2007 National Robotics Innovation Competition - Winners announced

ABB Australia has announced Jarred Spriggs from Deakin University is the overall winner of the National Robotics Innovation competition for university students, launched earlier this year.

In a combined effort, the Society of Automotive Engineers and ABB Australia encouraged university students to team up with industry to design and develop an industrial application of a robot in a work cell or process. All entries were evaluated on generated savings, innovation, safety, likelihood of success and presentation skills.

Three group finalists were invited to present their proposals to a Board of Directors made up of a group of industry professionals. The judges' comments reflected the overall excellence of the proposals and the amount of work put in by the students, saying there was great difficulty in choosing only one winner.

Finalist presentations included: • Will Midgley and Gabrin Raveendran from the University of Melbourne, with their proposal for the robot installation of an instrumentation panel for Ford. • Jarred Spriggs and Aaron Dixon from Deakin University, for a proposal for an automated vehicle-glazing application for Ford. • Also from Deakin University were Lee Underwood, Glenn Madden, Todd Matthews, Scott Wade and Rob Slavin, with an automated process for combining metal parts and polypropylene for plastics manufacturer RMAX.

Jared Spriggs was announced the overall winner, winning him three months’ paid work experience with ABB Australia in the robotics division. All finalists received vouchers to attend a robot training course, as well as trophies to be presented at a later date.