As the Hummer missile launcher rolled through the grass, creator Yuri Grigoryev controlled the robot with his computer. He commanded the robot to point the toy missile launcher to the sky and shot a rocket 300 feet into the air. A parachute deployed and the rocket sailed back to the ground.The robot was Grigoryev’s final project for Campbell University’s intermediate robotics class taught by Dr. Mark Merry.”This project took all semester for me to complete,” said Grigoryev. “It wasn’t hard, but it took a lot of time.”That’s easy to say for Grigoryev, who is a computer science and mathematics major and is also participating in Campbell’s ROTC program.He came up with the idea for a rocket launcher from his military experience when he worked with rocket artillery in the U.S. Army.”I liked creating something with my hands,” said Grigoryev. “I find it more interesting to build something with software and hardware then to just sit in front of the computer.”The intermediate robotics class was split into three teams of two, but Grigoryev was without a partner. The other teams produced a remote controlled ohmmeter and a binary clock.”Things around us, such as microwave ovens, tape recorders, DVD players, etc. are all pretty much robots. They have some sort of microcontrollers and moving parts controlled by those microcontrollers (microprocessors). This class was very interesting because we learned the concept of how all those devices around us work,” he said. Grigoryev plans to be commissioned through the ROTC program in two years and wants to pursue a higher degree in engineering.Photo Copy: Yuri Grigoryev made a Hummer missile launcher for his final project for Campbell University’s intermediate robotics class taught by Dr. Mark Merry. Photo by Shannon Ryals.
Unique class teaches students to create robots