NASA – HUD WEBCAST

November 13, 2001

CB: Hi. My name is Cassie Bowman, and I’d like to welcome you to today’s exciting Webcast and Web chat: NASA Robotics for Exploration and Discovery.

First, I’d like to extend a special welcome to participants from the Housing and Urban Development neighborhood networks, to Dave Lavery and Shelley Canright from NASA headquarters, to Mark Leon of the Learning Technologies and Robotics Education Projects, and to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, especially Dolores Pruden, Shirley Machonis, and Dina Lehmann. I’d also like to thank Aspen Systems and Raytheon ITSS.

This Webcast is being offered as an interagency collaboration between NASA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. HUD has over 800 neighborhood network centers throughout the U.S., and NASA has content on robotics and other scientific projects of interest to the general public. The collaboration was a natural one.

Communicating knowledge is one of our mandates under the NASA Strategic Plan. And we accomplish this through the Learning Technologies Project and the Robotics Education Project, among other projects to be found on the NASA Home Page.

NASA, and the country, have a strong interest in improving the scientific literacy and capabilities of America’s students. In the future, NASA will be launching dozens of exploratory robots to learn all we can about our planet and our solar system. You can participate by watching the missions on the NASA Web site, by mentoring students, or by studying a math and science curriculum that could lead you to being an active part of one of these teams.

Let me tell you a little bit about some of the exciting things we have to share with you today. This event is scheduled for about an hour, and a taped replay of the event will be rebroadcast at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time today.

During this Webcast, we’ll be offering a brief summary, capturing some of the many uses currently found for robotics. We’ll hear comments from people who work in the field of robotics at NASA, we will also cover some of the student competitions that NASA co-sponsors, and hear from a student who participated in these programs.

Throughout the Webcast, you can participate by sending questions via the chat room. And we’d like to encourage you to start sending questions as soon as you’d like.

We will have two NASA robotics experts here—Linda Kobayashi from NASA Ames Research Center, and Brett Kennedy from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory—to provide answers and to tell you about themselves and their jobs.

When you send a question in, please identify yourself by your first name and the location of your HUD center.

We would also like each neighborhood network center to fill out the survey on the HUD Web site when this Webcast is finished.

We hope you enjoy this opportunity to learn about robotics. Perhaps you’ll find this field is of interest to you, and we encourage you to study or to volunteer as a mentor or co-sponsor.

Please note that we are not implying future employment by NASA, since those decisions are made by project and personnel offices. However, for information about competitions and internship qualifications, contact your closest NASA center or visit the Learning Technologies Project or Robotics Education Project Web sites. And these will be shown to you at the end of the clip that we’re going to show in just a minute.

Let’s begin by learning some background information on NASA and robotics, and then we’ll move on to hearing from our experts. While you’re watching, be thinking of questions you want to ask, and start sending them to the chat room.

RC?: [inaudible] the space shuttle, robots are quite different from what people imagined not too long ago. Although our remote manipulator system doesn’t look like a mechanical person, it is still a fully functional robot. In real life, robots are all around us doing all kinds of things in all kinds of places for all kinds of people. Stick around a few minutes, and we’ll show you some of the exciting things happening in the world of robotics, both here in space and in classrooms just like yours. But first, let’s learn some robotics terminology.

The term “robot” was first used in 1920 by Czechoslovakian playwright, Carol Chopak. It comes from the Czech word “robota,” which translates into English as “repetitive labor.” Today, we use the word to describe mechanical devices that can perform human tasks either automatically or by remote control.

“Robotics” is another term you’ll hear quite a bit. It describes the study and application of robot technology. You may also see or hear the word “telerobotics.” It means a robot that is operated remotely. Telerobots usually have a video camera to help the operator see what he or she is doing.

“Articulate” means to move in a jointed fashion, just like your arm moves and like the shuttle’s robot arm. A lot of math is involved in designing a robot which can articulate.

Each plane in which a robotic device can maneuver is called a “degree of freedom.” For example, if a robot arm can move up and down, left and right, and back and forth, it has three degrees of freedom. Some robotic platforms, like the space shuttle’s robot arm, have as many as six degrees of freedom.

An “endefector” is the device at the end of the robotic arm which is used to grasp or engage objects. The endefector on the shuttle’s robotic arm uses a pattern of wires which close like the aperture of a camera around a handle or other grasping point. Do you have an endefector at the end of your arm? What’s it called? How does it work?

KC: Now we are inside the robotics architecture lab. This is where they make mobile robots. Robots like these could prove to be real helpers. Some are highly maneuverable, and able to avoid objects in their path. Some can even recognize faces and respond to hand gestures.

