Congratulations go out to Oakton Community College for their strong performance in NASA’s fifth annual Mining and Robotic Competition. The group, made up of nine Oakton students, came in 7th place in the contest, with their “Oaktimus Prime” (a great name!) robot. This remote-controlled excavator robot collected an impressive 49 kilograms of simulated lunar dirt, which beats out the performance of all other Illinois colleges and universities in the competition’s history. The robot needed to be designed with careful consideration of dust tolerance, projection, autonomy, vehicle mass and energy. Less than $5000 was spent on Oaktimus, considerably less than others in the competition.
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