The story and a YouTube video show how the students constructed an air-jet system to make ping pong balls float through obstacle courses and, with precision accuracy, move across a room to land in a vessel of water. The video also shows the system levitating an apple and a water bottle, and “peeling” an onion.
Bretl cautioned that the work is preliminary, and “has turned out to be very, very challenging.” He added, “They did a great job on the video, and presented the work at a robotics conference last fall.”
Becker’s home Department is Electrical and Computer Engineering. Sandheinrich recently earned his master’s degree from Mechanical Science & Engineering.\