What is NARA?

Location:

The North American Robotics Association is housed at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  Our main objective is the promotion of mini-sumo robotics in educational and club environments. 

Two main activities so far:

1. Sponsor the annual University of Northern Iowa (UNI) MiniSumo Robot Invitational, anual, since 2006. 

2. Support the UNI Summer Mini-Sumo Camp, first offered June 21 - July 2, 2010.

April 28, 2011 MiniSumo Invitaional

One of our main activities is sponsorship of the annual University of Northern Iowa (UNI) MiniSumo Robot Invitational.  The 2011 competition will be on April 28,Thursday, 9 am to 11:30 am, in the Hemisphere Lounge of the UNI Maucker Union. Last year about fourteen students completed against five ship-in robots from Iowa, Indiana, and Washington State.  Over the past five years we have also had robots shipped from British Colombia, Canda, Hawaii and Texas. 

Though we are housed at UNI, we have assumed the somewhat 'grand' title of North American Robotics Association, because, in fact, we have already received robots from far across North America.  We are eager to receive our first ship-in robot from Mexico.  We hope, also, to have ship-ins from Singapore, and other leading mini-sumo robotics centers.  We point out that that shipping a sumo to Iowa is relatively inexpensive compared to hand-carrying a sumo from Singapore, for example, to San Francisco.  Hence we offer the opportunity for sumo robotics enthusiasts to discover if their robot is ready to go out into the world on its own, and we offer the opportunity to do so at a relatively low cost.  Every ship-in robot received adds to the learning of our students and the excitement of our annual MiniSumo Invitational event.  Please also note also that video records of the previous years Invitational competitions are available on this webpage. And if you ship your robot, your sumo's activity will be recorded for the entire world to view.  The top two overall competitors, and the top student competitor receive plaque awards.  See the "Previous Winners" section of this web page for examples.

We have sponsored the spring Mini-Sumo Invitational, now since 2006.  Last year, at our fifth Mini-Sumo Invitational, we our we had the most creative and exciting group of student and ship-in competitors yet.  Rick Brooks, builder of ExSpurt, the winner of the 2008, 2009 and 2010 competitions, inidcates ExSpurt will appear again on April 28, 2011.  The 2009 second place winner, Blackout (constructed by Tracy Eib) appeared again in 2010, but was edged out by student Nathan Mielke.  Also, in 2010 we had our first off-campus participant from Iowa, Bradford Howland, an artist with a professional background in electronics, who will brought his B.E.A.M. (no on-board computer) robot, "JunkBot."  And Pete Miles shipped two of his walking robots.  We hope that these robots, and others, along with all of our student robots (fourteen under construction) will appear on the UNI Campus on April 28, 2011.  So, tune-in on the internet.  A link to the live April 28, 2011, broadcast will appear on the UNI website:  www.uni.edu, at 9:00 am Central Time (8:00 am Eastern Time; 10:00am Mountain Time).

2011 UNI Summer MiniSumo Robotics Camp

We also intend this website to become a resource for teachers, students and  club robotics members wanting to participate in mini-sumo robotics.  The first UNI mini-sumo summer robotics camp was offered during summer 2011.  Lots of information about the 2010 camp is available on the 2010 Summer Camp section of this webpage.  A tab for the 2011 camp is intended.  Our 2011 (second) Mini-Sumo Robotics Summer Camp will be from June 20 - July 1, 2011. 

MiniSumo Robotics in High Schools

As a result of our 2010 Mini-Sumo Robotics Camp, a robots club has been formed at Graettinger-Terril high school, and several mini-sumo robots are under construction.  Four high school teachers, and many science/physics education majors at UNI have taken one of the mini-sumo robotics courses offered in the UNI Physics Department.

We believe that mini-sumo robotics can be a cost-effective and engaging approach to educational and club robotics.  Example:  FIRST has two levels of competition for high schools with price ranges of $25,000 and $5,000.  A base mini-sumo  robot can be constructed for under $300.  We hope, over time, to post useful technical information about low-cost mini-sumo robotics and robomagellan robotics for educational and club environments.

Promotion of robotics educational programs at the University of Northern Iowa

Another goal is to become a window to robotics activities at the Unversity or Northern Iowa, and elsehwere.  At UNI, robotics education and research is carried out in three or more departments.  In Computer Science, Dr. Mark Fienup and Dr. Ben Schafer do teaching and research on artificial intelligence aspects of robotics, and provide strong support to local Legos League robotics and FIRST robotics.  In Industrial Technology, Dr. Jeff Nie and Dr. Jin Zhu lead project work in robots with grasping characteristics.  Student projects include animatronics (Jeff Rick).  And in Physics, Mr. Randy Dumse, Physics alum, and founder and president of New Micros Inc., in Dallas Texas, and Dr. Dale Olson lead activities in the area of autonomous robotics.  In the Physics Department, Mr. Dumse and Dr. Olson have been developing two courses related to mini-sumo robotics. 

Robomagellan

Also, not directly related to the MiniSumo Invitational, intermediate and advanced robotics project and course work on Robomagellan is underway (Matt Karl and Eddie Maldonado, building on work by Maldonado and Shawn Breuklander).  Please see the "Robotics at UNI" section of this webpage for additional information.