Thomas Gebert

An eccentric math enthusiast and wannabe intellectual

Thomas Gebert is an adjunct lecturer at CUNY CityTech, a PhD student at the University of York, and a software engineer whose career has included companies such as Jet.com, Apple, Walmart Global Tech, and Reddit. 

In addition to a bunch of technical tomfoolery, Thomas also enjoys watching cartoons, playing with professional audio equipment, and trying out various recipes for pizza.

The Functional Edge: Robotic Testing with Bowler Studio and Clojure

OBJECTIVES

- Introduce the concept of robotic testing and digital twins. 
- Learn the basics of Constructive solid geometry and script-based CAD. 
- Learn how to utilize Bowler Studio for testing out a robotic system.

AUDIENCE

Virtually anyone interested in the idea of building their own robots! An understanding of functional programming concepts will be required, but otherwise, it should be pretty approachable to anyone.

DESCRIPTION

With the advent of inexpensive 3D printers and microcontrollers, the prospect of the average person building their own robot has become a reality. 

The problem: incorrectly designed machines have the annoying tendency of breaking, meaning that a failed build can be a fairly expensive prospect. As such, it can be advantageous to simulate your robot virtually, before wasting time and money on a broken robot. 

Bowler Studio is a robotic digital twin simulator, which allows for an entire end-to-end process of designing, testing, and eventually building your robot. It supports many programming languages, including the functional language Clojure, allowing for a nearly-purely-functional experience. 

This talk will walk through some very basic robotic building and testing, and viewers should leave with enough understanding to start building their own.

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