NASA Competition Tests Team
A team of CSULB’s best Aerospace and Mechanical engineering students will compete in the 5th annual RASC-AL Robo-Ops Competition held June 2-4, at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. The competition is sponsored by NASA and organized by the National Institute of Aerospace.
The competition is an opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to create a team that will a build a planetary rover prototype.
Three students and an advisor will attend the Robo-Ops challenge in Houston while the remaining team members fully operate the prototype rovers from their home campus.
Long Beach State’s engineering and aerospace team was exclusively picked to compete with eight other teams in this year’s competition. This year’s team is led by mechanical and aerospace engineer, Praveen Shankar and consists of more than 20 engineering students, including Andrew Blackney, Ganesh Kudlepannavar and Jorge Vega.
“NASA has asked for a planetary rover that meets certain requirements such as, can it get over eight-centimeter rocks, weigh less than 45 kilograms (approximately 100 pounds) and have a dimension limit of a meter by a meter by a half meter?” Blackney said.
The rover will be picking up rocks in Houston while the team controls it from CSULB’s campus.
“We have to pick up rocks from the Rock Yard,” Kudlepannavar said. “There are special colored rocks that have special points. First of all, we have to detect the rock. It is possible to do it manually. The goal is for the rover to perform the task autonomously. No other team has done this.”
The specific construction of the prototype rover is the responsibility of Jorge Vega, a mechanical engineering major at CSULB. He oversees many important aspects of the rover. “The team designs the robotic arm’s gripper in order for it to be capable to pick up the required rock size and weight,” Vega said.
The team members are proud of their hands-on approach and know they have produced a smart and successful rover for the competition.
“A program like this is a lot different from being in a classroom,” Blackney said. “You go from seeing a teacher draw a picture on a board to building something yourself. It shows that students here are highly motivated to go and work out in real life. That is something that Cal State Long Beach is known for—engineers who like to get their hands dirty.”
Three cash prizes will be awarded to the first, second and third place winners. Scoring is based on the ability to perform the tasks, along with adherence to requirements and time.
To view the competition during live feed, click here. Feed will be provided Wednesday June 4 from 10:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Thursday June 5 from 8:45 a.m. until 12:15 p.m.
