Quadruped Robot

BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. Click Here To See

NYC Robotics Kids Visit Polytechnic Institute

Today, two kids from the Robotics team went to Brooklyn to learn more about the FLL game. They were able to hear about the setup of the game, practice with their robot and talk to other teams and coaches. They had a great time. On the train they talked about some skits for the research portion of the project. It was great to see students at the University walking around, in the lunch room and acting as mentors to the FLL teams. Here are a few things we learned: no rulers allowed although you can make one out of legos, using rotation counting to get from one place to another can be difficult when your coaster tends not to stay in place and touch sensors are great unless they bump into an unplanned target.

NYC Robotics Kid Sees Science Barge

The science barge in Manhattan is a great place to go for parents and teachers. It demonstrates solar and wind power in action. It also demonstrates innovation: a greenhouse on a barge using soil-less gardening to grow strawberries, tomatoes, peppers and more. Rebecca, a robotics student at PS139Q, realized all the positive impacts that soil-less farming could have on an urban neighborhood. Imagine every apartment growing herbs and vegetables instead of having to shop for them in a grocery store. Imagine the environmental significance: less trucks bringing produce to stores. This means less fossil fuels being used. Schools could grow their own vegetables and feed students fresh vegetables grown by students in their own school. Rebecca learned that if every roof in Manhattan had an urban soil-less garden, those gardens could provide fresh vegetables for every person in Manhattan with zero carbon emissions.

NYC Roobotics Team Gets Visit From Climate Change Presenter

KidsTechLabs Robotic's team received a visit from Shino who discussed global warming and climate change. Shino is one of only 200 people trained by Al Gore to discuss slides from an Inconvenient Truth. Shino stayed for over an hour and after the discussion talked with the class about things they can do to impact their environment and reduce their carbon footprint. The team gave their thoughts: Walk more, use recyclable bags at the grocery store, use energy efficient appliances, plant more trees and become educated about what you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.

The team also learned about cool projects going on around the neighborhood. For instance, in Ridgefield Conneticut a company has built technology onto bicycles used in a gym to power the grid. What does this mean? Exercise classes create energy to power lights instead of using additional fossil fuels.

After Shino left, the class was given the challenge of coming up with additional technologies that could impact their environment. Their answers centered around capturing energy from a person's movement; Sneakers which obtained energy from a person walking, toilets that captured energy from a single flush ( a company actually invented a micro hydrolic turbine in 2006), gym floors that obtained energy from foot motion and more.

I loved their innovative and clever ideas!