Document Objective:

The goal of this document is to provide the following:

This document will also serve as a progress analysis for the team leads as the team plans to attend the 2025 University Rover Challenge (URC) and realize a healthier robotics team.

Section 1: Status on the team's progress

Design teams at UWaterloo suffer a detriment from the co-op system in their members' ability to complete long-term projects. In the past five years, UW Robotics has seen the team collapse three separate times. This leads to burnout, and a new set of passionate but less knowledgeable younger members takes over.
Arguably, some amount of project and knowledge transfer each time is what has fostered the team’s ability to get back on its feet, but it has not been enough to sustain a healthy cycle.

This newsletter details the team’s most recent track record and an ultimatum that was reached with the SEDRA Design Centre (SDC) director, professor Teertstra. It was a decision arising from the fact that the team hasn’t been to competition since 2019. 2020 - 2022 were COVID years that devastated the team’s growth; our 2023 entry did not make it past the system acceptance review, and finally, in fall 2023, the team was not in the position to make an entry for the 2024 URC.

However, in the last two terms, the team has once again seen a breadth of revival. We have worked on redeveloping our drivetrain system from the ground up and simplifying our communication architecture. Achieving this, it is now time to work towards the much larger goal of becoming competitive again and creating a stronger presence of undergraduate robotics at UWaterloo.

Section 1.1: Drivetrain system

System Highlight:

• Rocker-bogie chassis

• Carbon fiber as structural members

• Custom airless tires

• 48v power system

• Drivetrain + critical system EStop

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Figure 1.1 Latest Drivetrain System Architecture

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Section 1.1.2: Communication system
System Highlight:

• Decoupled link with different frequencies for easier system integration

• Lightweight communication

• Portability

• Modular design for the power module

Link to a more in-depth project communication system document

Section 1.1.3: Conclusion

This is the progress our team has made over the last two terms. One thing to highlight is that all key architectural decisions are made by growing members (most active members are at 2A or younger). Many hard lessons have already been learnt about manufacturing and integration, but this has built us up to tackle even greater requirements that will come up as we work towards accomplishing URC 2025.

Section 2: Update on SDC Director Deadline

The technical review of our deadline accomplishment was outsourced to the team’s Faculty Advisor, Professor William Melek, in order to better assess our alignment with competition objectives. The new team had experienced no communication with Professor Melek prior to this. An administrative call to action was made instead of a technical review.

Section 2.1: Results

• Our team promised to accomplish a working drivetrain system with long range communication, and we delivered the product before the designated deadline.

• The team was made aware that there needs to be a much higher level of communication with the school and that projects need more visibility. Professor Melek relayed Professor Teertstra’s concerns regarding the state of the team and announced a new deadline to provide the following:

Section 2.2: New Requirements

• S24 technical reportIn PROGRESS

  • Break down of URC requirements

  • System capability

  • Vehicle design

  • Mission methodologies

  • Timeline

  • Risks assessment

  • Budgeting

• A recruitment planCompleted

• Engaging expertiseIn PROGRESS

  • Capstone projects

  • Company sponsorships

  • RoboHub collaboration

• A financial assessment and sponsorship planCompleted

• Marketing PlanCompleted

• Team restructuring and optimizationIn Progress

• Communication methodology withCompleted

  • SDC coordinators

  • Faculty advisor

  • General team members

After the completion of these documents, we will formally present them along with our roadmap to the SDC coordinators. We also believe this will help us better structure the team for URC 2025 and beyond!

Section 3: Next steps ahead

Our team had successfully reached out to RoboHub manager and UW Robotics alumni, professor Brandon Dehart, and robotics software domain expert Professor Charbel Azzi and recruited them to become faculty mentors. Faculty mentors will be key in ensuring that there is a sustainable knowledge transfer for future generations to come.

Furthermore, our team wants to develop a positive lasting relationship with local robotics companies like Clearpath Inc. because our team can benefit from industry models. Our members who previously or currently intern at Clearpath have enjoyed their experiences and are happy to learn that the team’s founders and other Alumni work there.

