Two Sidwell Friends robotics teams, the RoboPenguins (18 juniors and seniors) and the RoboQuakers (15 freshmen and sophomores) tied for 1st place at the Pennsylvania Regional Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center’s ROV Building Competition last Saturday at Villanova University. The two teams will now combine their talents to compete next month, June 16-18, at the international competition hosted by the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

The rookie teams were tasked with building an underwater, remotely operated vehicle capable of executing a series of missions simulating the tasks completed by commercial robots responding to last year’s BP oil drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Tasks included removing a damaged riser pipe, capping a wellhead, collecting a water sample, measuring depth, and sampling organisms. The entire competition had multiple components: completing the mission tasks, writing a technical report, delivering a 15-minute engineering presentation, and designing a technical poster.

In addition to 1st place overall, the RoboPenguins earned 1st place for points scored during the mission period, while the RoboQuakers picked up the 2nd place trophy. The RoboPenguins came in 2nd place for the technical poster, 2nd place for the technical report, and earned an honorable mention in the elegance award category for their robot’s simplicity.

More information about the competition can be found at the MATE website. Pictures and video from the event can be found on the Sidwell Robotics website at http://sidwellrobotics.com.