17 finalists announced for NI Autonomous Robotics Competition

The National Instruments (NI) Autonomous Robotics Competition now has its 17 finalists. The student university teams will travel from across Australia and New Zealand to compete in the competition final at Swinburne University in Melbourne on 21 September.

The teams have successfully negotiated four competition milestones and are now finetuning their robots for the live final, where they will be judges on their robots’ aesthetics and ability to negotiate an obstacle-filled arena.

According to Matej Krajnc, Managing Director for National Instruments Oceania, the competition is a platform for engineering students to showcase their creative and technical skills as they delve into the world of robotics at a time when there is growing demand for the technology.

“Over the past six months we have seen truly impressive accomplishments from all our competition participants and many will undoubtedly go on to achieve incredible feats as industry innovators and leaders,” Krajnc said.

The 17 finalists in the competition are:

• University of New South Wales (NSW)
• University of Technology Sydney (NSW)
• University of Wollongong (NSW)
• Curtin University (WA)
• Griffith University (Qld)
• Charles Darwin University (NT)
• RMIT (Vic)
• Swinburne Institute of Technology (Vic)
• University of South Australia (SA)
• University of Tasmania (Tas)
• University of Auckland (NZ)
• Auckland University of Technology (NZ)
• University of Canterbury (NZ)
• Massey University (NZ)
• Victoria University of Wellington (NZ)

The top prize is $3000, with $1500 for the runner-up and a $500 bonus prize for the most aesthetically pleasing robot. After successfully completing the competition, the teams keep the $27,000 development kit.

Competition judges include John McIntosh, Vice President, Engineers Australia and Professor Zhihong Man, Head of Robotics and Mechatronics at Swinburne.

To register to attend the competition final, call 1800 300 800 or click here.