VSU's Lunabotics team earned the Phoenix Award and the Systems Engineering Leaps & Bounds Award!
CCAM’s Researchers mentored and supported VSU’s Lunabotics team as they headed to the national competition at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mentors guided the team through a tour of CCAM, followed by a working session to review their design. The mentors provided insight into some issues with the implementation and helped with potential designs. They also gave some guidance towards the odometry/path planning modules within the ROS (Robotic Operating System) framework. CCAM takes pride in supporting our member universities and mentoring the next generation of engineers.
The NASA Lunabotics Challenge is a university-level robotics competition that engages students in designing, building, and operating a prototype robot capable of performing construction tasks for future space exploration. The competition emphasizes the application of NASA’s systems engineering principles throughout the entire project lifecycle. Teams are challenged to create a robot that can collect and deposit lunar regolith (rocky soil) within a specified time, simulating real-world conditions for building infrastructure on the Moon and supporting long-term exploration goals, including eventual missions to Mars. VSU’s team was the only HBCU selected to compete, and it was the team’s first appearance at the competition.
The team placed 28th out of 44 and received two awards for their performance.
The System Engineering Leaps and Bounds Award and The Phoenix Award.
The team is quoted as saying:
“Winning the Phoenix Award felt like the universe confirming what we already knew: we rise. No matter what. We always rise.”
“This wasn’t just a competition. It was a proving ground. We proved to ourselves that we belong on any stage, in any room, against any team.”
“I came in not knowing what to expect, and I leave knowing exactly who I am as an engineer. This team made me that.”
