I have always been interested in robots since I was a kid. “Lost In Space” was one of my favorite TV shows in the 60’s, and the show had a very cool robot.
I must admit I do not spend a lot of time hacking robots, although the Maker space is ripe with opportunities. The Raspberry Pi and Arduino universe is over-run with cool robotic gadgets.
When I was touring the University of Idaho robotics lab with Dr. John Shovic last month, he introduced me to one of the labs’ robots named “Baxter.” (John likes to keep things simple.)
Baxter
When I asked John what Baxter could do, he said, “He makes a great cup of coffee.” No wait – what? Now I know there are lots of robots that do some cool stuff. There is one that cleans your floors. There are a bunch of Maker robots that can follow a line, back away from walls, and move through obstacle courses. But make coffee? Now this is cool! Exactly the kind of thing a robot should do!
Here is video of Baxter performing his mastery.
Ol’ Sopwith has great faith in the young generation of robotics students if they continue to teach robots how to do things like this!
Sopwith