Creativity and Machine Design Essay -- Technology Robots Papers

Creativity and Machine Design Robots and machines have become very prevalent within recent years. We use robots to assemble cars, explore dangerous areas, and even as servants to clean our houses. In the future, we might even see robots help in delicate complex tasks like performing surgery. Many people think that the process that goes behind designing a robot is unimaginative, involving a lot of dull equations and assembly lines. In reality, the design process can be very creative. While the process behind designing a machine is creative, it should be noted though that eventually engineers were going to design robots to perform these tasks. Leonardo Da Vinci sketched early ideas for a helicopter in the thirteenth century, which only became a reality in twentieth century. Robotic maids that can clean the house was a futuristic idea that was seen in the 1960's cartoon "The Jetsons", but the idea of having a robot vacuum the floor has only became popular in the last year or so with iRobot's Roomba. Once engineers found the way to control their machines through the use of microcontrollers and programming, the cost effectiveness and precision of machines enabled them to be used in a wide variety of tasks. Although the ideas for the next tasks for machines may not be creative, the process that goes into developing that machine is a creative process. One of the most popular vacuum cleaners at this time is iRobot's Roomba. The creative engineering behind the Roomba enables the robot to much less expensive when compared to other robotic vacuums of the same size. Most of the other robots use a complex set of sensors and integrated programming to navigate across a floor. The Roomba on the other hand uses a creative and inexpen... ...ecause the ideas of others can stifle and interfere with their own ideas, losing a potentially important idea. The first thing to do when attacking a design problem is to get all the necessary information. If this is not possible, the creative engineer will perform an experiment to find the necessary information. Bibliography Brooks, Rodney. "Artificial life: From Robot Dreams to Reality". Nature 406 (2000): 945-947. Retrieved May 10, 2004, from www.nature.com Hanson, T. F. Engineering Creativity. Newhall, CA: 1987. Osborn, Alex F. Applied Imagination. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1957. Sheehan, John C. "On Applied Science". The Creative Mind and Method. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1960. pp. 95-97. Singer, Irving. Feeling and Imagination: The Vibrant Flux of Our Existence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2001.