Speaking of hands, let’s go to another lab where hands are the business of the day. This hand insular here is called DART: Dexterous Anthropomorphic Robotic Test [inaudible]. The next generation version of DART, called Robonot, may be used on the international space station. Robonot will come even closer to human dexterity.

Now let’s go to the flight equipment assembly room, and meet a robot called Air Cam. The Air Cam is a free-flying robotic camera. It weighs 35 pounds, and is about the size of a basketball. The Air Cam is designed to be operated remotely by an astronaut from the space shuttle or the international space station. It’s propelled by small nitrogen jets and carries two video cameras. During this test, the Air Cam was manually released by Vinstins Squat during his space walk, and then controlled from inside the shuttle by Steve Lindsey. Steve tested the Air Cam’s maneuverability by flying it around the vicinity of the shuttle’s cargo bay. Its cameras performed very well, providing some rather unique views.

Air Cam is almost magical. It can be positioned anywhere and at any angles. It can then be used to inspect and provide camera views of places that cannot be seen by the fixed cameras.

SR: The robot called Pathfinder has already explored the surface of Mars, providing scientists with incredible pictures of the Martian landscape, with lots of information about the rocks, soil, and weather on the red planet. The information gathered by this robot will help humans to eventually travel to Mars.

Nar: The Exploration Technology Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has brought forward the FIDO Rover, the terrestrial analog of the [inaudible] science rover. FIDO’s design and development began in February of 1998, [inaudible] nine months later in October of 1998 with full-scale integration and tests. The underlying conceptual design of FIDO, in terms of its size, engineering senses, and science instrumentation was jointly conceived with the Adena Rover’s engineering and science team. The Rover flight team currently uses a [inaudible] of FIDO’s mobility subsystem for use as their software development model. Team FIDO is a multi-disciplinary team comprised of mechanical, electrical, software, and systems engineers, instrument developers, and planetary scientists who work in close cooperation throughout the design and development process.

SS: Well, I think FIDO has been absolutely fundamental in getting us to the point where we can do this rover mission NO3. There were a lot of possibilities for what you might flight in 2003. Some of them very appealing and having nothing whatsoever to do with going down onto the Martian surface. I have always felt, my team has felt for a long time, that the most exciting thing that you can do on the surface of Mars is get down there with the ability to really explore. To move around, to go over the next hill and see what there is to see. But there’s always this uncomfortable lingering question, “Hey, can you really do this? Do we have the technology? Do we have the capability to really do robotic exploration on a planetary surface?” And so as NASA went through the process of deciding what to fly in 2003, I would frequently have posed to me, “Hey, are you really sure you can do this?”

And I was always able to smile and say, “Sure I can do this. I’ve been doing this with FIDO for the last two years.”

RA: FIDO itself is an advanced technology adventure in terms of getting it together. The instrumentation that’s been built for FIDO is really prototype flight instrumentation for Athena. So we were incredibly lucky to try that out in the field and in the laboratory and in the Mars yard, before we try it on Mars. And I don’t think we’re done with advanced technology in terms of testing it on FIDO and then spinning off to missions, because this is the first version of FIDO, first version of the instrumentation. And we’re gonna learn the things when we do the tests that will lead to improvements needed for technology. Both the hardware, but also the software systems including how we do mission operations on Web-based interfaces, all sorts of things. It’s and end-to-end test with kind of technology infusing at various points of time. Some of them will spin off to improve projects.

Nar: This small, lightweight robot is called URBIE. Cameras functioning like human eyes. Sensors, in a high-precision, mobile positioning system drive this mobile robot, allowing it to negotiate stairs, roll over, or round obstacles, and send back images, perhaps of a trapped victim or a dangerous device.

NASA has built its reputation in space. Scientists following the new faster, better, cheaper approach, have designed robots to roam over the rugged terrain on Mars. The technology to get to Mars and attempt exploration, pushing the boundaries of science, now paying off on earth too. Police departments and other agencies have been using robots on the front lines for years. This robot was controlled by a human. The next generation may not have to be. Eventually, URBIE will be outfitted with night vision cameras to enhance performance. Its full potential is still a few years away; but scientists hope this 40-pound robot will help pave the way for an amazing future.

MF: Hello. My name is Mike Fair. I work here at the Ames Research Center. I work with robotics, specifically this Rover right here to my right. We call it Canine. And I do a variety of tests on and for Canine, including writing software for a variety of different tasks. I also do some mechanical design for things like assorted brackets and especially an arm, a manipulator arm. I do a variety of research for instrument development and integration, as well as simula electronics. So robotics definitely requires a wide range of skills and interests, as well as creativity to learn new things.

