'U' Students Design And Build Homemade Robots On The Cheap
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The University of Minnesota was like a science fiction film Tuesday, with some pretty brainy engineers to back it up.
More than 200 robotic machines were on display today for the university's robot show. It's the largest collection of robots assembled in one place in the Twin Cities, and it had quite a range of machines -- a knot-tying robot, a clothes-folding robot and a candy-sorting robot, just to name a few.
Engineering students built the machines as part of a class assignment.
"This is their first engineering class, and within a few weeks of the class I tell them that they have to design and build a robot that does something interesting and useful for under $50," mechanical engineering professor Tim Kowalewski said. "It's actually a really hard problem."
The robots were required to act for no more than one minute and have at least one moving part.