Entries open for Gold Rush robotics competition

National Instruments (NI) is giving university students across Australia and New Zealand the opportunity to demonstrate their engineering skills on an international platform in the third annual NI Autonomous Robotics Competition.

Entries are now open for the competition that is designed to encourage innovation in the robotics field among tertiary education students. The 2013 competition, themed ‘Gold Rush’, will require autonomous robots to navigate an obstacle-filled course and identify and handle objects.

Matej Krajnc, Managing Director for National Instruments Oceania, said the competition allows students to demonstrate their engineering skills and broaden their career pathways.

“The competition is designed to give students valuable experience working with advanced technologies to create an autonomous robot, monitored by university supervisors and the NI team,” said Krajnc.

“Each year the friendly rivalry between the universities acts as motivation to all of our teams and we look forward to seeing what they create this year.”

All teams are required to successfully complete four milestone tasks in the lead-up to the competition to ensure they meet the technical requirements to compete in the final.

The winner of the NI Autonomous Robotics Competition will receive a prize of $3000, with $1500 for the runner-up and a bonus prize of $500 for the best robot design. All teams that successfully complete the competition tasks get to keep the development kit, valued at over $20,000.

The 2012 competition, won by Swinburne University of Technology’s SUAVE team with their robot, Frogstar, saw 24 teams from across Australia and New Zealand compete.

The competition will run from April through till the competition final in September 2013. Entries close 15 March 2013. For more information, click here.