I got started in robotics when I was in college. I was studying mechanical engineering, specifically, controls. And got into the field of autonomy, finding out how to make a machine do some task by itself. This involves a lot of creativity to think ahead on what sorts of situations a machine might find itself in, and how it can be successful in accomplishing its mission. So I was just intrigued by this, and explored lots of different fields in electronics and in software, to get the tools to do this. So I took a variety of different classes in all different kinds of fields, but especially got lots of hands-on experience just trying things out: Building a robot, trying to program it to do what I wanted. And when it broke, fixing it, and trying it again. So it took a lot of persistence and interest to explore these different fields that will allow me to do . . . get a job in robotics.

SD: My interest in robotics actually started when I was a real young kid. I was one of those kids who was always taking everything apart. Our first television I took apart, our hair dryer I took apart. And it wasn’t until I was 15 or 16 that I was actually able to put anything back together again. And that actually . . . Working with all sorts of things like that, and computers, made me think that I wanted to have a career that allowed me to both work with mechanical stuff, electrical stuff, and programming, because I thought that was all really cool.

AW: It wasn’t really clear to me how to get involved in this. I sort of lucked out and got a phone call one day to come here. And because of what I already knew how to do from dealing with robots in school and what I’d been doing shortly afterwards. I was able to come here and work on what I always wanted to work on. Getting involved in robotics and in computer science, and just being able to have interesting problems to work on and be able to work on something and then see it move around and know that that’s what you did is just really compelling to me, and I think it’s a lot of fun. And, you know, you here a lot of things about “Oh, it’s hard” or “It’s a lot of work, trying to figure out math and science and stuff.” And I’m here to tell you that if you go through with it and you get to a point where you can make stuff and you can feel good about having made that stuff and have it help the world in some way, that it really is a wonderful, wonderful thing to do.

CB: For thousands of years, humans have wondered about their place between earth and sky. Now, in the 21^st century, we ask the same profound questions: How did the universe begin and evolve? How did we get here? Where are we going? Are we alone?

Today, after only the blink of an eye in cosmic time, we are beginning to understand these questions. In the last 40 years, space probes and space observatories have played a central role in this process of discovery. Future exploration and discovery will be significantly aided by robots and robotics, like inflatable rovers, planetary aero vehicles, and robotic probes.

With the help of robotics, NASA will be able to work to solve the mysteries of the universe, explore the solar system, discover planets around other stars, search for life beyond earth, chart the evolution of the universe, and understand its galaxies, stars, planets, and life.

As you can see, there are a wide variety of uses for robots. There are going to be more robotics-related jobs in the manufacturing, petroleum, chemical, and other industries, as well as in the exploration of the solar system. And there will be a growing demand for many, many more programmers, technicians, computer scientists, and physical scientists over the next decade. Perhaps this might include you.

Now we hope you have a lot of questions. We have two NASA experts here with us today, to tell you about themselves and about their jobs working on NASA robotics.

Linda Kobayashi is an electrical engineer here at NASA Ames Research Center, working on the Canine Rover and the Personal Satellite Assistant. Brett Kennedy is a mechanical engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, working on the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers. I’ll let them tell you a little bit about themselves, while you submit your questions over the chat window. Linda?

LK: Hi. My name is Linda Kobayashi. And just like Cassie said, I work at NASA Ames Research Center. And I work on two projects: the Canine Rover and the Personal Satellite Assistant.

So you’ve heard a little bit about the Canine Rover. And the Personal Satellite Assistant is basically a small robot that will float around in the space station that will help astronauts.

So basically, I got started at NASA at a very young age. I started in a program called Sharp. And that’s for Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program. So I started that in my junior year of high school. And that was a really pleasant experience for me in that I got a chance to work in the Robotics Group, and I’ve been working there since, as you can tell, since I’m still working the robotics projects. And I continued on from there, working every summer through another program. And the other program, college program called . . . It’s called SCEP (Summer Career Experience Program). And so as you can see, there are many opportunities here for young people as yourselves, to get involved in robotics programs or any space program basically.

You might ask how I even got interested in robotics. And that started, actually, . . . When I was very young, maybe about middle school, I was watching probably something similar to this on a PBS station. And I saw basically a program about robots. And I just really enjoyed watching them move and just normal people getting these inanimate things moving. And that was very interesting for me. And because that was such an interesting thing for me, . . . Throughout high school, I really stressed on subjects like math and physics, which are very important for robotics. So basically, that’s me. So now I’m gonna turn it over Brett.

BK: My name is Brett Kennedy. I work at JPL’s Planetary Robotics Lab. We do several different things at the robotics lab, and they cover the gamut from cutting-edge technology to working on the flight projects that will actually go to Mars. So currently, I’ve both worked on the FIDO Rover that you saw in the video, which is the prototype for a Rover that will be launched . . . Actually, a pair of Rovers that will be launched in 2003. And now I’m working on that flight program. So we hope that we do a very good job and you’ll be able to see those Rovers on Mars sometime in 2003, 2004.

