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Spring 2023 IGVC Blog!

IGVC Blog Post – 2/24

The past month in IGVC has brought us right before the testing phase!

Looking at what our mechanical team has achieved, we are in the final week before we have a vehicle that starts learning its way between lines and potholes. The motor mounts have been 3D printed and the retaining rings have been obtained! After machining the final touches on two of our sprockets, the first version of the motor and chassis will be complete and will be ready to receive the electronics and wiring. The next step from here will be to make version two of the motor and chassis setup which will be a more efficient chain-based system. The final step will be waterproofing and visuals. We might be seeing “Ranger” having a glow-up very soon!

VexU at the Kalahari Signature event!

VexU Blog Post – 1/19

On January 19th, VEXU competed at the Kalahari Signature event in Sandusky, Ohio, where the team won the Innovate Award! After brief period of relaxation at the adjacent waterpark and resort, we got back to work to prepare for our next two competitions. VEXU will be competing at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana on February 25th and again the next week in League City, Texas.

Fall 2022 Halloween Demobots!

Demobots Blog Post – 10/30

Happy Halloween! Can you believe we’re already halfway done with the semester? This semester in Demobots a lot has happened so here’s a brief update on each of our beautiful sub committees:

Spring 2024 IGVC Blog!

This past month IGVC has been working to finish calibration for all sensors!

All of the parts needed to connect to the Lidar sensor have been ordered! The sensor should be outputting reliable data by the end of this week!

Fall 2022 Robotathon Launch!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all having a great start to the semester. I wanted to update you all on our Robotathon 2022 competition. We had our kickoff on Monday, September 12th and it was a huge success with about 80 students signing up this year!

Robomasters 2022 March Blog Post

Wow! Can’t believe it’s already halfway through the semester, and only two months away from competition! We’ve made a lot of progress over the last month on electrical, software, and hardware teams.

IGVC 2022 March Blog Post

Over this past month, IGVC has been working on redesigning the motor mounts for the vehicle.

Demobots 2022 March Blog Post

Spring is in the air, and with it comes the sweet smell of robots in the morning! Demobots has been making steady progress this semester towards it’s yearly goals.

Dancebots 2022 March Blog Post

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to put out a quick update about what Dancebot has been up to recently. We are really focusing on getting new members up to speed, as we haver several newer RAS members express interest in participating within this Demobots project.

Corporate Committee 2022 March Blog Post

Hello everyone!

This month, the corporate committee worked on planning topics of interests to present in the following semester during corporate events.

Demobots Spring Kick-Off!

A new semester is off to a great start! The Demobots we have been working on this semester include Talons of Acquisition (TOA), Couchbot, Dancebot, and a new addition: A ball-catching-bot (which I’m sure will have a zinger of a name really soon)

Robomasters Spring Kick-Off!

Hey guys! This semester, we need to hit the ground running to be able to compete in the summer.

IGVC Spring Kick-Off!

IGVC’s goals for the semester are to be working in the machine shop to finish up assembly for the robot.

Dancebots Spring Kick-Off!

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to provide a quick update on behalf of Dancebot! We had a first successful meeting of the semester and can’t wait to get started on making some progress with mothership!

Corporate Spring Kick-Off!

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Corporate Committee’s first Blog post :3

Robotathon 2021 Wrap-Up!

Hello all!

I am excited to announce that RAS has put on a successful Robotathon Competition!

Demobots Fall 2021 Wrap-Up

Demobots is back for another semester of robot creation and fun!

Dancebots Fall 2021 Wrap-Up

Hello all!

Just wanted to put out a quick blog post about progress regarding Dancebots for the semester! Progress has been a bit slow as in person activities resume around campus, but we are excited to resume work on this committee for next semester!

Robomasters Fall 2021 Wrap-Up

In the last semester, the RoboMaster team has made significant progress.

IGVC Fall 2021 Wrap-Up

Over this past semester, IGVC has focused on the construction of the competition robot.

Dancebots Fall Update

With the fall semester now underway, Dancebots has made good progress in establishing in person work again!

IGVC Fall Update

IGVC is a competitive RAS committee whose main goal is to work with autonomous robots. The objective of the competition is to navigate through an obstacle course under a specific amount of time all autonomously. The course is about half the size of a football field and the robot itself is about the same length and width as a golf cart.

Demobots Fall Update

A new semester is off to a great start! While we were not able to engage to the extent we would have liked over the past two virtual semesters, the groundwork we laid has been able to set us off at a good pace this fall. The Demobots we have been working on this semester include Talons of Acquisition (TOA), Couchbot, and Dancebot.

