The tidal forces generated by a black hole can be so powerful that they cause unlimited stretching, known as spaghettification. A detailed analysis of this phenomenon requires the use of Einstein's theory of general relativity. The aim of this paper is to offer an up-to-date and accessible analysis of spaghettification, in which the complex…

This work describes a way to study uniform circular motion (UCM) using a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Robotics Invention System (RIS) stepper motor with a steel ball attached to a string. The equipment is inexpensive and the resulting motion takes place on a human scale. Times and lengths can be measured with a stopwatch and a meterstick, respectively. In…

Experimental teaching is essential for a good understanding of science, especially on Physics. Practical activities play an important role for engaging students with science, mainly when they interact directly with equipment, collect experimental data with computers and/or use interactive software for data analysis. In this work, we present the…

In a kindergarten classroom, exclamations like "Oh no!" may be causes for concern. However, when the students in Mrs. Grabia's classroom shouted "Oh no!" and "Uh oh!" during an engineering-infused 5E lesson, it meant that a persistent little robot had pushed its way out of the fences they had created. It also meant…

The physics of walking is explored, using a toy as a concrete example and a "toy model" applied to it. Besides using Newton's second law, the problem is also discussed from the thermodynamical perspective. Once the steady state (constant velocity) is achieved, we show that the internal energy of the toy is dissipated as heat in the…

An introductory course for humanoid robot motion realization for undergraduate and graduate students is presented in this study. The basic operations of AX-12 motors and the mechanics combination of a 16 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) humanoid robot are presented first. The main concepts of multilink systems, zero moment point (ZMP), and feedback…

This article presents a formal theory of robot perception as a form of abduction. The theory pins down the process whereby low-level sensor data is transformed into a symbolic representation of the external world, drawing together aspects such as incompleteness, top-down information flow, active perception, attention, and sensor fusion in a…

We introduce an effective computer aided learning visual tool (CALVT) to teach graph-based applications. We present the robot motion planning problem as an example of such applications. The proposed tool can be used to simulate and/or further to implement practical systems in different areas of computer science such as graphics, computational…

An animatronic robot was designed and constructed for the 2003 Annual Student Robotic Technology and Engineering Challenge organized by the Robotics International (RI) association of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). It was also the senior capstone design project for two of the design team members. After a thorough study of body and…

Describes the development of a robot whose mainframe is essentially transparent and walks on four legs. Discusses various gaits in four-legged motion. Reports on initial trials of a full-sized model without computer-control, including smoothness of motion and actual obstacle crossing features. (CW)

Description of the field of robotics and its possible use in high school computational geometry classes emphasizes motion planning exercises and computer graphics displays. Eleven geometrical problems based on robotics are presented along with the correct solutions and explanations. (LRW)