The Tripod

From April 14-15, Trinity College hosted the 14th Annual Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest in the Oosting Gymnasium. Coordinated by Dr. David Ahlgren, the Karl W. Hallden Professor of Engineering, this colossal event is a point of pride for the Trinity Community. "It's our big international event," exclaimed Ahlgren.

The global involvement of teams from all over the world allows students to freely exchange ideas in a harmonious environment. "Another goal is to encourage people of all ages to be involved in robotics and to be excited by invention, discovery, and team work," said Ahlgren.

Adam Wright '10, an engineering student who has been spending the entire semester preparing for this event with partner Alex Bisson '10, had some personal thoughts on the process. "Navigation is a big problem," said Wright. "We're not going to win," he noted. Nonetheless, the initial goal of the three Trinity teams who qualified was to successfully put out the fire, regardless of how fast the process takes. "We're expecting to qualify and to hopefully put the flame out […] it's not that fast, but it's pretty reliable," said George Brickley '10, also a participant in the competition. The participant whose robot extinguishes the flame the fastest wins the entire competition.

"While my robot did not qualify, I had a lot of fun going to the competition.  I really enjoyed looking at the other robot designs," said Peter Kempson '10, another engineering student. The goal of most of these rising engineers was to participate in an event that brought various cultures together.

The Trinity Robot Study team was involved, along with the Expert Division, another Trinity team. The Experts came in second last year to a fast robot from Shanghai. This team included David Maliniak '08, Neil Robertson '08, Kashif Mohiuddin '08, Adam Fine '08, and Sagar Chowdhury '08. "We're going to destroy them all!" claimed the Expert Division group.

Teams from all over the world came to compete. Highly represented nations included Canada, Israel, China, Singapore, and Brazil, along with the United States. There were 123 robots, with approximately 500 members contributing to their construction.

The Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest was established in 1994 as an international competition, which is open to people of all ages. The rules of this contest have inspired similar competitions in other various locations around the world, including Beijing, Buenos Aires, Calgary, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Tel Aviv, Seattle, Shanghai, and Singapore.

This is the 13th time that the event has been held on Trinity's campus since it moved here permanently in 1995 when Ahlgren became the head of the engineering department. The contest has become more complex over the years with the inclusion of walking and expert division robots, which have made the competition more demanding and competitive.

A new event has also been introduced this year: Robot Hide and Seek. The robot must find a child in a simulated house and alert the controller in the shortest amount of time. Cash awards are given to the top three contestants in each category. The categories range from junior to expert.

Alongside the competition itself, Ahlgren also hosted a symposium in McCook Auditorium. This consisted of robotics seminars and demonstrations done by specialists in the field from top companies. One presenter, named John Billington, Senior Product Manager at iRobot Corporation, presented his own mechanism that was built for the purpose of extinguishing fire.

"Our interest is connecting with the educational community and encouraging more learning by using robots to help teach different subjects," said Billington when asked about his thoughts on the competition being held at Trinity. "Its great to see so many students interested in robotics."

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