Page 7 - Priorities #26 2004-April

WPS Robo
Academics tics Club Sees The Future at Stanford Lab
L
ess than a week after completing and shipping their own robot, WPS’s robotics club spent an afternoon with robotics professionals on the cutting edge of their field. They
were guests of CS Professor Oussama Khatib at Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Lab in
the new Gates Computer Science Building.
Dr Kahib’s research team focuses on extending the utility of robotic aid in two
relatedareas. Theteamstudieshumans’abilitytonavigateandreacttoachanging
environment in the hopes of mimicking it, so that humans and robots can work more safelyandeasilyoncooperativetasks. Theyarealsoimprovinghumanabilitytocontrol
robots remotely as they perform tasks in environments the operator can’t (or doesn’t want to)reach. Thecontroldevicesthey’redevelopingenabletheoperatorstousetherobotsas
intuitivelyastheycontroltheirownhands. Thiscontemporaryroboticsresearchrequires an intimate knowledge of not only engineering and computer science, but physics, physiology, and the cognitive sciences as well, making it a truly unique discipline.
Back at school, the students’ challenge had been to design and build from scratch a robot capable of doing several specific tasks—no instructions provided, all within six
weeks. Their robot is now in storage with the FIRST Robotics Competition, Inc. and is entered in a regional contest in early April.
Read about the new AI lab at http://robotics.stanford.edu/index.html
Dr. Khatib explained the challenges, then gave Priory students hands-on opportunitieswithseveralprototyperobots. Teammemberspicturedhere are (from left) Vivian Nikolich, Dr. Kahib, Nolan Greene, David Dobervich (advisor), Aaron Mandle, Myles Lam, George Schnurle, Sr., George Schnurle. Alex Dehnert and Mike Mellenthin are pictured with Dr. Khatib at left. Club members not pictured include Chris Benham and Andrew Ho.
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Back at school, the students designed and built their own robot in six weeks.