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To Kevin, Levi, Logan, Skylar, and Ms. Betke:

is an interestingly shaped robot. It is unique among the designs, but it
is actually similar to a design we had considered for our robot. I'll tell
you some of the problems we ran into, and then maybe you can figure out a
way to solve them.

From the sides of the design that I can see (talk to Drew, Adam, and
Dawson about the other different views you might make), it seems that you
have only one or two propellers and that they are both on the back of the

The other issue that our design and your design both have is screen size.
By putting the screen on the side, you leave room on top for sensors, but
the screen can't display very much information. Do you have a plan for how
the robot will communicate with the astronauts? What if the
KevinryangallerskylarmychalsfillwagonlevidavismawhirerloganstewartsellersBot needs to convey large amounts of information, like diagrams or lists of

There are a number of parts of your robot of which I am quite fond. The
Celeron processor is low-power, which means it won't drain your power
reserves very quickly. However, it isn't clear from your description where
gets its power. Is it from batteries? Does it plug in? If it plugs in, how
does it move around? If it is from batteries, what does
do when they run out? It has sensors on three sides, which means it is
unlikely to hit anything, but it doesn't have any on the bottom. With the
camera looking straight ahead, how will the arms know what they are
grasping? Each arm has an "elbow" and a "wrist." Can the arms grasp things
together? Are there things that
can't do because of the number of arms, their positions, or the number of
joints? Have you considered other types of joints (think about your hips,
shoulders, wrists, and ankles, for example)? Are there advantages or
disadvantages to having more or less joints?

really understand it. I look forward to seeing the next version of the
also known as the Peppered Salmon.

-- Salvatore Domenick Desiano
Research Scientist


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