Beetle CameraWireless Steerable Vision System

2021

Coaches: Vikram Iyer, Ali Najafi, Johannes James, Sawyer Fuller, Shyamnath GollakotaHometown: University of WashingtonStats: This robotic camera was designed to be as light and energy efficient as possible so it can be carried by an insect. It can be controlled to turn and look different directions and would allow researchers to study insect behavior.Fun Fact: The team also designed an insect-scaled robot to carry and test the camera system.

IceBotIcy Proof-of-Concept Robot

2021

Coaches: Devin Carroll and Mark YimHometown: GRASP Lab at the University of PennsylvaniaStats: IceBot has a chassis and wheels made out of ice, to prove that it is possible to use as a material. IceBot brings us closer to having a robot that can explore distant planets and self-repair, building new parts out of local materials.Fun Fact: The team tried molding, 3D printing, and CNC machining the ice but found that cutting ice with a drill was the most effective and efficient method of shaping it.

SlothBotConservation Robot

2021

Coaches: Magnus Egerstedt and teamHometown: Georgia Institute of TechnologyStats: SlothBot aims to be as energy efficient as possible while monitoring weather, temperature, carbon dioxide, and other environmental data. It moves slowly on a 100-foot cable, moving into sunlight when its batteries need recharging. It’s designed to be slow so that it is extremely energy efficient and can monitor data for long periods of time.Fun fact: SlothBot’s adorable 3D printed shell helps protect its electronics from the elements.

Tumbling Magnetic MicrorobotTiny Colon Explorer

2021

Coaches: Elizabeth E. Niedert, Chenghao Bi, Georges Adam, Elly Lambert, Luis Solorio, Craig J. Goergen and David J. CappelleriHometown: Purdue UniversityStats: These tiny robots could be used to deliver medicine to a targeted location. They are too small to carry batteries, so they tumble like miniature wheels while powered by an external rotating magnetic field.Fun fact: The team chose the colon as the location to test the robot in vivo since it is easily reached and very messy.

SquidbotSquid-Inspired Underwater Robot

2021

Coaches: Caleb Michael Christianson, Yi Cui, Michael Ishida, Xiaobo Bi, Qiang Zhu, Geno Pawlak, Michael T. TolleyHometown: University of California San DiegoStats: Squidbot is a squid-like robot that propels itself by generating jets of water, similar to how a real squid moves. This robot travels underwater untethered and with its own power source, and can carry a sensor such as a camera to collect data as it travels.Fun Fact: A race between Squidbot and a real squid would be no competition: Some squid travel about 36 feet per second, while Squidbot’s top speed is one foot per second.

OSIRIS-RexAsteroid-study Robot

2021

Coaches: Very large team with members from NASA, University of Arizona, Lockheed Martin, Arizona State University, CSA-ASC, CNES, KinetX, MIT, ULAHometown: NASAStats: The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is traveling to Bennu, a carbonaceous asteroid whose soil may record the earliest history of our solar system. Its job is to collect a sample, map the asteroid, document the sample site, and more.Fun Fact: NASA is collaborating with Japan’s JAXA, trading information about this mission and JAXA’s very similar Hayabusa2 asteroid study.

ShimonMultitalented Musical Robot

2021

Coaches: Gil Weinberg, Guy Hoffman, Mason Bretan, Marcelo CicconetHometown: Center for Music Technology @ Georgia TechStats: Shimon was originally developed to improvise on the marimba, but has recently been programmed to also generate lyrics, sing, and even analyze spoken lyrics and respond to them—allowing him to be challenged to a rap battle. Shimon uses deep learning, a class of machine learning algorithms, to generate his own words. He even has an album on Spotify!Fun fact: Shimon is trained on datasets of 50,000 lyrics from jazz, progressive rock, and hip-hop.

iRobot® Roomba® i3Wi-Fi® Connected Robot Vacuum

2021

Coach: CEO Colin AngleHometown: iRobotStats: The i3 navigates and maps your home in neat rows using state-of-the-art floor tracking sensors. Reactive Sensor Technology tells the robot where it can and cannot reach. Roomba® i3 learns your cleaning habits to offer up personalized schedules.Fun fact: Roomba® i3 Robot Vacuum is compatible with Clean Base® Automatic Dirt Disposal.

OpenBotOpen Source Smartphone Robot

2021

Coaches: Matthias Muller and Vladlen KoltunHometown: IntelStats: OpenBot is an open-source 3D printed smart robot that it is possible to build for less than $50. It adds onto your existing Android smartphone, and all of its plans are freely available online. An Arduino nano microcontroller allows the phone to communicate with the vehicle body.Fun Fact: The team was inspired by projects such as Google’s Cardboard VR device, allowing home users to tinker with technology that typically has a higher cost of entry.

ShodoFrankaChinese Calligraphy Writing Robot

2021

Coaches: Sen Wang, Jiaqi Chen, Xuanliang Deng, Seth Hutchinson, Frank DellaertHometown: Borglab @ Georgia TechStats: ShodoFranka is a highly dexterous robotic arm that approaches the art of Chinese calligraphy as a trajectory optimization problem. It can write any Chinese character given only its unicode symbol.Fun Fact: The robot emulates real calligraphy artists in resetting their brush with a “dip-ink” function. After a stroke is written, this behavior restores the brush to a predictable state for more a predictable painting outcome.

BleekerCartoon Robotic Dog

2021

Coaches: Jonathan MahoodHometown: A Small Town North of TorontoStats: Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog is a comic strip by Jonathan Mahood about ten-year-old Skip Smalls, his friend Lila, and Bleeker, his electronic dog.Fun Fact: The comic was originally called Hoover: The Rechargeable Dog, but he was renamed Bleeker in honor of artist Jonathan Mahood’s grandfather—Bleeker was his middle name!Read Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog at gocomics.com/bleeker