Getting into robotics for me, like many engineers, started with playing with toys which I enjoyed a great deal, but when I got to school, I think I was amazed to find that the more classes I took that dealt with things that could be applied to robotics—math and science—it turned out that the world of robotics was even larger than I could have imagined at first. And as I progressed further, I started to take summer jobs. I worked for IBM, building robots that would put together the disk drives in your computer. And only after I got out of school did I get into the NASA programs. I did an interview at JPL. My soon now to be boss looked at me and said, “Do you want to build things that go to Mars?”

And I said, “Absolutely!”

And so now I work on robots that go to Mars.

The thing that attracted me to robotics, however, as opposed to some of the other engineering aspects, were the fact that robotics demands that you understand a great many things. It’s not just designed hardware. You have to understand the computer science behind it. You have to understand the physics, you have to understand the science of what the robot’s trying to carry out in the NASA’s case. And all of these things feed into a good robotics design. And the fact that it demanded such a wide base of knowledge, I think, is what truly attracted me to robotics. And just as robotics itself is wide, then your experience within robotics can be that way as well.

CB: Great. Now we have Linda Conrad who’s going to ask some questions that have come over the chat window from our viewers. And we’ll let our NASA robotics experts answer them for you. So Linda.

LC: Okay. I have a few here. I want to start out with a comment from some folks at DeAnza who say, “Hey! Marcus, Adena, Jennifer, Lillian, and Dina are writing this. So what’s your favorite part of robotics? And what do you hope to be able to do with your robotics education in the future? See ya!” This is your robotics class, apparently, writing to you.

I think our experts answered this pretty well, but let me ask it. Thomas from California asks, “Why are you interested in robotics? And specifically, what kinds of projects are you working on? And then the very important question: Does the field pay well, or can you make a reasonable living?”

LK: So am I answering the second question? So it is why am I interested in robotics?

I’m interested in robotics, like I said, for me, . . . I got interested in robotics, like I said, before . . . I just started out as a child, dreaming about working on some robotics project because I saw something on TV. And it kind of just was just a dream that I wanted to do something that I could . . . Basically, to me, these robotics are like big toys to me. And they’re really fun to work with. And so even if you just have a dream about it, you should go for it, if that’s what you really like. And so that’s basically my approach. That’s how my approach was, and that’s why I stressed on things like I said before, in math and science in high school. And as I went through to college, I went into electrical engineering. And to me, that was a very interesting area which I got to work with hardware. And I knew that was something I could apply to robotics. And it always is such a great feeling to me when I can get something to work. I make an actual hardware piece, and I put it in the robot, and it actually ends up working. And it’s just a really satisfying feeling.

CB: Linda, do you have another question?

LC: Well, yes. We have a question from J. T. in New York that says, “Do you know how I might find out what opportunities NASA has for robotic engineers?”

CB?: Sure. I can answer that question for you. Actually, we run a Web site called “The Robotics Education Project Web site,” which you should be able to get to from the Housing and Urban Development Neighborhood Network site. And on there, on the students’ page, I have a whole section about getting started in robotics and getting started at NASA. There are actually a number of NASA Web sites that explain to you, for example, what qualifications you need to have to be an astronaut or what qualifications you need to be an engineer. So that’s the best place to start. Take a look at that. Check out some of the internship programs that are listed on there as well. Maybe you can come and be a summer intern or try to get a college internship at NASA. But that’s a really good way to get started and we’ll give you some good ideas. So you can check out the robotics Web site at http://robotics.nasa.gov. It’s pretty simple. And we’ll show it to you at the end of our next video clip.

Any other questions?

LC: Okay. Sure thing. We have quite a few questions now. Folks are really timing in. Juan, from Valley Vista, wants to know, “Being employed by NASA, how important do you think your job is to our country?”

BK: That’s a really big question. And particularly nowadays, when some of the problems of the world are so immediate to all of us, that I think pretty much everybody I know at NASA has thought about what they’re doing and whether or not it’s important in the entire scheme of things. And I think a big thing that makes our jobs important, even now, is that we’re looking forward and looking ahead, both in what we’re trying to look for, keeping our focus in the future to Mars, and also . . . Actually, the NASA centers do a lot of immediate robot work. The URBIE robot that you saw in the video is actually designed to provide access to buildings, and was actually deployed at the World Trade Center situation to look for survivors. So we’re applying some of that technology right now, that we’re developing for the future.

CB: Great. Do we have a few more questions? We probably have time for two more questions.

