The NIST Mobile Microrobotics challenge consisted of the robotic manipulation of objects with less than 600 micrometers in their largest dimension, as well as events structured to test each microrobot’s speed and agility.

“The USNA team performed much better this year. We don’t only have the robot to spin in circles, but we actually demonstrated controlled motion of our microrobot,“ said Midshipman 1st Class Liz Leckie. “We felt very accomplished.“

This year’s robot, named USS Tesla, was the size of a grain of table salt, competing in three-events: the two-millimeter dash, microassembly and freestyle. In the two-millimeter dash, the microrobot must traverse a distance of two millimeters in as short a time as possible. For the microassembly event, the microrobot must insert tiny pegs into microscopic holes. In the freestyle competition, teams highlighted the capabilities of their microrobots by performing a task of their own design.

“Our microrobot was designed to be magnetically actuated, with a reliable control system that could qualify for the competition,“ said Midshipman 1st Class Peter Dausman. “It was a year-long effort that required the coordinated efforts of midshipmen and the faculty of the systems and electrical engineering departments.“

According to Leckie, the overall purpose of events like this is to develop new technology and make advances in this field.

“For the Naval Academy specifically, our main purpose is to educate the mids,“ said Leckie. “We have come up with some interesting new ideas that have a lot of promising applications in the future.“

Past NIST microrobotics competitions include events at RoboCup 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia; the RoboCup 2008 U.S. Open in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and RoboCup 2009 in Graz, Austria.