In Your Classroom: RoboDoc

by William Church     Department: In Your Classroom

The Wired Science segment on the Da Vinci robotic operating system offers us an excellent opportunity to explore some robotic classroom activities.  While I do NOT have any links or ideas to share related to robotic dissection labs for Biology class, I do have plenty of links and idea to share related to robotics in the classroom.  If robots are the wave of the future in the operating room, robots are the wave of the present in classrooms.  There are many many amazing learning opportunities to be found through present classroom technology.

But first:

Even if you do not have the opportunity to explore robotics in your classroom this year, there are worthwhile discussions to have with your students related to the Robodoc segment.  There is an excellent Howstuffworks article that outlines the past, present, and future of surgical robots.  One item from the past not mentioned in the Howstuffworks article is "Lindbergh Operation", the first transatlantic robotic surgery.  Nature also has an excellent article on the topic.  The most surprising aspect of the Lindbergh operation may be the fact that it was from 2001!   Transatlantic surgery? That's sooo early 21st century!

If robots in the operating room are not interesting enough for your students, perhaps monkeys are.  Take a look at this MIT article from 2000.  A monkey in North Carolina controlled a robot arm in Boston.  The underlying research for this feat lies in electronic brain implants that read the signals from the brain and ship it to a controller that lies outside of the body.  A 2005 development on the early monkey work is well described in this Science Daily article.  This article describes how a brain implant gives a monkey the ability to feed itself with a robotic arm.  Successful testing of robotic prosthetics in monkeys is leading to opportunities for humans with spinal cord or other nervous system disabilities  to gain control of their appendages.  While there are examples (1,2) of patients with spinal cord or other nervous system injuries who have benefitted from the brain implants, it is still far from being a tested and affordable treatment.  Hence, it is a very exciting topic for the classroom, leading to many other biotechnology topics.  When modifying the body with robotics, where should you stop?

Classroom activities:

After the discussion is over, you and your students might be wondering, what can we do in the classroom?  Plenty.  Robotics is a very exciting technology to use in science, math, and technology lessons throughout the grade levels.

Hydraulic Syringes

First, let us explore an idea for controlling forces at a distance just as the doctors are doing with the Da Vinci system.  Take two plastic hydraulic syringes connected by a tube (education ready equipment is available at Pitsco and Kelvin) and you can exert a force as far away as your tube is long.  If you look at the video posted by Pitsco, you'll get the picture.  You will also see a huge price tag.  Ignore that.  If you only purchase the syringes and tubing, you can build the structure of the robots from cardboard, foamcore, or other economical materials.  One hint is -- if you use cardboard, or foamcore, make structural elements out of square or triangular cross sectional beams.  If you make structural elements out of paper, use round cross sectional beams.

Activities that I have had my students explore using the hydraulic syringe materials mentioned above are:

•    Design a system to pick up a penny off the floor without bending

•    Transport a full plastic canister of toxic material (just water) from one desk to another

•    Make a cardboard walking device (see an example here)

•    Make a remote climbing device (see an example here)

One could easily imagine making a hydraulic syringe system that parallels actions done in the Wired Science Robodoc segment.  Just keep your biology teacher's frogs out of harm's way.

LEGO Mindstorms

Whereas the above system is relatively cheap, its range of application is limited.  With some creative grant writing, fundraising, or persistent budgeting (dare I say begging?), you can purchase a class set of LEGO Mindstorm robot systems for $2500-$3500.  On the lower cost side is the older, established RCX system. In 2006, LEGO announced the   feature rich and more expensive NXT system.  For a good comparison between the two systems and some helpful tips on which system to choose, go to this LEGOEngineering.com website.  Programmed via the Robolab software (RCX and NXT) or LEGO Mindstorms NXT software (NXT) as well some many other options these systems offer you many ways to incorporate robotics into your classroom.  Well established as a classroom tool, you can find free resources online at this LEGOEngineering.com website.  You can also find many classroom ideas in Eric Wang's book, Engineering With LEGO Bricks and Robolab, or Barbara Bratzel's book, Physics by Design. 

In my physics classroom, I use the RCX and NXT systems to teach basic kinematics through an activity called "Going the Distance."  I then go on to use the "Find a Hidden Letter." Other physics based activities I do with my students include graph matching, vector analysis, Newton's Law applications, power and energy analysis, sound, light, and electromagnetism applications. 

While I am still in the process of gathering movies and pictures of my own students' robotics projects, you can view some videos of student work on a Newton's Law project at the following Teacher Tube sites:  one, two, three, four.  In this project, the students were asked to use their classroom and everyday experiences with force and motion to build a vehicle system that could transport a full canister of water over three bumps.   A book highlighting this project and other high school physics projects will be available through College House Books in late 2008/early 2009.

It is worth mentioning here that several of the physics projects that I do involve using Vernier Software sensors such as the motion sensor or the force sensor.  I mention this because Vernier is partnered with the Tufts University Center for Engineering Educational Outreach (CEEO), National Instruments, and LEGO to help develop the right tools to bring robotics into science and math classrooms.  Their collaboration and early examples paint an exciting picture of the next few years.  Stay tuned!

What else?

While the above represents the tip of the iceberg of ideas for incorporating robotics into the classroom, I encourage you to also look at the following links for other robot systems:

Muscle wire

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_memory_alloy

            http://www.musclewires.com/shapememoryalloys.shtml

Beam Robotics

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BEAM_robotics

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BEAM_robotics

            Solarbotics projects

            Beam book: Junkbots, Bugbots, Bots on Wheels

Basic Stamp, Handyboard, Cricket and MAKE controller

            http://www.parallax.com/

            http://www.handyboard.com/

            http://www.handyboard.com/cricket/tech/

            http://makezine.com/controller/

Fred Martin's stuff:

            http://www.cs.uml.edu/ecg/

There is almost no end to the options that educators and students have.  With students immersed in the rich learning activities supported by current robotics technology, just imagine what we will find in the operating rooms of the future, let alone our homes and classrooms!

Additional WIRED Science Video Segments
Don't forget to check out our Video Section for other segments from WIRED Science that you can use in your classroom.

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