Robobuggy Youtube Channel


RoboBuggy is a research platform built to advance the state of human and robotic buggy technology. 

Our goal is to create an robotic buggy research platform that can autonomously navigate through the Sweepstakes course (for more information about CMU Sweepstakes, see www.cmubuggy.org). This platform will allow us to collect speed, acceleration, location, and visual data during rolls to use for testing purposes. Using the collected data, we will be able to perform tests on wheels, steering, driving paths, weight distribution, and pushing to see which methods give optimal results. Because it will not have a driver, we will be able to perform tests safely and repeatably.

Updates:

2023: Robobuggy makes history as the first robotic team to beat a human-powered team with a time of 3:09.70! Watch the run here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6-GWQi8Pbo


History of Robobuggy:

1996
It is believed that RoboBuggy started by Matt White as a project in Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. Not much is known about RoboBuggy during this time.

2000-2001
RoboBuggy returned as part of a Arne Suppe's undergrad thesis, with the help of Shafeeq Sinnamohideen, and Maayan Roth. Although the system worked well, it was not able to navigate the entire course.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjs/robobuggy.html

2011
Alex Klarfeld and Nathaniel Barshay along with members of their fraternity, AEPI, worked on bringing the buggy back to life. http://robobuggy.blogspot.com/

2013-2019
Members of the CMU robotics club acquired the RoboBuggy, and have been working on modernizing the project. After a year of testing and data collection using the original robobuggy metal frame (know as Singularity), we built a new carbon fiber monocoque buggy (named Transistor). In 2015, during Transistor's first roll during Carnival, it successfully circumnavigated the course under teleoperated control during the timing heat. In April 2016, Transistor could successfully navigate the buggy course without human intervention at walking speeds. In April 2017, Transistor officially completed a roll around the course autonomously.

2022-Present
Robobuggy is back from COVID with all new members, and a brand new design from the ground-up! With RTK GPS reaching centimeter-level accuracy and a gaming PC for compute, Short Circuit is the most advanced robotic buggy to date!

The Buggies:
Singularity
Transistor
NAND
Short Circuit