THUNDER BAY -- A small-scale, remotely-operated wheeled device capable of launching water bombs has won a team of Lakehead University engineering students first place at the Canadian Engineering Competition in Toronto.
The team designed and built a miniature prototype of a fire truck that could race to a flaming building and accurately deploy water bombs at multiple locations.
In a competition against seven other schools, the apparatus gave the Lakehead team top prize in the Senior Design category at the national event held earlier this month at Ryerson University.
The robot, operated through a wireless controller, had to navigate a 3D cardboard "city" without leaving the road, then extinguish simulated flames by launching ping-pong balls into openings cut into buildings at various heights and angles.
Team member Megan Eyben, who's studying software engineering, says she was surprised by the variety of the competing designs. "Where we had a slide for the ping-pong balls, some teams had launchers to shoot the balls out. We went through a few different designs, but this was our main one," she said.
Caleb Frisby, a mechanical engineering student, said the hardest part of the challenge was successfully sending the ping-pong balls into the buildings. "You had to have a feasible design. A lot weren't accurate, and ours could do it reliably," he noted.
Dr. Rachid Benlamri, acting chair of software engineering, feels the award is a testament to the dedication of the engineering team and the program's instructors. "Our engineering programs...aim at equipping students with creative minds and life-long learning skills that enable them to cope with the changing world," Benlamri said.
