They're new to robotics, but these Laurentian University students just won an international competition
CBC
In a small lab at Sudbury's Laurentian University, there's a robot about the size of a toddler, and it's name is Polaris.
Polaris was originally built and designed by Laurentian computer science professor Meng Cheng Lau and his students when he was working at the University of Manitoba.
The robot has received numerous upgrades over the years. When Lau joined Laurentian last year, he started the Snobots robotics team to give his new students a chance to work on Polaris.
Now they've just returned from a competition in Brazil, where they earned four gold medals and a silver medal at the FIRA RoboWorldCup 2024. That earned the team the overall title at the HuroCup Adult-Sized Humanoid competition.
To get the title, Polaris had to complete tasks such as walking a 400-metre course on his own, throwing a tennis ball into a small basketball net, and lifting a small dumbbell over his head.
WATCH| See Polaris the humanoid robot in action
"I feel like I've learned a lot more in the, I'd say maybe four or five months I've been working here than I have in my time in computer science so far," said Austin Barrett, a fourth-year computer science student at Laurentian who was part of the Snobots team that went to Brazil.
Barrett says he was interested in robotics before he joined the team, but didn't have a lot of experience in the field.
Now he wants to explore career options that combine his interest in robotics and computer programming.
Nicolas Pottier, also a fourth-year computer science student at Laurentian, says his work on Polaris was his first foray into robotics.
Like Barrett, the experience has made him reconsider his career options.
"Now I find myself wanting to go more and more into the field, despite all the issues we've had with it," Pottier said.
With their newfound success at the competition in Brazil, the team is already eyeing a competition in South Korea next August.
Barrett says they hope they can get Polaris to do more tasks, such as climbing a ladder and kicking a soccer ball by the time they reach the competition in South Korea.
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