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South Point Elementary Mrs. Christian 4th Grade Do Robots Think?
I got the idea when I was taking a LEGO Robotics course at Marshall University. I wondered why my robot I had built wouldn't reach its destination. My teacher, Linda Hamilton, suggested light sensors to make it follow the latitude and longitude lines, and it worked! When I started my project, I knew that robots couldn't think logically, but I didn't know if they could think or not with help from human intelligence. I asked Linda Hamilton if I could spend some time with her to study this. I went to her house and started working on a robot for my science project. After a few attempts, the robot you see is the final result. Then, I started to work on a series of commands to make the robot do simple tasks with help from a light sensor. The commands were not successful. Mrs. Hamilton suggested that I read the robots data to find out where the problem was. Apparently, the robot needed to learn the difference between light and dark. If you review the data log from the robots memory marked "where" you will see how the robot sees light and dark. The robot only reads numbers, therefore "light" to a robot is #52 (white paper), and "dark" is #40 (electrical tape). Once the robot recognized the difference between the two, I experimented with a better program, and the position of the light sensor on the robot. In my program, I made the light sensor follow the line between light and dark (paper for light, and electricians tape for dark) and the robot followed the line between the two areas. The program allowed the robot to go from side to side, appearing as if it were following the tape. However, the robot came off the tape in a tight turn, and with the data I made it have, it searched for the tape and stopped. Later, I looked on Mrs. Hamilton's computer and checked out the results. It appeared that the robot could think using the data I gave it in the program. However, the robot could not think for itself without help from an outside source or special programming. The robot could not problem solve what to do when it came to a difficult area, it would only continue to follow the original program I gave it. In conclusion, robots cannot think for themselves.
In some situations, they may "appear" to think, such as my robot following
the black tape line. But, my robot was not thinking alone. Robots use data
to simulate logic. The more complicated the data is, the better the robot
will perform. The better the programming is. . . ..the better the robot
may "appear" to think.
Acknowledgments:
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