LC: Okay. Danny from Valley Vista wants to know, “How long do you guys have to go to school to become a NASA engineer?”

LK: Okay. Well, like I said before, actually I started as a high school student, so that wasn’t really long at all. And I came back every summer as an intern. And currently, right now, I have a bachelor’s degree that in electrical engineering from U.C. Davis, but I’m continuing with my education. I’m taking classes over at Stanford in the hopes of getting a master’s degree. So I wouldn’t say there is a certain length of time that you need to get into robotics or be a scientist here. To me, it’s always just a continuing thing. You have to keep learning. It’s a continual process.

CB: Great. I think we have time for one more question.

LC: Okay. I’m gonna squeeze two out of it because it comes from the same person.

CB: Okay.

LC: They want to know how much . . . This is a follow-up on the last one. “How much of a math background do you need?” And by the way, this is Creative Kids from North Dakota asking. And they want to know, “Do you think that the robot is taking away your chance of going to space?”

BK: And the first question was how much math do you have to take is a different question than how much math is involved. As Linda said, you’re going through continuing education. And most people that I work with have at least one college degree. So they’ve taken a lot of math. But at the same time, math is not what drives our days. Most of what I do on a daily basis takes the math skills that I learned in first or second grade. The advanced math skills that you’ll pick up in later classes are good tools to have and have knowledge of, but it doesn’t take a math genius to do our jobs in general.

CB?: The other question was, do you feel robots are taking [inaudible]?

BK: Actually, robots, as they’re envisioned by NASA, are really going to help us get to Mars. And it’s entirely possible that we wouldn’t be able to get to Mars if it weren’t for robots going first. And one of the projects that I actually work on now is designed to build a station on Mars before the astronauts ever get there. And that station is there to collect power and produce fuel for the rockets that’ll get the astronauts back to earth. And it’s entirely possible that without that precursor mission of robots alone, that we could never get humans to Mars and back.

CB: Great. Well, I’d like to thank both our experts for describing their experiences with robotics, and for answering the questions. Any other questions that have been submitted over the chat window will be answered on the Robotics Education Project Web site over the next week. So check back if you’d like to see your question answered. And you can always send new questions over the Robotics Education Project Web site at any time.

Now I’d like to move on to sharing some information on two competitions that NASA Robotics Education Projects helps co-sponsor. The click you’re going to see will provide you with information about the FIRST Robotics competition and the Botball competition. After the clip, you’ll have a chance to hear from Marcus Ashley, a high school senior, who has participated in robotics competitions, and has worked as a summer intern at NASA Ames. You can even submit questions to him via the chat window. So you might want to do that while you’re watching the clip.

Well let’s take a minute now and watch the clip on FIRST Robotics and Botball.

Nar1: The once separate worlds of art and science are merging, and a new renaissance is here. Computer-aided design, digital imaging, 3-D modeling, desktop publishing. In tomorrow’s world, students will require a mastery of both the arts and sciences our future depends on. Their future depends on. First, for inspiration and recognition of science and technology. What high school kid wouldn’t want to attend basketball camp with living legends of the game? Well FIRST aims to provide nothing less for its students. Only instead of basketball legends, FIRST introduces kids to the living legends of engineering.

??: These kids will now see these engineers and scientists the way they see Michael Jordan, and still think, This is accessible, it’s desirable, I want to be able to do this, and these are my heroes and I can do this.

??: The main reason why we’re involved with it is to give some insight to the kids, and allow them a chance to be able to see what engineering’s all about, give them a vision which they would never ever have a chance to see if they weren’t involved with a program like this.

??: Most of the engineers who have got involved, want to come back and be involved the next year.

??: This is just pure fun. Can’t wait to get to next year’s competition and the following one.

Nar1: Three hundred teams(??). Three hundred identical sets of parts. Twenty thousand kids. Six weeks. Three hundred vastly unique robots. National finals. Epcot Center. Want to know the best part about FIRST? These kids are learning!

??: I never thought that we’d be able to say we actually worked with engineers [inaudible].

??: I’m going to [inaudible], so I already know I’m ahead of the game.

Nar1: Leadership. Time management. Task sequencing. Mechanics. Physics. Computers. Engineering. Teamwork. That’s FIRST. And the kids are having a blast! Some of the most prestigious organizations and corporations sponsor FIRST teams, providing engineers, a working facility, and an opportunity for students to learn what engineering is all about.

??: It’s been a lot of fun! It was awesome when we got to go to Delphi and see what the engineers actually did in their jobs.

??: I get energized when I leave here. There’s nothing better than leaving at quarter to 8 and seeing those kids actually look up to someone.

??: They treat you as like an equal. You learn from them, and they learn from you.

