UA Lunabotics Lunar Robotic Mining Team members with Robert Cabana, director of Kennedy Space Center at far left are, left to right, Sriram Yarlagadda, Michael Quayle, Courtney Gras, Ben Chaffee, Brian Haynes, Richard Johnson, John Quayle-Zimmer, Tom Vo, David Bordwell and Tom Hartley, professor of electrical and computer engineering and faculty adviser with John Caruso, from NASA Glenn, at far right.
The University of Akron’s team of electrical and computer engineering students who participated in the Inaugural Lunabotic Mining Competition at NASA Kennedy Space Center received a fifth place honorable mention award. Montana State University earned first place.
The May 27 and 28 competition attracted contenders from 22 universities. These teams were challenged to design and build a remote-controlled or autonomous excavator, or lunabot, able to collect and deposit at least 10 kilograms of an abrasive lunar simulant within 15 minutes.
“After several heroic days of fixing the Internet-based communications and controls, our team was one of only six teams that was able to load lunar regolilth into the meter-high bin with its teleoperated robot miner,” says Dr. Tom Hartley, professor of electrical and computer engineering and faculty adviser.
Hartley adds that team members enjoyed other space center highlights, including opportunities to watch space shuttle Atlantis land, view a Delta rocket launch at night, dine under the Apollo 18 vehicle, and meet several NASA officials, astronauts and engineers. “It was all pretty amazing,” Hartley says.
About the UA College of Engineering
The UA College of Engineering is the fourth fastest growing college of engineering in the country (among the 150 largest; source: American Society for Engineering Education) and the fastest growing in the state. The college’s current 2,142 undergraduate enrollment represents a 54.9 percent increase in students between fall 2004 and fall 2009.
Media contact: Denise Henry, 330-972-6477 or henryd@uakron.edu.