Academic and Education Goals to Be a Robotic Engineer

Robotic engineer is a roll that people have a vague concept of what they are, what they do. Robotic engineering is the most little known branch in engineering, in most cases not even represented with the other types of engineer. Robotic engineering is a combination of mechanical and electrical engineering, to make an engineer that creates concepts and ideas for robots knowing how both sides of it works. Robotic engineers, depending on the project, will either be working hands on or hands off with the build of the robot. Most robotic engineers work in teams to design and build robots that help and assist people. Robotic engineers work in many areas such as the military, factories, medical and hospitals. Robotic Engineers are important and have an impact in everyday life. They make new innovative technology everyday to help people with everyday tasks.Their job responsibilities are in research, coding, designing, assembly and testing of robotic components. Robotic engineers according to sokanu.com “earn an average yearly salary of $98,830. Salaries typically start from $51,633 and go up to $154,725.”(sokanu). Normal education requirements for a robotic engineer according to sokanu.com is that “65% of Robotics Engineers have a bachelor's degree. 25% of Robotics Engineers have an associate's degree.” (sokanu). According to sokanu.com, robotic engineers have training in “general training in pneumatics and hydraulics, numerically controlled systems, CADD/CAM systems, integrated systems, logic, and microprocessors.” (sokanu). 

My education goals start with working towards a bachelor degree in either mechanical, computer, electrical or mathematical fields as any or all can be beneficial to becoming a robotics engineer. My second education goal is to get certifications in robotics and a few other certifications to help me get a job as robotic engineer. Since it takes time to become a robotics engineer with a lot of time spent on schooling, I have a third education goal that is unrelated to robotics itself. I want to get a license for a job I can work at and help to support myself while I work on my degree. There is a lot of robotics work done in Japan and so I have a fourth education goal to learn Japanese. I want to be able to have the opportunity to work alongside some of the robotics engineers and advancements that are being done in Japan right now with all of the efforts in funding in robotics. It may be the smallest of my education goals, but my fifth education goal is to learn how to work a 3d printer. I have several professional goals some I hope to accomplish sooner in order to help me accomplish the rest. My first professional goal is get a female three piece suit. 

I want to present myself in a business manner with my best foot forward. One of my greatest professional goals is to one day have a position working for a company in Japan. Japan has many humanoid robotics projects. A professional goal of mine is to work on a humanoid robot project like Valkyrie or one of the many humanoid projects they have in Japan. Not all entry level positions include good benefits, so a professional goal of mine is obtain a position in a company that has good benefits like medical insurance, dental, eyewear, life insurance, disability insurance, and retirement plans. All professional goals should lead to one day having a good 401K and retirement benefits. As much as I want to work for a company that has a great robotics program, I also strive to one day be able to work for myself and have my ideas funded. Some goals I have to help me obtain that are to start with owning a 3D printer so that I can create models of my personal ideas and projects to present to potential investors. My ultimate professional goal is to be successful enough that I can build a workshop in my house that allows me to be able to code, do research, planning, and build robots and related projects from my house.

Most people like going to the beach but no one wants to go to a beach filled with trash. Trash on the beaches is negatively affecting a lot of people and wildlife all over the world. Picking up trash is a every day battle because of littering and natural disasters. There are not enough volunteers to pick up all of the trash that accumulates.There are far more people who create trash and litter than those who are willing to pick it up. Most of these beaches are in hot humid places so most people are unwilling to volunteer their time. Using human volunteers increases the risk of sun and heat related injuries such as heat stroke, sunburn and dehydration. With all the trash you are not going to want to go in the water as a means to cool off. It not only affects the beach life it also affects marine life, because what does not get picked up goes in the ocean and hurts the marine life in many ways. This is a big deal because “(70%) of the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced by marine plants” (National Geographic). 

The effect on the marine plants becomes an issue for all life. We see marine animals like whales, sea turtles, and fish that are found dead or dying from eating the trash. Examples of this are sea turtles mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish and, instead of getting a tasty treat they get a plastic bag that can choke them and get wrapped around them. This is also not good for their nutritional needs. Whales have become beached and died with trash spilling out their mouth. Fish have been caught and open to show their insides filled with pieces of garbage. These creature have not done anything to create this trash problem but they are the victims of it. People who live on these beaches have to deal with this trash affecting their life or their business. Businesses want to build by the beach because people come for the enjoyment of the beach. Businesses have the potential to start losing sales because the beach is cluttered in trash and no one to pick it up. Now you’re probably thinking, people can volunteer to clean the beach and yes they can. Most clean up efforts by volunteers last one day here and there. 

As good as intentions as people have, those who want to help don’t generally have the opportunity to volunteer everyday to keep it clean. There are more problems happening everyday that people can’t put all their time volunteering to keeping the beach clear when there has been a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, or tsunami. There is a point in society where we have to make a decision on what is most importance at that moment, not always what is more importance in the long run. After a hurricane those who live on the beach are not going to be able to pick up the trash first. Most likely they are going to be fixing their house or looking in to how damaged their community is. The social and economical impact to this is people who would normally come to the beach for vacations stop wanting to come to the beach because it is disgusting and there is a chance they can get hurt or get a disease. This is one example of how a beach can become littered very quickly. There are also so many others things that get litter on the beach. One beach almost decided to close down for the holidays because the people wouldn’t throw away their trash. The beach would become overly littered by the vacationers who left all their trash on the beaches. The trash that becomes litter varies from things like water bottles, cans, cigarettes, used diapers, syringes and other drugs. People tend to think that the trash will get picked up by people who are paid to clean it, but that not necessarily the truth. Most cities don’t put money in cleaning up the beach because it is not inhabited by

