Spectacular feat of Mehranians(ES dept) in 7th National Engineering Robotics Competition (NERC 2011) Rawalpindi

National University of Science and Technology (NUST) Department of Mechatronics, College of E&ME , Peshawar Road Rawalpindi organized National Engineering Robotics Competition(NERC) every year. NERC 2011 a joint venture of NUST and STEM careers program (HEC) was held from 28th June to 2nd July 2011 at College of E&ME.

This year 175 teams registered for this contest from all over Pakistan. Task of the NERC 2011 was to make a completely autonomous robot which had to pick three colored boxes and to put them at their respective places by color recognition one by one. The task had to be completed in 4 minutes with a robot designed according to the specifications for floor plan, robot size, weight & dimensions, and box sizes and design prescribed by NERC 2011 rules.

There were two categories in the contest

Category 1- Indigenous Robots

Indigenous robots are the ones that are constructed from scratch. Their mechanical structure, controls etc. are designed and fabricated by the teams themselves. The electronic control modules (including all electronic boards and motor drivers etc) are designed and manufactured by the students.

Category 2 – Modular Robots

Modular/Lego robots are ones in which ready-made kits are used, for example Lego or Vex Robotics kits.

The prizes included one for winner, two for runners up and three for best engineering design award. The awards are given to the robots which complete the whole task in less time than others. The best engineering design award is given to the robots which successfully accomplish the task but may take more time than others but is impressive with its engineering design, engineering measures, perfect with its electronics, programming and technique of box pick & drop mechanism.

This year one team from MUET participated in the contest from 08ES, with their robot named 'MUETBOY' after their university name. The team consisted of three members Abdul Sattar Noonari (08ES25) (Group Leader), Sajad Ali Memon (08ES09) & Mansoor Raza (08ES19)

The robot qualified for 25 best robots out of 175 robots in the qualifying rounds and reached GRAND FINALE. The GRAND FINALE was held on 2nd of July 2011, and the MUET BOYS rocked the NERC ARENA and succeeded to grab one of the five major awards, the BEST ENGINEERING DESIGN AWARD with shield, certificate & a cash prize of Rs 30,000. The same team won 2nd prize in MICROMAZE 2011 competition held at Department of Electronics Mehran UET Jamshoro formerly. The team is thankful to their supervisor Ms Attiya Baqai and Dr BS Chowdhry, Chairman Department of Electronics for providing them such an environment in which they can flourish their talent and capabilities.

Once again the MUETIANS showed their flair as they are never behind in potential from any other university in PAKISTAN.

Report compiled by team MUETBOY & Engr Attiya Baqai