by Jonathan Spalten Participating in RoboJackets involves a great deal of hands-on engineering knowledge and an intense desire to learn. Because RoboJackets accepts members regardless of prior experience in robotics, we created a training program to help our members quickly learn what they need to know to contribute to the teams. Even experienced members can…
RoboJackets IT and the People Counter System
by James Reed With an organization as large as RoboJackets, it’s no surprise that we face many challenges associated with simply keeping the organization running smoothly. Thankfully, we have talented individuals across the organization who volunteer their time to handle anything and everything, from placing and receiving orders for the materials we use, to bringing…
IGVC Retrospective
by Dallas Downing The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) was started in 1993 as a spin off of the International Aerial Robotics Competition. The goal of the competition was to create a robot that could navigate an outdoor obstacle course autonomously. The competition itself was meant to be a challenging, multi-disciplinary design project for undergraduate…
Virtual Recruiting Efforts
The lifeblood of RoboJackets that enables us to fulfill our mission to promote, educate, and advance in the field of robotics is, of course, our members. Every year, we dedicate hundreds of man hours to acquiring and training new members, and this year is no different. The main way we usually interact with prospective members…
Virtual Leadership Retreat
Every year at the beginning of the Fall semester, our leadership team for the coming school year meet at what we have come to call the Leadership Retreat. They use this time as an opportunity to reflect on previous experience, look to the future, and get to know each other. Informal meetings where leaders reflect…
RoboResearch: Volume One
As part of RoboJackets, our members gain skills that serve them well in a variety of contexts, and academic research is no exception. We’d like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the research our members are involved in within the robotics space. Varun Madabushi, well known for his contributions to electrical teams across…
Georgia FIRST Symposium
RoboJackets Outreach works closely with Georgia FIRST, a branch of the international FIRST organization that organizes robotics competitions for students from kindergarten to high school. One of the premier FIRST events in the fall is the Georgia FIRST Symposium, in which a large number of local teams come together to participate in workshops and interactive…
RoboRacing – evGrand Prix and Rigatoni
RoboRacing, our team focused on autonomous racing robots, has been making platforms of various shapes and sizes over the 6 years since its inception. Initially formed to compete in the International Autonomous Robot Racing Competition (IARRC), the first platforms were approximately 1/10th scale Remote Control (RC) cars with laptops mounted directly on the chassis. While…
Safely Reopening the SCC
When campus was shut down late spring semester, so too were all RoboJackets activities. Even our members who remained in the Atlanta area were barred from campus until a concrete plan to deal with COVID-19 was put forth by the institute. In early August, we were allowed back into our space in the Student Competition…
Restructuring Outreach
The ultimate goal of RoboJackets is threefold: promotion, education and advancement of robotics. We, as an organization, are well equipped to do all three, and our structure should be equipped similarly well to accomplish these goals. Recently, RoboJackets leadership has made the decision to change how Outreach is handled in RoboJackets. As many alumni will…