STEAM Fast Fact Getting into the Field Some jobs have straightforward paths Doctors study medicine Lawyers study law But there are several routes you can take to get into robotics You could study mechanical engineering computer science biotechnology electronics manufacturing or cognitive science to name just a few Around 1500 artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci made sketches of fl ying machines based on his studies of birds and bats Scientists studied insects called water striders to develop robots that can jump on water 7
Biology engineering and computer science experts at Harvard University used termites as inspiration for their TERMES project Biologists studied how termite colonies build mounds many times larger than themselves Engineers chose the materials and motors that made up the miniature robots Computer scientists wrote the code that allows the robots to manipulate blocks to build towers castles and pyramids Termite mounds can reach heights of 40 feet 12 meters or more 8
In the near future robots like the TERMES could build walls with bags of sand to prevent fl ooding Termites don’t follow instructions or discuss their actions with other termites Likewise the TERMES robots are programmed to simply react to a changing environment to accomplish a task Robots like these could build structures in a disaster area too dangerous for humans or even on another planet Different numbers of robots can build the same structure Using a smaller number of robots just increases the time it takes to fi nish the task 9
