International Space Robotics Contest Won By Dominican Students

In the Ibero-American Space Robotics Contest "Caminante Lunar" the second place was won by a team of students from the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science and Telematics Engineering of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), Diario Libre reported.

In order to inspire the next generation to use remote communication technology, which will be essential in the upcoming natural satellite missions, the contest was organized by the National University of Mexico (UNAM) in partnership with the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science, and Culture (OEI).

With the help of Professor Rafael Batista, the victorious Dominicans who competed under the name "PUCMM Space Robot" were Justin Bueno, Ilka Hernández, Patricia DiMassimo, Alvin Rodríguez, and Ángel Richard. A team from Argentina's National University of Cordoba came in the first place.

Mexico, Ecuador, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic each sent 56 teams from Latin America to the call. The competition also aimed to enhance the capacities and skills necessary for the advancement of knowledge in the field of space science and technology.

''We received training on how to program and navigate a robot in space, carried out in various stages. The contest was based on using a robot already built that supported a simulation system and in the final stage, we worked on simulating the robot through remote algorithms,'' commented Justin Bueno, one of the winning students.

Beginning in August this year, the competition was developed in six stages. Each of these stages served to equip the competing teams with the resources they would need to successfully perform a lunar robotic mission using an autonomous robot.

The Robotic Operating System (ROS) and the utilization of the Toyota HSR robot were the foundations upon which the robotic system was developed. This was a highly technical and demanding challenge with tasks ranging from obstacle navigation issues, autonomous exploration, computer vision applications, and robotic actuator operation.

The PUCMM Space Robot team displayed exemplary performance in each of these stages, taking the top spot in each selection procedure. The contest's organizers emphasized the stellar performance of the algorithms created by the Mother and Teacher team during the final, which was titled "Lunar Mission."