NM Tech Teams Fare Well in Robot Competition

HARTFORD, Conn., April 27, 1998 -- Four teams of New Mexico Tech electrical engineering students have proven that when it comes to international robotics competitions, Tech-designed robots can "fight fires" alongside the best of them.

One of the teams New Mexico Tech fielded placed fifth overall in the Fifth Annual Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest, held at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. Nearly 50 robots, designed by teams from throughout the United States, Canada, and Switzerland, competed.

Contestants were challenged to build a computerized, autonomous (not remotely controlled) robotic device that could move through the hallways and rooms of a scale-model of a one- story house, detect a lit candle, and then extinguish the flame. The robot which accomplished the task quickest was declared the winner.

New Mexico Tech's fifth-place entry, a small, blue, canister- shaped robot named "Pi-Rho", was beat out of fourth place by only a second.

Zach Barnes, a member of Tech's Phi-Rho team, pointed out that Pi-Rho was built by himself and fellow team members with a total budget of $100--a relatively small amount of money compared to the second-place Swiss robot's estimated $700 budget.

In addition to Barnes, members of the successful Phi-Rho team also included George McCone, Donald Sheridan, and Julie Wiens. All are seniors majoring in electrical engineering at New Mexico Tech.

New Mexico Tech also had teams placing tenth, 13th, and 27th. Faculty advisor to all four teams was Stephen B. Bruder, assistant professor of electrical engineering at New Mexico Tech.

In a similar "best fire-fighting robot" contest held this past weekend on the Tech campus, "Pi-Rho" encountered a few technical difficulties and finished second to "Oscar," another student-designed robot from Tech which placed fourth in last year's International Fire-Fighting Robot Contest.