Long hours of effort put in by the UCF Robotic Club finally bore fruit in the form of an aquatic robot that was capable of taking decisions on its own.
Aquatic Robot
The UCF team participated in the International RoboBoats Competition held at the Office of Naval Research and Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems on the 12th of June. The UCF team stood second in the competition, winning a cash prize of 4000 dollars; 14 teams from across the world participated in the competition.
Daniel Barber, the faculty advisor explained the rules of the competition, thus, the teams were required to build a robotic vehicle that is able to manoeuvre past different obstacles without any help from humans. While working on n their projects the students aimed at building robots that were able to control their movements on their own. The vice president of the club, Michael Scherer, explained that the challenging part of the competition is the way, in which the robots are able to make well thought over movements and avoid collision with the obstacles. He added that different obstacles needed different approaches; some of the obstacles required the robot to put out a small fire using a squirt gun while some required the robot to pick up a tennis ball underwater. He explained that his team concentrated more on building a sturdy robot that would not run into electrical problems. The robotics club is divided into the ground vehicle team, submarine team and the boat team.
Having emerged victorious in the competition the team is gearing up for the submarine competition that is coming up shortly and work on areas that need improvement. Barber mentioned that they would be modifying the types of motors and simplify the electronics. He added that building a robot involved huge money and that financial aid comes from the competition prize money and some from outside sponsorship.