Category Archives: Robotics

Theagenda for TC Sessions: Robotics(July 17 in Cambridge, MA at MITs Kresge Auditorium) is almost complete, and before the long July 4 weekend we wanted to announce one more stellar addition to the line-up. (And remind you tograb a ticketbefore they are all gone!)

One of the advances driving robotics in recent years are powerful GPUs, and no discussion of the robot brain would be complete without them. So we are pumped to announce thatDeepu Talla, the head ofNVIDIAs Tegra division, which deploys critical GPU technology in robots, UAVs and much more, signed on to our Robot Brain panel. Talla formerly ran NVIDIAs mobile business unit and has a PhD in computer engineering from the University of Texas.

He joins previously announced panelists Heather Ames, the CTO of Neurala, a startup that provides deep learning capabilities forrobots, and Brian Gerkey, whose Open Robotics developed one of the most widely used operating systems for robots.

The Robot Brain panel is only one of many sessions that you wont want to miss, including interviews with MIT CSAILs Daniela Rus, Disneys Martin Buehler, ReThinks Rodney Brooks, TRIs Gill Pratt, ABBs Sami Atiya and many more.

Please set aside July 17 and join TechCrunch, our speakers and attendees for an amazing day of robotics.Get your tickets while they last. Interested in sponsorship?More information is available here.General questions?Reach out here.

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NVIDIA's Deepu Talla to join TC Sessions: Robotics Robot Brain ... - TechCrunch

HOUSTON, June 29, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA is awarding up to $600,000 in prizes to the winners of the Space Robotics Challenge, a competition open to teams of citizen inventors competing to develop and master technologies within a virtual environment that can someday be used on real robotic hardware.

Media are invited to attend the awards ceremony for the Space Robotics Challenge at 2 p.m. CDT on Friday, June 30, hosted by Space Center Houston, located at 1601 E. NASA Parkway. Immediately following the ceremony, finalists, winners and Therese Griebel, from NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., will be available for interviews. Members of the news media who wish to attend should contact Molly Porter for registration atmolly.a.porter@nasa.govbefore 10 a.m. on June 30.

Robots that can perform complex tasks without human control will work alongside the next generation of space explorers. The Space Robotics Challenge, part of NASA's Centennial Challenges program since August 2016, is a public prize competition to develop the capabilities of humanoid robot dexterity to better enable them to work alongside and independent of astronauts in preparation for future space exploration. The finalists were selected from a pool of 92 teams from 13 countries.

The final round of competition was held June 13-16 in a virtual environment, where teams had to program a virtual robot, modeled after NASA's humanoid R5 robot, to complete a series of tasks in a simulation that includes periods of latency to represent the communications delay from Earth to Mars. Each team's R5 had to resolve the aftermath of a dust storm that damaged a Martian habitat. This included three objectives: aligning a communications dish, repairing a solar array, and fixing a habitat leak.

The Top 20 teams, in alphabetical order, are:

BIT PLEASE - Cypress, Texas Coordinated Robotics - Newbury Park, California Mingo Mountain Robotics - Kettle Falls, Washington MITs - Tokyo, Japan Mystic - The Woodlands, Texas Nevermore - Jersey City, New Jersey Ring of the Nibelungs - Medford, Massachusetts Sirius - South Hadley, Massachusetts SpaceBucs Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Space Weavers - San Jose, California Team AL v.2.0 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada Team Olympus Mons - Barcelona, Spain Team Olrun - Evansville, Indiana THE HUMANZ ARE DEAD Boston, Massachusetts Walk Softly - Erie, Pennsylvania Whalers - Nantucket, Massachusetts Worcester Polytechnic Institute Humanoid Robotics Lab Worcester, Massachusetts WV Robotics Team Fairmont, West Virginia Xion Systems Fresno, California ZARJ St. Paul, Minnesota

NASA's Centennial Challenges program is part of the agency'sSpace Technology Mission Directorate, and is managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA uses challenges to gather the best and brightest minds in academia, industry and government to drive innovation and enable solutions in important technology focus areas.

For more information about the Space Robotics Challenge, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/spacebot

For more information about other challenges and prize opportunities with NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/solve

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-hosts-awards-celebration-for-space-robotics-challenge-prize-winners-300482237.html

SOURCE NASA

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NASA Hosts Awards Celebration for Space Robotics Challenge Prize Winners - PR Newswire (press release)

Motion Controls Robotics, Inc. Posted 06/29/2017

Motion Controls Robotics was presented with a certificate of safety achievement through the Sandusky County Safety Council and The Chamber of Commerce of Sandusky County for having no accidents or injuries in the workplace in 2016.