??: We got [inaudible] incorporated, using engineering techniques, methods, some mechanics, and hopefully they learned some of that along the way.

Nar1: Student fund raising, publicity, team logo design, Web site design, and student 3-D computer animation complete the first experience.

??: They could be tomorrow’s astronautical engineers, any kind of engineer they want. And we’ve got a great [inaudible].

Nar1: The whole school gets involved.

??: It arrives in a box which . . . what seems to me to be a million pieces, you know?

??: Your parts are these parts that we’ve never seen before like the electric drill motors, things that lift a window, screws and wires and bits of plastic. Here’s all this stuff.

??: The first thing that I thought about is, This we can do too.

??: Students are involved in a number of things that they could never get in a classroom situation.

Nar1: Not only do schools and sponsors benefit from FIRST; so does the entire community.

??: On behalf of Governor Engler and Senator Buller and myself, we are very, very proud of the HUD team [inaudible].

Nar1: Many of America’s top engineering companies are investing time [inaudible] in FIRST.

??: [inaudible] FIRST. I want to congratulate each and every one of you for being here today. You’ve done a fantastic job and you all [inaudible] what you’ve accomplished.

??: The Honeywell Leadership and Control award is presented to the team displaying the [inaudible].

??: First of all, on behalf of myself and all the Motorolas around the world, I’d like to thank all of the team members for the quality . . .

??: The Johnson and Johnson Best Sportsmanship award is presented to Team [inaudible].

??: . . . great organization that inspires you to do more. NASA [inaudible].

??: The Delphi Power to Simplify award is presented [inaudible].

??: . . . real well. Has to be created with thinking. So in that new economy, the things that happened in the first team were very important.

Nar1: Corporations and schools, engineers and students, coming together through FIRST to celebrate the wonderful worlds of science and technology. Your future, their future, our future. FIRST.

Nar2: Like any contact sport, there is tension. Some praying, victory, sideline coaching, cheering, and defeat. But in this context, instead of humans, robots get punched, smashed, and injured. The kids are the brains behind the brawn.

??: We need to celebrate(??).

??: Everything’s together. So that . . .

??: Can you get it Ian?

??: I’m getting it. I’m getting it.

??: [inaudible] almost done, because we had tested some more.

??: Armed with a computer and a $1,000 kit containing Lego parts and two robot brains, the kids, in teams, build Bots. Knocking balls off the perch is one way to score in this year’s game. Get the balls on the tray and drag them to your side scores more points. Easier said than done.

??: We’ve seen some things have robot with two brains on it. A bunch of teams have been using these. They have two separate robots or they’ll have this one go and basically do something simple like attack the other team’s robots while this one tries to go and [inaudible].

??: When we first talked about it, they’re going, “We’re going to build a robot?” And they’re like, “We’ve built a robot.”

??: Get the thing, Joe.

??: You have to get . . .

??: We need a longer shaft.

Nar2: Going in circles?

??: The robot didn’t turn off.

Nar2: It’s not easy telling Bots what to do.

??: There’s no remote control involved. They have to learn to program in C.

??: It’s nerve-racking. We’ve been working on this thing for months.

??: The arm is not on.

??: When you actually get up there and you press Start and step back and probably one of the most nerve-racking experiences you’ll ever have.

Nar2: Botball is the idea of former NASA scientist, David Miller, who helped design the ever popular Sojourner Rover that parachuted into Mars and rolled its way into our hearts in 1997. Miller and his wife, Katherine Stein, started the organization KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid), that runs Botball tournaments for teenagers throughout the United States.

??: We have to get in a little bit closer.

??: Closer?

??: Yeah. Because we’ve only got to here.

??: We only went right here.

??: I have parents come to me and say, “Ha. These kids normally would be sitting home watching TV, playing Nintendo, and you have them out there actually learning and building and having fun.

??: It’s the greatest feeling in the world. When everything goes the way it’s supposed to, it’s just the best feeling.

??: [inaudible].

??: Even though there’s tension, competition, excitement, and the kids learn a lot.

??: [inaudible].

Nar2: Bot won’t ever replace human jobs, will they?

SG: Perhaps you know of a possible source for mentors, volunteers, team members, building facilities, co-sponsors, or shared funding. If so, please contact us through the NASA Robotics Education Project Web page. You can also go to the Robotics Education site to find more information about either of these competitions.

Now I’d like to introduce you to Marcus Ashley, and let him share a little bit about his experiences and future plans, and answer questions that you’ve posted on the Web site, or on the chat window, about the competition. Marcus.

