April 20-22, 2012: 16 Countries, 59 Events, 238 Teams, 710 Entries, 682 Robots, and 1039 Engineers

Bronze Medal - 120 lbs Combat Robots

The University of Toronto Robotics Association (UTRA.ca) just returned from RoboGames in California, the largest robotics competition in North America. UTRA won a bronze medal in the 120-lbs class of combat robots and proudly returned home with the only Canadian medal at the competition. With this award, UTRA has been on the podium for five (5) consecutive years! UTRA draws its members from many disciplines within the faculty of engineering and teaches students to collaborate with other departments

(From the Left to Right) Rehman Merali, Paul Giampuzzi, Wen Cheng Chong, Merrick Zoubeiri, Wilson Tan

(More Videos and Pictures coming soon!)

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/04/robogames-2012-gallery/?pid=3257

Check out RoboGames for the results.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's sumo competition. We hoped that you had a lot of fun and gained tons of experience in designing a robot!

Here are the winners and participants for the competition 2012!

1st Overall, Best Software
Nick Frosst - "Tano"

2nd Overall, Best Mechanical Design and Aesthetics
Martin Cote and Alex Gordon - "Hugo"

Best Electrical Design
Fouzia Khan - "MiniBot"

Participants:
Sergei Kirsch, Mahdi Wadoodi, Moor Ali Hudson-Grant, Abdur-Rahman Gairey
"BlindBot"

Jad Kawwa, Puneet Gupta, Zach Munro-Cape, Rohit Rathi
"N/A - Atom"

Steve Choi, Jessica Lu
"Sumo-Sub"

Jason Laylo
"Moving Box"

Mark Viola, Steven Gaspar
"Snow Plow"

Karim Koreitem, Alex Cheng, Nikola Zikic, Hendrik Bernabe
"Last Minute"

We are excited to have Eckertech.com as our new RepRap Sponsor,
parts supplier based out of St. Catharines.The RepRap Team is very
grateful for their high quality parts and printing expertise.

A big thank you to Eckertech!

Check out their website at www.eckertech.com

The sumo competition date has been set and will take place at 12:00 noon on Saturday March 31st, 2012  in GB217.

For the past 8 months, teams have been working hard on designing and building a fully autonomous robot. The robot has one goal: to knock their opponont out of the arena (and perhaps a victory dance at the end). As the competition is autonomous, the robot must have a variety of sensors to detect the opponent as well as the boundaries of the arena.

You DO NOT have to participate to attend the competition! Anyone interested can come see what the Sumoteams have been doing for the past 8 months!!

Here is all the information regarding the competition:

What?: Sumobot Competition

Date: Saturday, March 31st, 2012

Time: 12:00 noon [BE ON TIME!]

Room: GB 217

BYOB! (Bring Your Own Bot!)

See you there!

During the summer, UTRA teamed up with the Discovery Channel to make an "Out of Control" Robot that would be used by Prank Science. The robot would appear to be controlled by an unsuspecting test subject while actually being controlled by a tele-operator behind the scene.

The robot was built upon the Custom ART Chassis used in the Autonomous RoboRacing competition.

Check out the clip here: http://watch.discoverychannel.ca/#clip574894

(Pictures coming soon)

Check out a short video explaining what UTRA is all about made by UTTV (University of Toronto Television).

The University of Toronto FIRST Robotics mentorship program works to assist high schools in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) participate in the "FIRST Robotics" competition each year. This highly successful annual event has been running for over 20 years, and over a million high school students have participated from across North America and the world. In this competition teams of high school students, sponsored and assisted by local companies and volunteers, design, assemble, and test a robot capable of performing a specified task in competition with other teams. Skills in mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering are developed.

UTFIRST is a faculty-wide initiative to foster good design principles and encourage current high school students to pursue further study in engineering. The program works with several high schools across the GTA during the 6 week build period in January-February of each year. Our mentors go out to the different schools for a few hours each week to work with the students and help them develop a functional and efficient robot to participate in the competitions each spring. UTFIRST is currently recruiting mentors for its 2011-2012 build season. The commitment is only a few hours per week to visit your chosen school and mentor the students in design from January - Reading Week. Please not that skills in Robotics are NOT a requirement to be a mentor. If you are interested in joining the UTFIRST team please email Patricia, at patricia@mie.utoronto.ca , and I will see you at our first meeting in mid-October.

Read more about USFIRST at http://www.firstroboticscanada.org/main/ and http://www.usfirst.org/

Here are some upcoming meetings for UTRA. (They can also be found in the Calendar)

1. Nuit Blanche
Come out and support UTRA as we complete the Elephant in the Room Art installation with The Practice of Everyday Design. The exhibit will be on display from 7pm on Sat., Oct. 1 to 7am on Sun., Oct. 2 in the lobby of the Keenan Research Centre (209 Victoria Street, Toronto) as part of the Nuit Blanche contemporary art event.
To be kept in the loop about this project and future Art/Engineering collaborations, please join our Google Group at: <https://groups.google.com/group/utra-art-collaboration>

2. Software Meeting
Our autonomous robots don't go anywhere without the "brains" of the project! Our software lead, Billy, will be hosting a kick-off meeting this Saturday for students interested in high-level software. Again the details are on the Calendar, but I think the plan is to meet at the UTRA lab (EA-106) at 12pm, then move to a bigger lab (BA, second floor).
For more details, Billy's created a brand-new Google Group for this project, so please join <https://groups.google.com/group/utra-robomagellan-software-0>. I think the goal is to have basic autonomy before the snow falls!

Are you interested in robotics? Would you like to build some robots and get some hands-on training in designing, machining, soldering, or programming?
Come to the University of Toronto Robotics Association (UTRA) Kick-Off Meeting to hear what it is all about!