WWU students show technical skills in robot competition

A handful of Western Washington University students gathered in the Communications Facility Thursday, June 3, for a robot competition sponsored by the WWU Computer Science Department and the College of Sciences and Technology.

For more information on the competition, visit http://merlin.cs.wwu.edu/robots or contact Jianna Zhang, associate professor of Computer Science, at (360) 650-3845 or jianna.zhang@wwu.edu.

WWU student Vidhya Bavi works on her robot during the student robot competition in the Communications Facility on Thursday, June 3. Bavi's "Seesaw Robot" tries to balance a ball by flipping the levers about the pivot point so that the ball does not roll o

Western Washington University student Anastasios Dragseth operates his "Thrower Bot" robot during the student robot competition on the WWU campus Thursday, June 3. Dragseth's robot is designed to throw an object at a target, and it's programmed to know wh

Benjamin Jorgenson's "SpiderBot" robot is designed to walk on eight legs. It is programmed to move forward until one of its light sensors is tripped by a lightly colored nearby object, such as someone's hand. The robot then turns to avoid the object. Phot

Jeremy Griffith's robot "Cave Escape" is a top-down, two-dimensional video game. The goal is to avoid obstacles in the form of lines printed on a paper belt. Photo by David Gonzales | University Communications intern

Keith Pastolero's "RoboTender" robot. Photo by David Gonzales | University Communications intern

Scott Portman's "MoverBot" robot follows lines and moves obstacles in its way. Photo by David Gonzales | University Communications intern

Tom Keeling's "Calculatron" robot calculates irregular areas. Photo by David Gonzales | University Communications intern