On the eve of National Robotics Week, WPI robot experts are in full-robot mode.
Ken Stafford and Colleen Shaver of WPI’s Robotics Resource Center are at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum on April 5 and 6 to display WPI’s award-winning robots Oryx 2.0 and Moonraker 2.0. Joining Stafford and Shaver is former WPI student Paul Ventimiglia, who created Moonraker 2.0 and won the $500,000 NASA Regolith Excavation Challenge in October 2009. Oryx. 2,0, which won the 2012 NASA/NIA Robo-Ops Competition, traverses sand and collects rock samples in simulated planetary settings. Meanwhile, Moonraker 2.0 was designed to excavate simulated lunar soil.
Stafford says this is a great venue to spread the word about robotics.
“This is a thrill for WPI, which of course is the university that started robotics engineering as an undergraduate program,” said Stafford. “We’re excited to be part of this national awareness of robotics and to initiate it this weekend.”
Meet former WPI student Paul Ventimiglia, who created Moonraker 2.0 and won the $500,000 NASA Regolith Excavation Challenge in October 2009.
