Another Tiny Achievement in Robotics

Picture shows a NXT Inch Worm robot I modified.

Initially, a student asked me how it could move backwards, I had no idea as there is no clue in the book to do so neither do I ever see someone does it before. I tried repeatedly modifying the structures, it still moved forward with many tries. The student gave up and said she wanna dismantle it for it was so troublesome. I told her to leave it to me and she built another robot as she had finished the required syllabus for the Inch Worm. Again, I tried a few times, to no avail. Until I saw the rotation of gears and made me recall both gears together are rotating opposite way. With this to do the trick, I modified various parts and there it went! Backwards! The student saw it and was delighted, asking me how I did that. I explained to her.

I told a colleague who is another science frantic, 'I always have this crazy thing for robots that don't work, I will keep on trying and trying. Just like experiments that don't work, I make them work!' She smiled broadly with eyes brightened up with the expression when any mad scientist will do when met with any science stuff.

It really makes my day! And maybe the student who is in primary 2, nuptures the attitude of perservering when solving problems in science and technology.