At about 15 inches tall, Shoot 'Em Up, the beer-pong playing robot created by UF electrical engineering senior Jamie Unger-Fink, can aim and launch a ping-pong ball at a targeted red Solo cup eight times in a row.
"I don't know if it'll help society, but maybe it'll help people have more fun," Unger-Fink said.
Shoot 'Em Up was just one of 22 robots at Monday's demonstration, which showcased the projects of students enrolled in this semester's Intelligent Machines Design Laboratory, said UF engineering professor Eric Schwartz, who helped teach the course. The robots performed in and around the New Engineering Building while each maker watched and explained his or her creation's specific purpose.
The robots had to be autonomous; using only their own abilities to fulfill the designer's intent.
About 150 people showed up throughout the two-and-a-half hour event to crowd around various demonstrations, said Professor Antonio Arroyo, who also taught the class.
Building the robot was a semester-long assignment that constituted the only grade for the course, Arroyo said.
"It's essentially kind of all or nothing," he said.
UF mechanical engineering sophomore Matthew Rosen rocked back and forth nervously before presenting his robot.
After an in-class demonstration on Thursday involving dying batteries and other difficulties, Rosen said he was relieved when the final demo went according to plan.
His robot, Texas Draw, shuffles playing cards, deals them and handles chips for poker games. Rosen spent between $300 to $500 to build his robot, which is made of wood, mechanical card shufflers and a scale to weigh the chips, but said it was worth the cost.
"This is probably the most I've learned from any class," he said. "It's the difference between theory and actually making something."
Schwartz called the technical elective class, which is open to all students, "real, practical engineering with a limited budget."
Still, many students shelled out hundreds of dollars on their projects.
About $500 went toward Driving Miss Daisy, the chair-like robot created by Moishe Groger, which is intended to transport those with a physical disability.
Other robots were also built for serving others, such as one that collects coins from the bottom of fountains and another that detects fires. One even patrolled a model-sized parking lot and crushed the miniature cars that were not orange and blue. Another showed his UF spirit by referencing a renowned football player.
UF electrical engineering senior John Kurien created a robot called Tim TeBOT, which plays paper football against a human opponent. Waiting near the end zone of a small, wooden replica of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Tim TeBOT was turned on and ready to play.
After locating the paper football with a camera, TeBOT used its sensors to gauge the distance of the opposite end zone and determine how hard to "kick" the ball with its spinning middle wheel.
"I'm going to miss football here, so I tried to do something close to it," said Kurien, who graduates in May.
After working about 10 hours a week on his robot throughout the entire semester, he said he feels ready to enter the work force.
