Team Atlas with the Judges Design Innovation Award. Photo credit: NASA Lunabotics.

By Barbara Aleksandrowicz

ROBOTS ON THE MOON: A HUGE SUCCESS FOR

POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

STUDENTS IN NASA COMPETITION

NASA Third Annual Lunatics Mining Competition took place May 21-26, 2012 at

Kennedy Space Center, FL. 58 teams competed in the Competition. Team Atlas, a

group of NYU-Poly students won the Judges Innovation Award, placed third in

Team Spirit Contest and sixth in the Design Competition. Their project also

received NYU-Poly’s 1st Paul Soros Prize for Creative Engineering.

The Winners of the NASA's Third Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition were:

Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence (Grand Prize)

First Place - The University of Alabama in collaboration with Shelton State Community College

Second Place - Iowa State University in collaboration with Wartburg College

Third Place - West Virginia University

On-Site Mining Award

First Place - Iowa State University in collaboration with Wartburg College

Second Place - The University of Alabama in collaboration with Shelton State Community College

Third Place - Milwaukee School of Engineering

Judges Innovation Award

Polytechnic Institute of New York University

Efficient Use of Communications Power Award

Iowa State University in collaboration with Wartburg College

Best Use of Social Media

Universidad de Los Andes of Colombia

Slide Presentation and Demonstration Award

First Place - The University of Alabama in collaboration with Shelton State Community College

Second Place - West Virginia University

Third Place - Universidad de Los Andes of Colombia

Outreach Project Report Award

First Place - Iowa State University in collaboration with Wartburg College

Second Place - Montana State University - Bozeman

Third Place - John Brown University

Systems Engineering Paper Award

First Place - Montana State University - Bozeman

Second Place - John Brown University

Third Place - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Team Spirit Award

First Place - The University of Alabama in collaboration with Shelton State Community College

Second Place - Instituto de Astrobiologia Colombia IAC

Third Place - Polytechnic Institute of New York University

About NASA's Third Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition

NASA's Third Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition is a university-level competition designed to

engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). NASA will

directly benefit from the competition by encouraging the development of innovative lunar excavation

concepts from universities which may result in clever ideas and solutions which could be applied to an

actual lunar excavation device or payload.

The challenge is for students to design and build an excavator, called a Lunabot, that can mine and

deposit a minimum of 10 kilograms of lunar simulant within 10 minutes. The complexities of the

challenge include the abrasive characteristics of the BP-1, the weight and size limitations of the

Lunabot, and the ability to telerobotically or autonomously control the Lunabot from a remote mission

control center.

This year the scoring for the mining category was not based primarily on the amount of material

excavated in the allowed time but instead required teams to consider a number of design and

operation factors such as dust tolerance and projection, communications, vehicle mass, energy/power

required, and level of autonomy.

Over 50 teams from all over the world are registered to compete this year for the coveted grand prize,

the Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence.

Who is eligible?

Undergraduate and graduate student teams enrolled in a U.S. or international college or university are

eligible to enter NASA’s Lunabotics Mining Competition. Design teams must include: at least one

faculty with a college or university and at least two undergraduate or graduate students.

NASA has not set an upper limit on team members. A team should have a sufficient number of

members to successfully operate their Lunabot. The maximum number of registered teams has been

reached for 2012.

What are the requirements?

Teams will compete in up to five major competition categories including: on-site mining, systems

engineering paper, outreach project, slide presentation (optional), and team spirit (optional).

Additionally, teams can earn bonus points for mined and deposited BP-1 in the competition attempts,

having multidisciplinary teams, and collaborating between a majority institution and a U.S. Minority

Serving Institution (MSI). All documents must be submitted in English.

What can teams win?

The team with the most points from all categories will win the grand prize, the Joe Kosmo Award for

Excellence, and will receive the Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence trophy, team certificates for each

member, a $5,000 team scholarship, and up to $1,000 travel expenses for each team member and

one faculty advisor to participate at one of NASA’s remote research and technology tests. Awards for

other categories include monetary team scholarships, a school trophy or plaque, team and individual

certificates, and KSC launch invitations.

