Spring Break
OSU robotics team snatches first place
Robotics team built Rover to compete in simulated Mars mission against seven teams
Robert Ingle
Issue date: 7/9/08 Section: News
"The fact that our main control on our rover had no moving parts allowed us to run over bumps and not worry about it," Goska said. "It set us way apart because we could take really rough terrain, as tough as our mechanical frame could handle."
Matt Shuman, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering and leader of the OSU Rover Project, notes that one requirement to be successful in the challenge is to meet certain engineering criteria.
"A good robot consists of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science working together," Shuman said. "What separated us is that we made sure to address each one of those categories on the robot."
The Oregon State team was able to accomplish this feat despite having no mechanical engineers on the approximately fifteen-member crew, a fact the team would like to change next year. Shuman hopes that expanding the team with students from different engineering fields will be a great learning experience for other OSU engineers in addition to benefiting the team.
The OSU team, with support from the Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium, AJK Precision Sheet Metal, OSU Engineering and Parallax, Inc., a Sacramento, Calif. robotics company, plans to send another rover to the competition next year with the hope of topping this year's winning performance.
Some design tinkering and the addition of technical flair are areas where the team hopes to improve, but Shuman maintains that simple design, original ideas and lots of testing will make the team a favorite for the 2009 challenge.
Matt Shuman, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering and leader of the OSU Rover Project, notes that one requirement to be successful in the challenge is to meet certain engineering criteria.
"A good robot consists of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science working together," Shuman said. "What separated us is that we made sure to address each one of those categories on the robot."
The Oregon State team was able to accomplish this feat despite having no mechanical engineers on the approximately fifteen-member crew, a fact the team would like to change next year. Shuman hopes that expanding the team with students from different engineering fields will be a great learning experience for other OSU engineers in addition to benefiting the team.
The OSU team, with support from the Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium, AJK Precision Sheet Metal, OSU Engineering and Parallax, Inc., a Sacramento, Calif. robotics company, plans to send another rover to the competition next year with the hope of topping this year's winning performance.
Some design tinkering and the addition of technical flair are areas where the team hopes to improve, but Shuman maintains that simple design, original ideas and lots of testing will make the team a favorite for the 2009 challenge.
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