Today was so filled with fun that I will separate it into two posts. The first thing we did after breakfast was to get involved with the Robotics session. What fun! NASA has a robot that has cameras on it so that a person, or a polar bear, can sit at a laptop computer and control the robot's functions remotely (from a distance). On the computer is a screen where you can see what the robot is “seeing” (you know that the robot doesn’t really see, at least not yet!) By using the laptop and a joystick, the person at the controls can drive the robot around and not run into anything or it can find and chase a person or an object. Since I don’t have opposable thumbs (thumbs that can grip a joystick) I sat on Dan’s shoulder to coach him. He called me a back-seat driving bear, but he did a lot better when I was coaching him!
Before we started operating the robot, it all had to be connected and inspected. Since I was the proper size for seeing all the parts, I got to perform the inspection. It was so much fun that I gave the robot a good old-fashioned Lube, Oil, and Filter treatment free of charge.
In the end, of course, I got a short ride on the robot. It was great and only got a little scary when Dan was driving without me there to coach him.
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