Our lecture on Wednesday made it really apparent that automation is revolutionizing almost every aspect of our life. All of the videos in class were really interesting and showed examples of automation. My favorite examples are considered to be in the robotics category.
We learned about the components of robotics, which include structure, power source, actuation, sensing and locomotion. My favorite example was the robot dog, which was the machine with four legs that was able to sense its surroundings and adjust to keep its balance. It was able to move up steep hills and on snow, rocks, sand and grass. The robot dog's team kicked it over and it was still able to maintain its balance. It was so life like that I felt bad for it when they kicked it, but then I reminded myself that it was only a robot. Above is a picture of the robot dog.
Another example of automation we saw was the chip in a paralyzed man's brain. The chip connected to the man's thoughts and allowed his brain to control movements. This technology is predicted to increase mobility for the those that are paralyzed greatly in the future. It reminded me of the movie Avatar, because the main character in that movie is paralyzed and is able to move through an Avatar's body. It is crazy to think that modern technology relates to science fiction movies.
