full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Péter Fankhauser: Meet Rezero, the dancing ballbot

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now to move and to balance, Rezero needs to turn the ball. The ball is driven by three special wheels that allow Rezero to move into any direction and also move around his own axis at the same time. Due to his instability, Rezero is always in motion. Now here's the trcik. It's indeed exactly this instability that allows a robot to move very [dynamically]. Let's play a little. You may have wondered what happens if I give the robot a little push. In this mode, he's trying to maintain his position.

For the next demo, I'd like you to introduce to my colleagues Michael, on the computer, and tomhas who's helping me onstage. In the next mode, Rezero is passive, and we can move him around. With almost no force I can ctnorol his potoiisn and his velocity. I can also make him spin. In the next mode, we can get rzeero to follow a person. He's now kiepeng a constant dctanise to Thomas. This works with a laser ssoenr that's mounted on top of Rezero. With the same mehtod, we can also get him to circle a person. We call this the orbiting mode. All right, thank you, Thomas. (Applause)

Open Cloze


Now to move and to balance, Rezero needs to turn the ball. The ball is driven by three special wheels that allow Rezero to move into any direction and also move around his own axis at the same time. Due to his instability, Rezero is always in motion. Now here's the _____. It's indeed exactly this instability that allows a robot to move very [dynamically]. Let's play a little. You may have wondered what happens if I give the robot a little push. In this mode, he's trying to maintain his position.

For the next demo, I'd like you to introduce to my colleagues Michael, on the computer, and ______ who's helping me onstage. In the next mode, Rezero is passive, and we can move him around. With almost no force I can _______ his ________ and his velocity. I can also make him spin. In the next mode, we can get ______ to follow a person. He's now _______ a constant ________ to Thomas. This works with a laser ______ that's mounted on top of Rezero. With the same ______, we can also get him to circle a person. We call this the orbiting mode. All right, thank you, Thomas. (Applause)

Solution


  1. position
  2. sensor
  3. distance
  4. control
  5. keeping
  6. thomas
  7. method
  8. rezero
  9. trick

Original Text


Now to move and to balance, Rezero needs to turn the ball. The ball is driven by three special wheels that allow Rezero to move into any direction and also move around his own axis at the same time. Due to his instability, Rezero is always in motion. Now here's the trick. It's indeed exactly this instability that allows a robot to move very [dynamically]. Let's play a little. You may have wondered what happens if I give the robot a little push. In this mode, he's trying to maintain his position.

For the next demo, I'd like you to introduce to my colleagues Michael, on the computer, and Thomas who's helping me onstage. In the next mode, Rezero is passive, and we can move him around. With almost no force I can control his position and his velocity. I can also make him spin. In the next mode, we can get Rezero to follow a person. He's now keeping a constant distance to Thomas. This works with a laser sensor that's mounted on top of Rezero. With the same method, we can also get him to circle a person. We call this the orbiting mode. All right, thank you, Thomas. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. applause
  2. axis
  3. balance
  4. ball
  5. call
  6. circle
  7. colleagues
  8. computer
  9. constant
  10. control
  11. demo
  12. direction
  13. distance
  14. driven
  15. due
  16. dynamically
  17. follow
  18. force
  19. give
  20. helping
  21. instability
  22. introduce
  23. keeping
  24. laser
  25. maintain
  26. method
  27. michael
  28. mode
  29. motion
  30. mounted
  31. move
  32. onstage
  33. orbiting
  34. passive
  35. person
  36. play
  37. position
  38. push
  39. rezero
  40. robot
  41. sensor
  42. special
  43. spin
  44. thomas
  45. time
  46. top
  47. trick
  48. turn
  49. velocity
  50. wheels
  51. wondered
  52. works