Walrus set for Face-off Next Month in Vecna Robot Sprint Challenge

A large four-legged robot 'Walrus', especially designed for search and rescue, is set for face-off next month with more than a dozen other participants in the debut Vecna Robot Sprint Challenge outside Boston.

Also, the robots designed by student team at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute will be racing a lineup listing from commercial available machines to remote control cars jerry-rigged by teenage hobbyists.

This 100-metre out-and-back course of the challenge has no aim of attracting competitors on par with the US Defense Department-funded Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Robotics Challenge where the world's top minds show off their creations.

But the competition, which is sponsored by robotics company Vecna Technologies, is part of a growing breed of lower-key robot races becoming popular across the United States.

Experts also support such races as they believe that they can play a powerful role in attracting young students into the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology associate professor Russ Tedrake said that it is a fantastic trend and races like Vecna's seems to be attracting people into the field.

According to experts, such competitions also help to bring forward new ideas that can grow into practical inventions.

In addition, Worcester campus, 22-year-old senior Brendan McLeod and four classmates have been working on their entry robot nicknamed as 'Walrus', or Water and Land Remote Unmanned Search.

McLeod said that their project was not designed for speed. Their 80-pound device features four tracked flipper-like appendages that allow it to swim, climb stairs or muster a brisk walking pace on flat ground.

McLeod said, "We think we can expect to do (the 100-metre race) in about a minute and a half". Debbie Theobald, the company's chief executive said that the tank-like Walrus was designed as a senior project well before Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Vecna Technologies decided to host the event.