Episode 03

Leading up the to the long weekend, this past week felt way longer than usual; still, I think I was productive while still having time to do things on the more fun side. For ISM, I’m continuing my research on the utilization of low-cost robotic arms in assistive robotics. This week, I read a few different papers about the topic: what really stood out to me was how researchers were able to take relatively generalized robotic designs, like a commercial, off-the-shelf arm, and then apply it to niche problems that may not have the breadth to warrant a completely unique design. This taught me two things: first, software is something I really need to focus in on, in most of the projects I saw, they were driven by really cool CV pipelines or RL policies, not necessarily the mechanical design. Second, for the mechanical design, it might be beneficial for me to create something generalized and modular, that way I can rapidly iterate it solve a variety of problems.

Now, for a quick update on the soccer team: this week, we secured our first win in penalties after a drawn out game. I’m looking forward to the next game!