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19 Dec
0

St Patrick Day Green Carnations experiment

In Atal Tinkering Labs ATL | No comment

I kept my carnation out of water for 2 hours before I placed it in the color water.   This is a great hands-on experiment with your kiddos. Don’t pass up those white carnations in the stores. Your going to be able to witness Capillary Action of water in plants.   Most of the time, plants get their water from the ground. This means that the plant has to transport the water from its roots up throughout the rest of the plant. How is this done?   Well good question, Water moves through the plant by means of Capillary action….

19 Dec
0

Fireworks in a jar Experiment

In Atal Tinkering Labs ATL | No comment

Fireworks in a jar – Oil and water don’t mix because of how their molecules are constructed. Water is what is known as a polar molecule and Vegetable oil, on the other hand, is a nonpolar molecule.   You also noticed that food coloring only mixes with water . . . and now you know why. Food coloring is a polar molecule because it dissolves in water. In other words, food coloring and water are miscible. Vegetable oil is not affected by the food coloring because they are polar opposites.   The oil is less dense than the water, it…

19 Dec
0

WORLD’s FASTEST Naked Egg (Rubber Egg, Bouncy Egg) Experiment

In Atal Tinkering Labs ATL | No comment

I’m going to show you how to make a naked egg lighting FAST. When you use Calcium, Lime, Rust Remover (CLR) your naked egg will be ready in under 2 hours. Make sure you read the cautions on the container. I used gloves, in a ventilated area and googles. Adult supervision is required.   CLR is guaranteed to be the easiest and fastest method of quickly dissolving calcium. Hence the name Calcium Lime Rust remover.   The reason the egg shell dissolves in White Vinegar, Red Wine Calcium, Lime, and Rust Stain Remover is the Acid breaks apart the calcium…

19 Dec
0

EPIC Naked Egg fold, toss and shape! (Rubber Egg, Bouncy Egg)

In Atal Tinkering Labs ATL | No comment

If you have done the Naked egg experiment before, your going to love this experiment, as we take it to the next level.   Only different on set up is you use a pushpin to make holes on both ends of the egg. Then use a skewer to break yolk. Be careful not to break the shell. Then use Vinegar or CLR (See below where to buy) CRL will remove the shell in under 2 hours, where vinegar takes 24 to 48 hours. (See Lighting FAST Naked Egg video below) You will never use vinegar again.   Then blow out…

19 Dec
0

Oobleck Non-Newtonian liquid experiment

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Ingredients • 2 Cups Cornstarch • 1 Cup Water • Food coloring (optional)   Instructions • Step One – Pour 2 cups cornstarch into a bowl • Step Two – Add 1 cup of water and stir to combine • Step Three – If adding food coloring to your Oobleck do it at the mixing stage   What is the consistency you are looking for? If you’ve never made Oobleck before one of the hardest things to figure out is just what you are looking for in terms of consistency. I use this as my guideline: When mixed you should…

19 Dec
2

Can You Walk on Water? (Non-Newtonian Fluid Pool)

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15 boxes of Cornstarch and were walking on Oobleck! Mix one box at a time in a separate bowl and then poured into the tub.   What is happening? You’ve essentially made homemade quicksand or a large tub of oobleck. Corn starch in water displays interesting properties. Under some conditions, it behaves as a liquid, while under other conditions, it acts as a solid. If you punch the mixture, it will be like hitting a wall, yet you can sink your feet or body into it like water. If you squeeze it, it feels firm, yet when you release the…

19 Dec
0

Facing the Unknown, with Robots | Shai Revzen | TEDxUofM

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Is there anyway we can prepare to face the unknown? Can we develop robots that are fluid in function?   Shai Revzen is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, Ecologyand Evolutionary Biology, and Robotics at the University of Michigan. He’s been a video game programmer, an experimental biologist, and Chief Architect in a Silicon Valley tech company. He has co-founded a biomedical start-up, authored several patents, and published academically in robotics, biology, and applied mathematics.  

19 Dec
0

Shai Revzen – Biorobotics, Biomechanics, Dynamical Systems

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Prof. Shai Revzen research focuses on the role of mechanical dynamics in the control of animal and robot motion. After reverse engineering whole-system properties of a given animal, he creates robotic devices and biomimetic design methods that embody some of the desirable features observed in the animal.  

19 Dec
0

Prof. Edwin Olson

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Prof. Olson’s research includes finding ways for robots to sense and understand their environment while coping with uncertainty and ambiguity. The perception problem is central to a variety of practical applications, from indoor robots that can lead tours or deliver mail to autonomous cars that can navigate urban environments. His work includes both fundamental algorithm research (optimization, state estimation, classification) and system building.  

