The Robot Web: Home

Project Overview

In the News ...

Today's consumer is constantly bombarded by advertisements for various bits of smart technology. We can sign up for smart credit-cards, play with smart robotic pets, buy a smart vacuum-cleaner or lawn-mower that move on their own, invest in smart cars that know when they drive off the road, and fight wars from afar using self-guided smart missles. But what, exactly, do we mean when we say a piece of machinery is smart?

At Kenwood Academy, a Chicago-area magnet school, a group of 7th-9th graders are about to ask that question of many of today's smart products. Over the course of a semester, through discussion and readings the students will investigate what it means to be smart and the underpinnings of many so-called "smart" technologies. These discussions will be supplemented by a hands-on lab, wherein students will have the opportunity to design and build their own smart machines, using Lego RoboLab kits.

The goal of this series of web pages, the RobotWeb, is to provide a forum for discussion, a source of information, and a poster-board for the results of the robot projects designed and built by the participants in this program.

The program is supported by funds from The University of Chicago's BioOutreach Program and a Golden Apple Teacher Incentive Grant.

=
(copyright www.spacer.com)

Detecting Hidden Targets With 'Smart' Robotic Sensors

A vision of futuristic robotic aircraft and land vehicles that can sense and close in on targets hidden in trees, caves or bunkers is being explored by a new four-university research initiative led by Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering.

The hunt would begin over a wide area, using stationary and moving sensors that might scan for communications signals emanating from a bunker, or the different kinds of electromagnetic signatures put out by machinery, or the infrared waves emitted by a heated object. Another tool would be radar.

Other sensors, perhaps installed aboard airborne or surface vehicles, would autonomously coordinate their activities with minimal intervention from humans. Those would narrow down the search using a special kind of back-tracing mathematics to locate the "fields" in space where the tell-tale waves vibrate.

Click here to read the rest of the story...

What do you think about these robots? Voice your opinion on the class discussion page.

Keeping track of the news? Heard about a new robot or smart technology that deserves to be highlighted in an "In the News" segment? E-mail me about it.

RobotWeb Contents

• Challenges: readings, handouts, and weekly tasks.
   

• RobotWeb Discussion: a place to share ideas, progress, and problems (opens in new window).
   

• In Depth: a springboard for exploration.  Includes hints, links, and recommended further reading.
   

• People: a quick introduction to the people involved in the robotics club.
   

• Photo Album: online pictures of each group's robots in development and motion!

| Home | People | Challenges | In Depth ... | Photo Gallery |