Motion Controls Robotics works in an industry where injuries are common, and the team has implemented many procedures over the years to make sure employees work safely and have a safe work environment. Most recently, MCRI developed 5S procedures. 5S benefits overall employee safety through making clear where items are located - reducing confusion and clutter.

In the 22 years MCRI has been developing and integrating robot systems we have had no reported Lost-Time Injury. This is quite an accomplishment and something the MCRI team is proud to announce.

About Motion Controls Robotics Founded in 1995 and celebrating over 20 years of continuous growth, Motion Controls Robotics is a leading provider of automation solutions to manufacturing industries. The company provides full service robotic solutions from concept to installation and service/support that keep manufacturers competitive. Motion Controls Robotics creates solutions for Fortune 500 and small to medium-sized companies in the food & beverage, plastics, building & construction materials, converting, manufacturing and board & sheet goods industries. They also automate small production shops and machine job shops. Motion Controls Robotics provides automation solutions to manufacturers for a variety of applications including material handling (case packing, palletizing and machine tending), and vision-guided systems. Motion Controls Robotics is an exclusive Level 4 Certified Servicing Integrator for FANUC Robotics, and a SmartCart Automatic Guided Cart Value Added Reseller (VAR) for Daifuku Webb. Motion Controls Robotics northwest Ohio headquarters is located at 1500 Walter Avenue, Fremont, Ohio.

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MCRI Recognized for Safety Achievement - Robotics Online (press release)

BBC News

The one law of robotics: Humans must flourish - BBC News BBC News Can we simplify the laws of robotics, governing the intelligent machines we will soon live alongside? and more »

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The one law of robotics: Humans must flourish - BBC News - BBC News

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Growing robotics industry helps drive development in Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pittsburgh's growing robotics industry is helping to drive development and the demand for space in the Strip District and other East End neighborhoods, at times pushing rents even higher than they are in the best Downtown offices. That's the conclusion ...

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Growing robotics industry helps drive development in Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Figure 8: Example of a 15 robot swarm of GRITSBots on the arena surface of the second instantiation of the Robotarium.

When developing algorithms for coordinating the behaviors of swarms of robots it is crucial that the algorithms are actually deployed and tested on real hardware platforms. Unfortunately, building and maintaining a swarm robotics testbed is a resource-intense proposition and, as a consequence, resources rather than ideas tend to be the bottleneck and swarm robotics research does not progress at the rate it could. The Robotarium sets out to remedy this problem by providing remote access to a large team of robots, where users can upload their code, run the experiments remotely, and get the scientific data back. This article describes the structure and architecture of the Robotarium as well as discusses what constitutes an effective, remotely accessible research platform.

This paper won the IEEE Robotics & AutomationBest Multi-Robot Systems Award at ICRA 2017.

The Robotarium Vision

As a swarm-robotic research testbed, the Robotariums main goal is to lower the barrier of entrance into multi-agent robotics and provide access to a state-of-the-art test facility for researchers around the globe. Remote accessibility is therefore an integral part of the design of the Robotarium and is currently realized through a public web interface that gives users the flexibility to test a variety of multi-robot algorithms. Making robotic hardware available online requires the Robotarium to tackle a number of challenges including robust and safe long-term operation of large groups of robots with minimal operator intervention.

In particular, the continuous operation of the Robotarium highlights the need for automated maintenance, which relies on global position tracking, automated battery recharging, and provably collision-free execution of motion paths. To fulfill its intended use effectively, the Robotarium has to implement a number of high-level design requirements that can be summarized as follows:

Robotarium Instantiations

The Robotarium aims to improve and streamline the user experience and facilitate the control of swarms of mobile robots not just for researchers well-versed in robotics but also for interested hobbyists and students. Part of this desired user experience is achieved by providing a seamless transition from prototyping swarm algorithms in the Robotarium simulator to executing the same code on robotic hardware. While methods as outlined in the Usage section below can narrow the gap between simulation and hardware, the initial prototypes of the Robotarium made clear that tight integration between its hardware and software components is highly beneficial.

