Northlight's student robotics team, the Circuit Breakers, has won the national universities robotics championship with Badger, an autonomous rover designed for search-and-rescue in collapsed buildings.
Badger navigated a simulated disaster site, located all eight heat sources and delivered its payload in under nine minutes — three minutes faster than the runner-up. The team of twelve students built the rover over two semesters in the university makerspace.
Team captain Lena Vargas credits the win to an unusual design decision: "Everyone else used tracked robots. Badger walks on four legs, so rubble just isn't a problem."
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