Buckeye engineering students test their skills at 25th annual robot competition
Celebrate National Robotics Week (April 6-14) and see robots race to get an arcade ready for business on Saturday, April 6, during The Ohio State University College of Engineering’s 25th annual robot competition.
The event is the culmination of a semester-long design-and-build project that challenges 253 first-year engineering honors students to design, build and program a fully autonomous robot vehicle in just nine weeks.
Sixty-six student teams will compete in both a round-robin and a single-elimination tournament competition to determine which student-built robot can best execute the required tasks.
Each team of three to four students will set their robots in motion around a student-built 12-square-foot course that simulates a classic arcade. The fully autonomous robots have just two minutes to perform specific tasks, including returning a dropped game token to the appropriate location, moving a lever to prepare the claw machine for play, pressing the correct button to reset a game, resetting the Foosball table’s score counter and returning to the charging station.
The robots are limited in size to a 9-square-inch footprint and are constructed of various materials, including sheet metal, PVC, acrylic, plywood and Erector set components.
The event is open to the public; traditionally, several hundred spectators attend.
WHAT: First-Year Engineering Honors Student Robot Competition
WHEN: 12:00-6:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, 2019
- 12:00 p.m. to approximately 3:00 p.m.: Round-robin competition
- 4:15 p.m. to approx. 5:45 p.m.: Single-elimination tournament
- 6:00 p.m.: Presentation of awards
WHERE: Recreation and Physical Activity Center (RPAC), 337 W. 17th Avenue, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Parking is available at the Neil Avenue Parking Garage or the Tuttle Park Place Parking Garage at an hourly rate.
Editors: Photographers and videographers are welcome to attend the event and take photos or video during the competition. Faculty and students will be available for interviews. RSVP to clevenger.87@osu.edu or 614-292-4064.
