. . Student participants compete to win a technically challenging game by programming their strategies into the SPHERES. Students’ programs control the satellites' speed, rotation, and direction of travel. The students program their satellites to complete competition objectives, for example navigating obstacles, while conserving resources such as fuel. The programs are autonomous - that is, the students are not able to directly control the satellites while they are running. Each year’s game is motivated by a problem of interest to NASA and MIT. Students create, edit, save, and simulate projects online. They use a graphical editor to write code, then simulate their programs immediately and see the results using a simulation. The programming interface and simulation are entirely web-based, so ZR does not require any software downloads or computer configuration. The system even allows teams to compete against themselves so that they can test different strategies before finalizing their competition submissions. The game takes place in the Japanese Experiment Module in the ISS, Pictured below to the Right. To the left, the three colored SPHERES are featured, although only the red and blue SPHERES are used in the competition
THE TEAM- SPHERobotics
This is our third year doing Zero Robotics, although the High School Team from Montclair is experienced and helps guide our team along.