The Carleton Robotics Team recently attended an International Firefighting Robotics Competition at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Of the club's three student-designed robots, the one sent to the competition placed tenth out of 43.
The competition guidelines required each preprogrammed robot to travel through a maze, then find and extinguish a lit candle. The Carleton team developed a left-wall-following program to navigate through the set-up and opted for a blow-dryer head to put out the flame.
Other teams vied for bonus points by equipping their robots to tackle various obstacles such as traveling over ramps and uneven ground, extinguishing the flame with water or CO2 , and programming the robot to return to the start of the maze when finished.
Though the robot experienced minor programming glitches, the team was very pleased and optimistic about their win. “Things change very quickly,” said the club's former president George Kachergis '07, “But we succeeded this year despite that.”
Although the club hopes to participate in other robotics competitions, their small budget limits the number of events they can attend. Moreover, the group prefers not to focus on competitions. “We don't want to be just an engineering club, we want to encourage creativity...learn more about robotics and have fun,” said Kachergis.
The latest endeavor of the group is programming a one-gigahertz processor research robot. With a bit more fine-tuning, it will be able to wander the halls of Olin and push the elevator buttons. The robot also has visual processing and two web-cameras.
The club was founded two years ago by this year's president Will Camisa '07 and Kachergis '07. There is supervision by Carleton professors but the group is otherwise completely student-run with a membership of ten and numerous interested visitors.
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