Columbia grammar school

Upper West Side, NYC
Ms. Carp's Columbia Grammar class had a surprise visitor today; SARA the robot stopped by to ask the class for some help in making a map. The class was happy to help her out, taking turns driving her while creating a high resolution classroom floorplan in a matter of minutes. The students learned some pretty advanced mobile robotic concepts, and tested out the communications protocol by dancing in front of the on-board video camera.

The class also drew amazingly detailed designs for new concept robots, everything from cute 'covert-cat' schematics to 'multiple laser response machines'!
Next time you see a robotic cat with lasers driving down the street, you'll know where it came from...

Bay Area Conferences

San Francisco, CA
SARA spent a couple days traveling around San Francisco recently while presenting at Location Intelligence 2007 and AAG. These venues gave her a chance to meet up with a variety of people who work with spatial information, everyone from Yahoo Local and Google to Immersive Media and Spime. Her travels took her all over the Bay Area, from the Mission District all the way to Oakland, and even down to San Jose for a couple meetings. She's already looking forward to the next trip out (anyone know the robot toll on the Golden Gate Bridge?).

Here she is taking a break after driving up and down in the Potrero Hills.

SARA encourages a new generation of Women Roboticists

Brooklyn, NY
SARA has always been proud to be a strong women in technology, and on Saturday she had a chance to meet some other young women working on the technologies of tomorrow. The young ladies were gathered to learn more about careers in robotics and other high-tech trades as part of the '21st Century Careers for Girls' conference held at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn. In addition to hearing SARA's words of encouragement, they also got to hear about the Women Owned company that SARA does work for.




SARA sizing up the sculpture in front of Polytechnic University in Brooklyn.

Measuring up Washington DC

Washington, DC.
From the Capitol steps to the Washington Convention center, SARA explored the nations capitol from top to bottom this week.
In town for the ESRI Federal Users Conference, she got a chance to strut her stuff for government reps from across the country, showing them what Spatial Robotics is all about. She made maps of the Convention center, then set off across the floor on her own, dynamically routing herself to see the new ArcWeb Services demo.

Her trip also included a visit with folks at GSA's Public Buildings Service, and a large group of program managers at Michael Baker Group in Arlington, VA.

On Deck: SARA Surveys for the US NAVY

Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois.
All hands (and bots) on deck. SARA and friends spent some time last week helping the US Navy survey facilities at the Great Lakes Naval Station, just outside of Chicago. This week long trip was part of a pilot project to help compare traditional survey methods to SARA's capabilities. While the weather was a bit on the cold side, SARA stayed warm by covering huge amounts of square footage in a wide variety of building types.

read more here...

SARA meets Senator Snowe

Camden, ME
SARA had the chance to make some new friends in high places today, a face to face meeting with Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME). The Senator was visiting the offices of PenBay Media to learn more about this small business located in Camden Maine, and took some time to learn about SARA and what she does best. Senator Snowe and Deborah McNeil are shown getting a demonstration of SARA, with PenBay President Ann Yahner.

Sara Surveys Brooklyn

Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Sara took some time out of her busy travel schedule recently to survey the scene in Brooklyn NY. Working for an international architecture firm, she helped map the inside of buildings to help building management better understand and allocate their indoor real estate.













Survey says: Williamsburg is where it's at.

California Mappin - ESRI UC

San Diego, CA. ESRI International User's Conference 2006
Out of the oppressive humidity of the east coast and into the cool ocean breeze of San Diego, SARA made her grand entrance into the GIS arena earlier this week. While the water was off limits to her, there was ample floorspace for her to roam around. Officially unveiled at the conference, she spent most of her time making maps and navigating through the conference center on her own (she' very independent). Spatial Robotics is the intersection of GIS and Robotics, and SARA showed the masses first hand what it's all about.

While the trip was mostly business, she did find time to experience the finer points of southern California, complete with palm trees and convertibles.

SARA goes to MERS

SARA visits NASA Goddard, the home of the MERS terrain simulator for Mars rover development and testing. The verdict: SARA would not live long on Mars, but she does great work surveying right here on Earth.
Thanks to everyone at NASA Goddard who showed her around!

Roaming the Halls at LAFB

Personnel at Langley AFB recently came face to face with the most unlikely of spatial survey technicians, a mapping Robot named SARA. The robot turned heads while visiting a number of buildings on base during a 3 day floorplan survey effort in mid March. Langley AFB Geographic Information Office used the robot to rapidly survey selected buildings on base, as part of an efficacy trial to evaluate the methodology in terms of speed of capture and product quality.