Intel Uses Student’s Homework
Story by Caitlin Foster
When Matt Bunting started his class project last spring, he just wanted a good grade. He got an A, but he also scored an opportunity to research computer engineering with his professor, job offers, and free equipment from top companies like Intel.He got all this because Bunting, a senior electrical engineering major at the University of Arizona, built a six-legged robot that could teach itself to walk. “It was kind of surreal,” Bunting says. “It’s bizarre that it’s happening to me.”
Video by Matt Bunting
The hexapod’s ability to learn is what makes it so special. Most walking robots are programmed with a gait that enables them to move forward. Bunting wanted his robot to figure out how to move on its own. It ‘learns’ to walk by taking pictures and then analyzing the images to see if it’s moving forward, backwards, or tilting. The project was ambitious, especially for a homework assignment.
But Bunting’s success shouldn’t come as a surprise—he’s been fascinated with how things work since he was a kid. One Christmas, all he wanted was pipes; he connected them and watched the water flow through. At age eight, he started building circuits on his first resistor board. And in middle school, he hooked several motors and a camera to a LEGO car, which he used it to chase his cat and sneak peeks in the girls’ locker room.“It was peer pressure,” he says with a laugh. “But playing with LEGOs really helped me.”
These days, Bunting’s work is a bit more advanced. Still, he says his first model of the robot was a ‘Frankenstein’ of parts. “I didn’t have a ton of money to spend on it. I saved up, and I used a bunch of spare parts from over the years. I still spent $2,100—it was a big project,” Bunting says.
Working alongside his professor gave Bunting the chance to upgrade his robot, and in November, he posted a video of the more streamlined version on YouTube. That’s when Intel came knocking. Stewart Christie, a product-marketing engineer with Intel, noticed the robot used Intel’s Atom Processor to run. Christie offered Bunting hardware to build two more hexapods—one for Bunting to keep and one for Intel to use on promotional tours.
Bunting says Intel went “for the gold,” commissioning a $6,500 bot. It has traveled from Chicago to Germany. The other robot is at work in another class project. After all his effort, Bunting says he’s going to stretch it at far as he can.
While he works with Intel, Bunting is continuing his robot research and planning for his future. He will attend graduate school at the University of Arizona. He wants to be a professor, and he’s interested in neural networks. He plans to build more advanced robots, and he thinks his hexapods could help in disaster zones like Haiti. With his natural talent and companies clamoring for his brainpower, Bunting and his robot are sure to have a bright future. There is already talk of robots like his going to Mars.
