The past year has brought several accolades to the Case Western Reserve University robotics team, CWRUbotix, and their prized robots.
In April, the team competed in the National Robotics Challenge, building robots for three categories: 3-pound combat competition, autonomous vehicle challenge (AVC) and sumo robot competition. Though the AVC robot’s wheel broke just before the competition and couldn’t compete, the other two robots triumphed: The sumo bot placed fourth overall, and the combat robot took home first prize.
The CWRUbotix team didn’t linger on its success too long, competing in the NASA Robotic Mining Competition in May. This contest challenges college teams to build the most effective robot for mining on Mars.
This year’s NASA bot was named Glennrique to match its predecessors Glennjamin and Glennifer, each a tribute to the Glennan Building where the team meets. Glennrique (and the team) won fourth place overall, with the additional awards of second-best systems engineering paper and third-best slide presentation and demonstration.
But it’s not all competition for the team—they also are involved in the community, setting up robotic demonstrations at elementary schools and holding events for local Girl Scouts troops. Team members also participate in a number of campus events related to the promotion of STEM education and equality in the STEM field.
In 2019, they hope to place in the top 10 at the NASA competition and advance to a special second round honoring the 60th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
To keep up with CWRUbotix, visit its Facebook or Instagram pages.