Every summer the University of British Columbia Engineering Physics program holds a robot design competition for their second-year students. The competition is built into the ENPH 253 course during the summer. This year 16 teams went head-to-head and spent six weeks working 10-12 hour days building robots to compete against each other. Our team was able to place second after proving to be one of the most reliable robots.

 

This year the competition was to rescue six IMF agents from the enemy stronghold using our autonomous robot to navigate through each obstacle. The first stage of the course was to pass through an alarmed gate. An infrared (IR) beacon placed behind the gate would pulse at different frequencies to indicate if the gate was alarmed. Our robot had to be able to detect this IR signal to successfully pass through the gate into the stronghold. Once through, the robot had to ascend to the second level where the six agents were placed on platforms around a tub full of water. After the one minute mark, the platforms the agent were resting on would begin to drop and thus drown the agents. Once all the agents were retrieved from the platform they had to be sent down the zipline and out of the enemy stronghold. Our selfless and brave robot would stay behind to ensure the agent's safe journey.