Robots will throw things, navigate mazes and dance for the last time today.
The robots are built in UF’s Intelligent Machines Design Lab. The associate professor who teaches the course, Antonio Arroyo, will retire this semester, said Eric Schwartz, the associate director of the Machine Intelligence Lab.
Because of this, Schwartz said he doesn’t know if Robot Demo Day will be offered until December 2017. They’ll bring the event back if the professor comes back.
The demonstration will be held at the New Engineering Building’s Harris Rotunda from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and feature about 10 robots. Students spent the semester making them, which cost between $300 and $400.
Students are provided basic parts for robots but are responsible for purchasing the rest of the components themselves, he said.
Schwartz said he started the demo day about 15 years ago to show the Gainesville community what students create.
Students can design robots to do whatever they want.
“There are no rules in the class,” he said.
Christian Cousin, a UF mechanical engineering doctoral student, created the cat-shaped robot CATastrophe.
The 23-year-old said he spent 15 hours a week and $500 building it. The robot acts like a cat and uses a camera to track robotic beetles.
After tracking them, it chases the beetles down and catches them with a magnetic arm, he said.
“He’s a cat, and I like puns,” Cousin said.
