RoboNation ‘SeaPerch’ Robotics Competition and UMD Robotics Open House

The University of Maryland was the venue for the RoboNation International SeaPerch Challenge on Saturday, May 13. This K-12 underwater robotics competition brought more than 1,000 students, parents and teachers to campus to compete with their robots in the Eppley Recreation Center’s Aquatic Center.

Teams design a SeaPerch robot and show off their engineering skills through technical papers and presentations. In the pool, teams navigate their SeaPerch through a series of obstacles inspired by the real world that test maneuverability, control, and utility. More than 145 teams from 32 U.S. states and six countries qualified to compete.

As an event bonus, the Maryland Robotics Center hosted an open house for the SeaPerch teams in its Brin Family Aerial Robotics Lab, the E.A. Fernandez IDEA (Innovate, Design and Engineer for America) Factory, and the Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility. The center is a highly respected home for robotics education and research. It has more than 40 participating faculty members from eight academic departments in engineering and computer science.

SeaPerch is a remotely operated vehicle, a competition, and a community. This keystone program is the first step in the RoboNation STEM to Workforce pipeline engaging students in robotics and autonomous technology. The SeaPerch program guides students on building an underwater robot while supplying educators with the tools and training to help them through the process. It reaches more than 250,000 students a year.

RoboNation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide a pathway of hands-on educational experiences that empower students to find innovative solutions to global challenges. The pathway begins with SeaPerch and includes autonomous vehicle competitions in all domains including the Student UAS (SUAS) competition and RoboSub.

Coming this summer! RoboNation's SUAS hosted with support from the University of Maryland

June 20–22, 2023
SUAS: St. Mary's County Regional Airport in Southern Maryland

The SUAS competition is designed to foster interest in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), stimulate interest in UAS technologies and careers, and engage students in a challenging mission. This summer, SUAS will be hosted with support from the University of Maryland’s UAS Research and Operations Center (UROC) in Southern Maryland from June 20–22. To learn more about SUAS, visit https://suas-competition.org. For more about RoboNation visit https://robonation.org.

Published May 15, 2023