Class+no+3

During our third lesson, our teacher split us into various groups and gave us varying robotic articles to analyze. I was in a group with Lyuba, Nadia, Charlie, Victor, and Alberto. Mr. Emanuele told us that we had to find the article on the web, and put it onto our wikispaces – Robotics page. Then we were supposed to find two pictures of the robot, 1 or 2 videos, create and abstract (summary) of the article, write the Pros and Cons to this robot, write our opinion on it and then find some other links. Our group was a very good one in my opinion, because we worked quite well overall, and everyone finished what they were supposed to. Our article was about an exoskeleton that scientists are creating in Utah. The article is called **//US army develops robotic suits//** (by Rajesh Mirchandani). It describes how the army is developing a light-weight aluminum exoskeleton, called XOS, in Utah. Rex Jameson is the software engineer who is testing the suit. The XOS suit is almost like a shadow or a second skin. It is designed for agility that can match humans, but with strength and endurance much greater than a human’s abilities. The XOS senses every move that the human inside it makes, and instantly moves with him. For the army the XOS could be very useful, because at least for now they can be used as laborers. The army hopes that later models can go into combats. There are still some problems to solve, but the US military expects that within 8 years this robot will be finished. The complete article can be found at []. Once we had read through the article and found it on the web, we split up the different jobs and set to work. The twins and I worked on the summary of the article and the Pros and Cons, Charlie worked on the pictures and videos, while Victor and Abi worked on finding other links and helping Charlie out a bit. Overall it worked very well, and when each of us had finished our job we sent it to each other via our email, this way once at home we could put everything up on our Wiki Page. When all of the groups were finished, we presented what we had discovered. The first groups 'presenters' were Francesco and Shubham, and they presented 'Feelix Growing'. The Feelix Growing is a robot that can understand a person's feelings, and mimics human feelings, for example, if you are happy it follows you, but if you yell at it, it cowers. Its function is to be a social companion. The next group's presenters were Chiara and Sara, who had been given a very interesting article about a man who has a robotic hand that he can control with his mind. This happens because the mind sends signals to the arm and hand even though they aren't there, so scientists have learnt to use these signals to make them control a robotic hand instead of a normal hand. There is also a micro computer inside this man that helps control the arm. The third group's presenters were Ottavia, Umberto and Daniel, who presented the 'Pinta : Unmanned Robotic Sailboat'. The Pinta is a very small sailboat that can adapt to a hostile environment for a long period of time. The positive side to this sailboat is that in an enlarged version it could be used to transport people and it doesn't pollute, but on the negative side, if there isn't any wind it can't move and it can be capsized quite easily. The next group's presenters were Nicole, Jacky and Pietro, who presented 'Nao : The robot able to express emotions'. Nao has cameras in its 'eyes' and it has 'ears' that allow it to hear. It can walk, sense obstacles, and tell if its falling. It can grab, drop and bring, but it is very slow. It represents emotions, and is very much like a child. The problem with this is that it requires a lot of attention. Our group was last, and Charlie and Lyuba presented the XOS very well in my opinion. These robots are truly amazing. They could help people in so many ways if people had the money to buy them. Some are more like pets, like the Nao and the Feelix Growing. These could be considered as pets because they require a lot of attention, but are great social companions since they can help people not feel lonely. But in my opinion a dog or a cat is a much better companion than a robot. This is because a robot can't comfort you or ask to be fed or to be pet, an animal can. An animal probably requires more attention than a robot, but an animal can make you feel involved. A robot after all is just a piece of metal that has been programmed to do certain things. An animal helps humans because it wants to. Just think about what dogs alone have done for human beings throughout the centuries; they have protected us from wild beasts, has acted as guards, have helped us with our jobs, have been our companions, have saved our lives, and have been our eyes when we were blind. Overall, robots could help us by being our social companions, but we already have some that are much better and have been faithful to us for so long. Are we really ready to give up some of our best friends for something that doesn't have a brain and heart?
 * //Lesson 3 – 8 October 2010 //**