Therefore, the Robotarium contains custom-designed robots that use a novel wireless charging system, WiFi-based wireless communication between the robots and the Robotariums servers, as well as an overhead position tracking system. The software stack extends from custom firmware for the robots to server backend software consisting of the simulation infrastructure, interaction components (APIs that allow users to write their algorithms in higher-level languages), and coordinating server applications. A detailed description of all these components can be found in [1] while an overview of the system architecture is shown in Figure 1. Here, we just want to highlight the components that set the Robotarium apart, namely its custom miniature robots and their novel wireless charging system that enables automated maintenance and charging.

Robots: At the core of the Robotarium are our custom-designed GRITSBot robots (shown in Figure 2). These inexpensive, miniature differential drive robots simplify operation and maintenance of the Robotarium through features such as (i) automated registration with the server when powered up, (ii) automatic battery charging, and (iii) wireless (re)programming. The GRITSBots provide WiFi-based communication, battery-powered operation up to 45 minutes per charge, and stepper motor-based locomotion. Additionally, these robots are equipped with a slew of introspective sensors that enable predictive diagnostics through precise monitoring of their internal states.

Charging: The GRITSBots are equipped with a wireless charging system. A receiver coil is attached to the robot (see Figure 2 (right)) and transmitters are built into the Robotarium arena surface (see Figure 3 and 4). Automatic recharging of robots is an essential aspect that will enable the long-term use of robots and the automated management of the Robotarium hardware with minimal operator intervention and at the same time make the continuous operation of the Robotarium economically feasible.

To date, three versions of the Robotarium have been built.

Safety on the Robotarium

One of the main challenges faced by remote-access testbeds like the Robotarium is how to faithfully execute remote users instructions without endangering the safety of its hardware. Inter-robot collisions are very likely to happen within a large team of robots, which might result in significant damage to the equipment. Safety on the Robotarium is enforced through so-called safety barrier certificates. Each of the robots is encapsulated in a safety bubble whose size is based on the position and velocity of the robot. This safety bubble is not allowed to be penetrated by other robots. Utilizing these mathematically rigorously formulated certificates, users control inputs to the robots are modified in a minimally invasive fashion such that no collisions will occur. With the help of safety barrier certificates, remote users experiments can be safely performed on the Robotarium. An example of ten robots successfully executing individual trajectories while avoiding collisions is shown in Figure 6 (a video of this experiment can be found on the Robotariums Youtube channel).

Usage

Users interact with the Robotarium by prototyping their code in the Robotariums simulator and submitting their code online via the Robotarium website. This workflow allows users to quickly and efficiently transfer their preexisting work into a Robotarium-compatible format and see their algorithms work on real robots. To ensure a smooth transition from simulator to physical hardware, the Robotarium employs system identification techniques to ensure that these simulated robots emulate the GRITSbots. However, depending on their complexity, some experiments require a few simulation/deployment cycles before achieving the desired result. To ameliorate this condition, the Robotarium aims to operate 24/7, providing a quick turnaround time for users.

This ambitious operating schedule allows users from around the world to interact with the Robotarium in their preferred time frame. However, automating such a complex system incurs some challenges that the Robotarium solves through both hardware and software. For example, the Robotarium and the GRITSbot employ wireless charging to ensure a high degree of reliability and efficiency in autonomous operation. Additionally, the Robotarium regularly undergoes maintenance procedures, which typically range from 2-8 hours in length, ensuring that the requisite hardware is operating correctly. The Robotarium also employs state-of-the-art software packages to meet this operating goal, such as the IoT-friendly MQTT publish/subscribe architecture and Docker.

Altogether, these hardware and software developments allow the Robotarium to service a wide array of users. To date, over 100 users have submitted experiments to the Robotarium. Institutions that have used the Robotarium include the University of Texas Austin, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Along with these institutional partners, the Robotarium typically executes 1-2 experiments per day, a number that continuous to grow, from remote users in different countries around the world.

Reference:

First printed: Pickem, D.; Glotfelter, P.; Wang, L.; Mote, M.; Ames, A.; Feron, E. & Egerstedt, M., The Robotarium: A remotely accessible swarm robotics research testbed. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), (2017) (Best Multi-Robot Systems Paper)

Image citations:

Figure 1, 2, 7:

Pickem, D.; Glotfelter, P.; Wang, L.; Mote, M.; Ames, A.; Feron, E. & Egerstedt, M., The Robotarium: A remotely accessible swarm robotics research testbed. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), (2017) (Best Multi-Robot Systems Paper)

Figure 3, 4, 5, 6, 8: Newly created images.

