Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am making the Stair Master: Build an All-Terrain Robot for my science fair but my teacher wants to know how it could help society. I've thought for days and can't think of nothing. I'm stressing and my teachers aren't very helpful. Could you give me some ideas please? Thank you

Hi,
Welcome to Science Buddies.
Here's a few ideas:
In the future robots might be used to assist the elderly or others with tasks. A robot that could climb stairs would be very useful in carrying heavy items up stairs or just to be able to move around a house that has multiple levels.
A robot could be used to explore a building after an earthquake or other natural disaster when it might not be safe for people to enter and climbing stairs or up and over debris will be a very useful skill for the robot.

I'm sure there are more ideas out there. You could try searching online for future uses of robots and I bet you'll find there are lots of ideas out there and many will require robots that can climb up stairs or up terrain.

Good luck with your project and post back if you have more questions.

Thank you so much this was very helpful

Hi Inderjit,

If you need some concrete examples, look up information about the use of robots after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Robots like this Packbot:

http://www.irobot.com/For-Defense-and-S ... blicSafety

are specifically designed so they can climb over rubble and obstacles or go up and down stairs. This situation is exactly what kymyers mentioned about natural disasters and places that aren't safe for humans.

You might have heard of a Roomba, which is essentially a robotic vacuum cleaner about the size of a dinner plate, that will automatically drive around picking up dirt:

http://store.irobot.com/irobot-roomba-6 ... d=13081980

however, it can't go up and down stairs. So, if you have a two-story house, you would have to manually pick up the robot and move it to the second floor when it is done with the first floor. It would be great if the robot could do that on its own.

I will make sure to check it out. Thank you very much!