Timeline

1999

The club was founded in the Fall by Dr. John Wright, Jr, who became the first advisor and Sergio Sgro, who became the first student president. The Electric Motorcycle Research Team (EMRT), which was an alternative energy vehicle race team was also launched as the clubs staple project. Research on this project began in the fall of 1999.

2000

Early in the spring of 2000, the EMRT team came to life. The "trout" as it was eventually coined because of its fish like shape was a gas powered motorcycle that was converted to electric. Early in the semester, the team received its first of many sponsors: McQueen’s White Horse Inn being the first and John Herr's Village market being the second. For the complete list of sponsors click HERE. The team was successful in being one of the 21 teams out of 50 to qualify for the American Tour De Sol.

2001

The EMRT team continued to work on the Trout throughout 2001 building a light weight, aerodynamic fiberglass shell. The bike was taken to the American Tour De Sol but it did not compete, it was only put on display. The EMRT also continued to raise money and other donations from sponsors.

Also in 2001, NAIT launched a new research team, "Team Bot Head" which is Millersville University's mobile robot team. The team competed in the RI/SME (Robotics International of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers) Robotic Challenge with a heat tracing robot called "Pyrobot". The team did very well winning first place in robot construction and first place in Virtual Robot Simulation. The team competed against 307 teams in the entire event!

Partially because of the organizations accomplishments with the robotics team and the EMRT, the club won NAIT Student Chapter of the Year at the Fall 2001 NAIT conference.

2002

The spring of 2002 the EMRT team continued to work on the bike, shell, and landing gear (Needed because the shell prevents one from putting his feet down). They again attended the American Tour De Sol and put the Trout on display, although it did not compete.

In the fall of 2002 the robotics team entered the first ever Tele-Operated Robotic Manipulator Contest. The contest consisted of building a robot capable of running an obstacle course and picking up a soda can and then placing it in a designated area. The team did very well winning second place over all.

2003

In the spring of 2003 was the last semester any significant research was done on the "Trout". The bike took its last ride to McQueen’s White Horse Inn, ending its career where it began. Because of the tremendous amount of  time required by the robot team, the EMRT project was put on hold at the end of the spring semester 2003.

Also in the spring of 2003, the robotics team took their can retrieval robot to the RI/SME robotic challenge. The team again did very well winning another first place award for robot construction.

In the fall of 2003, the robotics team built their first ground up, fully manufactured robot for the Tele-Operated Robotic Manipulator Contest. The robot's chassis was manufactured entirely by Millersville University students and it came in 4th place over all in the competition.

2004

In the spring of 2004 the robotics team began construction of a prototype for the NAIT conference in the fall. The team did not attend any conferences so they could dedicate their time the construction of the next generation of Millersville mobile robots. The team worked throughout the summer to create a working prototype to model the final product after.

Also in the spring, the team began researching GPS technology to some day employ on an outdoor fully autonomous vehicle.

In the Fall of 2004, the robotics team finished constructing "Semi-Autonomous One", which was an unfolding robot that used Infrared sensors to which were fed into a lap top computer via Bluetooth technology, to allow an operator the align the robot  with the a can. Once aligned, the operator could switch to Autonomous mode and the robot would pick up the can automatically.

At the conference, the team wowed spectators and opponents with it's "hands off" control. Besides the new level of technology, the robotics team won second place in the competition, best poster award, and design and innovation. The team missed winning the victory cup for the overall competition by .67/100! To cap the successful showing, the club became the first student chapter in NAIT history to win Student Chapter of the Year twice, and doing so within 4 years!

 2005

In the spring of 2005, SA-1 was improved to include an autonomous mode which when activated ran a fully autonomous search pattern used to find and then pick up and object. This was done at the National Robotics Challenge in Marion Ohio, and resulted in Millersville winning the Silver award for robot construction. During this time the robotics team began work on the prototype of SA-2, the entry for the 2005 tele-operated manipulator contest.

In the summer of 2005, NAIT continued to be active designing and building a display case to be placed in Osburn hall to display awards, projects and other things used to get NAIT's message out. During this time the "trout" electric vehicle was also cleaned and then put on display for the department.

The Fall of 2005 involved a lot of hard work to create a SA-2. Not only did this robot have an autonomous pickup function but was also equipped with a CNC machined griper and a thermoformed shell. A high tech poster was also created for this competition which included a seven inch LCD screen to display a solid model animation as well as video of key construction processes. Even though SA-2 had a good showing at the conference, it failed to win any awards.

2006

In 2006, NAIT members constructed from scratch a fully autonomous robot that competed in NAIT's Tele-Operated Robotic Manipulator Contest. Millersville decided to compete in the Autonomous Division and ended up placing 3rd in the contest. Three QTI sensors were placed on the front of the bot as a means of helping it follow a foil tape throughout the course. Members also used CNC machined grippers to automatically grab an 8" piece of conduit and flip it above the bot.

2007

An extensive amount of research & development was put into NAIT's 2007 robot. The NAIT robotics team traveled down to Panama City Beach, Florida for the annual NAIT conference and participated in the robotics competition.  Magnet Finder-1, "MF-1", was designed and built to drive on sand and locate a magnet hidden underneath the sand in a 24' x 24' area. Once the magnet had been located, an 8" spiral spike was used to shoot down and pinpoint the location of the magnet. With an impressive performance, "MF-1" took home 1st place for Best Poster, 1st place in Electrical/Control Methodology, and 3rd place in the overall robotics competition.

Officers

~ Founding Officers ~

Fall 1999
President – Sergio Sgro
Vice President – Carl Kralik
Treasurer – Trevor Gontz
Secretary – Seb Kohl
Advisor – Dr. John Wright, Jr.
Co-Advisor - Dr. Kenneth DeLucca

Contact us at:

MillersvilleNAIT@yahoo.com