In Princeton Engineering’s new robotics lab a segmented robot snakes slowly across a table, a small-scale version of a machine that could someday automate dangerous construction tasks. The complexity and precision of the task is a formidable challenge, but the custom frame that allows engineers to test the robot safely and efficiently was an unexpected lesson in the realities of engineering, said lab manager Baffour Osei.
Engineering novices are used to seeing the final products of research and development, which can lead to “thinking that the process is a straight line,” said Osei. The robot’s aluminum frame, designed with computer science graduate students, was anything but straightforward. The team went through several iterations before the structure could evenly distribute the robot’s weight and allow it to maneuver in three dimensions.
Persistence has…
