http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/programmi/media/ContentItem-d79d8bf0-3adb-4c24-af77-ddec54524ded.html
Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge 2011 Final Competition
Monday, January 23, 2011
On-demand webcast feed:
Final Competition Information:
http://spacecoalition.com/blog/education/u-s-european-high-school-students-win-space-station-robotics-competition
NASA
astronaut Don Pettit, left, and Andre Kuipers, of the European Space
Agency, supervise a high school robotics competition aboard the
International Space Station. Photo Credit/ESA photo
U. S.and European high school student teams prevailed in a
competition this week aboard the International Space Station involving a
trio of colorful robotic spheres involved in the simulated exploration
of an asteroid.
In all, 36 teams competed in the third annual Zero Robotics SPHERES
challenge, which was orchestrated by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, NASA and the U. S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
to provide students with an out-of-this-world example of the
significance of math, science and engineering.
During the competition, NASA astronauts aboard the space station used
laptops to control the flight of flying spheres using computer software
developed by the teen aged competitors. The spheres move around using
pulses of compressed gas.
High school students compete in asteroid exploration simulation using soccer ball sized robotic spheres. Image credit/NASA
The winningU. S.team was Alliance Rocket, a partnership between Team
Rocket, River Hill High School, Clarksville, Md.; Storming Robots,
Branchburg, N.J.; and SPHEREZ of Influence, Rockledge High School, of
Brevard County, Fla., NASA announced.
The winning European team was also a collaboration called Alliance
CyberAvo. The partnership consisted of CyberAvo, I.T.I.S. Amedeo
Avogrado, Turin, Italy; Ultima, Kaethe Kollwitz Oberschule, Berlin,
Germany; and Lazy, Heinrich Hertz Gymnasium, Berlin, Germany, according
to the European Space Agency.
This year marked the first time the SPHERES competition was extended beyong the U. S.
Student teams wrote programming code for two of the MIT developed
robotic satellites. Astronauts Don Pettit, of NASA, and Andre Kuipers,
of the European Space Agency, who currently live aboard the
International Space Station, presided over the event in the station’s
Japanese science module, Kibo.
This year’s competition involved a simulation in which minerals were
extracted from asteroids, using the free floating sheres. The small
satellites were permitted to collect tools, if needed, before they
started to mine one of two virtual asteroids.
The robots moved using small jets. There were required to perform
maneuvres based on realistic situations, such as docking, formation
flying or retrieving objects.
Strategy was an important element of the competition. Teams could
hinder their opponents or cooperate to share more points overall.
“It is just amazing to me what these high school students have
accomplished,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a statement.
“To program a robotic spacecraft with the precision of a NASA flight
controller is quite a feat, but to have that ability, talent and
discipline at such a young age is remarkable. Our future is in good
hands.”
“Robots do have a soul, and their soul is your imagination, your
future,” Stefano Suraniti, the Minister of Education for the Piedmont
region inItaly, told the European competitors.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/zero-robotics-competition-0125.html
Robots go head to head, 250 miles above Earth
Third annual Zero Robotics competition pits robots against each other on the International Space Station.
Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office
Richard Garriott speaks with a student at the 2011 Zero Robotics Challenge.
Photo: William Litant
January 25, 2012
On Monday, high school students from across the country assembled in a
lecture hall at MIT, patiently awaiting a call from NASA.
For four months, these students worked in teams as part of MIT’s
Zero Robotics Challenge,
a competition in which high school students program small robots to fly
aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The robots, named
SPHERES, were originally conceived and built by students in MIT’s Space
Systems Laboratory.
These robots — roughly the size and shape of
a basketball — run on compressed gas, and can be programmed to spin,
revolve, hover and navigate through the air. In 2006, astronauts brought
several of them aboard the ISS; a few years later, astronaut Greg
Chamitoff PhD ’92 helped launch the Zero Robotics Challenge, making the
robots accessible to high school students.
Chamitoff was on hand
Monday, along with several colleagues who served as mentors during the
challenge: former astronauts Leland Melvin, John Grunsfeld ’80 and Jeff
Hoffman, now a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.
For
this year’s challenge, students were given a “mission” to program
robots to look for, mine and return alternative energy from fictitious
asteroids in deep space. They were given coordinates for virtual
asteroids located within the ISS and then had to develop computer codes
to make a robot perform using various strategies, each of which earned a
certain number of points.
For the past few months, student teams
have been testing their codes in computer simulations, maneuvering
virtual robots and competing against other teams in online games. The
finalists — 38 teams with the best simulation scores — assembled at MIT
on Monday for a chance to watch their codes play out in real robots on
the ISS, 250 miles above Earth.
The students gathered in MIT’s
10-250 lecture hall. Many sported uniforms, including one team clad in
NASA’s “pumpkin suit” orange. Once NASA successfully connected MIT with
the ISS, a large screen at the front of the hall projected a live view
from inside the station — and 10-250 erupted in cheers. Astronaut Don
Pettit, onboard the ISS, responded, “We hear you loud and clear, MIT.”
Pettit
and his colleague Andre Kuipers served as referees during the game,
monitoring the robots, keeping score and occasionally pausing the game
to refuel: Several times, the robots literally ran out of gas, and the
astronauts rummaged through the ISS module’s storage bins for extra
tanks of carbon dioxide.
Despite a few glitches in the video
feed, most teams were able to watch their algorithms in action. During
each match, both a red and a blue SPHERE began their missions
simultaneously, slowly circling each other and moving about the module
according to their preprogrammed trajectories.
“The coolest
thing is not just that they’re controlling these robots onboard the
ISS,” Melvin said. “In the future they may be developing algorithms to
do inspections on the outside of the space station, or they may program
robots to help vehicles dock. These are some really good skills that
will help us down the road with NASA’s future missions.”
During
the championship round, the video connection blinked out, leaving only a
live audio feed. The astronauts continued running the final teams’
codes, and Pettit offered to narrate each round.
“They’re
stabilizing at 50 centimeters and closing,” Pettit reported to the
earthbound crowd. “Are they going to crash? They just missed each other!
It looks like they’ve completed … and we have a score!”
The
winning team — dubbed “Team Rocket” — comprised representatives of three
high schools in Maryland, New Jersey and Florida. The team’s mentor,
astronaut John Grunsfeld, said the win was a surprise for the students,
many of whom had never worked with this particular programming language
before this challenge.
“This is just fantastic to see all the
students from all the schools and how well they did,” Grunsfeld said.
“Hopefully some of them will come to MIT.”