Section 3.1 Things to do

• Coordinate with faculty mentors and help develop a better Rover the university can be proud of

• Our team want to showcase the Rover to a broader audience and gather a wider targeted audience

• Develop good health in the team and keep the team more sustainable

• Create good documentation system for next-gen UWRT members

• Our team has set 6 milestones for concrete preparation to go to URC 2025

  • Drivetrain + communication system Completed

  • Drivetrain system integration with GPS CoordinationIN PRogress

  • Arm System design and integration IN PRogress

  • Autonomy system with object avoidance pending

  • Science modulepending

  • Mission Strategy Optimizationpending

Outlined below is the rough roadmap towards URC 2025! A detailed version with set milestones.

Section 3.2 Recruitment plan

In the past, the team had always been in a situation where the leads would lack enough bandwidth to effectively recruit and onboard new members while working hard to achieve technical goals. This meant only a couple passionate students with prior robotics experience were retained each year.

This has seen a change. While working towards our deadline, we effectively gained ‘14’ lasting members and continued to sustain interest. We have now placed even more emphasis on recruitment with improving team sustainability as the topmost priority.

An immediate technical goal is to have our robotic arm mechanically assembled by the start of the F23 term so that we can garner more interest.

Key Steps towards better recruitment:

• Acquired faculty mentors to relieve time taken for technical research and implementation

• Rekindling administrative support from faculty advisor

• Revision of new member onboarding

• Greater levels of outreach and visibility

• Student co-ops and capstone collaboration

More details can be found in the ongoing recruitment plan document.

Section 4: Final words

Our team has started taking initiatives and getting things back on track, but there is still a long way to go. Fortunately, our team has four critical people who are able to help the rest of the team members realize a future roadmap and can back each other up as needed. As a result, this is the reason we reach out to help Clearpath; our team want to be strong and learn from the industry model. Currently, our team is learning to do things right in an achievable way and see how we can reward all the companies that support us.

Section 4.1 Defining Clearpath’s Support

• Monetary and hardware

• Team prestige

• Professional mentorship

• Following an Industry model on:

  • How to mitigate the struggles that can come with working with new OTS/OEM components

  • How to construct a high-performance team

Section 4.2 Why UW Robotics?

Four (4) student robotics groups are directly associated with and funded by the school. Outside of these are a slew of automotive design teams, among a few other focuses.

Section 4.2.1 WARG
The Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group (WARG) has developed a strong community for aerial robotics and was crowned champion for this year’s Canadian University Aerial Robotics challenge. The current team's focus is on the transportation of people from one place to another.

Section 4.2.2 UW Battle Bots – Team Orbitron
Waterloo’s Battle Bots team is a closed group of students collaborating with Hacksmith Industries to participate in a combat robotics tournament. They championed their latest battle against Team Disarray.

Section 4.2.3 UW REACT
UW React aims to inspire high school students participating in the First Robotics competition by prototyping a solution to the yearly released game in a 3-day hack event. Highschool teams spend 2 months learning from these concepts to develop a fully functional robot.

Section 4.2.4 UW Robotics
UW Robotics stands as Waterloo’s only applications robotics team. Members get to work on analyzing the competition requirements and create unique solutions that score the highest in a Mars-like environment. Most importantly, our team also has a positive relationship with all other robotics teams, and we are actively learning from others. When the time comes, our team is interested in exploring beyond the URC for other forms of robotics enrichment that will serve a diverse level of member experience.

Section 4.3 The future of Robotics at UWaterloo

UWaterloo values the importance of robotics and the infinite potential of future robots. This has been indicated by the positive growth of Robohub (Waterloo’s largest robotics research infrastructure) and the expansion of the Mechatronics department in Engineering. Also from the 2024 student capstone project showcase, we have seen a huge growth of robotics-related projects, and the project varies from improving the efficiency of planting to Camera capturing controlling a robotics arm. Our team will also fit into the university's long-term vision as a first entry to get more people involved in developing high-quality robots following good practice.