TEAM DUCT TAPE

A group of Italian engineers from the University of Parma’s Vislab are testing sensory technology that allow unmanned vehicles to avoid obstacles on the longest-ever roadtrip of driverless technology.
” One month into the three-month journey, most errors have been human.    “We were trapped in customs for one long day. We had a small accident — [...]

[ August 28, 2010; 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. ] Hard to believe the new season kicks off in just a couple of weeks!  The summer just flew by; it seemed we were doing something every month since our return from Atlanta in April.

Wait!  We WERE doing something every month since our return for the World Championship in April!  There was:

IEEE-Robotics and Automation Society [...]

Robots may not exactly be taking over the world, but developments in the field of robotics may be heading us toward a better world. Check out these recent stories:
Robotics Trends: Robot Speaks the Language of Kids
Two researchers with the Center for Health, Intervention, and Prevention (CHIP) at the University of Connecticut are studying whether [...]

We wrapped up our LEGO Robotics camp at the Bob Sierra YMCA with an exhibition event for campers’ families.  Campers’ LEGO
TDT members, enjoying the calm before the robot storm
 art, rubberband cars, LEGO robots and more were on display. Families learned more about FIRST, while they watched campers’ robot runs, and campers got to try out our [...]

It rained most of the morning so ALL the campers, from ALL the camps were indoors, one of our classrooms was flooded when a cooler was allowed to drain in the room, the other classroom had to be used by another camp group for more than an hour, and we had to resort to duct [...]

 While our LEGO engineering campers are waiting for their parents, we usually let them play with the LEGOs. Yesterday, one of the campers made the interesting device at left, complete with a sensor, a free-swinging pendulum and claws at the top. He’s only about 8,  and knew nothing of the Univ. of Utah’s ROCR robot that we recently shared a story [...]

It Works!

It’s no easy task trying to teach thirty kids ages 6-11 robotics basics in the frenetic environment of a full blown YMCA summer camp, with other campers regularly tramping through classrooms from the swimming pool, indoor or outdoor sports programs or simply on their way from one area of the building to another. The Bob Sierra YMCA [...]

All those competitions dancing to the Village People’s “YMCA”, and we’re finally there - well, at the Bob Sierra YMCA, at any rate.  No dancing, but lots of LEGOs, programming, building and teamwork games.   Logistics are a little challenging — hundreds of kids there, in all sorts of summer camp programs, and our classrooms are [...]