Today I missed 1/2 day of school to come to the soft opening at the ETC! It was a fun day, I got to see some other projects going on at the ETC, and I got to talk about our project... a lot. Some groups of people ( I think they were staff) came and looked at our exibts, Linxy and ( ' 0 ' ). I didn't really talk about Linxy much but I got to play with her!

I explained to people our tic tac toe robots. ( Anthony Daniels was there too! ) I did not know much about what the other mechinanical people did but I talked about programing. I explained how we found the robots range of motion to creat the tic tac toe board. I talked about inverse kenimatics ( when you know the end point and need to know how the robot needs to move, so you create triangles at the angles of the joints and calculate sine and cosine.). I also explaind how we put that information in to python language. When a person was playing the robot arm, I talked about how we programed the computer play. We had to tell the robot the winning possibilites and tell it to check it and stuff. We also needed to give it a strgedy ( who knew tic tac toe was a stratigic game?) We need to work on that some more, I don't think the computer ever won = (. When someone did win, the robotic arm drew a line across the winning points. I explined that the robotic arm can not draw a stright line unless we broke it down in to Interpolations. ( If we did not break it down than it would draw an arc and not line.) With interpolation, each joint move a certian amount of times unsted of all at once, this causes the robot to draw and etch a sketch like line. Thats basicaly how our robotic arms work.

I also talked about the diffrent things we did through out the program so far. I talked about pengo, keepon, the motion lab, and all that fun stuff.

I liked it a lot because it helped me understand my controbution to the project, and what im learning. I didn't know I knew what I knew untill I had to expain it all. I was kinda just like wow I learned stuff. Well, Im glad I did or this would have been a hard day. Today helped me understand the program a lot more. I liked it a lot, more people shold have came.

I didn't spen the whole time talking. We looked at other pepole projects at the ETC. One project we looked at was creating a sketch for a video game. We created a viedo game with capigs ( we wanted pigs but they only had cats, so they made a cat look like a pig) that played hopscotch. Another project we looked at was a video game. It was a game where you needed to use your logic to play spells to beat you oppents. We also looked a few diffrent other projects but this about sums it up.

It was a fun day, im sorry for those who could not leave school.

Today we worked on our tic-tac-toe project and i larned about a new software today.

today was long but a man came to visit us today and he had a robot. The robot had no arms nor legs just a head, body,eyes,and nose. It can move and moves with a remote control or by a computer. it was really cute. For something to not have nothing it was interesting.

Today we larned about a new robot named Keepon. It was a cute little toy for kids. It was controled by a Wii remote control it was kind of fun to play with it is more of a toy for kids then for adults. Then we went to see the robot arm for the project we are working on. It is moving now but still has a few problems but that is okay cause by the time its ready it will be all worked out. Also we saw how the lights that will be hooked up the the project will work it was kind of cool so to day was okay.

today was very fun as usual. We made little holders for our project.
we had picked Erins model as the best. Today was fun and i hope we get more accomplished on Wednesday.

Today was a good day like always. We had to make this game of tic tac toe useing the robotic arm parts. we had fun most of the girls picked the one i made. But that was hard to make cause you have to take it apart n put it back together but if it dont fit right you have to do it all over again.but it was fun.

Today we broke into groups to build and program the robot. It was fun I help build the robotic arm. It was easy to do till we got to the part where we started to draw. I'm not saying i didn't like it but we couldnt get it to make letters so thats a new thing we got to work out. We are goin need some new ideas so we can do that but we will get through it anyways. So see you next week.

today was kind of tough ....but once you get the hang of things it becomes pretty simple. Well today i learned how to program using python...aka a computer language is what i would call it. My lovely helper Lindsy helped me through everything and i thank her for that. with out her i would have been so lost. She says the programing gets easier, but i haven't experienced that part yet. I did not know all the things i do in regular day life like with the computer and things, i never knew what they did to get it to work. Today i know what they do behind the scenes. Programing can be pretty cool.

Yesterday the team met with a group of our new interns (Sasha, Malika, Erin, Katie, and Breonna) at the ETC for the first time. Rebecca led us through some getting-to-know you games, Drew (our ETC director) gave us a tour, and then we all went to the project room to eat snacks and talk about our plans for the Children's Museum robot painter exhibit. It was a whirlwind tour and a ton of information—now the girls have had a chance to see what we do here at the ETC and start thinking about how they want to get involved.

The girls have lots of interests in addition to robotics. For example, Malika really enjoys taking photos, so you'll probably see her photography up on this website soon. Katie shadows a veterinarian, which makes me think she may have a special interest in the ETC's AIBO, a robotic dog that is programmed to respond to its environment and simulate learning behavior (mimicking the way a real dog can be trained to perform tricks). Breonna loves to cook and wants to become a chef, which got made me wondering whether anyone uses robotics in cooking. So I went on Google and searched for pittsburgh robot cook. I found a news story about Hyperactive Technologies, creators of "Hyperactive Bob," a system that uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to manage the kitchens at restaurants. I was a little surprised to find robotic-related technologies used with cooking at all—I'm amazed that there's a company focused on this just a 15-minute drive away.

We're meeting up with our interns again tomorrow. Not all of our interns have joined us yet, so keep an eye out for new additions to our Intern team members page!

Today is my first day as apart of the robotics team for C.M.U. So far I have met some very nice people. We had a lot of fun meeting the girls. Some of the girls that are interns with me go to my school, and a few others this is my first time meeting.