Robomasters Fall Update

Welcome to our first season of RoboMaster! We are so excited to finally be out of the planning phase and into the building/programming phase. Currently, we have a great group of people working on the robot on all of our subteams, but we always welcome more!

Demobots - Semester Kickoff

Welcome back to a new semester of Demobots! This spring semester Demobots has started off strong with several new members and big plans for the spring.

Demobots - Semester Recap

Although it seems as though thanksgiving break just ended, Demobots is now packing up for winter. But before we ride our toboggans into the sunset, allow us to recap our semester and highlight our plans for spring.

IGVC - Semester Recap

Over the past few weeks, IGVC has just been continuing the crash courses. These crash courses are introductory courses for Python and Linux, which are very important in having the robot able to function properly.

Micromouse - Semester Recap

The fall semester is coming to a close, and we’ve had such a unique experience with online meetings. Our various teams have learned lots of important skills and tools related to the design process, from Python to network protocols to KiCAD.

Dancebot - Dancebot Software Updates

Matthew again. One of our firmware members recently completed a driver for the LED eyes that will be installed on the new Baby Dancebots.

IGVC - November Update

Over the course of the past few weeks IGVC has been focusing on the software aspects of things. Especially for new members, now is a great time to join!

Demobots November Update

With only a few weeks until the start of fall break, demobots is getting as much work in as possible before the Inventionworks space, 3D printers, and laser cutters are unavailable.

Micromouse November Update

Our hardware team has started PCB layout and developed a preliminary 3D model of the robot to estimate PCB geometry.

IGVC - October Update

Another few weeks have past by and IGVC is making some progress! All work has been assigned to different members. Access to the R & A Lab was recently granted by Texas Inventionworks.

Dancebot - Dancebot Mechanical Updates

Hello! My name is Ian and I am the mechanical team lead for Dancebot. There has been a lot of participation by RAS members in designing the mechanisms of both the Dancebot Mothership and the Baby Dancebot.

Micromouse October Update

After making a few minor but critical edits, our hardware team has finalized our schematic design and is starting PCB layout.

Demobots October Update

Hello Hello! So far the Demobots teams have been continuing to make steady progress, below are a few updates.

Demobots Semester Kick Off

This semester has certainly been an unusual one for Demobots. Despite its unorthodox structure this year with meetings taking place on Zoom and collaboration occurring primarily online, many exciting things are taking place in Demobots!

Micromouse Fall Plans

The fall semester has begun, and our micromouse team is hard at work! Even though we’re only meeting up online this semester, we’re still able to make significant progress on our robot.

IGVC Fall 2020 Kickoff

What a great kickoff to the semester! IGVC has been in the planning stage for the past couple of weeks. This has involved organizing the division of work for the different subteams.

Technical Blog Post - Designing a Software Filter

Table of Contents

Outreach - An Introduction to Outreach for Fall 2020

Hey everyone! My name is Rosanna Rincon and I have the pleasure of being your RAS Outreach Coordinator for the 2020-2021 school year! This is the first of hopefully many outreach blog posts!

Dancebot - Dancebot Starts the Semester Dancing

It’s been a while since the last blog post from the Dancebot team. We’ve received a lot of interest from the new RAS members in joining this subcommittee, and have moved ahead in setting up projects for the members to work on.

Dancebot - Dancebot Update

Surprise update! I’ve been working on the Dancebot over the last week (and severely procrastinating on my final labs), and I wanted to share what’s been done.

Micromouse - Semester Wrap-Up

We’ve reached an early and unexpected end to our semester. While we were not able to compete this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we have made progress on creating a new micromouse. A major modification in the new micromouse is changing the microcontroller from an ESP32 to a TM4C.

RoboSub - Closing Remarks

Our semester has come to end for Spring 2020. Unfortunately we were not able to compete this year due to the pandemic cutting our semester short.

IGVC - Semester Overview

This past semester IGVC worked diligently on constructing a self-driving robot. This included assembling the main frame, welding together the body, lathing axles down to size, 3D printing boards and covers, and a multitude of other things.

Robotathon Steering Committee - How It's Made Part 2

Matthew here. This is the last of three posts. In this post, I’ll talk about some of the challenges we’ve faced and will face, and how we plan to tackle them.

Demobots - Semester Wrap-Up

Wow, quite a lot has happened in the last few weeks. Quarantine, unfortunately, brought the spring semester to a halt a little early for RAS, but here’s what happened this semester, and what to look forward to for the fall:

Robotathon Steering Committee - How It's Made

Matthew again, here’s the second of three posts.

Dancebot - Kicking It into High Gear

We recently had our first meeting as the new Demobots Dancebot Team, and there was a lot of interest on working on the project! The team right now consists of internal members, but once the new semester starts, anyone looking for a cool Demobots project can join.