Excerpt from:

The Robotarium: A remotely accessible swarm robotics research testbed - Robohub

Researchers from Politecnico di Milano and Trend Micro conducted an audit of the information security design of commonly used industrial robots and found that these devices are extremely insecure: robots could be easily reprogrammed to violate their safety parameters, both by distorting the robots' ability to move accurately and by changing the movements the robots attempt to perform; hacked robots can also be made to perform movements with more force than is safe; normal safety measures that limit speed and force can be disabled; robots can be made to falsify their own telemetry, fooling human operators; emergency manual override switches can be disabled or hidden; robots can be silently switched from manual to automatic operation, making them move suddenly and forcefully while dangerously close to oblivious, trusting humans; and of course, robots can be caused to manufacture faulty goods that have to be remanufactured or scrapped.

All of this is possible because industrial robotic control systems lack even the most basic security -- instead of cryptographically hashing passwords, they store them in the clear (with a single, deterministic XOR operation to provide a useless hurdle against hackers); controllers expose an FTP process during bootup that accepts new firmware loads without authentication; network-level commands are not encrypted or signed; controllers use hardcoded usernames and passwords; memory corruption attacks are easy and devastating; the runtimes for the control instructions are poorly isolated from other processes -- the paper goes on and on.

Industrial robots epitomize all the problems of the Internet of Shit -- operators who have little or no security expertise, a lack of easy updating, and lazy, sloppy design. But whereas killing someone with the Internet of Shit involves things like turning off the heat in February in Minnesota, industrial robots are giant, barely constrained killing machines.

We explored, theoretically and experimentally, the challenges and impacts of the security of modern industrial robots. We built an attacker model, and showed how an attacker can compromise a robot controller and gain full control of the robot, altering the production process. We explored the potential impacts of such attacks and experimentally evaluated the resilience of a widespread model of industrial robot (representative of a de facto standard architecture) against cyber attacks. We then discussed the domain-specific barriers that make smooth adoption of countermeasures a challenging task.

Interesting future research directions include exploring multi-robot deployments, co-bots, and the safety and security implications of the adoption of wireless connections. Also, an improved survey would produce statistically significant results. We definitely plan to analyze controllers from other vendors, to further confirm the generality of our approach.

An Experimental Security Analysis of an Industrial Robot Controller [Davide Quarta, Marcello Pogliani, Mario Polino, Federico Maggi, Andrea Maria Zanchettin, and Stefano Zanero/Industrial Robots Security]

(via 4 Short Links)

University of Tulsa security researchers Jason Staggs and his colleagues will present Adventures in Attacking Wind Farm Control Networks at this years Black Hat conference, detailing the work they did penetration-testing windfarms.

Yesterdays massive ransomware outbreak of a mutant, NSA-supercharged strain of the Petya malware is still spreading, but the malwares author made a mere $10K off it and will likely not see a penny more, because Posteo, the German email provider the crook used for ransom payment negotiations, shut down their account.

Petya is a well-known ransomware app that has attained a new, deadly virulence, with thousands of new infection attempts hitting Kaspersky Labs honeypots; security firm Avira attributes this new hardiness to the incorporation of EternalBlue the same NSA cyberweapon that the Wannacry ransomware used, which was published by The Shadow Brokers hacker group []

Aside from specific apps needed for work, the most casual Mac users can probably survive without anything more than the bundled software. iLife is a surprisingly capable office suite (Apple even promotes Keynote as a tool for interface design), and recent versions of Safari are more energy efficient than any other macOS-compatible browser. But if []

Despite the upfront cost, electric toothbrushes are much better at removing plaque than those freebies from the dentists office. For those who struggle to fill the American Dental Associations recommended two minutes of brushing time, or anyone with limited dexterity, a sonic toothbrush can give your oral care routine a boost.To keep your chops healthy []

Learning a new language will give your resume an upgrade, sure, but it will also provide a huge cognitive boost for mental tasks outside of translation and conversation. Bilingual brains have been shown to be better at handling multiple concurrent tasks, and gaining fluency in a new tongue is an amazing way to improve memory, []

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Industrial robotics security is really, really terrible / Boing Boing - Boing Boing

"The NAVIO system offers game changing improvements in precision and accuracy without sacrificing efficiency. It allows surgeons the control to create a patient-specific plan in the OR and the confidence to execute with robotic precision," says Dr Joseph Burkhardt from southwest Michigan. "For the Total Knee, it provides surgeons the ability to do more than they have ever been able to do with standard instruments, resulting in improved functional outcomes for the patient."

