Page 43 - Robot Builder's Bonanza

12 WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF ROBOTICS!

starting out. While you may seek the challenge of a complex project, if it’s beyond your pres-
ent skills and knowledge level you’ll likely become frustrated and abandon robotics before
you’ve given it a fair chance.

Thinking Like a Robot Builder

Robot experimenters have a unique way of looking at things. They take nothing for granted:

• At a restaurant, it’s the robot experimenter who collects the carcasses of lobsters and crabs
to learn how these ocean creatures use articulated joints, in which the muscles and tendons
are inside the bone. Maybe the lobster leg can be duplicated in the design of a robotic
arm . . .
• At a county fair, it’s the robot experimenter who studies the way the “eggbeater” ride
works, watching the various gears spin in perfect unison. Perhaps the gear train can be
duplicated in an unusual robot locomotion system . . .
• While flipping channels on the TV, it’s the robot experimenter who thinks that if the
remote control can operate a television, the same technique can be applied to a robot . . .
• When washing hands in a restaurant lavatory, it’s the robot experimenter who studies the
automatic faucet control. The water is automatically turned on and off when the hands
come near the sink. Could the same system be adapted to a robot, enabling it to judge
distances and see things in front of it? . . .

The list is endless. All around us, from nature’s designs to the latest electronic gadgets, are
infinite ways to make better and more sophisticated robots. Uncovering these solutions
requires extrapolation— figuring out how to apply one design and make it work somewhere
else.
And that’s what the robot builder is especially good at!

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