After years of competing at the NASA Lunabotics Competition at the Kennedy Space Center, culminating in a top prize in 2022 and a strong showing in 2023, the Montana Technological University Robotics Club embraced a new challenge this spring. Rule changes that rendered the NASA competition financially unsustainable prompted the team to travel to Ohio this year to compete in the National Robotics Challenges, entering a division focused on battle bots, or direct combat between teams.
Team members who traveled included: freshmen Noah Barnhart and Everett Lucibello; senior Garrett Pruttis; and graduate students Ethan Messner and Dustin Marquardt.
“It was definitely a big change moving on to the National Robotics Challenge (NRC) after competing in the NASA Mining Competition for so long,” said Marquardt, from Trout Creek. Marquardt is the president of the Robotics Club. “The design requirements between the two competitions are quite different. The biggest difference was the size constraint. Our new battle bots had to be under three pounds, compared to the 170-pound maximum for the NASA mining robot. Another key difference was the performance expectations. With the mining robot, our focus was on durability and minimizing maintenance. With battle bots, some level of damage is inevitable, it’s part of the challenge. So, our design priorities had to shift to allow for fast repairs and robust performance under impact.”
The competition in Ohio appealed to the Robotics Club for a number of reasons.
“The National Robotics Challenge stood out due to its low barrier to entry, particularly the simple design requirements for battle bots,” Marquardt said. “Additionally, the NRC offers other competitions, like the Automated Manufacturing Challenge, which opens the door for us to branch out into different areas. It gave us a chance to gain hands-on experience in a new type of competition while also keeping the door open for future growth.”
While in Ohio, the team also took advantage of the competition’s proximity to the Nucor Steel facility in Marion.
“That tour was extremely interesting, and we deeply appreciate Nucor’s facilitation,” Barnhart said. “The opportunity to see engineers in action proved particularly fascinating for our freshmen.”
Though the team did not place at competition this year, they learned a lot and are looking forward to competing again in the future.
“I would offer the night after the first loss as the greatest triumph out of the entire competition,” Barnhart said. “From my perspective, it seemed like it clicked for a lot of members. Previously, we had been worn to the bone getting the bots done. Now that we had actual feedback (and a taste of combat), I could see that spark returning. We spent the night frantically re-bending frames, creating new weapons, and talking about future designs. It was that re-igniting of passion that was so intoxicating to see.”
Marquardt has advice for students who might want to join the Robotics Club.
“Don’t be intimidated by how complex robotics might seem,” he said. “Even if you have no experience, joining the Robotics Club is a great way to learn. There are so many parts that go into making a robotics team successful: design, fabrication, programming, outreach, and administrative roles. No matter your background or interests, there's a place for you here. It’s an environment where you can grow your skills, and be part of something really exciting.”
Barnhart also had advice for prospective students.
“I think the novelty of a task like robotics is that it is not just the shepherding of combat robots around an arena, or the coding of Arduinos,” Barnhart said. “It's not just the hardware selection, and it's not just machining parts late into the night. It's not just troubleshooting the drive train, and it's not just talking to possible new members. It is the fusion of all of these tasks, all of these ideas, convalescing into that spark. I hope that whatever corners of the world the graduating students are flung to, that they take a bit of the multi-disciplinary knowledge with them. And more importantly, to never lose that spark, that joy in the task of creation.”