creatures like the forest. The forests unlike most beaches are visited almost year-round. Hunting season money to the area as well as camping and hiking so the city is able to put the money into keeping it clean. This leaves no money to hire or move the crews to the beach because they have a budget. They can’t fund two groups and the people don’t want to increase the taxes in order to be able to pay for all this cleaning. The worst part is where this trash goes because it is not being disposed of properly. Trash gets caught in the tides and gets washed into the currents. What doesn’t end up in the bottom of the ocean and affecting marine wildlife gets washed up on a different shore or up against the cliff side. This goes on long enough to create literal beaches of trash and the chemicals from this trash can be hazardous for your health. The environment wasn’t meant to work this way. The coral reefs are dying and with them are the plants and animals that need them and as it dies we lose a major contributor to our oxygen system. Financially it is hurting the wallet of people who live in these beach areas. According to National Geographic “The cost to local governments to clean beaches along 90 towns in Washington, Oregon, and California was estimated at more than $500 million in a 2012 study.”(Parker). The cycle repeats itself and is most likely what is spent every year to continue these efforts.

My solution is to make a robot that can pick up the trash on the beach. A robot would be an excellent choice as an addition to human efforts in that a robot has many characteristics that eliminate some of the reasons that it is difficult for humans to do this task over a greater period of time. Robots do not need to eat, or drink to prevent dehydration and heat stroke. Robots do not require breaks from work because they do not get tired. Robots can be in the heat and sun all day and not get a sunburn. Excluding small volunteer efforts, humans require payment for their work picking up and cleaning the beach. Using a robot would be a one time investment with minimal upkeep. The use of solar panels that could protect it at night but power it all day in the sun is the best power source for a robot that would be outside all day at the beach. A little extra for the addition of solar panels, but worth it in energy savings. A good sound foundation for the robot would begin with the tires. The tire pressure for this to drive over the sand on the beach, according to pilotonline would be “tire pressures to no more than 20 pounds per square inch.”(Hampton). 

As an alloy that contains the metals chromium and nickel, the best material for the outer shell would be stainless steel. Stainless steel costs at 25 cent per pound and add that with a coat of NANO PROTECH waterproofing spray to prevent from water damage, this cost is $25 a can. The solar panels would be the biggest expense in the start up. Solar panels range from $1,000 - $5,000 to get the right ones with costs to install would probably be $5,000 - $10,000. This would bring each system to cost about $10,000 - $20,000. This seems like a large amount but compared to a human salary is minimal, especially since the robot is expected to have a multi year lifespan. This robot would be able to roll over the sand and use the arms to pick up all those items that are left behind by people. The arms could be made to pick up the smallest of items such as cigarettes. They could pick up items that people don’t want to pick up like used baby diapers. They could also pick up items that are unsafe to pick up like broken glass and drug items. The robot would begin it’s day by unfolding the solar panels and absorbing the morning’s sunlight. The robot would need to be stored so that it could immediately have access to the sunlight in order to begin the day’s work or have the assistance from a human to get to sunlight. There would be a small amount of battery power that would stay charged from the sunlight and power it to get it to the docking station every evening and this amount of charge would also allow it to get started every morning. It would start it’s journey towards the sand to begin its programmed path for that day. 

The program path would be in the memory programs for the robot but the sensors built into robot would allow it to pick up on objects in its way such as people and structures. The robot would be able to reroute and calculate a new path if it comes into the area of a large object such as a person and calculate the new path similar to how a gps system calculates a new route. These sensors are what detects that there is an object it may need to pick up. It scans the object and then determines if this is trash based on the criteria that has been programmed into its database system. If the scan tells it that it has found trash, it will use on of its arm to pick it up, depending on the size of the trash. For a small item such as the case for a cigarette or glass shards it would get the vacuum like arm to suck up the small pieces into a containment unit inside of the robot. For larger items such as bottles or plastic bags it would utilize the robotic arm to pick up the object by gripping it in a robotic claw like hand and place it into the containment section separate from the smaller items. Since most of the trash we are describing that is left behind by the visitors to the beach fall into this size range it can handle picking up items that range in the size of lightweight empty water bottles up to a wine bottle that is heavier. If an item is too large for the claw or too heavy for the weight limit of the robotic arm then a daily report would be sent to a human that could then pick up just those items. 

Since a large reason for the robot is to make the beaches cleaner and more environmentally safe, the robot would have sections of containment units within its body for separating things that are capable of being recycled. When the robotic unit returns to its docking station every night the containment units would then be reviewed and given a final disposal by a person. This makes the process of being able to recycle easier and more efficient for the person. Once the human has finished the clean out of the items in the unit the robot would then enter a state of rest and go offline until it is programmed to begin another work day. Since this is a robot and does tire out and is about to use the power the sun to power it, its work days can last from sun up until sun down, which would lengthen the amount of hours of cleaning each day that it could handle versus a human’s normal work day of approximately 8 hours. The environmental impact of the robot is multilayered. The first layer of the robot’s environmental impact is that it picks up the items off the sand that need to be picked up. This causes a cleaner beach surface that is safer for the visitors that come to the beach. Items like broken glass would be eliminated and less hazardous to those walking around. With less items on the beach when the tide comes in each evening, this would be another layer in that there is less of a chance for items to end up in the ocean waters that would later go on to affect the marine life, plants and coral reefs. This would make it so that other people’s efforts to clean up the ocean waters would be made easier as well. This effort would help in maintaining the eco balance that is such a large contributor to our oxygen system. Every night that the robot is emptied and the items are properly disposed of would also have less items that are junking up the beach visually and causing issues for the birds that inhabit the beaches and might try to eat those items. This helps to provide a much safer environment for beach animals. It would lessen the amount of chemicals that are leaked into the environment by having the items picked up and disposed of in a proper environmental manner. This is the conclusion to my solution on cleaning up the litter on the beach problem.