Robotics
​The Robotics subteam gives our boat all of its advanced capabilities, creating all the mechanical systems that enable it to move & interact with its environment. The roboboat competition currently has three robotics-focused tasks: shooting water at a target, shooting skeeballs at a target, and picking up objects out of the water and moving them to different areas.
​
The water shooter, now in its second iteration, was the first project that our robotics team finalized for competition. A self-priming pump sits on the boat deck and pulls water up through the left stabilizer hull, propelling it up to 20 feet forward. A servo encased in a compact waterproof enclosure allows the stream angle to be adjusted automatically, giving us more control and precision when attempting to complete the task autonomously.


In addition to the water shooter, the first iteration of our skeeball launcher is reaching completion. The launcher has two parts: a feeder mechanism and the launching mechanism.
The feeder mechanism sits on top and drops skeeballs into the launcher when we are ready to shoot. It has two plates, one with three skeeball slots and one with a singular slot. When the shoot command is sent, the top plate rotates, pushing a skeeball into the hole in the bottom plate, and subsequently into the launcher.


The launching mechanism itself is a rubber flywheel that is rotated at roughly 4500 RPM by a DC motor mounted to the side of the structure. As the ball comes down the ramp, it is sped up dramatically by the flywheel and launched toward the target. Since the flywheel is rubber, it conforms to the shape of the ball, giving it more grip as it launches. The chassis of the launcher is made from machined aluminum to make it as rigid as possible, counteracting all of the vibrations coming from the motor.
The team is also currently developing a robotic arm with three degrees of freedom—two joints and a rotating base—designed to manipulate objects in and around the lake. This project is currently in its second prototype, with final completion scheduled for March 2026.

In the fall semester, the team integrated and tested a new holonomic propulsion system, which allows the boat to travel in all directions without turning. This was accomplished by mounting 4 motors to the bottom of the boat at 30 degree angles with respect to the centerline.


Controller inputs were then mapped to each motor using a simple system of linear equations, allowing us to control forward, lateral, and rotational movement independently.

This holonomic propulsion system makes it much easier for the boat to stay in one place in the water, counteracting currents or wind without needing to turn around. This makes it easier to complete the robotics-focused tasks (shooting at targets and picking objects up) as the boat needs to be steady to be as accurate as possible.
Here is a video from our holonomic propulsion testing session:
