Blue Bear: From 0 to 1 Actualizing Your Robot Dreams at DKU

The VEX Educational Robotics program, founded in 2005 by Innovation First International and supported by NASA, has become the largest robotics competition certified by Guinness World Records. The Robotics program creates a platform for students to practice, communicate, and foster their teamwork and innovative problem-solving skills.

VEX robotics competitions are currently trending in China, with many well-known Chinese universities participating, including Shanghai Jiaotong University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Tongji University, and Harbin Institute of Technology. Excellent teams among them have great structural designs and automation procedures, high operational control proficiency, and even self-designed parts and circuit boards.

Blue Bear is a team of Duke Kunshan University iNNOVATION iNCUBATOR. Founded in July 2022, Blue Bear is committed to designing a mechanical structure with a two-color roller scoring ability that can stably pick up and shoot discs in the VEX Robot Competition, improving the control accuracy of automation programming and robot positioning problems, training the contestant’s strategic deployment and improvisational ability. Through robot innovation and development, team members can improve their academic ability, team consciousness, and competition experience, enhancing the atmosphere of robot research and innovation research at Duke Kunshan University. Blue Bear is expected to become a pioneer in robot engineering innovation in Kunshan.

At present, the Blue Bear team is led by Binyan Sun and has 20 core members from different classes and majors.

“As the team leader, I am very satisfied with the overall development of our team. At present, the main team members are playing their leading roles, and after continuous integration with other team members, they are promoting the research efficiently.”

—Binyan (Bob) Sun, Team Leader

Robotics Development

Spin Up is the VEX’s theme for this year. The goal is to develop the robot’s auto-targeting function, improve the accuracy of disc projection, and enhance the proficiency of chassis control. Based on these challenges, the Blue Bear team determined the important design of disc projection through online and offline meetings. After more than three months, the mechanical team designed and built two robots with flywheel firing mechanisms, and used optical shaft encoder auxiliary control to stabilize the flywheel speed and ensure shooting accuracy. The programming team achieved manual and automatic control of the robots while setting adjustable speed gears for the flywheels to meet the needs of different shooting ranges. At the same time, the control team identified potential problems with the robot during their practices and worked with the mechanic team to improve the robot’s structure.

“Compared to more professionalized teams from other schools, our team encountered many challenges in the development process because we did not even have one member specialized in mechanics and had relatively weak strengths in designing and constructing, which led to a weak foundation.”

—Zichen Wu, Team Member

 

Team Management and Operations

The development of the VEX robot was a huge challenge for the Blue Bear team. The students overcame time constraints and the COVID-19 epidemic and planned their tasks in four directions: programming, mechanics, driving, and operation, achieving high quality and innovative development in all aspects and successfully completing the development and manufacturing of the robots. Meanwhile, the students made full use of the university’s existing resources and independently developed the robot’s mechanical structure and automation program through continuous coordination.

 

Funding & University Support

As an innovation project in the DKU iNNOVATION iNCUBATOR program for college students, Blue Bear received comprehensive support from the InE Dii for robot development materials and activities. The team also received support from DKU Innovation Lab to improve the team’s overall level of business operations and innovation abilities. In addition, Blue Bear has received significant backup from DKU Blue Oasis Student Center, Undergraduate Studies, Office of Student Affairs, Operations, and the Campus Health Clinic.

“Blue Bear is an outstanding team of student innovators, bringing together top talents with interdisciplinary skills, a strong spirit of technological innovation, and business insight. They have created great potentialities for building a culture of innovation on campus by leveraging existing resources and tapping into multiple sources of support.”

—Tom, Innovation Lab Manager

The Blue Bear team is currently designing new robotics projects and conducting regular mechanical and programming training. They plan to present their new robot at the VEX Asia Championship North China Divisional Competition in February, the VEX Asia Championship in March, the College Smart Robotics Creativity Competition in June, and the World Robotics Competition in August.

 

“We are just starting up. In the future, as long as everyone keeps putting in efforts and takes their own responsibilities and even helps others, I believe there will be more improvements.”

—Zichen Wu, Team Member

“I hope to achieve more satisfactory results through the six-month lasted learning and practicing.”

—Tianyi Zhang, Team Member

 

At the same time, the Blue Bear team hopes to attract more DKU students to participate. If you are interested in C++ programming, 3D modeling, robot building, robot controlling, business operating, financial planning and management, or marketing, please contact binyan.sun@dukekunshan.edu.cn for more information. Students from all disciplines are welcome to join us to explore the wonders of robotics, as there are no robotics or programming requirements for certain positions in the operation team. We look forward to seeing more DKU students joining our future events to attain more achievements together!