6 CAMPUS I .uTSAVQARbHS ""7 _ campus@technewsiit.com Techi‘i’ews | Tuesday, March 11,2014

Illinois Tech Robotics gears up for
Jerry Sanders Design Competition

Kori Bowns
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Illinois Tech Robotics (ITR) is in
the midst of preparing for their major compe-
tition of the year, the Jerry Sanders Creative
Design Competition (ISDC.) ISDC is rapidly .
approaching and begins on Thursday, March
14, at University of Illinois Urbana—Cham—
paign.

ISDC is a two—day competition
sponsored by AMD that ITR competes in
each year. ISDC is one of the oldest robot-
ics competitions in America, and routinely
draws competitors from schools across the
Midwest. This year, approximately 30 robots
will compete, representing both the Chicago
and Urbana-Champaign campuses of the
University of Illinois, College of DuPage, Val-
paraiso University, Northern Illinois Univer-'
sity, and, of course, Illinois Institute of Tech-
nology.

ITR has prepared five robots to
compete this year, including some veteran ro-
bots as well as a few newer competitors. ITR
will be re-entering its oldest—running robot,
Roslund, who will be showing off some new
wheels this year instead of the old Mecanum
wheels it once proudly wore. ITR will also be
entering an entirely new robot, Modulus, fea-
turing a crab drive system, where the wheels
rotate normally as well as spin on a pivot, al-
lowing the robot to change direction at any
time with no turning radius. Fenrir, ITR’s
two-wheeled gravity drive robot will also
be making a return and will be sure to be a
crowd favorite. Ioining these robots will be
the highly-powered Goliath and the flying
quadrocoptor project designed by members
of ITR.

“I loved the whole experience last
year,” said Nash Kaminski, second-year comv
puter engineering student and captain of the
Goliath project team. “I loved getting to know .
the other competitors so now we can compete
with them as effectively as possible. After our -
club’s success with Pumpkin Launch this year,
we’re really excited to play to win.”

ISDC is a robotics competition with
a game challenge that varies each year where
robots are designed to manipulate game piec—
es and score points. Each match has four ro-
bots facing off against each other for a seven—
minute time period where teams compete to
have the most points at the end of the match.

For this year’s competition, teams
have to build robots that are able to pick up
and manipulate flexible disc cones that are
located in various places around the play—
ing field and place them on pegs around the
competition arena. When a robot is able to
place a cone on a peg, it becomes in control
of the “zone” on the field surface surround-
ing the peg, and it receives one, three, or five
points depending on the location of the zone
and how difficult it is to access on the playing
field. Robots can also manipulate and place
soccer balls in certain locations to unlock
more areas of the field in order to score more
points.

No matter the outcome of the com-
petition, ITR is 'proud to have prepared five
robots to be competing at the intercollegiate
level; they look forward to the heat of the
competition, the time spent with their team-
mates, and the lessons to be learned. .

“I’m excited to be able to compete
with all of the people I spend so much time
with” said Ryan Tan, second—year mechanical
engineering student who is competing for the
first time with ITR. “I love being able to put
together some projects that really look amaz-
ing, and I’m pumped for the competition.”

Photos by Kari Bowns