SOCORRO, N.M. – A group of Mechanical Engineering students have launched a new design clinic project in robotics that will also serve as an effective outreach effort, said faculty member Dr. Curtis O’Malley.

Senior Macs Brown is leading a team that is building a Battle Bot that will compete in the three-pound category. Last year, Brown and his team participated in a robotic combat competition in Texas which was a first for NMT.

(Pictured at right are (from left) team members Macs Brown, Heath Williams, Zach Prostano, and Josh Crepeau.) 

Brown approached O’Malley about creating a new design clinic team to initiate a robotic combat event on campus this year. This resulted in the formation of a second design team working to create a specialized arena for the future robot combat event at NMT.

“I founded a new junior/senior design team last fall to build a robot combat arena,” O’Malley said. “This arena is nearing completion and the plan is to host an initial exhibition style event during this year's Spring Fling. Ultimately, the students and my goal is to host two events a year at NMT – one during 49ers and one during Spring Fling.”

O’Malley intends to invite former faculty and alumni back to NMT to compete in these events. As a means of fostering connection back to NMT, sporting event like activities, and a sense of community on campus.  The team has also been invited to set up the arena at Science Fiesta that Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum hosts each year at the state fairgrounds.

Last year’s team members who competed in Texas were Brown, Christopher Vigil, and Troy Pacheco. The event in Texas served as both a learning experience, as well as an inspiration to launch a similar event in New Mexico. This year's team is Brown, Zack Prostano, Natalie Denson, Joshua Crepeau, Heath Williams, and Michael Ward.

“We learned that the main challenge is survivability through multiple rounds of combat,” Brown said. “Our biggest flaw was that our bot was very complicated. Our design was robust, but it wasn’t easy to repair. During the competition, there’s no machine shop, no sophisticated tools. We have to be able to take them a part on a bench and do it quickly.”

This year’s team is working on a modular design that is easily assembled. They are also working on developing a new weapon system.  The main focus, however, is to establish an event that can become an annual outreach function for prospective NMT students.

“The most important thing for me is to establish a platform for people to build on in the future,” Brown said. “We want to establish a process and method with this robot that can be taken forward and improved upon. Hopefully, future teams will get more ambitious each year.”

O’Malley said this effort – like all design clinic projects – aims to provide students with professional experience they can build upon in their careers.

“Building the bot has a lot of different requirements,” O’Malley said. “There are pretty serious constraints for design, which mimics what they’ll do in industry, such as designing a payload for Spaceport America or NASA or even designing cars.”

“We like our senior design projects to get students to think about how things fit together,” O’Malley said. “This is a big jump between learning theory and actually doing it.”

– NMT –