Robot Propelled by Student’s Wit

I n the not-so-distant future, 17-year-old Thomas Bensky wants to build a robot that will make coffee for him every morning and mow the lawn once a week.

His fondest hope, he said, is to create a robot to perform tasks “that man would just prefer not to do.”

Judging from his latest endeavor, the Monroe High School senior is well on his way.

Last week, Bensky, of Sepulveda, won the $2,000 grand prize in a computer science competition for his creation: a 3-foot-tall, 5-pound, bespectacled robot named Rockwell.

The competition, sponsored by Rockwell International and the Los Angeles Unified School District, is for junior high and high school students whose projects are deemed “technically complex and innovative,” said Rockwell spokeswoman Carolyn Cohen.

The competition is intended to encourage students to seek careers in engineering and computer science. This year, 15 finalists were chosen out of 150 projects from 122 Los Angeles schools.

Though unimposing in stature and design, Rockwell the Robot moves, talks and can distinguish between light and dark. It is powered by electricity, and its “brain” is a Tandy 1000 computer and TRS-80 color computer, which control movement and speech through a software program Bensky designed.

Rockwell has a pegboard body and moves on plastic wheels. It is topped by a round Styrofoam head, with a large plastic nose attached to Groucho Marx-style plastic horn-rim glasses, a small speaker for a mouth and a jaunty blue tie that its maker chose “to give it a little personality.”

The robot makes whistling sounds and speaks phrases, in a computerized version of Bensky’s voice, such as “Hi, how are you?” “My name is Rockwell,” and “Sorry” or “Excuse me,” when it bumps into walls, furniture or people.

“It doesn’t have an unlimited vocabulary,” Bensky said. “It just says what’s practical.”

Bensky is the first to admit his science project has its flaws: Rockwell is not up to making coffee or mowing lawns.

However, it’s only the beginning for Rockwell’s creator. Bensky plans to attend Cal State Northridge in the fall and major in electrical engineering.

“Hopefully I can learn more, and build a better and bigger one someday,” he said.

Bensky, a tennis player recently named “athlete of the week” at Monroe, entered the computer science competition last year. He placed second citywide with a computer program he devised for evaluating algebraic expressions.

This year, he had planned to make a computer-powered car, then opted for a robot. He designed Rockwell from his imagination.

“I didn’t have any type of diagram at all,” Bensky said. “I just sort of built it from my thinking.”

Rockwell’s first incarnations were too light. Then later, they were top-heavy, Bensky said.

While other high school students were lolling on the beach during spring break, Bensky was working on computer programs and haunting hardware stores for Rockwell’s parts.

His mother, Ursula, said she saw little of her son during the three months that he labored over the robot.

“He would go into his room, shut the door and stay in there for hours,” she said. “Sometimes he’d forget to eat.”

For his dedication, Bensky also won a coveted spot in the Rockwell VIP booth at the next Space Shuttle landing, a prize he values more than the money--$1,900 of which he deposited into his savings account. The rest went for lottery tickets and a new tennis racket, Bensky said.

What’s next for Rockwell the robot, after having brought its creator fame and money?

Said Bensky: “Guess I’ll clear out some space for it in my closet.”