19 Dec
0

Prof. Jessy Grizzle

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Prof. Grizzle talks about his latest project, the robot MABEL, and hints at MABEL’s successor, ATRIAS. MABEL is the fastest running bipedal robot, thanks to unbeatable algorithms developed by his group. Prof. Grizzle specializes in feedback control.  

19 Dec
0

How close are we to having robot companions?

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Will advances in artificial intelligence bring us closer to having robots in our homes? A Michigan Engineering expert weighs in on the goals and outlook for research in making robots that think like humans.   The idea of artificial intelligence is rooted in creating a mind that has the same flexibilities and capabilities of a human mind — or even more. Although research has been advanced in a variety of areas of human intelligence, such as voice and face recognition, the next question will be how to integrate the separate aspects into a fully capable brain, says U-M professor Satinder…

19 Dec
0

Meet the MAEBots

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Prof. Edwin Olson’s APRIL Lab introduces the MAEBots: a small, smart, and low-cost platform for multi autonomous robotics research that has been open sourced for researchers everywhere.  

19 Dec
0

Bipedal Robot MABEL Walks Over Randomly Varying Ground

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Bipedal Robot MABEL Walks over Randomly Varying Ground: Experiment No. 1 Challenge: Traverse an irregular surface without prior knowledge of ground profile. Comments: We used a single feedback control, with a virtual compliant term in the stance knee. Switching control is not employed here. This was our initial attempt over random ground. The robot fell at the end of the experiment. We understand why it fell and will be back with more results soon.  

19 Dec
0

Preliminary Outdoor Walking with Underactuated Bipedal Robot MARLO

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Testing done on Saturday November 23, 2013 at 8 AM in front of the EECS Building on the University of Michigan North Campus. The temperature was -2 C (about 29 F). MARLO is an underactuated 3D bipedal robot with passive prosthetic feet. Its feedback control is designed using virtual constraints. In previous experiments, MARLO was attached to a boom. but with improved control, the robot can now walk without any external support. A mobile gantry supports a safety cable to catch the robot when it falls, avoiding expensive and time-consuming repairs. The robot is one of 3 ATRIAS-series robots designed…

19 Dec
0

MARLO: Dynamic 3D walking based on HZD gait design and BMI constraint selection

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BTN LiveBiG was filming MARLO the day we began testing a new method for controller design.   The controller is based on virtual constraints and hybrid zero dynamics (HZD). Here we are testing a new method for designing virtual constraints based on bilinear matrix inequality (BMI) optimization.   MARLO is a 3D robot designed to study principles of dynamic walking. Unlike most other 3D walking robots, MARLO does not have large feet with powered ankles. This forces the robot to balance dynamically, but may lead to more natural and more energetically efficient walking.   MARLO is one of three ATRIAS…

19 Dec
0

From running roaches to robots

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U-M engineers are analyzing the reflexes of cockroaches to aid in developing steadier robots. Professor Shai Revzen is recording the reaction of running cockroaches being shoved sideways, discovering that their body kicks in before their dawdling nervous system can tell it what to do. These new insights on how biological systems stabilize could one day help engineers design steadier robots and improve doctors’ understanding of human gait abnormalities.  

19 Dec
0

Designing robots that assemble and adapt

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What happens when you send a rolling robot out for a mission, and it turns out they need legs instead? That happens more often than you might think, and to combat that Michigan Engineers are working on creating “self-assembling” robots that can build themselves into any form required.   U-M Assistant Professor Shai Revzen and his team at the Biologically Inspired Robotics and Dynamical Systems (BIRDS) Lab are working on a variety of innovative solutions to create mechanical and robotic tools for challenging situations. In addition to self-assembling technologies, the team hopes to identify, model and reproduce the strategies animals…

19 Dec
0

Jessy Grizzle | Bipedal Walking Robots

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Distinguished University Professorship 2015 Lecture Series presented by Elmer G. Gilbert; Distinguished University Professor of Engineering, Jerry W. and Carol L. Levin; Professor of Engineering and the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan   The fields of control and robotics are working hand-in-hand to development bipedal machines that can realize walking motions with the stability and agility of a human being. Dynamic models for bipeds are hybrid nonlinear systems, meaning they contain both continuous and discrete elements, with switching events that are spatially driven by changes in ground contact. This talk will show how nonlinear control methods are…

19 Dec
0

Smart Carts

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A fleet of autonomous “Smart Carts” – high-tech, 3D printed, low-speed electric vehicles – could one day zip around the University of Michigan North Campus, taking students, professors and staff to class, labs and offices while also serving as one of the first test beds for on-demand autonomous transit.   In an early step toward that goal, U-M researchers received a custom, 3D-printed vehicle from technology company Local Motors. Over the next year, Edwin Olson, an associate professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science who leads the project and his team of U-M researchers will develop autonomy capabilities and build…

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