Have you heard? This week is third annual National Robotics Week! During April 7-15th, a week-long series of events and activities are held across the United States aimed at increasing public awareness of the growing importance of “robo-technology” and the tremendous social and cultural impact that it will have on the future of the United States.
You may remember their mascot, Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog, from the GeekDad interview we featured with his creator Jonathan Mahood. Bleeker is a walking cell phone, music player, camera, printer, smoke detector, global positioning system and scanner all rolled into one nifty robot dog. He is like a typical canine, in that he can play fetch and do tricks like any other dog… except he needs to be recharged at the end of the day.
Bleeker will find himself amid familiar company during the many scheduled nationwide events, which will feature plenty of opportunities for the public to interact with robots through demonstrations and hands-on learning activities. These events include a “Robot Block Party” hosted by Instructables at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco on April 9, as well as additional robot-themed events at Stanford University on April 12, the Museum of Science in Boston on April 14, and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago on the weekends of April 7-8 and April 14-15. The Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina, is hosting a “Robot Rumble” on April 14.
For a full listing of National Robotics Week events taking place around the United States, please visit www.nationalroboticsweek.org or on Twitter (@roboweek or #roboweek) and Facebook. If Bleeker is not in your daily newspaper, you can check out his daily comic at BleekerComics.com. Bleeker will be dedicated all this week to National Robotics Week!
