Engineering students design RoboWaiter to assist disabled people

From The Grand Rapids Press in Michigan:

GRAND RAPIDS -- The 30-centimeter cube of gadgets motored toward a shelf and lowered its arms to grab a plate, then wheeled around, spied a table with its camera eye, maneuvered past a pizza box and delivered dinner.

Not a bad day's work for "James Bot," (pictured) and a nice finish to a semester project for a class of first-year engineering students at Grand Valley State University.

Their robot took first place this month at a contest in Hartford, Conn. But don't call it beginner's luck, because the final product was far from where they started.

"This is about the third try of making these parts," said Tyler Dickinson, 19, of White Cloud, showing off the robot's arms. "It really paid off to be able to go to the competition and see it work."

Matthew Steffes, 18, stepped in to explain the robot's lift mechanism: "That's about the seventh design," the Hopkins native said.

Then Grand Rapids Catholic Central alum Kurt O'Hern, 19, summed up construction: "I don't want to say it's guess and check, but it's come up with an idea and test it a lot. I guess that's the engineering and design process in a nutshell."

James Bot was the work of a class in product innovation and manufacturing. Students designed it, programmed it, milled parts, installed infrared sensors and spent some late nights fine-tuning it in a practice kitchen under a stairwell in the engineering building.

It weighs eight pounds and cost about $500 to build.

"It's all very much a real-life-what-happens, especially when you're out there on the manufacturing floor and something goes wrong," Professor Chris Pung said. "I leave it up to them to make the mistakes and learn."

The school paid for six students to take part in an inaugural RoboWaiter competition sponsored by the Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities on April 4 and 5 at Trinity College. Robots had to find their way around a kitchen and bring a meal to a disabled person sitting at a table.

GVSU took top honors for the robot and a poster explaining the design process, winning $400 for the engineering department.

"A robot really incorporates every kind of engineering," said Kyler Kamyszek, 19. "It's mechanical, it's electrical, it's computer programming. It's a good learning tool."

While at Grandville High School, he took part in the annual FIRST Robotics contest that this week has seven area teams competing in the world finals in Atlanta. For almost all the other GVSU students, RoboWaiter was their first foray into engineering.

"It really helped me just to be able to try different things," said the team's lone female, 19-year-old Lauren Leemhuis of Rochester Hills, whose older brothers are engineers.

"You actually get to see a practical use for it and how it can help people and that's really exciting."