Posted on May 21, 2004

Union's “Robot Rivals” team

In case you missed it, Union's
team raked up Dartmouth in the
first installment of “Robot Rivals,” which aired on May 14.

Three mechanical engineering
students — Jason Fishner, Marissa Post and Adam Retersdorf – are representing
the College on the Do-It-Yourself Network show, which was taped last December.

 By winning, the Union
team advances to the next round and a shot at the $2,000 scholarship. (Without
giving away the ending … stay tuned for news of a campus event in June to
premiere the final show and to honor the Union students for their awesome
performance.)

The teams
were asked to design and build a robot that can rake leaves and capture them on
board the robot, according to the Robot Rivals web site said. “Union
designed a robot with a combine mechanism consisting of sheet metal fins
riveted to an attachment chain, while Dartmouth built a robot using a series of fans to vacuum leaves up
through ductwork into a quick-release leaf bag. Both robots come together late
in the day, but Union's 'Dutch-Bot' bagged the win, and Dartmouth's 'Mega Maid' had to make like a tree and leave.”

Robot Rivals is found locally on Channel
1065 of the “On Demand” cable system offered by Time Warner. Shows
are repeated; see web site below for schedule.

“Robot Rivals” pits student teams
from all over the country in a competition to build a robot to complete a task.
The shows, taped last fall in Knoxville, Tenn.,
will be aired throughout May and June. See the following website for more on
this week's show and the other air dates: http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/shows_drob/episode/0,2046,DIY_14305_32006,00.html