How to make one of those iPad telepresence robots? Magnets! – Concord Monitor

Ive been helping the local high schools FIRST Robotics team for a decade, although not technically theyve got real engineers. I write and put together the kids parody musical as part of their fund-raising night, and they are much better than youre thinking right now.

COVID-19 has, of course, upended the whole program, which has gone global since Dean Kamen started it in a New Hampshire gym in 1992, and Im not sure whats happening this year. Very sad: Tons of geeky kids itching to get their hands on gears, belts, wheels and software are stranded!

So I enjoyed a story in the Valley News (read it here) about a local FIRST Robotics team helping doctors make telepresence robots for patients. The idea is pretty simple: Put an iPad with camera at eye level atop a tall stick and have it drive around on a remote-controlled stand. Lots of them exist in various forms, and the pandemic has boosted their use.

But the devils in the details, such as how to attach things.

One of my students came up with the idea to use magnets, said James Cole-Henry, a mechanical engineer at Lebanon-based Fujifilm Dimatix who is also head coach for the Grasshoppers, the FIRST robotics team at the Hartford Area Career Technical Center. I was a little embarrassed. At work Im like Mr. Magnet.

But wait, you say, wouldnt a magnet mess up the iPad? Youll have to read the story to see the answer.

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How to make one of those iPad telepresence robots? Magnets! - Concord Monitor