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Assignment 7: The Best Use of Robotics?

Archived project from a previous AutoRob semester

This page preserves a project write-up from a past offering of AutoRob (Winter 2023 and earlier, using the JavaScript/HTML5 KinEval stencil). It is kept here as a preview of past coursework and is not an active assignment in the current semester. File paths, due dates, and submission mechanics below refer to that earlier offering's KinEval-based workflow, not the current Agentic Edition pubsub infrastructure.

Slides due 11:59pm, Friday, April 14, 2023
Presentation due 4:30pm, Monday, April 17, 2023

Scenario: An investor is considering giving you 20 million dollars (cold hard USD cash, figuratively). This investor has been impressed by your work with KinEval and other accomplishments while at the University of Michigan. They are convinced you have the technical ability to make a compelling robot technology... but, they are unsure how this technology could produce something useful. Your task is to make a convincing pitch for a robotics project that would yield a high return on investment, as measured by some metric (financial profit, good for society, creation of new knowledge, etc.).

You will get 60 seconds to make a pitch to develop something useful with robots. Consider the instructor and your classmates as the people that need to be convinced. As a guideline, your pitch should address an opportunity (presented by a need or a problem), your planned result (as a system, technology, product, and/or service), and how you will measure successful return on investment. Return on investment can be viewed as financial profit (wrt. venture capital), good for society (wrt. a government program), creation of new knowledge or capabilities (wrt. a grant for scientific research). Remember, the purpose is to convince and inspire about what is possible, rather than dive into specifics.

The last scheduled class period (April 17, 4:30-7:30pm) will be dedicated to student presentations during which each student will have 60 seconds to make their pitch to the rest of class.

Please insert your finalized presentation slides in the Best Use of Robotics Google Slides presentation before 11:59pm on Wednesday April 13th. A link to this Google Slides presentation will be provided via the course Slack workspace on the "#asgn7-best-use" channel. Your first slide must include the title of your presentation, your name, and your U-M Michigan unique name.

The pitch judged to be the most convincing will get first dibs.