To cap the end of Engineer’s Week 2017 on February 25, Arizona State University (ASU) had its ‘Night of the Open Door’ annual open house at the Tempe, AZ campus. This event has interactive activities in Mathematical and Natural Sciences and much more. My interest was at the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building IV (ISTB4).

NASA Space Grant Robotics at ASU

The ASUB Design Features

This year the team had built a new robot to compete in the MATE competition with their Arizona State University Bot (ASUB) underwater robot design featuring a single enclosure with dual O-rings on all seals, gasket seal on electronics tray, and easy access to internal components. Their robot is powered by six Blue Robotics T-100 thrusters and features a custom claw (not shown in the image below), stereo webcams, and a downward-pointing webcam inside the main enclosure.

The ASUB underwater robot

The SB-129 robot

SB-129 was built in the 2015-16 season as a secondary outreach vehicle. It features tank steering, a two degree of freedom claw, and onboard power. The control system consists of an Android app that communicates over Bluetooth.

A budding robotics engineer operating the SB-129 robot. This generation’s youth are so comfortable with joysticks and apps.

A basic schematic of the SB-129 robot

Everything shown in this blog was before I even entered into the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology building IV. More to come on Planet Analog and EDN on this visit I had with the ASU teams on the ‘Night of the Open Door’.