"The NAVIO partial knee replacement application has been commercially available since 2014, including UKA and PFJ options, and has developed a strong surgeon following," said Glenn Warner, President, US Commercial. "The full market release of the TKA application provides a robotics-assisted solution for one of the largest markets in orthopaedics. Smith & Nephew is committed to continued expansion and growth of the NAVIO robotics-assisted platform."

About Smith & Nephew

Smith & Nephew is a global medical technology business dedicated to helping healthcare professionals improve people's lives. With leadership positions in Orthopaedic Reconstruction, Advanced Wound Management, Sports Medicine and Trauma & Extremities, Smith & Nephew has around 15,000 employees and a presence in more than 100 countries. Annual sales in 2016 were almost $4.7 billion. Smith & Nephew is a member of the FTSE100 (LSE:SN, NYSE: SNN).

For more information about Smith & Nephew, please visit our website http://www.smith-nephew.com, follow @SmithNephewplc on Twitter or visit SmithNephewplc on Facebook.com.

Forward-looking StatementsThis document may contain forward-looking statements that may or may not prove accurate. For example, statements regarding expected revenue growth and trading margins, market trends and our product pipeline are forward-looking statements. Phrases such as "aim", "plan", "intend", "anticipate", "well-placed", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target", "consider" and similar expressions are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from what is expressed or implied by the statements. For Smith & Nephew, these factors include: economic and financial conditions in the markets we serve, especially those affecting health care providers, payers and customers; price levels for established and innovative medical devices; developments in medical technology; regulatory approvals, reimbursement decisions or other government actions; product defects or recalls or other problems with quality management systems or failure to comply with related regulations; litigation relating to patent or other claims; legal compliance risks and related investigative, remedial or enforcement actions; disruption to our supply chain or operations or those of our suppliers; competition for qualified personnel; strategic actions, including acquisitions and dispositions, our success in performing due diligence, valuing and integrating acquired businesses; disruption that may result from transactions or other changes we make in our business plans or organisation to adapt to market developments; and numerous other matters that affect us or our markets, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or reputational nature. Please refer to the documents that Smith & Nephew has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including Smith & Nephew's most recent annual report on Form 20-F, for a discussion of certain of these factors. Any forward-looking statement is based on information available to Smith & Nephew as of the date of the statement. All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to Smith & Nephew are qualified by this caution. Smith & Nephew does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in circumstances or in Smith & Nephew's expectations.

Trademark of Smith & Nephew. Certain marks registered US Patent and Trademark Office.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smith--nephew-expands-navio-robotics-assisted-surgery-system-into-total-knee-replacements-300481704.html

SOURCE Smith & Nephew

http://www.smith-nephew.com

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Smith & Nephew expands NAVIO Robotics-assisted surgery system into Total Knee replacements - PR Newswire (press release)

While drones are increasingly affordable, they're also starting to be found in more places than just above our heads. We recently covered MIT's efforts to have drones not only traverse the sky but tread on land, and are now seeing a Norwegian company dipping their proverbial toesand literal dronesinto the oceans.

Blueye's Pioneer is a "remote operated vehicle" ROV) drone equipped to descend as far as 450 feet and record and stream 1080p videos at 30 frames per secondall while being remotely controlled through a videogame console controller or through your smartphone. It doesn't stop there, eitherthe Pioneer was specifically designed to be used in tandem with a virtual reality (VR) headset, which would allow users to immerse themselves into the experience as much as the Pioneer immerses itself into the seas.

With a purposefully lower price point than all other ROVs of its kind, as user-friendly as possible, and clocking in at a mere 18 pounds, the Pioneer will likely be the de facto underwater hobby drone to aim for. BlueyeCEOEric Dyrkoren said that this was exactly his goal bringing professional underwater drone tech to the people.

"We wanted to make this technology available to many more people, weve been focusing on the design, the control system, and the camera," said Dyrkoren. "Its like playing a video game. Its very easy to use and the video streaming is in real-time, we have very low-latency."

