Robotics Algorithms Provide Nutritional Guidelines

On July 5, 1997, a small robot emerged from its lander like an insect from an egg, crawling out onto the rocky surface of Mars. About the size of a child s wagon, NASA s Sojourner robot was the first successful rover mission to the Red Planet. For 83 sols (Martian days, typically about 40 minutes longer than Earth days), Sojourner - largely remote controlled by NASA operators on Earth - transmitted photos and data unlike any previously collected. Sojourner was perhaps the crowning achievement of the NASA Space Telerobotics Program, an Agency initiative designed to push the limits of robotics in space. Telerobotics - devices that merge the autonomy of robotics with the direct human control of teleoperators - was already a part of NASA s efforts; probes like the Viking landers that preceded Sojourner on Mars, for example, were telerobotic applications. The Space Telerobotics Program, a collaboration between Ames Research Center, Johnson Space Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and multiple universities, focused on developing remote-controlled robotics for three main purposes: on-orbit assembly and servicing, science payload tending, and planetary surface robotics. The overarching goal was to create robots that could be guided to build structures in space, monitor scientific experiments, and, like Sojourner, scout distant planets in advance of human explorers. While telerobotics remains a significant aspect of NASA s efforts, as evidenced by the currently operating Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, the Hubble Space Telescope, and many others - the Space Telerobotics Program was dissolved and redistributed within the Agency the same year as Sojourner s success. The program produced a host of remarkable technologies and surprising inspirations, including one that is changing the way people ea

The Perfect Mindstorm: 4-H Robotics in Afterschool Settings

As the 4-H Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Mission Mandate unfolds, robotics provides an opportunity to involve youth in SET activities. Utah 4-H utilized Lego Mindstorms Robotics kits to teach youth about robotics. Evaluations demonstrated that robots increase youth’s interest in science, engineering and technology

User Perception of Teachable Robots: A Comparative Study of Teaching Strategies, Task Complexity and User Characteristics

This study explores the influence of teaching methods, task complexity, and user characteristics on perceptions of teachable robots. Analysis of responses from 138 participants reveals that both Teaching with Evaluative Feedback and Teaching through Preferences were perceived as equally user-friendly and easier to use compared to the non-interactive condition. Additionally, Teaching with Evaluative Feedback enhanced robot responsiveness, while Teaching with Preferences yielded results similar to the passive Download condition, suggesting that the degree of interactivity and human guidance in the former may not substantially impact user perceptions. Personality traits, particularly extraversion and intellect, shape teaching method preferences. Task complexity influenced the perceived anthropomorphism, control, and responsiveness of the robot. Notably, the classification task led to higher anthropomorphism, control, and responsiveness scores. Our findings emphasise the importance of task design and the need of tailoring teaching methods to the user’s personality to optimise human-robot interactions, particularly in educational contexts. Project website: https://sites.google.com/view/teachable-robots

R2T2 : Robotics to Integrate Educational Efforts in South Africa and Europe

This paper presents the first cross-continental collaborative robotic event based around education. It was entitled R2T2 and it involved more than 100 children from Europe and Africa. Based on remote programming, video streaming feedback, and a scenario of collaborative space rescue, R2T2 focused on pedagogical elements that are fundamentally different than those characterizing classic robotic competitions. The value of these educational actions is shown through the results of a survey conducted among the participants; the working methodologies by the African students were significantly enhanced and there was a broad inclusion in general, despite the fact that some gender issues lingered. This paper's contribution is to demonstrate an approach to implementing a north-south collaboration to get school students excited about robotics and the problem-solving skills required in engineering

Business model innovation through digitisation in social purpose organisations: A comparative analysis of Tate Modern and Pompidou Centre

Combining heterogeneous organisational forms continues to pose unresolved challenges that foster organisa- tional innovation. This study examines the effect of digitisation on the business model of insufficiently funded art museums in the United Kingdom and France influenced by national cultural policies. Based on two re- presentative case studies of Tate Modern and the Pompidou Centre, we found that digitisation is revitalising social purpose organisations by innovating the business model in two ways. First, digitisation enables creative revenue streams that directly feed into the social mission by creating a synergy between trade and social ac- tivities. Second, digitisation delivers social value to a larger audience with lower costs by engaging with visitors through virtual experience. Creative utilisation of digitisation provides a mechanism for business model in- novation in social purpose organisations with enhanced financial autonomy and greater social value

Factors Affecting Construction of Science Discourse in the Context of an Extracurricular Science and Technology Project

