The Mountaineers team from West Virginia University accept a $100,000 prize for completing the level two challenge at the 2015 Sample Return Robot Challenge from Dennis Andrucyk, deputy associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Saturday, June 13, 2015, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass. Members of the Mountaineers team are Yu Gu, Jared Strader, Scott Harper, Nicholas Ohi, Kyle Lassak, Alexander Hypes, Boyi Hu, Matthew Gramlich, Lisa Kogan, Edmundo Salgado Martinez, Marvin Cheng, Tanmay Mandal, Rahul Kavi, Stéphane D'Urso, Sean Patrick, Lucas Behrens, Jason Gross, and Powsiri Klinkhachorn. Also pictured is Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) President Laurie Leshin, and NASA astronauts Cady Coleman and Steve Swanson.<br><br>
The Mountaineers were the only team to complete the level two challenge. During the competition, teams were required to demonstrate autonomous robots that can locate and collect samples from a wide and varied terrain, operating without human control. The objective of this NASA-WPI Centennial Challenge was to encourage innovations in autonomous navigation and robotics technologies. Innovations stemming from the challenge may improve NASA's capability to explore a variety of destinations in space, as well as enhance the nation's robotic technology for use in industries and applications on Earth.
<bdi><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q71582571" class="extiw" title="d:Q71582571"><span title="American photographer">Joel Kowsky</span></a>
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2015-06-13
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