by Dallas Downing. When RoboJackets was founded in 2000, it was a handful of students making combat robots in the basement of the Howey Physics Building. Today RoboJackets has grown to over 200 dues-paying members spread across five competitive teams in a 17,000 square-foot workspace shared with the rest of the Student Competition Center. However,…
Category: Newsletter
Spotlight on IT and Web Dev: MyRoboJackets and More
by Kyla Qi. RoboJackets might be mainly focused on robotics, but there’s a lot of administrative work that goes into running such a large organization. Dues payments must be recorded, access to shop space and code repositories must be managed, and attendance must be tracked. In recent years, some members of our IT team have…
A Look at URC: RoboJackets’s Newest Competition
by Jonathan Spalten. RoboJackets has a wide berth of competitions its members participate in. In an effort to broaden our horizons further, RoboNav has made the decision to participate in the University Rover Challenge. Simply stated, URC’s challenge is to “design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that will one day work alongside…
The Computer Vision and Perception Techniques of the Autonomous Teams
by Evan Bretl. One of the most critical functions of any autonomous vehicle is the ability to perceive its environment. Much of a typical robotics technology stack (mapping, planning, motion control) would be impossible without adequately sensing and comprehending the surroundings. Given the fundamental nature of machine perception to a functioning autonomous robot, RoboJackets software…
RoboJackets, Inc.
by Jonathan Spalten. RoboJackets is an organization that participates in a wide range of robotics competitions, and as a result, has a tremendous need for financial resources. These resources are not only for building our robots (which are mostly funded by the Student Government Association through the student activity fee), but also for costs like…
FRC Kickoff 2021
by Kyla Qi. A core part of the RoboJackets mission is to support local K-12 robotics programs. Since 2008, a major part of the support we provide has been hosting the annual GeorgiaFIRST Kickoff for the FIRST Robotics’ Competition (FRC). For the uninitiated, FRC is a high school level international robotics competition where students design,…
PCB Competition
by Joe Spall. Over the course of winter break, a few of our members participated in an internal Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Design Competition, organized by a few of our older electrical members. The goal was for members to get a chance to design a unique PCB for judging that they may not get the…
Shop Rehab Day
by Cameron Loyd. Just after finals ended last semester, a small team of our members dedicated some of their free days to cleaning, organizing, and improving our space in the Student Competition Center (SCC). The casually dubbed “Shop Rehab Day” actually took place over 3 days and involved repainting walls, throwing out or giving away…
RoboCup’s Transition to ROS
by Evan Bretl. Our RoboCup team is in the middle of a major software re-organization, re-writing key parts of their software stack in order to leverage ROS 2. What is ROS? According to Open Robotics, the organization that created the software, “The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a set of software libraries and tools that…
RoboRacing – January 2021 Update
by Evan Bretl. Despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic, RoboRacing has continued to move forward on its goals and invest in the future of the team. Both the Electric Vehicle Grand Prix (EVGP; normally held in April) and the International Autonomous Robot Racing Competition (IARRC; normally held in July) were canceled in 2020….