LOST IN PARK? ASK BUBBA FOR HELP

Ioana Butoi '05, Darby Thompson '05 and Catherine Chiu '04 with Bubba

"Danger, Will Robinson!" The Lost in Space robot's oft-repeated line is seldom uttered by Bubba, the helpful robot who now haunts the halls of the Park Science Building. But Bubba can offer guidance to those who are lost in Park, thanks to crackerjack programming by his creators, Bryn Mawr computer-science majors Catherine Chiu '04, Ioana Butoi '05 and Darby Thompson '05.

The three students have been working since September to develop Bubba into a tour-guiding, directions-giving mechanical docent. The students each received a $1,000 stipend for the development of the robot from Collaborative Research Experiences for Women, a special project of the Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research that is designed to help provide positive research experiences for undergraduate women who are studying computer science or computer engineering. Chiu wrote her senior thesis on the development of Bubba.

"We wanted to use Bubba to create more awareness of the sciences and the computer-science program at Bryn Mawr," said Butoi. "The tour he gives mentions several highlights of the different science programs. For example, math is described as the 'third most popular major, with about 10 percent of students who choose to major in it, a rate that is three times the national average for men and women.'"

The tour, which Bubba gives at different locations on the second floor of Park Science Building, is about 10 minutes long. Included in it are descriptions of the physics, biology, chemistry and geology departments and the computer-science program. Bubba "sees" his way along the tour by eyeing red and blue tape on the floor, which alerts him either to stop or to change his direction.

The process of developing Bubba was time-consuming and challenging, said Chiu. The three first worked on a red robot that kept malfunctioning. Assistant Professor of Computer Science Douglas Blank purchased a new type of robot about six weeks ago, Chiu said, and the students then had to start from scratch and change the whole architecture for the project. Associate Professor of Computer Science Deepak Kumar was also an adviser to the project.

"Working with robots is much harder than it seems. Just to write a program to get him to go down the hallway took a long time. It seemed like it should be easy to program Bubba to go straight ahead, but the changes in the hallways with different amounts of light and different-shaped display cases confused him," Chiu explained, estimating that each student spent eight to 10 hours a week working on the project throughout the academic year. "We recognized that we had an idealistic vision and had to settle for accomplishing the basics. We learned a lot and we're very satisfied with the outcome."

Not only can Bubba give tours, he can also give out directions. People who follow the script can get Bubba to give directions to a specific room, no easy task in a building that has several levels and room numbers that do not always follow the floors of the building.

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