Student engineers from two colleges or universities square off to build radio-controlled robots that are capable performing a specific task. Each team -- assisted by a single robotics expert -- has a single day to build a robot from scratch materials. At the end of the day the two robots battle it out in a timed match.
In episode 208, teams from the University of Rochester and Iowa State University are asked to design and build a robot that can (1) maneuver inside a holding pen and (2) catch and contain as many robotic rodents as possible. Rochester designs a robot with a pneumatic flap that sweeps rodents up into a dishwasher tray storage bin, and Iowa State constructs a robot with a rodent-retrieving mechanism consisting of two spinning wheels set slightly apart such that rodents are caught up between them and propelled into the onboard holding bin. Iowa State’s "Cy III" is a beautiful machine, but things get ugly when a guardrail bends over the mouth of the retrieval mechanism. In the meantime, Rochester’s "Rat Snatcher" does some serious rodent wrangling and walks away with the win. Rochester University advances to the next round of competition and one step closer to the Robot Rivals Championship.
