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Our goal … develop a
robot car able to
navigate a course
around the
campus.
Sean Cooke
Mesa, Arizona,
attended schools in Saudi Arabia,
China, and Bangladesh
Mathematics, Computer Science
Through summer research at Mac, I
learned more about applied mathematics
and computer science while developing
programs in robotics. Robotics has applications
that impact the lives of everyone.
Assembly line machines, assisted living
robots, autonomous vacuum cleaners, and
cars that parallel park themselves all use
techniques that we study in robotics.
Many courses at Mac allow you to work
on real-world problems of your own interest.
My work began as a final class project
in a computer science topics course in
robotics. Students brought their individual
strengths to the work, each taking responsibility
for a piece of the final project. The
goal was to develop an autonomous robot
car able to navigate a course around the
Macalester campus. We built it from a
Power Wheels Jeep powered by a 12-volt
battery, and directed by various kinds of
software.
For summer research, Professor Susan
Fox and I chose to continue the development
begun in the robotics course, with
an emphasis on the part that I personally
worked on: image processing. Equipped
with a simple webcam, the Jeep uses color
tracking techniques we developed specifically
for this project to identify colored
signs, road cones, and the path ahead. It
then uses the information to determine
where it can safely drive.
This research certainly was a challenge and
I had to call upon knowledge from many
previous computer science and mathematics
classes. It gave me great experience
working in the field and solving problems.
And it brought me deeper into the complex
world of robotics.
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