Robotathon Steering Committee - Your Second Program Update

Hey y’all, this is Matthew, co-head of Robotathon, here again. This is the second update this semester from our Robotathon steering committee.

Region V - End of Semester Update - Interesting Tidbits

There are a couple of things that I didn’t include in the other blog post. Below are a couple of tips and tricks and bodges we did to get things to work.

Region V - End of Semester Updates

Unfortunately, we canceled our attendance to the competition prior to Spring Break.

Robotathon Steering Committee - Your First Program Update

Hey y’all, this is Matthew, one of the co-heads of Robotathon. This is the first of several updates throughout this semester from our new Robotathon steering committee. We’ve extended the original Robotathon committee in order to create a more robust and engaging competition. Among the goals that we want to complete this semester, we have:

Region V - Getting Close!

Region V is competing on April 4th in Oklahoma City!

RoboSub - Kicking off the Semester

This semester we’re kicking off RoboSub by getting our test sub operational. Last semester we finished the electronics and watertight housing allowing us to move our thrusters underwater and start testing. By experimenting with different sensors and hardware on this sub we hope to gain knowledge that we can carry into creating a second sub.

Demobots - Demobot Update

We are off to a strong start for 2020! IGVC (The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition Committee) is on track for going to competition. They are almost done putting the robot together and finished welding the chassis over winter break. The goal is to spend the rest of the time after spring break only working on the autonomous algorithm. Below is what the final design looks like.

Demobots - Demobot Update

This semester, we have several teams working on improving various robotics platforms that RAS owns.

Region V - Fall Semester Update

We have ordered initial parts and will be testing in the coming weeks!

Region V - Starting Up

The Fall semester has well under way so that means so is Region V!

Final Outreach Events for the 2018-2019 School Year

RAS had a great time at the final two outreach events for the 2018-19 school year. We were asked to show our robots, office space and the makerspace to Girl Scouts who were taking robotics courses at UT.

Micromouse - Gearing up for competition (Part 2)

Over the past couple of weeks, micromouse has been getting ready to build their prototype robot. The printed circuit board was ordered, and all of the parts required have been shipped. Once the PCB arrives, we will build the robot, and improve our control algorithms.

Micromouse - Gearing up for competition

Micromouse is getting ready for the final stretch now. We are working on updating our PCB and software to get the mouse ready for the competition.

Demobots - Demobot Update

Demobots is one of RAS’s non-competitive committees, where RAS members can get involved in a variety of student led robotics projects. This semester we have made progress on our long term projects and set up some interactive demos for outreach events.

CURM - CURM Update!

CURM is just over a month away!

Micromouse Update

This semester started with a bang for micromouse. We worked on building a field, printing a new chassis, and working on a pcb.

Girl Day

IEEE RAS got to show off and explain a few of our cool robots at the 2019 UT Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day. We brought out the cargo robot, RC car, polargraph and dancebot. We got to explain how each one of them worked to the kids and even let them drive and control them. Our next event is Explore UT which is the first weekend of March this year. Explore UT is a massive community event put on at UT that will have around 50,000 students this year, and RAS is excited to teach and demonstrate robotics to as many students as we can!

CURM - CURM 2019 is here!

CURM, or the Convention for Unconventional Robotics Movement, is an annual robotics showcase that focuses on robots that move unconventionally. This event is designed to challenge participants to get outside of their comfort zone and create that crazy robot that you’ve always wanted to make. In past years we have had robots that walk, hop, slither, vibrate, and generally move in all sorts of crazy or unexpected way. This is the coolest event of the semester!

Region V - Gaining Momentum

Region V’s Spring semester has begun, which promises to be especially exciting with our competition quickly approaching in April.

Edison Lectures

IEEE RAS had our first outreach event of the year at this year’s Edison Lectures. Students of all ages come to the University of Texas on this day to see the STEM projects brought by UT students and companies. IEEE RAS showcased a few of our robots, including a 150 pound robot designed to carry cargo. The members of RAS who attended discussed robotics with the students and talked about what it’s like to be an engineering student at UT. We even let the students drive the cargo robot. In the near future, RAS will also be at Introduce a Girl to Engineering and Explore UT.

Social - PES & Union

The Spring 2018 semester has started and its kicked off with a great start.

Lego Outreach

In the month of October, IEEE RAS Outreach coordinated an event with representatives from ARM and FIRST to help with FLL Build Day.

More Socials

Unfortunately our last three IM ultimate games have been cancelled due to inclement weather.

Region V - Gaining Momentum

Over the past several weeks we have made some great strides in getting our first prototypes up and running since our last blog post.

