The University of Waterloo Robotics team came within a hair's breadth of successfully completing the Level 1 of the Sample Return Robot Challenge, a part of NASA's Centennial Challenges prize program.
The event, hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute from June 5-7 in Worcester, Mass., drew robotics teams from the United States, Canada and Estonia to compete for a total of $1.5 million in NASA prize money.
Waterloo's team is mainly comprised of graduate and undergraduate students from mechanical, mechatronics, systems design, electrical and computer and software engineering programs.
“Our strategy has been to try many ideas in parallel and let them battle for supremacy,” said faculty adviser and team lead Steven Waslander while at the competition.
According to the team’s profile on NASA’s website, this has helped them design a robot with Simultaneous Localization and Mapping technology, so the robot can “map and intelligently interact with its environment.” The team was profiled on Global News and video of the event can be found on YouTube.