On 18 – 20 May, the seventh annual NASA Robotic Mining Competition was held at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Over 45 university-level teams designed and built remote controlled mining robots that could traverse a simulated Martian terrain. The competition was designed to engage and retain students in STEM fields, and provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could potentially be used on NASA’s journey to Mars.
Caterpillar has a rich history of technical innovation and in order to sustain our long term competitive advantage, needs to continually focus on building a sustainable talent pipeline. Un supporting STEM activities such as this, Caterpillar can help to inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists.
Eric Reiners, a program manager for automation and enterprise solutions at Caterpillar, attended the competition and stated, “The teams involved in the competition are multi-disciplinary and passionate about applying their classroom education in a hands-on environment. These are exactly the type of individuals Caterpillar needs in order to continue to meet our customers’ needs in a rapidly changing world.”
This year, Caterpillar brought its Command for Dozing Operator Station (a long distance, semi-autonomous remote control system) giving students the opportunity to remotely operate a Cat® D10T track-type tractor located at the Tucson Proving Grounds in Arizona.
Adapted from press release by Rebecca Bowden