Author Topic: First Lego League Robotics 2018 - Project Isolation in Space  (Read 1129 times)

Offline Xspace

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Hello All, We are a team of 5th graders participating in FLL's 2018 robotics tournament. The topic this year is "Into Orbit" and we voted on our space related problem/solution to be "Isolation in Space".
Since astronauts spend long periods of time away from family and friends, they can feel isolated and depressed. This could affect the mission they are on and could lead to the mission being aborted and money wasted.
There are currently robots (Goldie) in space, however, they are not too helpful to astronauts when they feel lonely and sad.
Our solution is to train the robot for ~ 6-12 months before sending it to space with the astronaut. The robot would be trained in the astronauts home and would learn of the things the astronaut likes and makes him/her feel happy.
Could you please give suggestions on our idea? Do you think astronauts would like it?
Thank you!

Offline wilbobaggins

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Hi,
I might be wrong but I think there are a list of missions you can build a robot to attempt;

https://www.first-lego-league.org/en/season/robot-game/missions.html

I don't think coming up with your own mission was part of the challenge.

You have come to the right place for spaceflight questions though!

Offline Xspace

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To clarify, there are 3 sections that are judged in the tournament:
1) Robot game
2) Project/Presentation
3) Core Values.
As part of #2 above (Project /Presentation) our solution was to train a robot to help overcome astronauts' isolation while in space.

Offline Slarty1080

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Astronauts may well feel isolated in space, but this would probably be one of the lesser concerns compared to radiation, zero gravity, equipment failure and hazards on the surface of Mars. They will not be totally isolated in the way that polar explorers were in times past, they will be with other people they know on board, they will be well fed and they will have a busy schedule of tasks. They will also be able to communicate with family and friends, but with a delay of a few 10’s of minutes.

Nevertheless it will be a real issue and some form of robot or automated assistant might help.
Friends and family could provide things that could be managed by the robot. A regular diary style update on what had been going on at home with text, pictures and video would be useful, but also other content. Things that are surprising, amazing or just different could be provided. For example video content that family have chosen for the astronaut, the latest block buster (or old film) that they think he/she would like, uncle Bobs funny ski incident or some wow! Video e.g.   :o

Perhaps two astronaut’s families could meet up at an event that was filmed. With 4 crew that would give 6 different combinations of families (family a + family b picnic at angels landing? … etc). Knowing the person’s sense of humour would be useful as the right sort of jokes at the right moment could be very beneficial, especially if the joke content was topical. (News feed coming in about famous woman having a baby at 40 years old … - joke later: at 40 is it still OK to have children? Answer no. 40 children is enough already.  ;D Other examples of surprises – food prepared by family members (some items will keep for many months or more).

So the robot could have a role in timing when some of these things were presented and in managing the downloading of supplied content.

It would be important to ensure that astronauts have some private space that they can retreat into. They might not necessarily want all other crew members to know that their partner’s pet name was chubbykins (for example >:( ). They might not care but this can’t be assumed so the robot would have to be discrete.

It would also be important not to be patronising. The astronaut’s will be a smart bunch, will be aware of what the robot is there for and in general how it is programmed. So they will need to be in control of the situation. Some may not want it at all or might want to organise the robot and its content rather than the other way round.

Finally it would also be necessary to carefully monitor any automated content provided by the robot (not private content provided by the family and friends – this should obviously not be monitored!) as some automated content might not be appropriate in some conditions. You might not want a funny story told about a fellow astronaut if they had died on Mars  :-X.
My optimistic hope is that it will become cool to really think about things... rather than just doing reactive bullsh*t based on no knowledge (Brian Cox)

Tags: FLL Isolation 
 

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