Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has somewhat received a boost from the technology side of things – where it is normally touted to be an unofficial ushering in of the holiday season. This year, a New York City official did not launch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but rather, it was a robot that had the honor of doing so. This robot, known as “SONIC”, was the brainchild of students from The Woodlands High School in Texas.
Around 35 of them, where needless to say, all of them happen to also be members of a local robotics club, worked on SONIC to make it part of a competition which was led by FIRST, a non-profit organization that intends to boost up participation levels of youth when it comes to the fields of science and technology fields. SONIC had the grand honor of cutting the ribbon to kick off the massive celebration, but it is a good thing that SONIC was not alone, either, as there were another five robots hanging around, weighing 150 pounds apiece. These robotic brethren of SONIC happened to be constructed by student groups across the country, and their main task? To play a supporting role by shooting confetti along the parade route, all 2.5 miles of it. Now, if only there was another team of robots around to clean up all of the mess after everything’s said and done. Image via The Verge. [Press Release]
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