Una luz encendida: Dora del Hoyo

By: Javier Medina Bayo

BookNo.: r037

Asunto: highlights

Fecha: 12/03/12

• Dora del Hoyo didnt like a place she worked because of the lack of concern of the lady of the house... Once she was carrying a cup on a tray and fell down, she was first asked if the cup had broken rather than about her condition. (charity)

• Dora went to Moncloa fist only for a week and just to comply with what the nun that had helped her a lot had asked her to do as a favor. The pay was lower and the conditions worse than other jobs (thankfulness, generosity). She stayed there for longer because she realized Fr. Josemaria was a saint, also because she liked the women of the Work and because she saw they really needed her help.
• Once in Rome St. Josemaria entered the kitchen and saw the pans were perfectly clean on the inside but some of the outside was not so clean such as the place where the bolts are. He gave indications that that should be thoroughly cleaned because that is the spirit of Opus Dei. The rest had forgotten it by the end of the day, but Dora did remember and they stayed scrubbing even with blades until the pans were completely clean. (laboriosity, cleanliness, poverty, perfection)
• Dn Alvaro saw a very modern ironing machine being used at a hospial and suggested it would be good for Villa Tevere. However, after Dora saw it and researched on it, she and the others concluded it was too expensive and beyond their needs. However Dn Alvaro insisted and St Josemaria said it should be bought. Dora then was very happy they had bought it as it was making their job more efficient. Twenty years later some German technicians came to see the machine and were very surprised that it would still be in use and in such wonderful conditions (poverty, laboriosity)
• Dora had real concer, eagerness and worked hard to get to know about machines and devices useful in her profession. She was also looking frequently at magazines for new recipees and ways for decorating dishes, and afterwards trying them out even if they were difficult (work, professionalism)

One day when she was already 85 they had a barbeque and they had a great time, she enjoyed mostly looking at the others enjoying. But the person in charge hadn't chosen the right place to put the grill and the floor there was stained. They tried cleaning it later but some stains of grease remained. At her 85 years of age Dora decided one day to scrub it herself until the stains were gone, she took a bucket with hot water, a brush, rooled up her sleeves and she did the job (laboriosity, poverty, perfection, generosity, humility)

March of the sandbots

IEEE Spectrum
Issue April 2009
Pages 26 onwards

Until now many robots have been created which can move efficiently on or in many different surfaces: water, climbing, roads, etc. But none is able to move efficiently on all, nor any one is able to move on sand.

Even our vehicles are not able to move well on surfaces which haven't been paved, imagine automated robots.

In 2001 some robots were sent for the rescue work at World Trade Centre, and in no time they were not able to continue due to the tough surface conditions. In 2006 some robots were sent to a rescue mission in a collapsed mine... they made it 700 meters until they were totally stucked in mud. Thus it is required to get robots to move efficiently on various different tough surface conditions.

The team of researchers authoring this article made a robot SandBot which is 6 legged with some sort of flippers that turn to give the forward movement. They are testing movement on sand. But sand does not yet have a good mechanical model. Thus they have been studying the movement of beings such as lizards, crabs and snakes to imitate their skills.

We are also looking below ground inspiration. Using high speed X-rays, we are now studyng lizards called sandfish that can burrow into sand in the blink of an eye and then "swim" through the material underground... With nature as our guiid, we expect that robots will soon master some incredible new abilities.