1. Hello, this is 로봇돌이the robot-maker.
I’m 로봇돌이, and I graduated department of mechanical engineering in KAIST and proceeded to graduate school.
I’m a engineering student who loves robot, exercise and technology, thus working hard isolated from the rest of the world to created THE ROBOT.
2. Trial and error
I think numerous trial and error is essential in mechanical engineering. When we put together the mechanical parts, certain amount of tolerance value is needed.
Here, the tolerance value is just a recommended value, and the engineer himself/herself must decide the exact value on their own. The results differ according to what company we send the tolerance value to, even if the value is the same.
Sometimes, even a single company will come out with different outcome with the same tolerance value. But without these procedures, you have to undergo trial and error by yourself. This process cannot be thought as a proper research and you get the feeling that it’s not actually worth doing, so you can get a bit frustrated.
3. Ideal and reality of research
There were times that I couldn’t figure out why my research was successful or unsuccessful. The outcomes would differ even if the condition and environment were exactly the same. Also, you can get physically injured if you don’t control the parts well.
I caused a fire once when I connected the + and – ends of a battery in a wrong manner.
Aside from research, there was an occasion when I got scolded by my professor for being ‘too late’ although I spent my whole weekend putting together a robot. I felt so small and helpless when that happened.
In these situations, I got over it by trying to control my mind by myself, consulting and complaining to people close to me.
4. Exercise and research are marathon
Having a hobby that you can fully focus on aside from research is a one way. In my case that hobby is exercise – I focused on getting rid of the negative thoughts and filling my head with positive thoughts through exercising. I think exercise is like marathon, just like research.
I came this far steadily exercising, so I think I can do the same with my research as well.
5. Saving time through sharing information
The only way to avoid trial and error is to learn from an experienced personnel. So I created a Kakaotalk group chatroom with the robotics majors I met in workshops and shared a lot of information. You can save a lot of time by sharing information. Especially in hardware part, one experience takes tons of time, so this helps a lot.
Also, I recorded everything I did. I wrote down the hard-earned experience and reminded myself of them by reading them time to time.
6. GO Just GO, don’t be afraid.
I built a robot platform in the field of robot engineering, so I now aim to control and move the robots that I created.
This is to gain general understanding for the robots, and I want to found an enterprise that can actually help people by using the robots. Just like Elon Musk.
They say that CEO needs ability to decide more than the technical ability, but I think without technical understanding and capability, one can never be good at decision making. So my goal is to earn profound understanding for the robots before I become a CEO.
The robotics require you to know and do a lot of things, but I think anyone can do it only if they are willing to. The important part is to begin with courage and certainty.
로봇돌이 박사
"Failure is an experience needed for level-up"
About the interviewee
KAIST Mechanical engineering lab, Hardware design
KAIST Mechanical engineering master degree, currently in KAIST doctoral degree