer games, and they are so technologically savvy, yet they still don't see that there's a linkage with computer science and computer engineering,” Howard says. “So what we're trying to do is to couch learning techniques – for example, geometry and programming algorithms – in a computer game environment.”
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Georgia Tech and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) have joined forces to compete in the DARPA Urban Challenge, which tests the ability of competing autonomous robots to drive 60 miles in an urban setting in six hours or less. The vehicles must obey the rules of the road and safely interact with other robot vehicles and other cars driven by people on the course. The driverless vehicles must have the ability to sense and react to the urban traffic environment, including lane markings, intersections, other vehicles and unexpected road blockages. The robot vehicles also must have the intelligence to select the best route and decide which vehicle has the right-of-way in normal traffic. For more information, contact Professor Henrik Christensen at hic@cc.gatech.edu or see www.sting-racing.org. |
TRANSFORMING TECHNOLOGY
“There is an argument that technology transforms the way we run our lives in subtle ways that we don't always realize. So far, most of this technology has been about information, not about changing our physical environment to help us. Robots are going to carry things the next few steps further.” — Tucker Balch associate professor of computing and director, Georgia Tech Institute for Personal Robots in Education |
CATCHING THE CULPRITS
When food products are recalled because of safety concerns, the recall is massive because the company doesn't know when the product in question came through the plant and the potential for cross contamination. The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), is developing fully automated robotic systems that eventually could – with future improvements in sensors, such as GTRI's biosensor – detect contamination in real time.
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INTRO TO THE FUTURE
College students hoping to pass a required introductory computer science course now have a chance for learning fundamental, often abstract concepts in a hands-on way. They are learning programming by making small, two-wheeled personal robots move and interact with each other. Georgia Tech and Bryn Mawr are able to give students their own robots by using an existing commercial robot called Scribbler™, which is sold to universities at a discount rate. To read more about the new Institute for Personal Robots in Education, based at Georgia Tech, see the article at: gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/reshor/rh-w07/ipre.html |
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Last updated: March 6, 2007