• Question: What do you program robots to do? And are they fun to work with?

    Asked by Jessica109 to Ted on 4 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Ted Burke

      Ted Burke answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      Second question first: Yes, they’re a lot of fun to work with! I suppose there are some people who aren’t interested in robots – and that’s fair enough – but if you think you might be interested in working in robotics, then I think you’d definitely enjoy it. This is a great time to be working on robotics too because they’re still inventing new things that could revolutionize how robots become part of our daily lives.

      I mostly program robots to do quite simple things – here’s a few examples:

      1. Navigate around a room using lines or markings on the ground.
      2. Control a solar panel to always keep it pointed at the sun for maximum energy efficiency.
      3. Allow a robot to be controlled by sounds or by remote control from a phone app.
      4. Allow a robot to interact with other robots to coordinate their movements with each other.
      5. Detect objects and avoid colliding with them.

      Lots of other things!

Comments

  • Photo: Jessica109

    Jessica109 commented on :

    Ted your job sounds like a lot of fun! But also might be hard!
    I am interested in robotics so I would enjoy your job!

    • Photo: Ted

      Ted commented on :

      Hi Jessica. Yes, it’s A LOT of fun – I look forward to every day in work. If you think the work sounds difficult, don’t be put off – you’d be well able for it! A lot of people think it sounds really complicated, but just like anything else that’s interesting to work on, robotics looks intimidating at first but once you actually get some experience it becomes much clearer how to do it and a lot less frightening. Most of my students in first year engineering here in TU Dublin have never written a computer program or built a robot before, but within a few weeks they have learned to build a basic robot and control its movement. Lots of them tell me that they never imagined they would be able to do it, but that once they had their robot working it all seems much simpler than they expected. So if you’re interested, don’t be afraid – just go for it!