Playoffs 2016
The 2016 Robotic Football Playoffs have concluded, and Valparaiso University has won the championship, and the Brian Hederman Memorial Trophy! Here is a brief summary of the games:
- Preliminary: Notre Dame beat Purdue-Kokomo 36-31
- Preliminary: Valparaiso beat Ohio Northern 100-31
- Consolation: Purdue-Kokomo beat Ohio Northern 61-42
- Championship: Valparaiso beat Notre Dame 81-16
All four games were very exciting and all four teams played great. Valparaiso's huge victories were due to the outstanding performance of their quarterback/wide-receiver system, where they racked up big points on passes, in addition to touchdowns.
Combine 2016
On April 2nd, the 2016 Intercollegiate Robot Football Combine took place in the Stepan Center at ND, with four participating teams: Notre Dame, Purdue-Kokomo, Valparaiso, and Mount Union (new entrant to the conference). Notre Dame and Purdue-Kokomo tied for first place in the combine with 24 points (using the swimmer scoring system). Valpo came in next, followed by Mt. Union. Both Valpo and Mt. Union came with a few robots, while Notre Dame and Purdue-Kokomo brought full teams and scrimmaged.
Grand Prize - $2,000 (awarded by Notre Dame AME Department): Purdue-Kokomo (Notre Dame is ineligible for the Grand Prize)
Best Innovation Award - $1,000 (awarded by VisualEdge): Split ($500 each) between Valpo and Notre Dame, both of which have functional Quarterback/Receiver technology that tracks a moving receiver, and adjusts the speed of the thrown ball to the calculated distance. Notre Dame's units used computer vision (pixie-cam) to pair with a unique color on its wide receiver and track the azimuth in real time. The microprocessor onboard the quarterback used the known height of the receiver and pixel density to calculate the distance, adjusting the speed of the throwing wheels accordingly. Valpo used an two infrared emitters on an actuated pole-arm to track the azimuth in real time, and used the known distance between the two infrared emitters to calculate distance, adjusting the throwing wheels accordingly.
Best Industrial Design - $500 (awarded by Notre Dame AME Department): Valparaiso
We note that the Award Committee was impressed by all the student technical presentations overall. All were worthy contenders and it is clear that the students are engaging in some creative engineering and problem solving.
We want to acknowledge Mt. Union. They brought two robots and both units passed the terminator test, which is impressive for first-time entrants!
(5=Win; 3=Place; 2=Show; 1=Entry)
| Pur-Koko | ND | Valpo | Mt. Union | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 ft Shuttle | 10.10s (3) | 10.08s (5) | 15.01s (2) | 34.00s (1) |
| 3-Cone Drill | 10.71s (3) | 10.23s (5) | 15.77s (2) | 35.34s (1) |
| Strength Test | 170lb (5) | 160lb (3) | 90lb (2) | 25lb (1) |
| QB Accuracy | 147pt (3) | 160pt (5) | 95pt (2) | 0pt (0) |
| Speed | 2.95s (5) | 3.71s (3) | 4.30s (2) | 26.60s (1) |
| Kicking | 9.5pt (5) | 1.5pt (3) | 1.5pt (3) | 0pt (0) |
| Terminator | 0pt (0) | 0pt (0) | 0pt (0) | 0pt (0) |
| TOTAL | 24 | 24 | 13 | 4 |
| RANKING | 1st | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
Notre Dame vs. Valparaiso (Exhibition)
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish traveled to Valparaiso, Indiana, to play the Valparaiso University Crusaders for an exhibition game. This is the first time these two teams played each other! Notre Dame had some great plays, including the first completed fully-automatic pass in Robotic Football History! Fully-automatic requires that the quarterback autonomously determines the angle of the wide receiver and its relative distance when throwing the football to it. In the end, Notre Dame lost 42 to 86.
Check out this video of our quarterback running for some big yardage!