Swinburne University of Technology was awarded first place in the National Instruments Autonomous Robotics Competition.
Their trained robot named Frogstar, beating 17 other teams from across Australia and New Zealand and taking out the coveted robotics prize for the second consecutive year.
Eighteen university teams from Australia and New Zealand competed in the ‘Search and Rescue’ themed final.
The competition emulated the use of robotics in situations dangerous to humans such as an earthquake or battlefront. The UOW Robotics Team from the University of Wollongong was the runner up in the competition.
In the final, the robots navigated a course filled with obstacles signifying rubble to source two cubes representing injured or trapped humans. The cubes then had to be collected and relocated to safety.
Matej Krajnc, Managing Director for National Instruments Oceania said the competition allowed students to demonstrate their mechatronic and engineering skills on an international level.
“Each of the 18 teams competing in the final successfully completed four milestones over the past six months to qualify. Both SUAVE and the UOW Robotics Team had extremely impressive performances in the final, however all of our finalists have made remarkable achievements throughout the competition,” said Krajnc.
“The competition gives students valuable experience working with advanced technologies and can broaden their career path options, as such we saw a notable increase in participants for the 2012 competition.”
Ben Smith, leader of the winning Swinburne University of Technology winning team (pictured alongside), said the competition was a great opportunity to get hands on experience in robotics.
“The NI Autonomous Robotics Competition (ARC) has been a great opportunity for us to exercise the practical knowledge we’ve gained from our studies and to interact with other engineering and mechatronics students.
"Having won in 2011, we decided to keep Frogstar small and compact rather than become too ostentatious, and it was definitely a decision that worked in our favour,” said Smith.
Swinburne University of Technology was awarded the first place prize of $3000, the University of Wollongong was awarded $1500 and a bonus prize of $500 was awarded to University of Newcastle who were declared the winners of the most aesthetically pleasing robot award by the NI ARC judges.
All of the teams that successfully completed the competition final get to keep the development kit, valued at over $27,000.
John McIntosh, Victorian President, Engineers Australia and Professor Zhihong Man, Head of Robotics and Mechatronics at Swinburne University of Technology judged the competition.
Tim Joseph, Senior Engineer in the Battlespace Communications Operations Group, Defence Materiel Organisation, discussed the engineering industry in a presentation given at the final.
Of the 24 teams which started the competition in March, 18 were able to complete four milestones to qualify for the final.
The competition final was held at the new Advanced Technologies Centre Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, having won the inaugural event in 2011.
Universities which competed in the final were:
- Queensland University of Technology
- University of Newcastle
- University of New South Wales
- University of Technology Sydney
- University of Wollongong (NSW)
- Curtin University (WA)
- Griffith University (QLD)
- Charles Darwin University (NT)
- RMIT (VIC)
- Swinburne University of Technology (VIC)
- University of South Australia
- University of Auckland
- Auckland University of Technology
- University of Canterbury (NZ)
- Massey University (NZ)
- Victoria University of Wellington (NZ).