Greetings IRO'ers!

Every design decision undertaken in the professional world has very serious constraints, and a very common limitation all designers and engineers should consider is the budget of a project. As a result, the Illinois Robotics Organization would like to invite all “starving college students” at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to show off their design skills and frugality by building the best robot under the $200 allowable budget!

The initial design stage will last approximately one month and ask students to submit a design, bill of materials, and small explanation of the robot and important design decisions. After a panel of judges looks through the designs, the top ten teams (this number is contingent on funding and number of entries received) will be sponsored to build their robots! A final round of judging will take place to find the best executing teams and best robots.

Requirements:

• Teams of 2-4 students at UIUC (If you need help finding a team email sulas2@illinois.edu)


• Design any type of robot / robotics related machine for less than $200


• Submit the following in your design proposal:
• Parts list along with a bill of materials
• Description of Robot Design
• Design Drawings / Diagrams / CAD
• Any other information important to your design.


• Make sure the robot is very COOL!

Important Dates:

• Friday, March 16, 2012 - Competition Launch!


• Friday, April 20, 2012 - Proposals Due


• Tuesday, April 30, 2012 - Initial Judging Completed. (Winning teams of the design portion of the contest will be announced here.)


• Friday, August 31, 2012 - Robots due, Final Judging and Champion selection. Each team will make a presentation including a demonstration of each robot.

Definitions/clarifications:

Parts lists should be made using retail parts sources. Extreme exceptions (ebay, craigslist, etc.) can be made in some scenarios, email sulas2@illinois.edu with [Budget Design Contest/Parts] in the subject line about exceptions.

Robots are electro-mechanical machines that are guided by computer and electronic programming. Entries should be independently functional. If the entry adds onto another robot or object, only the entry (add-on) will be considered, or the original object/robot must be purchased with the allowed funds.

The number of teams selected to build robots will depend on the number of entries recieved, but will not exceed 10 teams.