Purdue’s Boilerbots, a team of robotic football players from Purdue Polytechnic Kokomo, journeyed to the University of Notre Dame October 1 to take on the Fightin’ iBots in a game of American Football. The Boilerbots won, 26-6.
Players included defensive end Eve, a robot built and piloted by Purdue junior Shelbey Summers and running back Betamax, piloted by Mitchell Johnson.
Purdue’s human players attributed their victory to the strength and robustness of their robots’ designs, the skill of the human operators, and a new communication and control system being tested on Betamax that improved its ability to maneuver when running in the open field.
Purdue’s players now have time to go back into the lab to work on additional design improvements to prepare their robots for the National Championship of Robotic Football in the spring.
Read full coverage from the Kokomo Tribune.