Transcript GYRE - University of Washington

GYRE
A zero-gravity robotics project
What are robots?
• A robot is a self-controlled
machine
• Different robots can do a
wide variety of jobs that
are boring, difficult, or
dangerous for humans
• Robots come in a lot of
different shapes,
depending on their
function
Movie Robots – R2D2 and C3PO
• Here are a couple
familiar robot
• What jobs do these
robots do?
• How does their design
make them better at
their jobs?
Real World Robots
• These robots weld
metal plates on car
assembly lines.
• The robots are very
different from the one
in Star Wars. What are
the robots shaped like?
• Why is it better to use
a robot than a human
for this?
Real World Robots
• This robot check
underwater tanks for
dangerous fuel leaks.
• How is it different
from the last robot?
GYRE
• GYRE is a robot
designed to move
around in zero gravity.
• GYRE is built by a
team of students at the
University of
Washington and will
be tested aboard
NASA’s KC-135 plane
Frame
• GYRE has a skeleton
made of aluminum, which
is both strong and light.
• The skeleton keeps the
robot intact and provides
places to attach everything
else
• The skeleton will be
covered with foam
padding when the robot is
tested.
Plumbing
• GYRE moves using
twelve thrusters that
fire compressed air
• There are two tanks of
compressed air to
power the thrusters,
and pipes connecting
the tanks to each
thruster
Computing and Calculation
• GYRE needs to be able to figure out where it is
and what speed and direction it is moving at.
• It has three cameras, one along each axis. By
comparing pictures taken at different times and
seeing what direction objects around it look like
they’ve moved, it can guess how fast it’s moving
• GYRE uses a laptop to connect to the webcams
and to control the thrusters
• It also has a wireless connection to another laptop
so we can check on it