Colorado State’s Mechanical Engineering Students Exhibit Award-Winning Robot at Stock Show

Colorado State University’s award-winning search-and-rescue robot will be on display Sunday, Jan. 14, at this year’s National Western Stock Show.

The robot was designed and built by a 12-member senior design group of mechanical engineering students at Colorado State. The search-and-rescue robot, called Good Samaritan, has won both national and international awards.

Good Samaritan will be on display from 3-9 p.m. on the third floor in the southeast corner of the Expo Hall. The National Western Complex is at 4655 Humboldt St. in Denver.

The Colorado State team took top honors at the RoboCup U.S. Open in Atlanta, beating such universities as Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech. The team also placed fourth at this year’s World RoboCup Championship competition in Bremen, Germany. They also won "Most Realistic Deployment" at the international competition.

Good Samaritan is designed to locate and identify humans who are trapped in urban disaster areas. Its sturdy and lightweight design helps it to maneuver in difficult terrain and it is equipped with a thermal camera, which can detect body heat using infrared light and a microphone to detect human voices.

Wade Troxell, associate dean for research and economic development and mechanical engineering professor, is the faculty adviser for the team. He said that at the stock show, the robot will demonstrate its body-heat detection sensing to locate victims and how its navigation camera improves victim identification capability.

"The success of this robot design demonstrates the Mechanical Engineering department’s commitment to global solutions through engineering excellence," Troxell said.

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