SIUE Team Takes Second in National Robotics Competition

[Jerry]

The SIUE team of Ross Mead, Jeff Croxell, and Jerry Weinberg took second place this last weekend at the national Beyond Botball competition.  In a dramatic finish, the team, called Fishtank Assassin, going undefeated into the finals lost two final rounds in a double elimination tournament to a team of engineers from Lockheed Martin, after beating them earlier in the semi-finals.

The competition, which attracts robot hobbyists, college teams, and teams of professional engineers, required building and programming autonomous robots for the removal of items representing toxic waste and saving the mascot of the Botball competition, Botguy, from the toxic spill. Fishtank Assassin, using a robot with color camera tracking, a five degree-of-freedom arm, and four-wheel drive, breezed through the double elimination competition, going undefeated into the finals. Click here for pictures.

Prior to the semi-finals, Fishtank Assassin and the team of Lockheed Martin engineers called On Pins and Needles, had carefully scouted each other’s robot’s strategies and plotted several counterstrategies. In a fortuitous turn of events, Fishtank Assassin left the Botguy in a position that resulted in On Pins & Needles racking up points against themselves helping Fishtank Assassin to a win in the semi-final. In the first re-match of the finals, Fishtank Assassin correctly guessed their opponent’s strategy, but the robot missed picking up Botguy for the first time in the competition, thus rendering the team’s first loss in double elimination play. In the second round of the finals, Fishtank Assassin again correctly guessed the opponent’s strategy, but missed hurling the green toxic waste over to their opponent’s side for the first time in the competition, placing them second overall.

To add to the excitement of the day, 30 minutes prior to the competition, Fishtank Assassin suffered a major fracture in the elaborate robotic arm. Thanks to some quick thinking by Jeff and Ross, and with an assist from super glue and epoxy, they constructed a make shift splint that remarkably held through out the remainder of the competition.

Ross Mead, a senior in the Computer Science Department, Jeff Croxell, a graduate student in Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and Jerry Weinberg, an associate professor of Computer Science hope to meet the Lockheed Martin engineers in a rematch at next year’s competition.

[Justin Camerer]

may i be the first to say...

w00t! w00t!

Nice work, ya'll.

[Kaitlyn Schmidt]

Congratulations!!! :-D

I'm impressed.  Keep up the good work!    

[Devon Berry]

I like the last minute serious repairs picture. That kind of thing seems very familiar. :lol:

[Shaun Martin]

Ross, it's summer time and you still have bags over your eyes.

SLEEP MAN!! SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

[Bryan]

while I am slightly saddened that the last minute emergency repairs did not involve duct tape, I think superglue and epoxy will suffice.

congratulations!