<i>Bangladeshi robot to vie in Nasa contest </i>
An automated robot created by some Bangladeshi students will battle for championship in Nasa's third annual Lunabotics Mining Competition (LMC) this year.
LMC is a university-level competition designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Brac University's School of Engineering and Computer Science invented Chandrobot-2, which has been given life with artificial intelligence.
"It has a very strong and powerful mechanical structure, as it has gained perfection after many trials and errors. Very latest Kinect sensor is used in it for obstacle detection and path planning”, said Dr Md Khalilur Rahman, chief adviser of the project.
Last time their Chandrobot earned a lot of accolades but could not win the competition because of some shortcomings. After its remodelling, the Brac University team is now confident of success.
Dr Khalilur Rahman said the robot would earn 500 bonus points, as it was automated, light and able to collect sand samples more than required.
Prof Ainun Nishat, vice chancellor of the university, launched the robot at the institution's Indoor Games Room yesterday.
The competition will be held at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, US, on May 21-26.
The team led by Jonayet Hossain is comprised of three faculty members: Khalilur Rahman, Belal Bhuiyan and Mosaddequr Rahman and 10 students: Mohammad Hasan, Kazi Mohammad, Mashiur Rahman, Sarah Binte Nosair, Fahim Al Hasnaeen, Meem Gazi, Nabil Shaker, Bonny Amin Khan and Khairul Hassan.
Robi sponsored the team to carry on the research programme to invent the lunar excavation device.
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