Guelph robotics team unable to repeat success at rover challenge in Alberta
Global News
The team finished 12th out of 13 teams that competed in Drumheller, Alberta last week after coming in 6th in their first event in 2019.
The University of Guelph’s robotics team may have endured a sophomore slump.
They were unable to duplicate their 2019 result at the 2022 Canadian International Rover Challenge, which sees teams competing in a series of events and courses on the Alberta badlands that simulate an exploration of Mars.
The team finished 12th out of 13 teams that competed in Drumheller, Alberta last week.
In 2019, they placed sixth, earning them “rookie team of the year” honours.
One of the members of the Guelph robotics team, Spencer Ploeger, said they could not recover from a bad start.
“There were communication issues, and not being able to see out of the cameras,” said Ploeger. “We did a lot of frantic troubleshooting, and by the end, we were able to get the rover working well.”
The University of Michigan were the winners of the event, followed by the University of Washington. The University of British Columbia came in third.
Event organizer Jake Conner said UBC’s entry, called “The Snowbots,” was the top-ranked submission from a Canadian school.