Penn students compete to put robot research to real-world use
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The winners of the Y Prize competition (from left) Andy Wu, Kelsey Duncombe-Smith, and Richard Zhang, presented a plan to use flying robots to detect buried improvised explosive devices (IEDs). (Emma Lee/for NewsWorks)
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Penn student Katy Powers holds a quadrotor robot. The agile flying robots are capable of sensing each other and working in teams. (Emma Lee/for NewsWorks)
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Penn student Justin Starr controls a hexapedal robot. Inspired by insect movement, the six-legged robot can move over uneven terrain. (Emma Lee/for NewsWorks)
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Penn student Ian McMahon manipulates a PR2 robot, sometimes used in assembly line work. (Emma Lee/for NewsWorks)
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Children watch Lucy, a soccer playing robot, during a break in the Y Prize competition at the University of Pennsylvania. (Emma Lee/for NewsWorks)
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The winners of the Y Prize competition present their plan to use flying quadrotor robots to detect buried explosive devices. (Emma Lee/for NewsWorks)
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Tiny quadrotor robots hover in formation in the Grasp robotics laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. (Emma Lee/for NewsWorks)
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Professor Vijay Kumar holds a large flying robot developed at the University of Pennsylvania's Grasp Laboratory. (Emma Lee/for NewsWorks)
Maybe these aren’t the droids you’re looking for, but what these robots lack in Star Wars panache, they make up for in real-world utility.
Four teams of University of Pennsylvania students demonstrated that utility Monday afternoon in the final round of Penn’s Y Prize Competition. These and other teams proposed applications for robotic technologies developed at Penn’s General Robotics Automation Sensing and Perception laboratory.
The three-person team Identified (emphasis on the IED — for “improvised explosive devices”) was the winner, which presented a plan to use flying quadrotor robots to detect hidden IEDs with ground-penetrating radar. The team comprised two students from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Kelsey Duncombe-Smith and Richard Zhang, and Wharton Ph.D. student Andy Wu. The team will receive a $5,000 prize and non-exclusive rights to commercialize the Penn-owned technology that their proposal is based upon.
The other finalist teams each presented a robotic prototype for such real-world applications as security patrol, building construction inspection, and the injection and vital sign monitoring of livestock.