There's been a massive demand for the combination of drones and VR, and it seems like the Pioneer was birthed from not only a wish to make these underwater drones more affordable, but to capitalize on that niche of drones and gaming we're all so fond of.

According to TheNextWeb, the Pioneer can be simply chucked into the ocean and easily started therein. There's no need for a hub, a base, and it's been tested for resilience and quality assurance for quite some time now. The Pioneer was even deployed in the Arctic, to test its mettle in harsh conditions like below freezing temperate and choppy waters.

Preorders have already begun for the ROV. You can check the product out in further detail here, before the item starts shipping next year, according to Blueye's CEO. We'll definitely keep an eye on this thing, as it seems like the first, true hobby underwater drone that some of us could actually afford. Stay tuned.

Link:

Blueye Robotics Is Pioneering the Underwater Drone - The Drive - The Drive

Jackie Johnson, founder of Mop Top Shop, Inc., educates local students about robotics.

Grace Robinson makes a presentation during a camp hosted by Mop Top Shop, Inc.

Mickey Woodberry speaks to his peers about his idea for a robot.

Jackie Johnson enjoyed watching little engineers come up with some creative ideas for robots.

Andrews Chapel Baptist Church is hosting a robotics camp with Mop Top Shop, Inc. Based out of Raleigh, the program exposes children to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). In addition to locations throughout North Carolina, Mop Top has traveled to Washington, D.C. for the White House Easter Egg Roll, an event hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

The week-long session at the church was the camps first time coming to a Clinton location. Johnson, program founder, assisted children with through hands-on activities. The students created ideas for inventions to help society using construction paper and other craft items. During presentations, some of assistance involved helping sick people, putting out fires, home building and teaching math. While creating, students also gave their work a price.

Participant Grace Robinson had fun learning about different parts and making her invention called HCMR.

It stands for Helpful Cleaning Maid Robot, she said. It cleans and it helps you with anything. If you you didnt feel like cooking, it would cook for you.

Johnson, a Garland native, participates in local parades and events with several mascots, including the leader Mop Top The Hip Hop Scientist. She recently returned to Sampson County to educate children during the summer. The first week of the camp in Garland focused on matter. Students worked with slime, homemade Play-Doh, and homemade lava lamps.

They got to experience the states of matter, Johnson said. They really enjoyed that.

Lessons focused on different parts of the robot such as the ultrasonic sensor, a device that can measure distance by using sound waves. Some of the others included the axle, bream, tracks, wires and other functions. Later during the week, they will make the real robots.

Those robots will move and those robots will be able to detect color, Johnson said. It will let them know if theres an object in front of them. I want them to know what engineers use and how they actually prototype robots for use in the real world.

Students Jayden Murphy, Shaiyana Brinson and Tyler Clyburn were fascinated about the camp and STEM. Murphys idea was called Pastorbot, which will preach if the pastor is sick or unable to be at church.

Participant Genesis Walker enjoyed the idea of making a house sitter bot and meeting new people.

Science is really fun for me because you learn how everything works, Genesis said.

Johnson said she would like for some of the students to become engineers. She hopes the camp exposed them to the possibility, if they never had the experience.

In the camp, students believe its essential for students to become hands-on. During the camp, the students made artbots using a motor inside a toothbrush, colored markers and paper cups. After completion, the robots will be able to draw for them. Later during the week, they will make the real robots.

Johnson expressed how robots are becoming more essential in society. One example was the automobile industry which uses technology for mass production. The students were given a homework assignment on the Henn-na Hotel in Japan, which is fully staffed by robots.

Robots are going to replace a lot of jobs and we have to be prepared and educated, so that we dont lose out, Johnson said. I want these kids to be competitive in the real world.

Jackie Johnson, founder of Mop Top Shop, Inc., educates local students about robotics.

http://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_MT_3.jpgJackie Johnson, founder of Mop Top Shop, Inc., educates local students about robotics.

Grace Robinson makes a presentation during a camp hosted by Mop Top Shop, Inc.

http://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_MT_2.jpgGrace Robinson makes a presentation during a camp hosted by Mop Top Shop, Inc.

Mickey Woodberry speaks to his peers about his idea for a robot.

http://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_MT_1.jpgMickey Woodberry speaks to his peers about his idea for a robot.

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Mop Top robotics camp offered to Clinton creators - Sampson Independent