Article Journal Post 3

This article is about a robot that was built to inspect wind energy converters. These wind energy converters undergo frequent stress as they run. They must withstand strong winds, rain, erosion, and so on. Because they must endure such constant stress, these wind energy converters are often damaged. For this reason, people used to have to climb up on the wind energy converters to search for damage. However many of these damages are undetectable to the human eye. Some of these damages might be under the surface, or be minuscule cracks that cannot even be seen. In addition to this, the wind energy converters are abnormally large, as this link shows, making this process not only ineffective, but dangerous as well. After considering this, the wind inspecting robot was built. It can use an infrared conductor, an ultrasound, and a high resolution camera to detect any damage to the wind energy converters, whether or not it is “visible.” It can also be used on any wind energy converter, no matter where it is. I believe that this robot is a very good idea. Not only does it help people find things that normally would have been missed, it prevents them form having to climb up there and put themselves in danger in doing so. It fulfills one of the primary reasons we built robots in the first place-to help people do things that they would be unable to do themselves.

Wind Inspector Link

Article Journal Post 2

This article is about a robotic hand. This hand is tiny, no longer than a millimeter when it is clenched. It has 4 tiny fingers no longer than a half of a millimeter. These fingers are moved by tiny balloons that inflate or deflate. The hand is delicate enough to take a single fish egg from a pile such as this link shows. This miniature robot was designed for medical and other practical uses. Since it is so precise and gentle, it could be used in surgeries or other medical procedures. Scientists are also considering its use a bomb diffuser. I highly agree with this article. The uses of this robot are numerous and significant. This robot could be used to help and save people, making it a worthy accomplishment.
Robotic Hand Link

Movie Assessment

Major Payne’s leadership style is essentially autocratic, as described in Lewin’s leadership styles. Payne ignores all objections to his methods and does whatever he wants. An example of this in the movie is that he shaves the cadets’ heads and begins to train them despite their protests. He ignores them so much that they even begin to hate him for it. The counselor, Ms. Walburn, constantly tries to reason with him, however he ignores her at first as well. Unknown to everyone to everyone else though, was the fact that while Payne did not relent from his autocratic style, he did pay attention to everyone. This fact is shown by how he knew the background of Tiger when the counselor was talking to him. However, Payne failed to demonstrate participative leadership or situational leadership. He failed to show participative leadership because he refused to allow anyone else get involved in the leadership decisions- he just ordered them to do whatever he thought was necessary. However this lack of participative leadership also has an unexpected side affect. It gives the cadets a common enemy and forces them to work together, improving their teamwork. This shows that his lack of participative leadership is part of his own leadership style. He also failed to demonstrate situational leadership. Even though he was teaching students, he continued treat everyone as though he was still in the army. He refused to adapt to the situation. This, however, makes the cadets stronger, therefore allowing them to win the trophy. However Major Payne’s leadership style did change slightly throughout the movie. He remained autocratic throughout the movie, but he became more of a benevolent authoritative leader as described in Likert’s leadership styles. This is most likely because he grew to care more about the cadets. His leadership style was harsh but effective. He pushed the cadets as far as he could, but he motivated them, like Bass’ transformational leadership describes, and therefore leads them to win the trophy. Another leader in this movie is Cadet Alex Stone. At the beginning Stone shows more of a laissez-Faire leadership style, as described in Lewin’s leadership styles. He is the ringleader of the gang because he is charismatic, but he doesn’t really care and eh doesn’t really lead the team. However Payne puts him in charge and forces him to step up. Stone shows more of a participative leadership style. He is more open minded than Payne and he listens to the team and is close to them.

Lost at Sea

My score was 6 points lower than my team. I could have helped my team more by thinking more about how some things, even if they are listed, have no uses. I believe that our team could have come up with a better score if we had thought more about the multiple uses of many of the items. I noticed that when I looked at the coast guard rankings, they had categorized and prioritized everything. They classified every thing in a different group such as food, water, or signaling, and then decided which group of items was the most important. In this instance they decided that signaling for help was the most important, then water, then food. My group and I were focused more on the practical and immediate uses of the items and not on signaling for help. This is what hurt our group score the most. Next time we should consider not only how things can be used to survive but how they can be used to get rescued.

Article Journal Post 1

This article tells about a robotics competition that is held in Beijing, China. The competitors must program their robots to perform complex tasks, which must be done in synchronization. The robots are required to do things such as balance on one leg. This competition has become highly competitive. In recent years it has inspired the creation of other robotics competitions around the globe. I fully agree that the tasks these robots perform are difficult. As this link shows, it is a major achievement just to get a robot to walk, so having a robot balance on one leg is demanding job.

Competition Article

Leadership and Teamwork

I believe that leadership is using your skills to support and guide others in areas in which you are talented. Leadership also entails listening to others when they know more than you. Leadership is defined as a “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.” Teamwork to me means working together with others and supporting each other through our individual skills and abilities to accomplish whatever tasks come to us. Teamwork is formally defined as “the capability to comprehend and recognize the diverse strengths and abilities in a group setting and then applying them to one final solution.” Both of these definitions are quite similar to mine.

Why

I took this class because I thought that it looked interesting. I took computer programming last year and I enjoyed it a lot. In this class I was hoping to apply the programming to an actual object, to use the programming to cause something to move or change. I have also used robotics similar to this before and enjoyed it.