Dewitt Latimer & Tracy Linhart

Subject #1
The Haptic Avatar: Reaching Out And Touching Information!!
Synopsis: The 3D Haptic Avatar is scale model of the PackBot Explorer that translates its movements to movements on the robot itself.  It is a vastly more efficient control interface than other manipulators, such as joysticks.

The PackBot Explorer is a field deployable robot with many uses, e.g. penetrating inaccessible and dangerous areas.

In the future, this system could maniplulate any large set of sensory data: visual, tactile, etc.

Haptic: Greek, relating to the sense of touch
Avatar: A manifestation of an entity.

avatar video #1
avatar video #2
avatar video #3
presentation slides
Subject #2
A Case Study in Acquiring Robotic Capabilities Inherently a System of Systems Activity?

An examination of a complex robotics design

•Describe the acquisition environment

•Examine the acquisition goals for a straight-forward robotic system
•Describe the system as it was developed
•Identify a root cause of the acquisition failure at the transition to operations stage
•Discuss if there are inherent system of systems aspects of straight-forward robotic systems and need to generate case studies for application of knowledge
presentation slides