Midwestern Robotics Design Competition
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| Midwestern Robotics Design Competition | |
|---|---|
| Status | active |
| Genre | robotics competition |
| Frequency | Annually |
| Venue | Kenney Gym Annex |
| Location(s) | UIUC |
| Country | USA |
| Years active | 37–38 |
| Inaugurated | 1987 |
| Previous event | 8-9 March 2019 |
| Next event | 27-28 March 2020 |
| Website | mrdc |
The Midwestern Robotics Design Competition (MRDC) (formerly AMD Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition prior to 2016) is an annual robotics competition held at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where participant teams compete with self-constructed robots in an annual game objective. The competition is one of the oldest continuing robotics competitions in the United States and was originally named after the University of Illinois alumnus, and the co-founder and former long-time CEO of AMD, Jerry Sanders.[1]
Every year, a new game objective is created that tests the competitors' skills in creative design and functionality. Team registration usually ends in January, and is open to any college or university team. Multiple independent teams from the same university are allowed. Participating teams from universities nationwide spend nearly a year designing and constructing their robot for the event, travel to the UIUC Engineering Open House in March to compete in the 2,000 sq ft (190 m2) arena for the two-day (Fri-Sat) event. The Design Competition is funded by grants from ARM and was organized by the MRDC Committee at UIUC.
From the MRDC website,
"The competition promotes engineering disciplines and offers students a chance to demonstrate their technical abilities and creativity while applying knowledge learned in engineering courses. Overall, the design competition presents a well-rounded multi-disciplinary engineering challenge to future engineers."[2]
Annual competitions
23rd Annual Competition (2010)
The 23rd annual competition featured 20 teams from five different universities that competed in a giant game of tic-tac-toe, played with colored balloons.
27th Annual Competition (2014)
To win the competition, one had to design a “cone transportation system” that transported traffic cones to specified areas in the arena, known as "territories", to win points. After a team successfully transported cones to a territory, said territory was said to be "under the control" of that team. There were three tiers of territories that awarded 1, 3, and 5 points when "controlled" for 10 seconds. Territories "controlled" at the end of the match awarded 10, 30, and 40 points.[3]
28th Annual Competition (2015)
The course was set up with four quadrants, with each robot starting within their “home” corner. Robots had to traverse obstacles such as moats, teeter totters, tunnels and doors that covered the course in order to collect the balls they needed to score. There were three types of balls used in the competition, foam balls, wiffle balls, and golf balls. Each type has a different point value assigned to it based on how hard it is to collect and place it into the scoring bin. Foam balls and wiffle balls are scored by getting them into a rotating bin and golf balls are scored by putting them into a hole on a putting green.[1]
After the main competition, a demolition competition was held where the robots demolished each other. The Illinois Institute of Technology's team was the champion of the demolition round.[1]
29th Annual Competition (2016)
The 2016 course included two levels, and gates that opened and closed. This forced teams to work on a strategy to get into the inner circle before scoring in the game.
References
- ^ a b c "Goliath Demolishes at Robotics Competition". today.iit.edu. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
- ^ "JSDC Official Site". Archived from the original on 2012-07-11. Retrieved 2012-02-20.
- ^ Bramble, Jordan; Merida, Harold; Khan, Ibtsam (2014-04-01). "Design of a quadcopter for winning the Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition": 198–203. doi:10.1109/SIEDS.2014.6829881. ISBN 978-1-4799-4836-9.
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