{"83891":{"#nid":"83891","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tech Students Build Robotic Hand as Sign Language Learning Tool","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDamien Gaudry never took a course in sign language, but that didn\u0027t stop him from wanting to build an instructional tool that could lend a hand to children who want to learn.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EGaudry and two other Georgia Tech graduate students - Cindy Perreira and Russell Marzette - built an 18-inch tall robotic hand that could eventually sign the 26 letters of the English alphabet.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We wanted to develop an interactive and fun device to teach children sign language, whether they are hearing impaired or not,\u0022 Gaudry said. \u0022We thought it would help them to visually see the signs rather than having to look at them in books.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe students worked on the project for two months this year as their final project in a graduate-level introductory course on \u0022mechatronics\u0022 - an emerging technique in engineering that deals with the study of integration of familiar mechanical systems and components with new electronic components and intelligence-based software.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EStudents enrolled in the course, offered in Georgia Tech\u0027s School of Mechanical Engineering, must design, build and present a mechatronic innovation that fuses mechanics, electronics and information technology. In the class, students are taught to engineer for complete \u0022smart product\u0022 development for the market.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAlthough the robotic hand project has a long way to go to market, the students have accomplished much so far. During their project presentation to the class in April, the students explained they were able to program the hand to make nine different symbols: the letters \u0022A\u0022 to \u0022D,\u0022 and numbers one to five. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThat\u0027s no small feat, considering the engineering involved in building a giant hand that signs.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I think the most difficult part was integrating electrical components and computer-based systems into one mechanical system,\u0022 said Marzette, one of the three members on the team.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Getting the electronics to work together properly was a challenge,\u0022 said Gaudry, who hopes the team can find time to take the project further. \u0022Fifteen stepper motors are built in to control the hand and each motor has its own circuitry.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWith fingers made from soldered brass tubing and rods, and strung together by cables connected to a series of small motors, the robotic hand is surprisingly agile. It takes about five seconds to sign a letter.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe hand rests on a microprocessor unit that controls the motion and all the circuitry to power the motors. The unit includes an LCD panel and a series of switches that allows the user to enter the letter or number they would like the hand to display.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EGaudry scrolls through the letters and numbers and selects the letter \u0022C.\u0022 Once selected, the motors begin to wind up the cables in the fingers, bending the joints until the hand produces the symbol, similar to the way a mechanical puppet might be manipulated. After the letter is signed, rubber bands connected to the back of each finger return the hand to the starting open position.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe team members said they entered the class knowing very little about electronics and microprocessor control, but learned more than they imagined. \u0022The class is time consuming, since you have to put in a lot of your own time outside of the lecture portion,\u0022 Gaudry said.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe robotic hand is just one interesting invention to come out of the mechatronics courses. Other notable inventions have been the self-playing guitar that actually takes requests, a machine similar to an ATM that dispenses money called the \u0022CA$H-o-MATIC,\u0022 and the automatic card dealer, a machine that deals cards and plays along with human players.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The mechatronic engineering techniques used in this project are representative of the approach that\u0027s used today to design devices and systems that possess a degree of computer-based intelligence,\u0022 said Georgia Tech Professor Charles Ume, who teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in mechatronics. \u0022We expect to see the integration of mechanics, electronics and computing - mechatronics engineering - increase rapidly in the near future due to consumer demands for smart products and intelligent machines.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech\u0027s state-of-the-art Mechatronics Laboratory, which supports these classes, was built with a grant form the U.S. National Science Foundation, a matching fund from Georgia Tech, and financial and equipment support from Siemens.\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Damien Gaudry never took a course in sign language, but that didn\u0027t stop him from wanting to build an instructional tool that could lend a hand to children who want to learn. Gaudry and two other Georgia Tech graduate students - Cindy Perreira and Russell Marzette - built an 18-inch tall robotic hand that could eventually sign the 26 letters of the English alphabet.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2003-07-29 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:02:06","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2003-07-22T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2003-07-22T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"83901":{"id":"83901","type":"image","title":"Feature Story","body":null,"created":"1449178095","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:28:15","changed":"1475894704","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:04"}},"media_ids":["83901"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.me.gatech.edu\/","title":"George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.me.gatech.edu\/mechatronics_lab\/","title":"Mechatronics Laboratory"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003ELisa Grovenstein\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications \u0026amp; Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=lgrovenste3\u0022\u003EContact Lisa Grovenstein\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-8835\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["lisa.grovenstein@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}