The Lemelson Center’s Spark!Lab will hold live demonstrations, including robots locating objects and playing music. Robbie the Robot, an Autonomous Robotic Manipulator from DARPA, will play a game similar to Simon on his own and with a human directing his movements. Robbie was designed as a tool for researchers to find ways to enhance the types of tasks robots can perform while minimizing the amount of human input necessary.
A search-and-rescue robot designed to aid disaster victims—Survivor Buddy—that specializes in robot–human interactions will also be demonstrated. Survivor Buddy helps keep injured or trapped victims calm and enables communication directly to the rescue team as well as to family and the Internet.
Donations to the museum’s robotics collections include Sandia National Laboratories’ MARV, one of the first miniature robots developed in the United States, and a laser vision system developed for the DARPA robot vehicle races by Velodyne.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 – 9:30am
National Museum of American History
Constitution Avenue and 14th Street N.W.
Spark!Lab, first floor, west wing
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