Projects

"Laundry Quandry"
Date: 10-21-06
The title of this year's competition is Laundry Quandary. Six weeks ago the teams were given a box of parts which would have to turn into a remote-controlled robot that could take bandanas and hang them up on clothes lines and/or take bandanas down off clothes lines and put them in a laundry basket. We won 1st place with our robot and 2nd place in the BEST competition! We also won the Most Robust Award for the robot with the fewest mechanical failures throughout the competition. We will be competing at Texas BEST (regionals) on December 2nd.

"Mission to Hubble"
Date: 10-22-05
On this complex task, 4 robots will work together to repair the Hubble space telescope. New gyro/battery units and a de-orbit rocket engine have been launched and are waiting in orbit on 4 specially designed Space Tugs. Orbital rendezvous between the BEST servicing robot, the Space Tug and the Hubble can only be maintained for 3 minutes. Robots that complete the mission the quickest will be awarded all future servicing contracts. In the event none of the robots can complete the mission before the rendezvous time expires, robots completing the most mission critical tasks will be considered for future contracts.
We won 1st place with our robot Toto-5000! We will be competing at Texas BEST (regionals) on December 3rd.

"BEST Fever"
Date: 10-30-04
Your job is to initiate the denaturing process by activating the Denaturing Thermal Switch and then to separate the PCR Primers from the DNA deoxyribonucleotides. It is also advantageous to capture the hidden aging gene.
We got 8th place again this year in the semi-finals with our robot the "Tyrominator" (T-Y).

"Transfusion Confusion"
Date: 11-1-03
Your machine, and that of three other teams will work to move blood cells from various locations within a sterile field to a Cell Saver used for autologous blood transfusions. There are several blood vessels within the sterile field that contain various types of blood cells and a few green diseased cells. The value of the cell to the transfusion process depends on its type. Since white cells fight infections, they are more valuable than oxygenated red cells. Blue cells, which are actually oxygen-poor red cells, are less valuable than the oxygenated red cells.
We made it to the semi-finals and got 8th place with our robot "H3" (Hummer 3).

Date: 2-7-04
We did the "Beginner's Maze" and won 3rd place with our robot "HyperBot"!
Date: 2-5-05
We did the "Advanced Maze" and and won 4th place with our robot.
Date: 2-4-06
We did the "Beginner's Maze" and won 2nd place with our robot.
We also did the "Advanced Maze" and won 3rd place and the "Object Finding Maze"and won 2nd place!!

RoPro

What is RoPro? RoPro stands for Robot Programming. It is an annual contest held by UTA to promote programming amoung high schoolers (and to promote UTA's programming department). Your goal in the contest is to program a Lego Mindstorms™ robot to preform a certain function.

Here is a list of the contest divisions you can enter:

Beginners Maze
Advanced Maze
Object Finding

"The robots participating in the competition have to be built exclusively from the parts that were included in the Lego kit that was provided by UTA (i.e. The Lego Mindstorms invention system plus one rotation sensor). Particularly, the robot can not use more than the 4 sensors provided (2 touch sensors, 1 light sensor, and 1 rotation sensor). The only exceptions to the rule are purely decorative (and non-functional) items (e.g. team flags and mascots on the robots) and enclosures or shields made from paper as long as their purpose is solely to regulate light sensor readings and they do not serve a structural or support function (e.g. they can not be used as extensions of touch sensors or the robot structure to guide it in the maze). Parts from the kit that are broken can be replaced with equivalent parts (they do not necessarily have to be Lego parts as long as they are equivalent to a part included in the kit). If there are any doubts regarding the admissibility of a design or a replacement part, contact us. On request, we will provide a list of the parts included in the kit.
Each team is allowed only one robot for the competition which has to have a minimum height of 20 cm (8'') (This will make it easier for spectators to follow the robots and adding a small school flag or mascot to reach the height is encouraged).
If violations are detected at the beginning of the competition, teams will be allowed to re-configure their robot in order to meet the requirements. Robots that do not meet the specifications during the competition will have to be excluded from the competition.

All code used in the robots has to be written by the team members. Legacy code is only permissible if it was written by a member of the current team. All code written has to be generic and no specifics of the competition maze can be programmed into the robot at the time of the competition. The only adjustments allowed at the competition are to adapt to the floor, lighting conditions, and wood used for the mazes.
Violations of these rules will lead to an automatic disqualification of the team."