Had a coffee with a friend (Jon Nakane) who runs the UBC EngPhys Projects lab, and he told me about one of their most recent robot competitions held over the summer. Basically, this is bundled in a with an intense Robotics course that is a favourite of the engineering set (PHYS253 - Introduction to Instrument Design).
Anyway, this year the contest was to make an autonomous robot that could play the game of "Operation." It's pretty hilarious. Check out the YouTube video below:
I wonder what type of competition they will have next year? In previous years, they've had "HockeyBots", "RescueBots", "BusBots." Any suggestions? - the zanier the better I think.
More like this
There's been a lot of news about robots lately, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to synthesize what's going on in this field and offer a bit of speculation about where robotics is headed.
Kids love robots. I have a three-year-old friend who can identify the 1950s cult icon Robbie the Robot at 20 paces. My own son Jim could do an impressive multi-voiced impression of R2D2 by age five.
That course looks amazing!