People always were, are and will see first with an expectation. The main reason for this is that not all of us has a required experience to make realistic prognoses. However most of the people do not want realistic, dream world always looks better than the real one. In dreams we can complete any work without required knowledge, we can get anything without putting enough effort to it. Unfortunately seeing with expectation will not help to resolve any issue while experience is the knowledge that you can rely on in any difficult situation.
I never imagined how much work is required to design a robot. There are many parts to a robot: different size gears, motors, multiple size pieces, nuts, bolts, wheels, and programming engine. My first attempt to build a robot was frustrating and exhausting. It took me three hours to assemble its parts. I have realized that, designing a robot is not a simple process of purchasing mechanical parts and composing them to form of a robot. It requires many steps: design, construction, and of course programming. At first it seems like fun and exciting thing to do, however, as I find out later; my expectation was too optimistic. Soon I realized that, building a robot requires hard work, concentration, plenty of time and great deal of patience.
At first I tried to research what are the key points of successful robot building. In the article "Let's Rock and Robot!" a student states that: "large group collaboration is a very valuable life lesson". He implies that the process of communicating and working as a team is more important than building a robot. Each person can share the roles for designing the robot. One person can be a designer another a constructor, and a last person can be a programmer. The team is efficient if each person can do a favorable part for the design. If there are many people in a group, they can collaborate with each other to design their robot. "It's really not about building this robot," he explains. "It's about them learning to communicate and work as team." I agree with the student that collaboration is important in building a robot. That is why I started with choosing a good team for this project. (Marono 2014)
Initially, I expected to split the workloads with my friends. Sam was good at programming while Mike was better with drawing design, and I had some experience in constructing. However, I was assigned to work with another person rather than with my friends. As a result, I was forced to do complete programming and designing as well as constructing, as my partner refused to split our chores. So I was left all alone I the very beginning of this project. I did not have faith in my robot as my programming and designing skills was not efficient enough for such assignment. Unfortunately, my expectations turned out to be different from the experience of reality.
In his essay, "The Loss of the Creature" Walker Percy uses the Grand Canyon to show that expectations give false perceptions. The Grand Canyon was found by García López de Cárdenas, and we assumed he was astonished. Government set the place aside as a national park "hoping to pass along to millions the experience of Cárdenas." The intention was positive: to change the Grand Canyon to a national park in order to allow people to feel the same feelings as Cárdenas. However, seeing the Grand Canyon through picture postcards, geography book, and tourist folders are not the same as seeing it in person. They create false expectations for people for viewing the Grand Canyon. Percy believes that people can truly appreciate the Grand Canyon only by seeing it in person. Percy talks about a family who sees the Grand Canyon alone, and boasts: "We had the whole place to ourselves". The family has a different experience when it sees the Grand Canyon without other tourists. Percy calls this state "zoning" as the family is able to see the value of Grand Canyon that differs from the tourist experience and similar to the way Cárdenas saw it. Percy's goal is to tell people that they need to experience the sight of the Grand Canyon before they truly see its value. (1975)
Percy is not the only person who has this interpretation of first sight. In her essay," Seeing," Annie Dillard states that "Some do learn to see, especially the young ones. But it changes their lives"(1974). In the context, she refers to young blind people who undergo surgery to restore their sight. A twenty-two year old girl is dazzled by the world's brightness and keeps her eyes shut for two weeks after the surgery. However, she opens her eyes again and " the more she now directs her gaze upon everything about her, the more it is could be seen how an expression of gratification and astonishment overspreads her features" She has many feelings to what she sees because she has no expectation for seeing. (Dillard 1974) It is true that blind people do experience a change in their lives by seeing. However, doesn't this apply to anyone? Aren't people blind when it comes to seeing with expectations rather than with experiences? Expectation seeing doesn't give foundation beneath it and usually leads to disappointment. It is seeing through experiences that allow a person to achieve a goal.
My own experience showed how tough designing a robot is. Besides not having good partners, I had a hard time with the processes for building a robot. Although it was not necessary to draw a detailed blueprint of the robot, I still found it difficult. I never took drawing classes before, so it was not preferable for me to draw the design. Also, it was required for me to label the design in order to show different parts of it. After drawing the design, I had to follow instructions to construct my robot. Each part of the robot has a different shape. The front consisted of one wheel loosely attached to the body of the robot. While the back design, consisted of two wheels that propels the robot with the design of gears. The body was built with the electronic square engine, which follows the directions of the upload programming files in order to direct the robot. After the construction of the robot, I had to write a program to run it. Programming was the hardest part for me as I never had any experience in it. On the final state, I needed to test my robot. I was afraid that, in case of failure, I would have to modify the design or reconstructed it. This experience taught me that designing a robot is challenging, time and effort consuming process.
My experience is not the only evidence to show how tough the process of designing a robot is. On the website, "Robotics", there is a detailed list of information about the Robotics Design Process. Defining the problem, Researching and Designing, Creating a Prototype, Building your Robot, Programming and Testing your Robot, and Evaluating your Robot are all parts of the design process. Defining the problem helps to determine the purpose of making a robot. Researching and Designing uses the fact that it is important to gather information before drawing the design. Creating a Prototype allows the person to make a copy on the computer for testing before construction. Building the Robot is the next step after testing it on the computer. After constructing the robot, it is time to program and test the robot. In the end, it is necessary to evaluate the robot for modifications. The robot is never perfect, so it is necessary to modify it and do these procedures again. These are the official steps used for robotic design in the career. This website was a great aced to my project as all instructions were based on experience of other people, who were proficient in this subject. (Robotics “Robotics Design Process”)
There is nothing wrong about seeing with expectations, however, only experience can provide a whole picture and give an opportunity to estimate your chances for success. I would recommend people to experience "zoning" and not only for designing a robot but before in everyday situations. To my minds such activities are very useful and eventually they will lead to experience reflecting on their opinions. Modern people need to see through the whole process; Nobody would trust person's judgment on the subject without a certain experience in this field. Person can only imagine how some work supposed to be done theoretically, however; only experience can give realistic vision on this problem. It is easy to say that the Grand Canyon is beautiful, but what aspect of it makes it beautiful is a hard to answer. It is easy to say that designing robot is a fun process, but how much work is needed to build a robot? Experiences contribute to awareness.
Watching and experiencing the process of design the robot helped me understand my duties in my future career. The process of designing the robot is challenge, however, it provides for me feeling of accomplishment. As long as the robot can follow the program, I can say that my time and effort are rewarded. I also gained knowledge and techniques that can be applied in my future career. Although some projects may fail in the end, I still can use that visual experience to improve upon the next design. As an engineer, I have to accept every failure and continue to improve through experience that I gain with each work. However when I do see my completed design, I feel proud of myself. Seeing with experience will contribute more to designing robot than seeing with expectations. Engineers envision their work as a product of experiences.
Work cited
Marono, Lucian. “Let's rock and robot! Game time draws near for BHS’s first ever Robotics Club”. Bainbridge Island Review., 16 Feb. 2004 Web. 25 Feb. 2014 <http://www.bainbridgereview.com/news/245756691.html >
Percy, Walker. "The Loss of the Creature". The Message in the Bottle. New York: Picador, 1975.
Dillard, Annie. “Seeing” Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. HarperPerennial, 1974.
Robotics. “Robotics Design Process”. Web. 25 Feb. 2014 <www.galileo.org/robotics/design.html>.