MA: Thank you. Hello everyone. My name is Marcus Ashley, and I’m very deeply involved into robotics. And I attend DeAnza High School in Richmond. And I am a part of the robotics team at DeAnza. And we are currently the only team or only school in our district with a robotics team. And what we are trying to do is promote more . . . We’re trying to get the idea of robotics out more to the other schools in our district. So we’re trying to spread that. And I’ll talk to you right now about my summer experience here at NASA Ames Research Center.

I was very lucky to become one of their apprentices through being involved in robotics at DeAnza. And I met people like Joe Hering and Alvin Fetterman and Hank Schwoop. He works in a machine shop. These guys became very close associates with me, and they kind of helped me get involved in this. And I thank them for that.

My summer experience here has been a very enriching one. I worked with the Lego robots and the new Robolab software, which is used to program the Lego robots with the RCX, if I could get that robot over there to show the people.

And this here is one of our prototypes, which is basically used to . . . We built an environment for it to explore, which basically had like little canisters and things which were . . . We put the sampling materials into the containers. And this robot was programmed to go up to the sample containers and take samples like the light intensity of the sample or the temperature of the sample. And it was also programmed to log the data here in RCX which is the yellow brick here. And once you have done all of this, this robot has the capability of sending the data back to the user so the user can review this data and view the data on graphs and things like that, so the user can interpret what’s going on in this environment. And the robot itself is pretty responsive to the environment because it’s pretty much programmed to think on its own.

Here we use touch sensors and things to let the robot know when it has encountered an object or when it has come in contact with a sample container.

And we have a sample program here which we can show you how this all works. This robot will go forward until it encounters the sample container, I should say. Once the touch sensor is triggered, the arm goes down and measures the light intensity. And there would also be a temperature sensor here. It takes that for about six seconds and it goes back up. Backs up for about two or three seconds, and then it stops and it rotates and then goes to the next sample container. So that is how that works. And these things are pretty fun to work with.

And pretty much I’ll say to you like this: I wasn’t always involved in this. My inspiration came from just basically sometimes sitting down and watching NASA run their little missions over the TV or . . . And mainly, when I got into high school, and having Mr. Reed as my teacher, . . . He’s my math teacher. He was in my ninth grade year. And now he stays close to me to make sure everything is going fine and make sure everything is on course.

The idea of . . . robotics idea as it first came into play about two or three years ago, . . . And we wrote a proposal to the school board and tried to get some help of the union members around the area and some of the different construction companies so they can like donate tools and things like that too so we can use these to work on our robots. So . . .

CB: Do you want to talk about your future plans?

MA: Yeah. What I plan to do in the future is to go into mechanical engineering and electrical engineering and see if I’m good enough for the big job here at NASA.

CB: Great. Well thanks, Marcus. Linda, do we have some questions for Marcus?

LC: I believe we do. Well, you just stole the thunder of Mega Man’s question which is “What will you do in the future?” But James asks, “Is a computer a robot?” And I guess you could turn that around and say, “Is your robot a computer?”

MA: Okay. In a sense, a computer is a robot because they have to be . . . There are certain things that have to be put into a computer to make it think along with the software that is put into it. And the robot here is . . . Yeah. It is a computer in itself. You have to put things into it just like you make your little programs and things. And you . . . We use like an infrared RCX tower which communicates with the RCX here which . . . This thing downloads programs from the RCX tower, and it runs the programs that you put into it. And it pretty much can send things back to you and let you know what’s going on. So in a sense, yes. A computer is a robot and a robot is a computer.

CB: Great. Another question?

LC: Okay. J. T. from New York asks, “How can I join a competitive robotic team?”

MA: Well, in watching this, if you could probably get the information out to your school or any other organization that you may know. Some people that you may know. Try to get your own team started and things like that. There are contacts here at NASA. You can communicate with people here and get information on that.

SG: Do you want me to answer?

MA: Yeah.

CB: The other thing you can do is go back to the Robotics Education Project Web site, and on the Events page, you can find information not only about FIRST and Botball, but a bunch of other robotics competitions that are out there. And you can go to their Web sites and they will explain everything to you: How to find other people who are interested in robotics, how to form a team, find a teacher who will help you, how to find sponsors, and just how to build something. So that’s really a good place to look. And on our Web site again, you can find ways to contact us. Send us an e-mail, ask your questions, and we’ll be happy to answer them. Linda.

LC: Creative Kids again, from North Dakota I think it is. Wanted to know “How long does it take to build the robots?”

MA: Well, before I came here over summer, I had some building experiences with these Lego robots with my teacher, Mr. Reed. When I got here and they presented this task to me, I had to do a lot more than what I was taught, so it was a learning process and also it was teaching at the same. To build one such as this one, it doesn’t take long. You just have to kind of get the little strategies down such as putting motors in and things like this. And these things have a tendency to rip themselves off of the vehicle, so you have to use like compression techniques here. And they are also using gears and things here to drive the motors at a higher power level without going so fast. But you want to have a lot of torque and more control over the robot itself. When you’re running a mission, you want it to be very accurate in its turns and whatever it has to do in the mission. So that’s why you use the gears and things like that. So . . .