More info http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/kennedy/technology/lunabotics.html.

2012 Competitors

International Teams

BRAC University – Bangladesh, Islamic University of Technology – Bangladesh, Military Institute of

Science and Technology – Bangladesh, Concordia University – Canada, Laurentian University –

Canada, York University – Canada, Instituto de Astrobiologa Colombia IAC – Colombia, Universidad De

Los Andes – Colombia, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra – India, GITAM University – India, Kirori

Mal College – India, MPSTME, NMIMS – India, Saveetha University – India, Srinivasan Engineering

College – India, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana – Mexico, Politechnica University of Bucharest –

Romania, Hanyang University - South Korea.

US Teams

Arizona State University; Auburn University;, California State University, Chico; California State

University, Sacramento; Colorado School of Mines; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona

Beach Campus; FAMU/FSU College of Engineering; Florida Institute of Technology; Florida

International University; Iowa State University; ITT Technical Institute; John Brown University; Miami

University; Middle Tennessee University; Milwaukee School of Engineering; Modesto Junior College;

Monroe Community College; Montana State University – Bozeman; Montana Tech of the University of

Montana; New Mexico State University; Polytechnic Institute of NYU; South Dakota School of Mines

and Technology; Temple University; Texas A&M International University; Texas A&M University Corpus

Christi; The University of Akron; The University of Alabama; The University of North Carolina at

Charlotte; The University of Texas Pan American; University of Arkansas; University of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign; University of Nebraska – Lincoln; University of New Hampshire; University of

North Dakota; University of North Florida; University of Portland; Virginia Tech; West Virginia

University.

About Team Atlas

Team Atlas was founded at NYU-Poly in November 2010 under the leadership of current team member

Nicholas Cavaliere, a multi-talented mechanical engineer. The team participated in Lunabotics 2011

with modest success: they beatboxed, exhibited a strong outreach and systems engineering program,

casually socialized with NASA’s top engineers, and developed a winning agenda for next year’s

competition. Specifically, they started designing and planning for the May 2012 competition in May

2011 under the leadership of Stanislav Roslyakov, a civil engineer who can rock a hard-hat but

effortlessly works the ‘mechanical engineer’ look too.

Atlas’s team members boast a complemental blend of diverse skills and backgrounds; unsurprisingly,

the team hails from the melting-pot capital of the world: New York City. The team of just eight

students is small, yet skilled. Senior team members include Stanislav, Nicholas, Jack, and Jessica.

Joining the team this year are Atlas’s wireless & controls specialists: Yusif, Salvatore, Mattias, and

Ryan.

Atlas is ecstatic to be sponsored by SpaceX, Verizon, BatterySpace, and MakerBot. The team’s robot is

100% designed and manufactured by students at NYU-Poly. To educate on and promote STEM and

space exploration, the team has reached out to numerous schools throughout New York City.

Team Atlas during NASA's Third Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition

Photo credit: Dr. Alexey Sidelev

Photo credit: Jessica Aleksandrowicz

About NYU-Poly

Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly Polytechnic University), an affiliate of New York University, is a comprehensive school of engineering, applied sciences, technology and research, and is rooted in a 157-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship: i2e. The institution,

founded in 1854, is the nation’s second-oldest private engineering school. In addition to its main

campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it also offers programs at sites throughout the region and around the globe. Globally, NYU-Poly has programs in Israel, China and is an integral part of NYU's campus in Abu Dhabi.

The 2011-2012 PayScale College Salary report ranked NYU Poly top eight among all four-year colleges in the nation by starting salary potential and mid-career salaries, behind California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in first, Harvey Mudd College in second, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in third. NYU Poly was also ranked seventh in Top Private Universities by Salary Potential.

Congratulations to Team Atlas, NYU-Poly and the Organizers of the Annual Lunabotics Mining

Competition!

Sources: www.nasa.gov/lunabotics, http://www.poly.edu, www.facebook.com/lunabotics,

http://ustream.tv/nasaedge