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NASA awards $100,000 to winning team of Robot Challenge
NASA has awarded $100,000 in prize money The challenge includes two levels of com-
to the Mountaineers, a team from West Vir- petition. For a robot to complete Level 1 suc-
ginia University, Morgantown, for successfully cessfully, it must depart a starting platform in
completing Level 2 of the Sample Return Ro- VHDUFKRIDVDPSOHWKHVSHFL¿FDWLRQVRIZKLFK
bot Challenge, part of the agency’s Centennial were previously programmed into the robot’s
Challenges prize program. RQERDUGFRPSXWHU2SHUDWLQJDXWRQRPRXVO\
the robot has 30 minutes to locate, capture and
Worcester Polytechnic Institute hosted the return to its starting platform with one undam-
event June 10-12 at its Worcester, Mass., cam- aged sample. Teams that complete Level 1 may
pus. This was the fourth year NASA and WPI move on to Level 2.
held the Sample Robot Return competition.
For Level 2, robots have two hours to return
Dennis Andrucyk, deputy associate adminis- autonomously at least two undamaged samples,
trator for the Space Technology Mission Direc- including a sample known previously to the
torate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, team and one introduced the day of the compe-
and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman presented tition. Samples collected in Level 2 are catego-
awards to the Mountaineers team members rized as easy, intermediate and hard based on
Saturday at the opening of TouchTomorrow, a the complexity of their shape, size and design.
science and robotics technology festival. The 0RUHSRLQWVDUHDZDUGHGIRUWKRVHFODVVL¿HG
festival, which was open to the public, high- as hard. In this year’s competition, samples
lighted the teams and robots, as well as NASA ranged in shape and size from rectangular to
and WPI exhibits in science, robotics and space round.
technology.
The Centennial Challenges program is part
“It was wonderful to see the teams compete of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Direc-
and demonstrate their expertise with autono- torate, which is innovating, developing, testing
mous robotic systems,” said Andrucyk. “NASA DQGÀ\LQJKDUGZDUHIRUXVHLQ1$6$¶VIXWXUH
uses competitions like these to help maintain missions.
and advance America’s leadership in technol-
ogy and innovation. As we’ve seen this week, For more information, visit http://www.nasa.
pushing the state-of-the-art in robotics will ul- gov/challenges.
timately increase the effectiveness and safety
of humans in space and will enable cutting- NASA photograph
HGJHVFLHQWL¿FH[SORUDWLRQRIWKHVRODUV\VWHP´
During Level 2 of NASA’s Sample Return Robot
The objective of the challenge is to encour- Challenge, the robot designed and built by West
age innovations in autonomous navigation and Virginia University team The Mountaineers had
robotics technologies. Teams were required to two hours to return autonomously at least two
demonstrate their robots could locate and col- undamaged samples, including a sample known
lect geologic samples from wide and varied ter- previously to the team and one introduced the
rains, operating without human control. day of the competition.
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10 Aerotech News and Review June 19, 2015
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