Queen's University students blast off to US for Nasa robotics competition
The students will head to Florida to compete against university teams from Australia, India and the US.
Ten students from Queen s University Belfast (QUB) in Northern Ireland are set to travel to Florida later this month to compete in a NASA lunabotics competition. The lunabotics competition challenges university-level teams to design, build, and operate a lunar robot using NASA systems engineering processes. The QUB team will bring a lab-built robot to test its performance in simulating future moon missions.
The robot must dig up lunar material, drive over obstacles, and use the material to construct a wall. Jack Fitzpatrick, a PhD student in mechanical engineering, expressed excitement about representing Northern Ireland, the UK, and Europe at the event. The team consists of software, electronics, and mechanical groups working together to control and test the rover.
Their aluminum frame robot rover, weighing 52 kg, was previously victorious in a competing event in Milton Keynes. Jamie Smith, an electrical and electronic engineering student and software team lead, explained that the rover is designed to autonomously navigate a lunar-simulated room, pick up lunar-simulant sand, and deposit it at another location.
The purpose of this competition is to demonstrate the rover's ability to autonomously operate on the moon and build environments for future human habitat.
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