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WUNDERBOT CREATORS - From left to right: James Painter, Chris Yorgey, Wunderbot, David Coleman, Jeremy Crouse, and Mike Patrick. These five Elizabethtown College students created Wunderbot, an autonomous robot, and took it for a test drive at Phoenix Contact. Phoenix Contact played a big roll in getting funds and materials to make the $100,000 robot.
$100,000 robot shows moves at Phoenix Contact
by Madeline Masters,
Press And Journal Staff
: 5/7/2008
View video of this event below...
You look like a hundred thousand bucks, Wunderbot. You’re about 5 feet tall, 3 feet wide, boxy, mostly transparent, and totally worth every penny to some students at Elizabethtown College.
Wunderbot is a fully autonomous robot that can navigate its way through the modern world, without remote control from humans.
Members of the Robotic and Machine Intelligence Club at Elizabethtown College created Wunderbot under Professor Joseph Wunderlich’s guidance. The ’bot will compete in a national competition called IGVC: Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition in Michigan on Friday, May 30 to Monday, June 2. The E-town college kids are hoping to beat out the 40 other robots competing against Wunderbot this year.
Five core members of the RMIC demonstrated the Wunderbot at Phoenix Contact on Wednesday, April 30. James Painter, club president, David Coleman, vice president, Jeremy Crouse, Mike Patrick, and Chris Yorgey gave a presentation to explain how Wunderbot works.
At the end of the presentation, the students presented Jack Nehlig, president of Phoenix Contact, with a picture plaque to thank him for all he and the company contributed to the project. The picture is of the core group members with Wunderbot.
“We couldn’t have done nearly anything we’ve done, without your support,” Painter said.
“We’re neighbors and we’re also technology geeks like you guys,” Nehlig responded.
Phoenix Contact contributed about $10,000 worth of equipment to Wunderbot, directly, and is responsible for getting the students about 50 percent of the robot’s components, according to Professor Wunderlich.
“The E-town kids have done a great job of showing how they all tied together,” said Wunderlich, about the many components comprising the robot.
Next the group took Wunderbot into the lobby and showed off its moves. The robot rolled forward and back and stopped when an obstacle, such as a student or a cameraman, stepped in front of it.
The students intend to use Wunderbot for guided online campus tours. The robot, which has a camera mounted on it, would follow the tourist’s commands, lead the viewer around campus, and answer questions along the way.
Once a Wunderbot team member, Tom Yager is now an industrial sales engineer for Phoenix Contact. He set up the demonstration at the company on Wednesday and came to support the young men in the continuing project.
The project started nine years ago after Wunderlich came to Elizabethtown College from Purdue University. He teaches Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Advanced Computer Engineering, Digital Design and Interfacing, and other courses at the college. Wunderlich was also a researcher at IBM Robotics.
Painter claims he’s learned a lot from being involved with the Wunderbot project. “It’s a lot of work just to get (Wunderbot) to go straight,” he admitted. He said he formed a greater appreciation for technology after building something of his own. Citing an expample, he noted, “How much goes into even just a remote control car is impressive.”
Coleman is in charge of the artificial intelligence, the path and planning navigation, and general system operations. Based on his work with Wunderbot, Coleman wrote a peer reviewed paper about a new kind of Global Positioning System (GPS). His version is a multi-point GPS system that calculates the most efficient path between multiple points, if point order is not an issue.
Coleman traveled to Italy at the end of March to present his report before a panel of engineers.
“It was an amazing experience to get there and present research there,” said Coleman. He said the experience with Wunderbot has definitely helped set him up for his future, including making contacts at the conference and getting into graduate school.
The robot was originally called E-bot for Elizabethtown College, but the name was changed about five years ago. Allegedly, Wunderbot is now named after Professor Wunderlich.
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