SG: What about the first robots? How long do those take?

MA: Whew! First robots take . . . They can take up to about five, six weeks at most. And I’ll tell you a little bit about my experience with that. We had to, as a team, stay overnight at our school and work on these things to meet the deadline to ship our robot off, because we did not want to be left behind. It was the first opportunity of its kind in our district, and we wanted to be a part of it. So we worked hard and did whatever we had to, to get that project completed.

CB: Linda, do we have maybe one more question?

LC: Okay. Let’s see. J. T. from New York is apparently very interested. He wants to know when the new games start.

SG: Do you want me to answer that?

MA: Yes.

SG: J. T., there are . . . Actually, Botball and FIRST Robotics are both coming up in the second semester of the school year. The teams will receive their kits near the beginning of the year for FIRST, and they’ll have six weeks to build their robot. Nobody has any idea what the challenge is till they get their kits and are ready to go. So they’ll work seriously to get their robots done. And then starting in the beginning of March, there’ll be a series of, I think, 17 regional competitions all over the country. And, in fact, if you’re in New York, there’s one in New York; and you’d be welcome to go and take a look at it. They usually run over two or three days. And then in April is the final competitions which are held in Epcot Center. So that’s the FIRST Robotics schedule. And Botball starts in January and February and runs through most of the second semester. And then their final competition is in August. So if you’d like to sign up for one of these programs, the time would be next fall. In September or October, you have a chance to sign up, although I think you can still sign up for Botball. But if you wanted to do FIRST Robotics, you could sign up next fall.

We have one more question, I guess.

LC: Okay. I have one from Nekish Smith in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. This question is for Marcus. “How long have you been into robotics, and what do you plan to do with your skills?”

MA: I have been involved in robotics for about three years now, since our first year of having a robotics team at DeAnza. And just recently, over this past summer, I have become involved with these Lego robots on a more larger scale. Currently, over at DeAnza, we are teaching elementary school kids and junior high school students more about the Robolab software. And they’re getting involved more with the Lego robots, so they’re learning robotics in their own way. And this will basically form their skills so when they get into high school, they can become a part of the first robotics leagues and things like that.

And what I plan to do is basically get involved with NASA.

SG: And go to college.

MA: Yeah. I’m going to college and get involved in NASA on this robotics project here.

SG: Great. One more question Carol?

LC: Well, they do keep coming.

SG: We have time for one more.

LC: J. T. again wants to know what the robot kits cost.

MA: Okay. A Lego robotics kit, like a [inaudible] set or something like that would cost close to $200. There are other types of kits that you can use to kind of get into the robotics thing itself, like they have like erector sets and things like that which cost a little bit less. But, you know, but as opposed to the Lego sets which have the Robolab software and the special RCX, which is used to program the robot to make it respond to what you want it to do, that costs a little bit more. But $200 would be the price.

SG: And a good thing that you can think about doing is asking maybe your school class or your community center if they’d like to purchase one of a number of robots sets, and then everyone could have a chance to use it. And they range in price for much less than actually $200, all the way up to a kit for FIRST which is $4,000. But that usually . . . Maybe NASA provides a sponsorship or other community organizations or companies provide sponsorships for those sorts of things.

Those are great questions, and thank you Marcus very much for answering those.

MA: Thank you.

SG: Any other questions that have been submitted will be answered on the REP Web site, so make sure to check back. And feel free to send in more questions over the REP Web site.

CB: So we’d like to thank you for participating in today’s Webcast. We hope that you’ve gotten excited about robotics and the doors that can be opened to you by math and science and technology. We’d like you to take some time to look at the Robotics Education Project Web site. I’ve put a special page up with some extra links for you to look at. It’s robotics.nasa.gov. And you’ll have a chance to learn more about how you can bring robotics into your home or your classroom or your community organization. Check back, also, at the REP Web site for information about an eight-week, online robotics course this spring, that high school students or people older than high school, can take for one unit of college credit. That would be a great way to continue learning about robotics.

Again, I’d like to thank Dave Lavery, Shelley Canright, and Mark Leon; HUD contacts Dolores Pruden, Shirley Machonis, and Dina Lehmann; all the Neighborhood Network Centers; and the robotics experts and staff for their support in making this Webcast and Web chat happen today.

Please remember that if you would like to see this Webcast again, you can watch the replay tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, 6:00 p.m. Pacific, at this same location. We really hope you’ve enjoyed learning about NASA robotics for exploration and discovery.