Beginning Robotics

Haven't been doing much sewing lately. Instead I am taking a variety of online courses, one of them being a Beginning Robotics course. Have been learning a variety of terms and the many advancements of robotics in the last few years. One of the things that was quite interesting is looking at a timeline of robotics and the variety of opinions on when and what can be termed as robotic.

The movie Metropolis(1927) is actually an important part of the timeline. When watching this movie and thinking of the date it was released you can only be surprised. Personally I always knew of Metropolis as an early example of science fiction but never really thought of it as having any significance on robotics. It was another case of how so many things can overlap.

Otherwise in the course I have been doing a variety of computer simulation as what is involved in the anatomy and programming of robots. So me being Me I had to actually build something. What I decided to build as a start with my daughter was the Kingii Dragon which is a robot pet. 

She had a tendency to wander off and leave me to it at times but it was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. 

It uses sensors to either follow you or retreat from you. Its frill also unfurls and shakes. I only had one technical difficulty when I put the wrong length of rod in one area and then had some problems getting it back out (here the wonders of Pam came into use - which I am sure is not a recommended tool in the building of robotics). All in all it was well worth building and it is even cooler cause now I have two pet dragons.