Robotics Tech Talks

by Storming Robots Technology Learning Lab

Nov 7th : 11:00am to 6:00pm Somerville - Bridgewater, NJ

Robotic Maze Search

Time: 12:15 to 12:35 Presenters: Alexander Saff, Ashley Yang, Sean Doran and Salil Pathare

Target audience: Interested in Software Algorithms and Arduino.

They created a fully automated Arduino-based Robot to navigate through a Maze with float-

ing walls (i.e. walls do not lead to the outer border of the game field.). During the course,

the robot needs to locate target heated items which are placed in unknown location. This is to simulate a

disastrous situation where victims got trapped in unknown area. Robot’s task is to mark their locations. In

addition to sensors feedback, students have written an AI search algorithm to give the robot the intelligence

for not only routing through the maze, but also calculating its shortest path to return back to base.

RoboRescue Line

Time: 11:15 to 11:30 Presenters: Alex Lisenko, Darshan Patel , and Sonia Purohit

Target audience: Interested in Software Algorithms

These three students won Second Place at the 2015 World RobocupJunior Tournament held in

July of 2015 at China. Our team was interviewed by the BBC back in September.

They will demonstrate their fully autonomous robot and talk about their work from design to

implementation. The robot is designed to negotiate unpredictable paths with variable sizes of obstacles at

unknown locations.

Robot Formation

Time: 1:15 to 1:35 Presenters: Neelay Trivedi and Prateek Humane

Target audience: with High School Algebra, and Interested in Software Algorithm.

Robot Formation is a multi-agent project in which a small group of robots will form specific

polygons defined by the user.

Robots run in an arena measured approximately 2x2 meters. A user inputs the dimension of a regular

polygon that they want the robots to form. The robots are placed at random points in the arena. The robots

will work in unison to form the shape in the fastest possible time based on their locations in the arena. The

robots utilize sound wave to create a virtual coordinate system for localization. They have to generate the

best suitable coordinates or vertices through localization techniques; thus, forming the dynamic user-

defined size and pattern as fast as possible.

All Tech Talks below focus on fully-automated robots with either Mindstorms or Arduino platform. Speakers will share a

summary of their technical creativity experience from design to implementation.

Individuals who are interested in technology, particularly in robotics / automation / software algorithms are highly

encouraged to attend and share your feedback.

All Presentations last from 10 to 20 minutes with 30 minutes of QnA session following immediately after.

Robot Soccer

Time: 2:15 to 2:30 Presenters: Luke Dai, and Vadym Glushhov

Target audience: Interested in Software Algorithms and Arduino.

This group of 2 students have made two robots, one offense and one defense. Robots are

designed, under a set of weight, dimension, and power restrictions, to play soccer efficiently.

They won the 3rd Place in the 2013 World RobocupJunior Tournament.

They continuously improved upon on their software and hardware design over the past 2 years despite of

their limited free time. They will share with you their localization and ball-seeking technique, issues that

they encountered and possible enhancement.

First LEGO League Team—Team Agile Bots

Time: 4:15 to 4:25 Presenters: Aneesh Nagalkar, Arya Trivedi, Vaani Aggarwal, Aman Wadhwa and Riya

Mehta

Team Agile Bots was formed by a group of five Bridgewater Middle School students to participate in the 2015

First LEGO League Tournament. They will share with you their study on the 2015 Tournament theme—

TRASH TREKSM Challenge.

FLL introduces younger students, age 9 to 13, to real-world engineering challenges by building LEGO-based

robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing field. The team will share with you their research work on

the topics from collection, sorting, to smart production and reuse. Besides the research topic, they will talk

about the robot challenge itself, the application of Mathematics, and mechanical concepts required.

Build and Strengthen Attributes as a Maker

Time: 5:15 to 5:35 Presenter: Elizabeth Mabrey

Elizabeth is the Founder of Storming Robots. Storming Robots is a robotics and computer science learning

institution established in 2005. Many students have attended robotics & computer science programs at SR

for years and exceled. Most of them attended SR from their elementary school year till leaving for college.

Topics include:

Computational thinking approach is indispensable to effectively build and strengthen students’ engineering intuition, which ultimately is a core element to become an innovative Thinker and Maker.

Instill the pride (intrinsic motivation) of mixing creativity and disciplines.

Make their technical creativity more legible / pronounced, such as publishing their work.

Talk about various robotics competitions available in NJ .

Robotics Competition in Space —Zero Robotics

Time: 3:15 to 3:30 Presenters: Brady Bean, Danny Kolano, and Salil Pathare

This is from the SPHERES-ZERO-Robotics program run by MIT and NASA. SPHERES stands for the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites. Students write algorithms for the SPHERES satellites to accomplish tasks relevant to future space missions. Finalists are selected to

compete in a live championship aboard the International Space Station. An astronaut will conduct the championship competition in microgravity with a live broadcast!

These students represented the 2014 and 2015 team from Storming Robots. Teams from SR won the First Place of the ISS Final in 2011 and the First place ISS Final Simulation in 2014.