Falling Forward — Effective?
A Doodle by M.A.Tucker, May 2024
The day dawned bright and clear. Teams of high school student engineers from all over Maryland were converging to compete in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (ieee.org) Robot Challenge 2024 held at the Baltimore Museum of Industry (thebmi.org). Just a bit down Key Highway lay Fort McHenry of Star Spangled Banner fame.
Having the privilege of judging the competition, I was there early as tables were set up and the event planners furiously prepared for the onrushing tide of students. Just outside, an aquatic drone contest was ramping up. Drone swimmers festooned to appear as harbor ships were preparing to set sail. Under the nearby pavilion, guitarists and singers were playing melodious inspirational tunes for a congregation.
A fine morning indeed!
The teams had fabricated their robots according to a simple design requiring a block of wood, some wire, a couple toy servos for each leg (2 legged or 4 legged), some threaded struts and 4 paper clips. Very cheap and accessible to even the poorest schools. A challenging fabrication regardless of economic standing.
Each leg could move forward and back -or- up and down (somewhat awkwardly). For movement, each student held a fabricated controller, pressing a paper clip to complete a circuit to one of the servos. Imagine trying to “walk” with 4 people controlling a leg working in tandem — this required a lot of teamwork!
The track was laid out in a six foot run with two hurdles. The “race” consisted of moving the robot from start to finish line (ideally) in 20 minutes or less. Many robot models were plagued by severe quality issues — failing electrical connections, decoupled struts, loose screws, etc. Under these conditions, just finishing was quite an achievement.
One trial I judged, Model A (we’ll call it) exemplified the difficulties. Imagine the feline grace of a cat — how each leg is lifted, moved forward, set down, pushed off in synchronous motion with the other legs. The movement of Model A (a 4 legged robot) did not achieve this desired goal. It first fell left. Then toppled over right. Then drifted out of bounds. Then fell backward. In 20 minutes, it had moved 6 inches. There were disappointed faces all around. The competition consisted of an oral presentation as well as the track event. The team could recover with a stellar marketing pitch and by accurately describing the failures of the track event as well as the steps that might be taken to correct the shortcomings. So all was not lost.
When Model B launched out of the starting gate, it immediately fell forward — beginners nervousness, a mistake? Then it fell forward again with a clunk. Remarkably, it had traveled 10" in the two falls. The hurtle presented no problems. Model B just fell over it. The approach was quite purposeful. The student opposite my position controlled the left, rear leg. Her eyes moved almost at saccade speeds from her controller, her leg, face of teammate opposite, other controller, other leg, so on until she had synchronized with all the other legs. (A saccade is a quick, simultaneous movement of both eyes between two or more phases of fixation in the same direction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade). All the team’s eyes flickered with this intense concentration and focus. A repeating cadence, like an oarsman calling “stroke”, kept tempo — “1, 2, 3, go”.
What a novell strategy! Model B fell over the finish line a mere 9 minutes, 31 seconds later. After congratulating the team, I turned to an older lady avidly recording the track run. The twinkle in her eye said she’d seen the technique before. Perhaps when one or more of the students was a toddler. This technique was not novell. Probably most humans who can walk have used it to learn how! Possibly, all ambulatory creatures whether two-legged, four legged, or 2 legged/2 winged, employ this technique as juveniles.
Will falling forward garner status and prestige for style and grace — absolutely not!
Is falling forward effective? Most definitely!
Perhaps the technique could even be applied more broadly in life. An inspiring lesson indeed!
