DESCRIPTION
Robot participates at the groundbreaking for the CSIS building. It would be great PR, and would be the kind of thing the TV news likes to run. It would generate interest in KSU an our new programs. We could have the student team there to give the robot the "go" command to show that this is the kind of neat stuff KSU students are involved in.

Robot: between 6 inches and 1 foot high, running on either tracks or wheels. On top of robot is flashing lights or whirligig for interest.

Groundbreaking ceremony

1. When time to break ground, a student uses infrared controller to activate robot
2. Robot rolls a couple of feet and does a 90 degree turn to face the "pre-loosened" soil, and waits for permission to use the shovel.
3. As dignitaries insert shovels into ground, the student uses controller to tell robot to proceed.
4. Robot rolls forward about a foot, inserts shovel into soil, lifts shovel and a tiny bit of dirt to horizontal, shovel rotates 180 degrees dumping soil on the ground, robot reverses and rolls back about a foot.

   Notes:

   • Exhaustive testing prior to ceremony
   • Robot cross-country mobility is likely to be limited, so we may need to have the robot roll along a sidewalk or "prepared surface", then turn to the edge of the surface (using edge detection to stop at the edge) where it can access the soil.
   • A sound module is probably available, if so, we may be able to have the robot "say a few words" along the line of "I would like to thank Ann and John Clendenin for their support which has made this new building possible, which will be my new home."