WPI-sponsored Robotics Team Wins $500,000 at NASA Moondust Excavation Challenge

http://www.wpi.edu/news/20090/robot.html
WPI-sponsored Robotics Team Wins $500,000 at NASA Moondust Excavation Challenge


The Worcester Polytechnic Institute-sponsored team Paul's Robotics took home first place last weekend at NASA's 2009 Regolith (moondust) Excavation Challenge, beating out 22 other teams of professional engineers, and college, university, and high school students from across the country, for the $500,000 top prize. The competition was held Oct. 17-18, 2009 at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., and was part of NASA's Centennial Challenges program, which exists to help inspire innovative solutions to technical challenges in the aerospace industry.



The victorious team – made up of WPI faculty, staff, students, and alumni -- is led by Paul Ventimiglia, a WPI robotics engineering major and head of Worcester-based Paul's Robotics. Ventimiglia and his team designed, built, and programmed the robot, which is known as "Moonraker 2.0."



"We're excited that the machine did what we designed it to do," Ventimiglia told New Scientist magazine.



Ventimiglia's team consists of Mike Ciaraldi, professor of practice in WPI's Computer Science Department; Colleen Shaver BS '04, MS '08, manager of robotics initiatives at WPI; Brian Loveland '07; Jennifer Flynn '04; and Marc DeVidts, a software developer from Miami, Fla., who is the team's only non-WPI-affiliated member. WPI is the team's primary sponsor.



The impetus for the Regolith Excavation Challenge was NASA's quest for new ideas for excavation techniques that do not require excessively heavy machines or large amounts of power. The competition called for teams to design and build robotic machines to excavate simulated lunar soil (regolith), a function that will be an important part of any construction projects or processing of natural resources on the Moon. Specifically, the robots had to navigate around a moon-like surface, collect regolith, and deliver it to a collection bin. To qualify for a prize, a robot had to dig up and dump at least 150 kg of regolith within a 30-minute period. The teams that boasted the largest loads would claim the three cash prizes: $500,000 for first place, $150,000 for second place, and $100,000 for third place. Paul's Robotics won the competition by collecting and dumping 439 kg of regolith.



"This was a landslide victory; it's a wonderful outcome," said Kenneth Stafford, adjunct assistant professor, director of WPI's robotics resource center, and Ventimiglia's faculty advisor. "Moonraker 2.0 is an excellent, excellent engineering project."



Moonraker 2.0 features a large number of scoops that constantly rotate to collect the lunar soil. Once the robot is full, the team navigates it to the collection bin and deposits the regolith by raising the collector arm. Per NASA guidelines, Moonraker 2.0 is a battery-operated robot weighing less than 80 kg that fits fit within a 1.3 meter cylinder; it also employs only technology that could be used on the moon.



"I'm very excited that we have a winner this year," Greg Schmidt, deputy director of NASA's Lunar Science Institute in Moffett Field, told New Scientist. "The fact that it's taken three years shows what a difficult job it is."



To learn more about the team, visit Paul's Robotics website or follow on Twitter.

Read about the win on New Scientist's website.

To learn more about WPI's robotics engineering program, visit the department's website.

WPI Worcester Polytechnic Institute Review

9/23/2009

 

Wrap up: Faux MIT near Boston lags Ivys and best public Ivys, but outranks many other MIT-alikes for those with less-than-top scores.

 

Smaller technical engineering school about an hour out of Boston in the shadow of MIT. Robert Godard, father of American rocketry got his start here. I think of it like a faux MIT, (think Hyundai vs Honda or Lexus vs Mercedes) but with lower test scores. Some people compare it with Boston University, and some say it's better for engineering geeks than BU. Ratings seem to put it lower than the best public universities for engineering like Berkeley or U Washington. But at #68, at least it's ranked by US News as a national university, (#555 by Forbes) and its engineering program is ranked by US News better than many of the other MIT-wannabes like Rochester Institute of technology. It's best claim to fame is #3 ranking of salaries of graduates trailing only behind MIT and Harvard in the college galaxy that is Massachusetts.

 

I've seen the campus, it's got trees and some newer buildings, including the student union. Computer workstations are everywhere. The music program is pretty good, and the athletics appear to be better than MIT. Worcester has a few colleges but it's not the trendiest college town as Worcester has declined a bit from its industrial revolution heyday. The small retail area just off campus has some beat up pizza shops with t-shirt clad students walking by, though there are modern malls in town. Freshmen live in dorms but upper classmen shack up in old wood 3-story houses in the neighborhoods, not like MIT which has massive dorm complexes and lots of frats. In engineering, it's not ranked as highly as the best public universities such as University of Washington, or private ones like Stanford or MIT, but holds its own with many of the better ones like U Mass Amherst and other 2nd string tech schools like Rochester Institute of Technology. The athletics is nothing like the U Washington Huskies, but at least its stadium is on par with a school district like Bothell's Pop Keeney field where MIT is more like a high school field.

  

Main competition for case study student from Seattle: University of Washington, Santa Clara University, Boston University, Rochester Institute Technology

 

WPI better

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  WPI is better on US News engineering and Forbes than Rochester Institute, Boston University

 

WPI worse

• Santa Clara University is about as good in engineering, better Forbes rating, nicer city

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  University of Washington has better engineering rating, better Forbes rating, better US News national rating

 

Pro

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  No. 1 for student/faculty interaction in the National Survey of Student Engagement

  WPI is #3 top earning university in Massachusetts after MIT and Harvard
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  Industrial Engineering program ranked #4 in 2006 by Princeton Review

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  WPI is #555 Forbes vs #567 for Rochester Institute

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  WPI is US News #68 National, Rochester Institute of Technology is #9 Masters North
• No. 9 by The Princeton Review for "best career prospects" for graduates of the MBA program.
  
• No. 51 by US News 2008 best engineering program for college with doctorate, equal to Tufts, Drexel, higher than Boston University (61), Illinois Institute of Technology (61) Rochester Institute of Technology (70)
  
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  Interactive Media and Game Development major like Digipen
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  Less than an hour out of Boston, which has a nice autumn, and lots but not insane amounts of snow in winter.
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  If your math is high enough they don't need to look at your SAT reading
• Good music department
  
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  WPI is relatively small but not tiny

Con

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  WPI is #555 Forbes vs #150 Santa Clara University
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  WPI lower than University of Washington national ranking #68 US News National vs #42
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  US News engineering #51 ranking below Rensselaer Polytechnic (21), University of Washington (21) Columbia University (25)
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  Forbes #555 lower than #178 University of Washington, #342 Boston University
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  U Washington top 10 computer science department
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  It's in Worcester, old New England industrial mill town
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  Not lampooned by College Prowler
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  Stadium and athletics better than MIT but it's nothing like U Washington Huskies football team

 

Location: Worcester Mass, less than 1 hr west of college center-of-the-universe Boston off I 90. Ex-industrial town that hosts a lot of other colleges. I took a tour of Worcester to see what there was to see in 1980s and concluded there wasn't much to see there, but NYC and Boston aren't far away.

Admit rate: 66%, comparable to better public universities like U Washington

Cost: expensive, but they have a lot of money, though not as much as MIT

Forbes ranking: 555

US New ranking: 68 National University

Out of state: 46%

ACT 25/75: 24 29

SAT Math 25/75 630 720

Asian: 6% That's pretty low for a tech school, and even fewer other minorities. It's a male-heavy student body and this Asian dad wonders how many Asian women will get on a bus for parties at this school from Boston vs MIT or BU, but there are nearby colleges in town. Asians like tech schools, but also population centers with significant Asians populations.