By Mohamad Alameddine
Grade 9
Technology is one of men's most amazing breakthroughs. I have chosen this topic for different reasons: first of all, in all my life I have loved small gadgets, electricity, and computers. Second of all I have been amazed by the progress humans have made. In my project I provide some information about three different kinds of robots by the names of Micro 5, Mei-Mei, and Pong; I also cover the reason why each robot was created and talk about each creator. Furthermore, in a fourth body paragraph I explain why I chose these robots and who would benefit from them.
MICRO 5:
........
It was developed for space exploration.Information about Micro 5:
Micro 5 is one of the latest and most recent robots created. It was created in the year 1999, and it has only two purposes: exploring space and collecting samples of rocks from other planets.
The moon's surface is covered with a kind of sand called regolith, and has sand and stones scattered all over it. Moon surface vehicles which move over the moon's surface, must be able to freely travel on this kind of terrain. That's why a new system comprised of five wheels, known as PEGASUS, was introduced. A small, light manipulator* , enabling the robot to collect samples from the surface, was also developed and an ultrasonic motor* has been used to limit the manipulator's power consumption.* Manipulator: a device which can be manipulated to perform functions similar to a human hand, operated from a remote location.
* Ultrasonic motor: the name of motors which base their operations of the things required to drive the motor on ultrasonic vibrations.
Intended to be used in space, Micro5 is lightweight and designed for low energy consumption while still providing optimum functionality.
Micro 5's lightweight design is a requirement for machines used in outer space. Equipped with necessary devices like a transmission computer and cameras etc., Micro5's total weight is just 5 kg. Even though it has one less wheel than Sojourner, NASA's Mars exploration rover. With voltage consumption at just 5W, Micro5 {can climb over obstacles 1.5 times its own wheel height} and run up slopes as steep as 30 degrees.
Why was Micro 5 created:
It was created in the year 1999, and it has only two purposes: exploring space and collecting samples of rocks from other planets.
Tim Davis: (he is Micro 5's creator)
Tim Davis is one of the oldest robot creators in the world. His first robot, by the name of Micro 3, was created in the year 1996, and was one the first robots to have the "x36", which is a chip that works just like a humans brain, it's the robot's brain.
Mei-Mei:
Information about Mei-Mei:
"When we compare the evolution of mental abilities in animals to similar abilities in machines, robot evolution is going about 10 million times faster," says Hans Moravec, director of Carnegie Mellon's Mobile Robot Lab.
Mei-Mei is the most amazing robot that has ever been created, it is worth more than 2 million dollars because it has the smallest chip that has ever been created, which is as small as a peanut (a bit bigger). This chip is Mei-Mei's brain and most important part of its body. Another amazing thing in it is that this robot is as small as an insect (seen in the picture below) and only weighs 2.7 Kg.
Why was Mei-Mei created:
Mei-Mei didn't really have reason for its creation it was just a challenge for Mark to create the smallest robot.
Mark Tilden: (He is Mei-Mei's creator)
If there is a God of machines, it must be Mark Tilden. He founder the Robot Olympics, now employed by Los Angeles National Laboratory, the hobbyist envisions intelligent machines that have "the flexibility and naturalness of living things." Tilden says, "I strongly believe that we're going to have credit card sized machines that are out of the way and noiseless. You just toss them into your place, and the only thing you will notice is that your floors are clean and your cockroaches are nervous."
Mark Tilden with his tiny friend
Based on evolutionary principles and chaos theory, tinkered together from the low tech (Walkman motors, printer gears, solar cells that once powered pocket calculators), the 70-odd Walkman walkers, floor cleaners and snakebots in Tilden's Robot Jurassic Park have proven both durable and endlessly unpredictable — in short, lifelike. "I can build these machines, but I don't know how they think," he says. "You can give one of my walkers terrain that is massively complex, and it can figure out by itself how to carry on its mission, which is to walk forward." His junkbots are moving him closer to what he hilariously describes as his life's work.
Pong
This is pong, it can read people's expressions and hold conversations making his own expressions.
Information about Pong:
This robot has an expressive face and a voice that converses with people. Pong is capable of voice recognition, understands natural signals, generates natural signals, synthesizes voices and controls its facial expressions.
It is a robot that will search for a homage, summarize the content and translate. The robot will search for a homage on the basis of the name and the address referred to as the URL.
It is the resulting form, using combinations of various types of technology, of a moving conversation robot that acts as an internet terminal. The concept may be simple but its realization required the solving of many problems. For example, the various types of words that would be spoken to the robot, the robot had to be programmed to respond to numerous speech patterns. That the robot's facial expressions had to be something that people would easily understand. That if the robot was unable to understand a word that was spoken, that it would let the person know immediately. That the robot would be able to stop and change subjects even as the robot was saying something.
Using a camera concealed in his nose, Pong is able to learn people's expressions and then use his own eyebrows, eyes and mouth to form his own expressions as I converse.
Pong uses the camera on his nose to read people's expressions, then he make a variety of his own expressions during his conversations with people.
Pong engages in conversation with meaning. It is the first intelligent robot that will be beneficial to people. In the future, the robot will act in place of the person and control house appliances that use data and will probably end up using the internet to find out and teach people what they want to know.
In the future, Robots like Pong will probably end up being intelligent partners to humans. This robot does not move nor carry things but, even more importantly, it responds to a person's questions and provides various types of information. That however, rather than saying that it is something the robot thought up itself, is something that the robot has organized from the thoughts of people around the world accumulated through a network. In addition, this robot will smoothen communications between people. Through this robot, bonds with friends or family in distant locations will become stronger.
Pong was created of different reasons: first of all, Pong could keep people company, and is a very nice friend second of all, you can teach pong and it's fun, you could teach him new expressions so he can learn them on his own.Why was Pong created:
Pong was created for different reasons, it can keep people company and it is also fun to talk to, you could teach Pong and that is cool.
John Robinson: ( he is Pong's creator)
John Robinson is known for his strange and funny ways in choosing robots. His first robot was created in the year 1998, and was not such a good success, his second robot which is Pong was a great hit in the robot of fame gallery, John got an award for inventing Pong and was nominated for "most creative robot of the year 2000".
I explain why I chose these robots:I have chosen these robots for three different reasons: first of all, I chose Micro 5 because it was the first time that I see that robots could go into space. Second of all, I chose Mei-Mei because it is the smallest robot ever build. And finally I chose Pong because he could learn from humans and use the things he learned. Over all, I chose these robots because each one was created for it's own reasons.
who would benefit from them:
In my opinion, a lot of people could benefit from these three robots, for examples Micro 5 could help space explorers, instead of sending humans to collect rock samples, Micro 5 could do the job. Second of all Pong is useful if a person is bored or has nobody to talk to, Pong could keep that person company; even though he cannot replace another human, he is still useful.
Finally, in this project...I have talked about 3 different kinds of robots and each one's abilities, I have also covered the robots' creators, and why I chose each robot and who would benefit from them. This web site could be useful in many ways, for example it informs the visitor about new inventions in technology and it is also interesting. If you have any additional information or any comments, please email me at "alameddine58@hotmail.com"
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Page created: May 10, 2000 | Last updated: June 28, 2001
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