Robotics researchers from Faculty of Engineering defeated teams from both Harvard and MIT
The researchers had to be the most inventive, the fastest and the best. And that was just what the Danish robotics researchers from the Modular Robotics Lab at
The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute were, when they competed against research teams from Harvard, MIT and Washington University in the robot competition ‘2010 ICRA Contingency Challenge’ in Anchorage in Alaska.
Locked in a space station Under the leadership of Associate Professor Kasper Støy, the Danes won based on their ability to invent creative robotic solutions under time pressure. The competition task was to solve unexpected problems on a space station on Mars, simulated on earth.
All research teams were locked in a space station where they were to solve different problems on the planet using modular robots.
Flexible robot construction sets - Our modular robots are some kind of high-tech LEGO, which enables us to quickly build a robot for a specific task. The competition gave us an opportunity to test the ability of our current modules, says Kasper Støy, and continues:
- The competition proved that we were on the right track, although we still had to be creative with gaffer tape and similar to reach our goal.
Robot with the fastest shovel
Another task was to reinstall some solar panels that had blown off the station and here the Maersk team managed to invent a robot with a shovel, which could quickly assemble and install the panels. Again, the Danish robot was the one which performed the best.
Because the Danish researchers won, the plan is that the international competition will be held at the University of Southern Denmark next time.
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more pictures on Facebook.
Further information, please contact Associate Professor Kasper Støy on tel. +45 6550 3556 or
kaspers@mmmi.sdu.dk Back to the news list