August 10, 2006 5:05 p.m. EST
Julie Farby - All Headline News Staff Writer
Gainesville, FL (AHN)-It may look like almost any other
shopping cart, but Gregory Garcia's robotic invention, known
as B.O.S.S. for Battery Operated Smart Servant, is not your
average cart. Sensors allow it to follow the shopper around
the supermarket and slow down when needed so items can be
placed in it, and it never crashes into anyone's heels.
His cart was one of about 30 robots on display Wednesday by
students at the University of Florida, who worked the past
semester on the projects using their engineering backgrounds.
Garcia tells the AP, "The immediate thing that jumped to my
mind was all those times as a kid when my sister would
accidentally hit me with a cart," adding that, "It seems like
the public would really want this since everybody shops."
Students were given free rein in deciding the type of robot
to construct, with robots ranging from a poker robot that
deals cards to poker players to a robotic invention that tells
color blind people the color of a traffic light.
The student-built submarine called the SubjuGator 5 has won
first place for two years in a row in competition with other
universities. The robot is a clear tube about two feet long,
with cameras and sensors to follow a simulated pipeline and
send back pictures to people on land or in boats.
University of Florida students have been building
autonomous mobile robots since 1993 ranging from submarines to
helicopters, from planes to snakes, and from hydrofoils to
alligators. Most of the students showing robots were seniors
in engineering or graduate students.