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June 2012:
Team SpacePRIDE attended the Sample Return Challenge, hosted by WPI and sponsored by NASA.
SpacePRIDE was the only team to qualify to officially attempt the challenge. The Team did
not win any prize money, but their rovers and navigation beacons drew a large amount of
attention from the media and from the public.
We haven't really given much of a shout out to all of the recent additions to SpacePRIDE. Without these partners, we really would not be able to do what we do, or even compete. I would like to introduce you to each of our partners, what they do, and how they are helping us. Again, without their support, we would not be where we are today. Thank you to each and every one of our partners.
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At TheClubhou.se, we pride ourselves by being able to help people. This is a great co-working space
that has brought many of Augusta's smartest people together to work together and create an
amazing future. We are very happy to be a part of this technology revolution happening in our
home town. At TheClubhou.se, we are able to work on our rovers in a community environment, allowing us
resources and knowledge that we previously did not have access to. |
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SDP/SI Manufactures precision, high quality parts and assemblies. These range from timing belts,
pulleys, sprockets, couplings, fasteners, gear motors, and much more! They are leading the industry in
small components and have connections to commercial, aerospace, medical, and hobby applications.
We are happy to have their support as we work towards a future with more robotics that need the
exact parts that they manufacture. |
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Pololu Robotics is an outstanding source for electronics and components for use in the robotics world.
Their parts range from I/O devices, motor controllers, gyros, accelerometers, sensors, and much more.
They are an amazing group of people that are there to help their markets with first hand support and
product references. Pololu has saved us valuable time this year by providing much needed electronics
support to get our rovers moving on their own. We look forward to see what products they bring forward in the future! |
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RobotShop.com! What more can we say. ANYTHING robotics can be found here, and they have
outstanding support in what they offer. Their products range from everything TO everything, whether it's
for hobby, commercial, industrial, medical, personal robots and much more. |
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Another amazing partner! FingerTech Robotics helps us by bringing miniature parts to the table.
They offer amazing product support, and have helped us determine the best parts to get our rovers running.
Where else can you find amazing products backed by amazing people? |
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Need Servos? The name says it all. They have the BIGGEST assortment of servos you could ever
ask for. An amazing assortment at that. ServoCity has helped us by giving us the liberty of having exactly
the right amount of motion with exactly the right amount of power for a few of our control systems. If you need
to accurately move something to a precision position, let ServoCity help you!
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Posted on 25 February 2013 | 12:34 am
Wow, what a year 2012 was! After competing in the Sample Return Challenge, we stayed extremely busy. Modifying designs on the drive home, setting up meetings with supplies and schools to show our innovation and technology, getting involved with a maker space to help promote technology in our area...whew, it's been a busy few months to say the least, but 2012 is gone, and 2013 is here!
We're proud to say that our registration is in and we're looking forward to more information about the competition soon. We've made progress on the new rovers, and have designed some very nice modular pieces that we hope will innovate out door rover driving.
We will try to post more on our blog and website, but we are staying extremely busy gearing up for the 2013 Sample Return Competition. If you didn't make it out to WPI last year, you missed out! It was a ton of fun and we can't wait to get back there and show the world what we're building.
See everyone soon!
- Chris
Posted on 5 January 2013 | 2:15 pm
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Go to spacepride.blogsplot.com to view our full blog.
Team SpacePRIDE initially assembled with the goal of competing in the NASA Centennial Challenges. Since the initial gathering of the team, we have found common interests and passions in the areas of robotics and space exploration. Because of these passions, our team now has a broadened outreach plan. We are currently using the NASA Centennial Challenges to reach our goals. Our current goals include:
| Creating Lower Cost Systems |
| Developing New Technology |
| Providing Innovative Solutions |
Team SpacePRIDE recently competed in the NASA Sample Return Rover Challenge. This competition continues a key role for future missions for navigation, object recognition, mapping the surroundings, and much more. We enjoyed competing in this challenge, and are on our way to improving our approach in order to hopefully take us the distance for the next time the competition is held. If you would like to check out our progress in more detail, or contact us about helping out, please do so by hovering over the 'Contact Us' tab on the left.
Sample Return Robot Challenge
NASA Centennial Challenge
For more updates, check out the NASA Sample Return Rover Challenge site by clicking here.
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Chris Williamson
Chris has been working with robotics for over 10 years. He has competed in Robot Wars, BattleBots, and various national and local
robot competitions. He now helps to lead several robotics panels at Dragon*Con. Through this, he is able to introduce robotics of
many types to those who are interested. His most current personal project is called the RaveRover.
Over the past 3 years, Chris has mentored several FIRST teams, and he is
currently working with a rookie FIRST team. He has found this work to be very
fulfilling.
Chris is a machinist by trade. His current job gives him easy access to materials and machinery with which he can design and create
custom parts for all of his robots. He is a hard worker and a loyal employee and a fierce competitor.
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Robert Moore
Robert has also been involved in robotics for over 10 years. He currently owns Ares Design Company where he does electronics design and development for major companies. He has competed in BattleBots and many other small events around the country. Rob is a valuable member on this team with a huge background in electronics development, programming, power distribution, and much more!
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Amanda Walters
Amanda has been involved for robotics for around 3 years. She teaches at a local high school, where she works mostly with high school seniors taking AP Calculus and College
Prep Statistics. She and Chris work together mentoring a rookie FTC team. Although she is still very much a robot-builder-in-training, she has taken the official positions
as SpacePRIDE's Social Media Director and Media Consultant, as well as providing unofficial website management and occasional Secretarial duties. Amanda is passionate about education and she really enjoys
being able to apply this passion to the field of robotics. Amanda looks forward to helping with the build and the programming for future challenges that SpacePRIDE faces.
Amanda's Website: Click Here
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Fred Alger
Fred has been messing with computers ever since he could first type LOAD *,8,1; RUN. While currently employed as a web developer and senior system administrator his
computing interests are wide-ranging: programming languages, distributed systems, databases, expert systems, network protocols, artificial intelligence, computer
vision, and more. Though a novice at robotics, Fred is a long-time robot fanatic and looks forward to solving the hard computing problems that face the team.
Read Fred's Blog: Click Here
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For more information about Team SpacePRIDE, feel free to email or call:
teamspacepride @ gmail . com
(803) 392 - 1492 (ask for Chris)
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SpacePRIDE
Follow us on Twitter: @SpacePRIDE
We look forward to hearing from you and helping with any information we can give you.
PLEASE NOTE: Team SpacePRIDE is looking for sponsorship for their new efforts! The last competition resulted in over 7000 live persons being exposed to the robots and any logos that were on it. It also resulted in being viewed by over 1 million estimated television viewers and newspaper readers in the Northeast. Thousands of friends and family members from the Southeast watched webcasts live, and these are very low estimates for the numbers of people who have and will be exposed to SpacePRIDE's existing partners' logos. Please feel free to contact us if you are interesting in helping out! You and/or your company WILL get exposure!
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