Colorado State Students

RoboCup Team Places Fourth in International Robotics Competition in Germany

Updated June 21, 2006

Update - June 21, 2006

UPDATE (June 21, 2006) - Colorado State engineering students and their search-and-rescue robot, Good Samaritan, placed fourth at this year's World RoboCup Championship competition in Bremen, Germany. In addition, the CSU RoboCup Team won an award for "Most Realistic Deployment."

"We are quite happy since there were 23 teams, most of who had already placed first, second, or third in a national championship," Carl Kaiser, team member and graduate teaching assistant, said from Germany.

For more information on the international competition, visit RoboCup 2006.

Team claims top prize at nationals

Colorado State University engineering students recently took top honors among U.S. teams at the RoboCup U.S. Open in Atlanta, beating out such universities as Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech.

The only team to beat Colorado State in the search-and-rescue robot competition was the German International University of Bremen, a school with a highly experienced team and the host of this year's RoboCup World Championship. Colorado State is heading to that competition in June.

"We are very proud of the team for their exceptional work," said Wade Troxell, a mechanical engineering professor who oversees the Colorado State RoboCup team. "They've demonstrated to me that, after they graduate, they'll be successful engineers for the fortunate companies that employ their talent. After their great performance at nationals, we are excited to represent Colorado State at the international event."

Detect and Identify Disaster Victims

The 12-student senior design group has been working on the robot, Good Samaritan, since fall semester. Good Samaritan is an urban search-and-rescue robot designed to locate and identify humans who have been trapped in disaster areas. Its main purpose is to detect and identify victims and relay the information to someone outside the disaster area before the rescue effort can begin.

Colorado State also received the "Best Mobility" award in Atlanta, with six times as many points as the next team. The robot was able to identify four times as many victims - the primary goal of the competition - as the next best team.

Made out of carbon fiber composite materials, the robot is sturdy and lightweight, weighing about 15 pounds. Good Samaritan stands at about 1.5 feet tall and 2 feet long. Its center of mass can be adjusted, which helps it move up and down stairs and maneuver through difficult terrain. It is set on a pair of rubber tracks driven by two electric motors.

Equipped with a thermal camera, Good Samaritan can detect body heat using infrared light. A microphone detects human voices, and sensors act as range finders to generate maps.

To qualify for the national competition, the students submitted a detailed paper on the workings of the robot. The team also pre-qualified for the international competition in Bremen, Germany, due to their impressive proposal. They received another invitation based on their second-place overall finish in the national competition.

The team was surprised by their early invitation to the international event because most teams are from outside the United States, said Noah McKechnie, senior mechanical engineering major and member of the RoboCup team. Due to its exceptional performance at the national competition, the team is expected by competition organizers to perform well in Germany.

"Our team was fueled by coffee and burritos," McKechnie said of the many hours spent assembling the robot. "We needed energy when we were working on the robot at 2 a.m."

Practical Engineering Experience

The students used concurrent engineering practices common in high-tech companies, as well as industry-standard processes and tools. They began by establishing design criteria and constraints before designing the robot on a computer program called Pro/Engineer.

They used finite element analysis - a way to determine what kinds of forces and interferences are expected to occur - to test the strength of the robot. The students started their Good Samaritan design last August and built the robot near the end of fall semester.

Students estimate they spent about 40 hours a week per person to finish the robot. They started with a budget of $1,250 from the College of Engineering. Since then, the group has raised nearly $15,000 in private funds, but are still about $7,000 short of having all the equipment they need to be successful and travel to Germany.

Chance For CSU World Championship

The RoboCup World Championship is June 14-29, in Bremen, Germany. The CSU team is hoping to send six seniors and one graduate student to the event. However, they are still in need of financial support to help with lodging, food, and additional parts for the robot.

According to Carl Kaiser, team member and graduate teaching assistant, "We could be significantly more competitive if we could buy a couple thousand dollars of additional sensors for the robot."

Gifts to support the Colorado State RoboCup Team are being accepted online. For additional information about the team or Good Samaritan, e-mail Carl Kaiser or telephone Carl at (970) 491-4268.

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CSU RoboCup Team

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduates

• Lucas "Luke" Abbott
• Adam Biegen
• Richard Hopkins
• Jude Hueber
• Jason Komorowski
• Jonathan Reynolds
• Nathaniel "Nate" Johnson
• Ross MacGregor
• Kristen "Kris" Magowan
• Noah McKechnie
• Brian Rak
• Daniel Schmidt

Electrical Engineering Undergraduates

• Zach Blackwell
• Rob Dorre

Mechanical Engineering Graduate Students

• Carl Kaiser

Mechanical Engineering Faculty

• Wade Troxell