MIT Museum

by Sean Simmons

The MIT Museum's Robotics Exhibit is really fun, you get to interact with several robots through foot switches that activate them and they run for a good amount of time. Some of the interactive robots are: a wishbone that walks along a conveyor belt, a robot that uses a small pail on a robotic arm to scoop oil out of a pot and pour it all over itself, and then goes and does it again, there is a pan filled with rice and there are gears all along the sides and a hand crank at the end, crank it and it looks like there are maggots in the tray. The last one is technically not a robot, it is a cart that has gears and rods attached to all of it's wheels and when you push it and turn it, it it makes these things that look like big Chinese finger traps move like worms. In all the MIT Museum was very fun, but definitely the most fun museum I have ever been to. Some of the other things the museum had were real holograms, not the Star Wars kind that are always rippling and getting static like an old TV, it also had an action shot maker, where you put ping pong balls into a chamber and a camera and strobe light go off making a really cool effect. Out of all of the exhibits the robotics exhibit was my favorite.