Chicago EDT competes in three major robotics competitions, the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition, the NASA Robotic Mining Competition, and the Midwestern Robotics Design Competition. IGVC is an international contest in which teams from different universities build robots that can autonomously navigate an obstacle course. Each team requires expertise in electrical, software, and mechanical engineering. RMC is a competition in which teams are tasked to design and construct an excavation robot to collect "lunar dust." Teams are given the option of manual control or autonomy. MRDC is a competition where teams of engineering students must build a robot which completes objectives in order to score points. This competition also has significant combat between robots, and it requires strategy and skill, in addition to a good design, in order to be successful. In preparation for MRDC in March, teams begin the design process in the fall prior to competition. Construction of the robots can begin any time, but usually begin January before the competition. A UIC senior on the team noted that the team members were, "putting in over 20 hours a week," in addition to schoolwork.
Robots
The team has developed and competed with the following robots: Retired
Achilles
Ares
Enyo
Kratos
Kronos
Loki
Odin
Bob
Scarab
Thor
Lamashtu
Active
Scipio
Richard
GlaDOS
Hushpuppy
Pandora
Notable Achievements
Chicago EDT has received a reputation for well built robots. Some of their achievements are:
2002 Fourth place overall at the JSDC
2004 Participation in the JSDC
2005 Most Creative award at the JSDC for the robot Ares
2006 First place overall at the JSDC for the robot Ares
2006 Most Innovative award at the JSDC for the robot Thor for being the only autonomous robot to score points
2007 Third place overall at the JSDC for the robot Thor
2007 Fourth place overall at the JSDC for the robot Ares
2007 Second place in design competition at the IGVC for the robot Achilles
2008 First place overall at the JSDC for the robot Ares
2008 Fourth place overall at the JSDC for the robot Thor
2009 Second place overall at the JSDC for the robot Kronos
2009 Winner of the demolition round at the JSDC for the robot Odin
2012 First and second-place winner for Sephiroth and Raijin, respectively, and demolition champion for Raijin at JSDC
2013 First place winner, team Thanatos. Demolition winner team Lamashtu.
