Lughnasa Labor Day Moon
Fog this morning. Which reminds me. When we have thunderstorms here, often the lightning strikes and thunder are right on top of us. At 8,800 feet we’re at a height where cumulus clouds live. This gives the storms much more immediacy.
We went to Longmont yesterday to their municipal museum which has a hands-on robotics exhibit. In one exhibit several buttons allowed control of an animatronics robot. It had a plastic face, with titanium bars for shoulders, arms jointed at the elbows and legs with knee joints. Pressing the buttons would make the robot bow and smile, jiggle its arms, wave in a chaotic fashion. Gabe thought it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen.
Another exhibit had several robot muscles, hydraulic powered for the most part, and buttons activated the muscles. It was interesting to see the parts and imagine fitting them into a robot. At one stop you could control lights and sounds using hands and feet. At another a joystick allowed control of a disaster robot as it investigated the site of an explosion.
Both Gabe and Ruth, but especially Ruth, have built several robots using a sophisticated lego kit we bought for them for their birthdays. Yesterday there was an article about purchasing used robots from industry as newer, better robots replace older models. It seems that the age of robots for domestic use, already evident with the Roomba, may be emerging. Asimov we need you now.
