Robo Writing

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

My fingers have poked so many keys in the last few days! And they will continue poking until they fall off!

Here are the two things that I have recently finished writing:
- Awesome Foundation Grant
- Research Abstract

Here are the two things that I need to finish:
- Math presentation
- Final research paper

WOOAH! You know, I think this is sort of the tragic downfall of research. You finish researching feeling like you saved the world (because you did), and now you have to go write so many things that eventually all the words start to sound the same, but if you place them in a different order they have a different meaning.

Here is what I wrote for the Awesome Foundation. It is extremely long (almost 500 words), but I believe my imaginative intro captures some attention. I was trying to go JKR style with Quidditch

In a jolt of electricity, two robots collide in maddening competition to score the game winning
goal. Their batteries are weak, their artificial intelligence is exhausted. Beading with
condensation from the overheating servos, the crowd roars in excitement. Robot #85 from the
Rusty Roboteers dodges the defense and swiftly uses its reinforced learning to predict where the
goalie will be, and SCORES the game winning goal! The 2028 National Robot Hockey League
is won by the Rusty Roboteers for the third straight year.
Taking a step back to the present, the only competitive sport that humanoids participate in is
soccer. Soccer, to some, is an endearing sport full of strategy. To others, it is a game that requires
too much waiting.

What if they could play hockey?

Currently, I am an upcoming freshman majoring in Computer Science at Clarkson University.
My passion is making robots do things that they normally wouldn’t. In particular, I have a
humanoid robot called MANOI that is able to play hockey.

Currently, it has a hockey stick that can detect a puck in front of it, and its ‘skates’ are made out
of lego. It can skate forwards, backwards, left and right.

However, MANOI does not gracefully stride across the ice to score a goal. Instead, it jerkily
moves its leg as it cannot take the risk of falling over, as it has no sensors to sense it if it is
falling or not.

This is a problem because I cannot advance any further with the current supplies. It is easy to
foresee that one day, MANOI will be able to skate graciously. In order to reach this goal, it needs
some additional supplies to be able to do so.

For instance, if I am fortunate enough to win this $1000, I could buy some servos to allow
MANOI to have extra degrees of freedom to move its legs more and take strides. Additionally, I
could add wrists to MANOI to add some flick shots! Many precise gyro sensors could be
purchased to monitor the key servos and employ reinforcement learning to make the skating
motions more optimal for speed, strength, and stability.

When MANOI is able to skate graciously, it will be truly awesome because it would mean that
robots have reached another stage of mobility. At that stage, ultimately, the possibilities of this
are endless.

One of my grand visions is an inspirational exhibit during an NHL game where miniature hockey
robots would be skating around and playing a game, autonomously. The goal would be to inspire
young hockey fans to pursue an education in science, while excelling at sports.

By inspiring the younger generation, we can ensure that more awesomeness will follow in the
years to come, and keep the cycle of inspiration flowing!

I hope it is awesome enough to catch some attention, and maybe even win! The cool thing about this is that I am happy with what I wrote. When I was writing my abstract, it was important to realize, and make others realize, that it really doesn’t matter if it is 100%. If the person writing it is happy with it, then it will go a longer way than if it is 100%.

I must return to more intense finger poking, but I am planning to take a MAKEation for the first three weeks in August! It would be neat to set a goal of blogging every day.

Posted in: Art, Other, Projects, School.
Tags: awesome, happy vs 100%, key poking, writing

2 Responses to “Robo Writing”

1. Evelyn Says:
   July 21st, 2009 at 10:46 AM

   Beautifully done Erin. It’s very visual. I felt like I was there seeing the game, the excitement and the challenges of the players playing. Great intro which helps to re-enforce your needs for help. Good luck. I have a feeling it’s going to be close. Keep it up. One day your vision will be a reality.

2. Erin, the RobotGrrl Says:
   July 22nd, 2009 at 10:06 AM

   Evelyn, thanks for your kind words of wisdom. I am glad the intro worked the way I wanted

   Indeed- hockey playing robots for everyone!

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