Ras General Update

The Fall 2018 semester is more than halfway over, and UT IEEE RAS has had a great semester thus far.

RAS - Registration Meeting

At our meeting on Tuesday, we split up into different groups based on major in order to give each other advise on registration.

The Robotathon Strikes Back

Robotathon is coming. Are you ready?

Outreach - So far, so good

IEEE RAS Outreach had a busy first half of the semester.

Micromouse - so it begins

RAS is proud to introduce a new committee called micromouse.

Demobot - Semester Update

The Demobot committee is off to a great start this semester!

Social - Ultimate

This semester, RAS is playing intramural ultimate.

Robotathon Hath Begun!

Robotathon has begun and teams are off to a running start.

The Region V Season has Begun!

The Region V season has begun!

Start of the Year

Hope everyone is having a great semester so far.

CURM Conclusions

CURM was a tremendous success!

End Semester Update on GPS

As the semester dwindles down, I’d first like to say I’m proud of everyone who has put in all the hard work this past year.

Region 5 - Semester Conclusion

Our Region 5 team this year ended with a bang!

Demobot - First Draft of Polargraph

The Demobot Committee has completed a first draft of the drawing machine!

Semester Outreach Update!

The first 6 weeks of outreach have been very exciting!

PacBot - Four Weeks Out

As of this writing, there are 25 days left until the PacBot competition, which means that it’s crunch time for the PacBot committee!

Social Events - Rock Climbing Adventures

RAS is currently in the final weeks of many competitions, but we still find time outside of school and robotics to get together.

CURM - Convention for Unconventional Robotic Movement

The date for the event is officially April 14th with location TBD!

To sign up, please go to tinyurl.com/CURM2018 and submit the form. For more details including an FAQ, please visit https://ras.ece.utexas.edu/about/curm.html.

Region V - Mid Semester Update

Region 5 is making some great progress preparing for this year’s competition!

IGVC - Mid Semester Update

With less than 12 weeks remaining before competition, we’re looking to move right along into the initial testing phases of our robot!

Demobot - Building a drawing machine!

The Demobot Committee has started this semester by undertaking a new project.

RAS Volunteering - Working with the Community

The past four weeks were very exciting for RAS Volunteering.

Social Events - Sand Volleyball and More!

In addition to building robots, RAS organizes an intramural team every spring semester. This year, we will compete in sand volleyball!

PacBot - A New RAS Committee

As you may already know, RAS has a new committee this semester: PacBot!

CURM - The Intersection of Robotics, Creativity, and Fun!

The date for the event is officially April 15th with location TBD!

Region V - A Spring Semester Overview

With only nine weeks until competition, UT’s Region 5 team is off to a great start this semester.

IGVC - Navigating our way to Competition Day

Welcome back to another semester of UT RAS’ intelligent ground vehicle team!

IGVC

The IGVC committee is currently on pace to compete at the 25th annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition held by Oakland University on June 1st, 2018.

Region 5

This year’s IEEE Region 5 Robotics competition team is off to a racing start!

Lego Day

On Saturday October 7th, our organization took part in Lego Day for the First Lego League.

Robotathon

Robotathon is a semester long competition that is largely geared towards students with little to no experience in robotics.

Region 5

Our Region 5 team, the Bevonauts, has been on a fast-paced, high-momentum track since January.

IGVC

UT is registered to compete in the 2017 IGVC competition!

Couch

After at least two years, the couch of UT IEEE RAS rolls again!

IGVC

IGVC has begun meeting during the Fall 2016 semester.

Robotathon 2016

Robotathon is a UT-hosted robotics competition targeted towards incoming freshmen, transfer students, and anyone else interested in learning about robots.

IGVC

The IGVC Committee has decided to defer entering the 2016 IGVC Competition in June in order to focus on preparing new members.

Demobot

The Demobot Committee undertakes projects to maintain and refurbish existing robots as well as design and build new ones.

Mercury

The Mercury Remote Robot Challenge is an international, interscholastic robotics competition put on each year by Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater,Oklahoma.

Robotathon Recap!

This year’s Robotathon wrapped up this past November with amazing showings from all of our teams.

IGVC

The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition, or IGVC for short, is a competition that UT Austin and various other universities across the United States partake in during June.

Primavera

Primavera is the image processing component of the painting robot project RAS in involved in, called Robotticelli.

Robotathon kick-off!

Robotathon is officially in session! This year’s competition is called RASBall!

Year in Review

The University of Texas at Austin chapter of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society serves a diverse community of students consisting primarily of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science majors.

New blog!

Welcome to the new RAS blog!