Doing and learning science are social activities that require certain language, activities, and values. Both constitute what Gee (2005) calls Discourses. The language of learning science varies with the learning context (Lemke, 2001,1990). Science for All Americans (AAAS, 1990) and Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 2000) endorse inquiry science learning. In the United States, most science learning is teacher-centered; inquiry science learning is rare (NRC, 2000). This study focused on 12 high school students from two suburban high schools, their three faculty mentors, and two engineering mentors during an extracurricular robotics activity with FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). FRC employed student-centered inquiry focus to teach science principles integrating technology. Research questions were (a) How do science teachers and their students enact Discourses as they teach and learn science? and (b) How does the pedagogical approach of a learning activity facilitate the Discourses that are enacted by students and teachers as they learn and teach science? Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study examined participants’ language during robotic activities to determine how language used in learning science shaped the learning and vice versa. Data sources included video-recordings of participant language and semi-structured interviews with study participants. Transcribed recordings were coded initially using Gee’s (2005) linguistic Building Tasks as a priori codes. CDA was applied to code transcripts, to construct Discourses enacted by the participants, and to determine how context facilitated their enactment. Findings indicated that, for the students, FRC facilitated elements of Science Discourse. Wild About Robotics (W.A.R.) team became, through FRC, part of a community similar to scientists’ community that promoted knowledge and sound practices, disseminated information, supported research and development and encouraged interaction of its members. The public school science classroom in the U.S. is inimical to inquiry learning because of practices and policies associated with the epistemological stance that spawned the standards and/or testing movement and No Child Left Behind (Baez & Boyles, 2009). The findings of this study provided concrete ideas to accommodate the recommendations by NRC (1996) and NSES (2000) for creating contexts that might lead to inquiry science learning for meaningful student engagement

A Corroborative Approach to Verification and Validation of Human--Robot Teams

We present an approach for the verification and validation (V&V) of robot assistants in the context of human-robot interactions (HRI), to demonstrate their trustworthiness through corroborative evidence of their safety and functional correctness. Key challenges include the complex and unpredictable nature of the real world in which assistant and service robots operate, the limitations on available V&V techniques when used individually, and the consequent lack of confidence in the V&V results. Our approach, called corroborative V&V, addresses these challenges by combining several different V&V techniques; in this paper we use formal verification (model checking), simulation-based testing, and user validation in experiments with a real robot. We demonstrate our corroborative V&V approach through a handover task, the most critical part of a complex cooperative manufacturing scenario, for which we propose some safety and liveness requirements to verify and validate. We construct formal models, simulations and an experimental test rig for the HRI. To capture requirements we use temporal logic properties, assertion checkers and textual descriptions. This combination of approaches allows V&V of the HRI task at different levels of modelling detail and thoroughness of exploration, thus overcoming the individual limitations of each technique. Should the resulting V&V evidence present discrepancies, an iterative process between the different V&V techniques takes place until corroboration between the V&V techniques is gained from refining and improving the assets (i.e., system and requirement models) to represent the HRI task in a more truthful manner. Therefore, corroborative V&V affords a systematic approach to 'meta-V&V,' in which different V&V techniques can be used to corroborate and check one another, increasing the level of certainty in the results of V&V

The strategic evolution of the robotics industry

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1983.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY.Includes bibliographical references.by David Schatz.M.S

Transformative Multicultural Science Curriculum: A Case Study of Middle School Robotics

Multicultural Science has been a topic of research and discourse over the past several years. However, most of the literature concerning this topic (or paradigm) has centered on programs in tribal or Indigenous schools. Under the framework of instructional congruence, this case study explored how elementary and middle school students in a culturally diverse charter school responded to a Multicultural Science program. Furthermore, this research sought to better understand the dynamics of teaching and learning strategies used within the paradigm of Multicultural Science. The school\u27s Robotics class, a class typically stereotyped as fitting within the misconceptions associated with the Western Modern Science paradigm, was the center of this case study. A triangulation of data consisted of class observations throughout two semesters; pre and post student science attitude surveys; and interviews with individual students, Robotic student teams, the Robotics class instructor, and school administration. Three themes emerged from the data that conceptualized the influence of a Multicultural Science curriculum with ethnically diverse students in a charter school\u27s Robotics class. Results included the students\u27 perceptions of a connection between science (i.e., Robotics) and their personal lives, a positive growth in the students\u27 attitude toward science (and engineering), and a sense of personal empowerment toward being successful in science. However, also evident in the findings were the students\u27 stereotypical attitudes toward science (and scientists) and their lack of understanding of the Nature of Science. Implications from this study include suggestions toward the development of Multicultural Science curricula in public schools. Modifications in university science methods courses to include the Multicultural Science paradigm are also suggested