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Space - Can a Robot Tie Your Shoes?

This activity comes from the booklet created by the company who made the
Robotix line of materials.


You need some work gloves, masking tape, and different widths of either
tongue depressors or craft sticks.  Tape craft sticks or the depressors to
the fingers of the gloves so that they stick out a few inches.  Now, put
on the gloves & try to do everyday tasks, like tying your shoes, picking
up materials, etc., by using the ends of the sticks instead of your
fingertips.  The analog is that scientists send robots to other worlds to
do things and will be sending more to various places, like Mars, in the
coming years.  We want those robots to do things like humans would do, if
we were there ourselves, but it can be difficult to recreate the
capabilities of human dexterity and muscle response & power.  Requiring a
robot to locate a suitable rock to study from afar, go to that rock, pick
it up, analyze it in some way, and return that information to Earth for
the next round of instructions is a time and labor intensive set of tasks.
 Frankly, every step of the process in the previous sentence could be its
own explorable activity.

Actually, you can also relate this activity to the problems of people with
missing limbs.  I read an article in the most recent issue of Popular
Science that talks about the war in Iraq & Afghanistan and the influx of
soldiers with missing limbs who now require prosthetics.  The advances in
prosthetics have not necessarily kept up with the demands of those who are
using them, but new Defense Department (Darpa) research may provide a leap
forward in prosthetic capabilities in the next two years or so.  While I
would not necessarily talk to kids about the war, the fact is that folks
in our society do have missing limbs and they face obstacles that must be
overcome through scientific advances.  I'll leave it to you to decide how
far you want to go with the biological & social aspects of it all.

Michelle

Michelle Nichols, Master Educator for Informal Programs
Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum
1300 S. Lake Shore Dr.
Chicago, IL  60605
312-322-0520 
312-322-9181 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
http://www.adlerplanetarium.org

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