Victoria Engineering students win Australasian robotics competition

25 Sep 2013 - 16:25:52 in Achievement

Victoria Engineering students win Australasian robotics competition

A team of engineering students from Victoria University of Wellington has taken top honours in the Australasian National Instruments Autonomous Robotics Competition held in Melbourne this week.

NI-ARC 2013.jpg

The Victoria team, ‘Ownbot’, beat 15 other teams from Australian and New Zealand universities with its robot Michelangelo, named after its turtle-like shape. A video of the achievement is gaining attention in the press.

Led by PhD student Henry Williams, the team was made up of undergraduate and postgraduate students from the School of Engineering and Computer Science: Tessa Phillips, Robby Lopez, Alex Campbell, Hamish Colenso, Alice Lawn and Joseph Shadwick.

Henry says he is “well chuffed” that their autonomous creation performed so well.

Dr Will Browne, a senior lecturer in the School who supported the students as they developed Michelangelo, is excited by the win.

“It’s fantastic news. The students have worked incredibly hard on this project over the last few months and to see them win a competition like this is just superb.

“It showcases the depth of talent and skill amongst our students, and also the team’s passion for robotics, since this was an extra-curricular project which complemented their formal studies.”

Dr Browne says things weren’t all plain sailing for the team, with Michelangelo initially consuming too much power and nearly catching fire, but the students overcame the difficulties through excellent teamwork.

To qualify for the competition finals, the team had to achieve four milestones during the year, which tested different aspects of the robot’s capability. The students documented their progress through a blog (http://vuwniarc2013.blogspot.co.nz).

In the grand final this week, the Victoria University team won the ultimate ‘Gold Rush’ themed task, where robots were required to navigate an obstacle-filled course, and identify, pick up and move objects to designated locations in the shortest possible time.

The team has won a cash prize $3,000.

Quicktime Movie of Michelangelo

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