{"251241":{"#nid":"251241","#data":{"type":"news","title":"6 Questions with Robosaur Walks Researcher Mark Kingsbury","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThough we don\u0027t see dinosaurs walking among us, Mark Kingsbury is building something that will give him insight into that experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKingsbury, a doctoral candidate in physics and researcher in the Complex Rheology and Biomechanics (CRAB) Lab at Georgia Tech, is working with Associate Professor Daniel Goldman and Stephen Gatesy at Brown University to build a \u201cRobosaur.\u201d The idea is to study how dinosaurs walked, with the goal of using the secrets of the past to enhance the future. Their project is up for funding on Georgia Tech Starter, a new peer-reviewed crowd-funding website.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat is the Robosaur? What are you trying to do with it?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Robosaur is a mobile robot that lets us study how dinosaurs walked. We\u2019re building this robotic model to be able to analyze how dinosaurs walked from a simple perspective. We have a lot of information about their tracks, but don\u0027t yet have a technique for unearthing the information buried within the tracks. (That\u0027s where the Robosaur comes in.)\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhy do we want to know how dinosaurs walked?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUnderstanding how they moved can help us build better robots and improve how they move in different terrain. For example, in the Fukoshima nuclear disaster, we couldn\u2019t send humans into some rescue efforts because it was too dangerous. Robots that can navigate that kind of complex terrain could help with search and rescue or recovery efforts in these kinds of environments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat material do you use to study how the Robosaur walks?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe use poppy seeds. They behave similarly to natural sand or other terrain, and it\u2019s a nice, light material that\u2019s kind to robots \u2014 if the seeds get into the gears, they won\u2019t be harmful like sand or glass could.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EIs the Robosaur modeled after a specific dinosaur?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u0027s actually modeled after a bird, the guinea fowl, which serves as a good model in place of an actual dinosaur.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat do you hope to see robots be able to do in your lifetime?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI\u2019m interested in advancing robotics in how they interface with humans. For example, when someone who lost a limb could get an prosthetic part to replace what was lost. I think that\u2019s something that\u2019s achievable.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\u2019s special about fundraising through Starter?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s another source of funding at a time when you need a diverse portfolio, but it also lets people invest directly in science. It lets researchers reach out directly to people, who can become a part of science and become more science-literate, which can only lead to good things. The highest level of funding on Starter even gets you invited to our lab to help do some research with us.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Robosaur Walks project is one of the first projects up for funding on Georgia Tech Starter.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Robosaur Walks project is one of the first projects up for funding on Georgia Tech Starter."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2013-11-05 10:01:39","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:15:18","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-11-12T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2013-11-12T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"251221":{"id":"251221","type":"image","title":"Robosaur Research Team","body":null,"created":"1449243813","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:43:33","changed":"1475894931","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:51","alt":"Robosaur Research Team","file":{"fid":"198113","name":"cimg0126.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/cimg0126_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/cimg0126_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":4455154,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/cimg0126_0.jpg?itok=iZOnNQjX"}},"251231":{"id":"251231","type":"image","title":"Robosaur Walks","body":null,"created":"1449243813","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:43:33","changed":"1475894931","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:51","alt":"Robosaur Walks","file":{"fid":"198114","name":"img_0478.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/img_0478_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/img_0478_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":6963508,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/img_0478_0.jpg?itok=yJOZ2NAj"}}},"media_ids":["251221","251231"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/starter.gatech.edu\/#91","title":"Robosaur on Georgia Tech Starter"},{"url":"https:\/\/starter.gatech.edu\/","title":"Georgia Tech Starter"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"8963","name":"biomechanics"},{"id":"66201","name":"Georgia Tech Starter"},{"id":"79051","name":"Robosaur"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:mkingsbury3@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EMark Kingsbury\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ERobosaur Walks\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kristen.bailey@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EKristen Bailey\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EInstitute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}