« Back to NewsTEAMS ANNOUNCED FOR INAUGURAL ROBOTICS OPERATIONS COMPETITION
April 14, 2011The RASC-AL Exploration Robo-Ops, an engineering competition sponsored by NASA and organized by the National Institute of Aerospace, has announced the teams advancing to the next round of competition.
The teams selected are:
- University of Arizona
- University of Buffalo
- University of Maryland
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Texas at Arlington
- University of Utah
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute
These university teams will receive a stipend to purchase materials to build the rover prototypes and for members from each team to travel to the next segment of the competition, which will be held at the 2011 RASC-AL Robo-Ops Forum in Houston, Texas on May 23 - 26, 2011.
In the competition, teams are challenged to design and build a planetary rover and demonstrate its capability to remotely perform a series of competitive tasks in an environment that shares characteristics with the surface of the Moon and Mars. NASA uses the “Rock Yard” facility at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston to simulate the rough terrain of other worlds during space mission surface operations training.
Cameras will transmit video from the rovers during the competition at the Rock Yard back to the team’s home universities and to the general public. The teams will have to rely on these video feeds - serving as the rover’s “eyes and ears” - as they control the robotic rovers remotely from their home universities.
As each team strives to achieve specific goals while navigating obstacles at the Rock Yard, the public will also have access to view the live video from the robots. “The world will be able to see what the competitors see, as they see it” said Pat Troutman, NASA Langley researcher, and member of the 2011 RASC-AL ROBO-OPS Steering Committee. "This will identify methods for NASA that will enable the whole world to share in the exploration experience, for both robotic and human missions."
The Rock Yard segment of the RASC-AL Exploration Robo-Ops contest is worth almost two-thirds of each team’s final score. Teams will also be evaluated on the results of their efforts to create creative companion education and outreach components related to the competition. This includes a website and a video story about their rover that demonstrates participatory exploration approaches for future NASA missions. The outreach factor of the competition is designed to spark interest from students and the public about planetary rovers and robotics and their importance in our society.
Winners of this competition will win cash prizes up to $5,000. The first-place university team will also receive financial support to attend NASA’s Desert RATS tests scheduled in the fall, where a NASA-led team conducts technology development research and analog testing in the Arizona desert.
For more information about the RASC-AL Exploration Robo-Ops competition, visit:
http://www.nianet.org/RASCAL/RoboOps/index.aspx
For additional information about NASA Langley, please go to:
For more information about the National Institute of Aerospace, please visit:
http://www.nianet.org