Blind Texas student has a robot to help him navigate to class - anybody want to help?
Ken Gracey
Posts: 7,387
http://www.wflx.com/Global/story.asp?S=14006278
Taking a look at this video you can see the challenges the students face when trying to develop a robot that will guide a student to and from class. The navigational challenges they face are immense with their Lego Mindstorms robot, but these students have given so much in their effort to solve the problem. Seems like an effort that should be recognized and supplemented.
I don't know if their solution is working or not, or if they would be interested in working with another nearby Texan to develop a more robust solution. If we have any Texas robot-heads on the discussion forum who are willing to contact the school (and students) to develop a system with locational feedback Parallax would offer whatever hardware we manufacture for this purpose (like our larger 12V MMWK platforms or whatever else you need).
We'd need to find an engineer who can achieve the goal and is willing to make it all happen. We can supply hardware for the project. The only request is that the effort would be chronicled here on the forums so it can be shared with others for the long-term. We're not looking for any kind of special recognition, just to be clear.
Heck, I don't know if the school or students even want the assistance. Sometimes working within the confines of school regulations is a battle on its own. Even though, I'm throwing this idea out to see if there's any possibility of helping out these students. I realize it's probably a long shot.
Reply on the forums please.
Thanks,
Ken Gracey
Taking a look at this video you can see the challenges the students face when trying to develop a robot that will guide a student to and from class. The navigational challenges they face are immense with their Lego Mindstorms robot, but these students have given so much in their effort to solve the problem. Seems like an effort that should be recognized and supplemented.
I don't know if their solution is working or not, or if they would be interested in working with another nearby Texan to develop a more robust solution. If we have any Texas robot-heads on the discussion forum who are willing to contact the school (and students) to develop a system with locational feedback Parallax would offer whatever hardware we manufacture for this purpose (like our larger 12V MMWK platforms or whatever else you need).
We'd need to find an engineer who can achieve the goal and is willing to make it all happen. We can supply hardware for the project. The only request is that the effort would be chronicled here on the forums so it can be shared with others for the long-term. We're not looking for any kind of special recognition, just to be clear.
Heck, I don't know if the school or students even want the assistance. Sometimes working within the confines of school regulations is a battle on its own. Even though, I'm throwing this idea out to see if there's any possibility of helping out these students. I realize it's probably a long shot.
Reply on the forums please.
Thanks,
Ken Gracey
Comments
Ken I think this is a great gift and yet another reason I think Parallax is a GREAT company and I'm proud to be a customer and always will be. Thank you!
Tony
Your intention to help these students is remarkable! You don’t only help a particular effort in a specific school. In my opinion you also do something more significant! You motivate and inspire young people in the correct direction. I believe that your offer will have a great response among students and teachers.
I showed your announcement in my students' class and I projected the video with the students from the middle school in Texas. These students from Texas are really excellent and they worth every help!
Some years ago we had a blind student in my school and his name was “Zois” which mean "a person full of Life".
Zois was very popular among his classmates and always helped him to hang around in the school area. The idea of a robot that would be able to help Zois in his walking was expressed by one of his friends but never came true because of the difficulties of this challenge. In that period I was working in the “robotic arm” and “color sorter” project and I had no time to boost another project. But the deeper reason I avoided that project was the shortage of a big robot which was able to roam in the school yard.
After Zois graduated the idea of the robot assistant was put away. However I kept in my mind the idea of an auto roaming robot in the school area.
Now as I’m reading your announcement the idea comes back stronger. This time I see more realizable this challenge because I have build a big robot (a 4wd Rover) able to roam in the school patio. So I would like to start a new school project the next school year for this reason. I would like to contribute in your effort to help these students and share every experience and finding of our research. I still believe that the challenge is difficult and I don’t know if we have reliable results in the future. For this reason we don’t ask any hardware support. I think the best support we could have is the advices from Parallax experts about technical issues and the feedback with other robotics teams. My main purpose is to give my students the “spirit” of these [url=http://www.wflx.com/Global/story.asp?S=14006278
]students from Texas![/url]
I'm replying to all who have posted, that you have been heard. Word of mouth or blog, is an awesome thing and what we are doing here in Midland Texas is just normal every day work, to us. I'm astounded how much impact this has had outside of our area and even more amazed to see the positive impact it's having around us.
Ken, Don't know you, but your offer of help sounds amazing.......our small group has been working on expanding the idea to a larger scale version and if everyone out there doesn't know it already, young minds are incredible... they don't see the impossible......if you are so compelled to make this call out to the state of Texas and the nation, please keep in contact with me......Yes dealing with school districts and education can be difficult but I'm not much of one to take no for an answer nor ask permission.......So....please contact me through the blog and lets see where this goes....
Thanks too all for your kind words and support....
Curt Cowdrey
Robotics instructor/District Robotics Coordinator
San Jacinto Jr. High
Midland Texas
Hey Curt, happy to have found the right person! I'll drop you a PM in a minute. Since the students have an instructor we can easily assist you with the guide-bot (or whatever you will call it). A larger robot won't get squished or broken, and will have a presence that could clear halls as it drives towards a classroom. I won't be able to help personally with the programming, but I've got a thousand friends on this discussion forum who will be able to assist along the way. - Ken
I'm a teacher of informatics science in the 3rd General Lyceum of Patras (Europe-Greece). I'm also a Parallax enthusiast and I enjoy working with every type of robots. In our school we have done a wide variety of robotic projects and we are always willing to face new challenges. We have the intention of creating an auto navigation robot in order to experiment with the technological developments in October 2011.
My students are amazed at your efforts, and I have to say that you are a successful teacher because you have cultivated this creative attitude to your students. This is something more than theevery day practice .. you mentioned .Congratulations! Personally, I absolutely agree with your view that "young minds are incredible... they don't see the impossible.... . In addition, I believe that they can manage everything they want because of their power of will.
A possible co-operation with students from another nation with different culture and different language will intrigue their interest and will give them a strong motivation to work efficiently. If it's possible we would like you to let us know if you are interested in co-operating with us. That would be a great opportunity for us, as we want to broaden our horizons.
My students are likeable, independent and they really want to co-operate with your students in order to exchange ideas not only about the robotics field but generally about education as well. They can also speak English fluently and they are able to communicate better than me. Parallax Forum is an unlimited source of real knowledge where we can exchange ideas in order to achieve our goal.
Sincerely
Nikos Giannakopoulos
3rd General Lyceum of Patras
Agiou Ioanni Pratsika 2, 26 333 Patras
Greece Europe
Phone/fax: 0030 2610 322 190, Mail: mail@3lyk-patras.ach.sch.gr
Web: http://3lyk-patras.ach.sch.gr/
fred
http://www.junun.org/MarkIII/datasheets/sharp-app-note.pdf It would seem possible to take the data output and translate it to a table array correlated to a different tone for each range of distances. A blind person could than "learn" what each sound means. I know that wall and object color may cause false readings with ir devices but using other sensors such as "ping" and some kind of if-then-else, or case statement could filter out false data.
Fred