Northeastern University team wins MassRobotics Form & Function Robotics Challenge.
MassRobotics has announced the winners of its third MassRobotics Form & Function University Robotics Challenge. Fifteen university teams presented robotics and automation projects, aiming to design robots that combine functional capability with effective visual design, while competing for cash prizes.
MassRobotics is an independent robotics hub supporting startups with workspace, resources, and industry connections to develop and scale robotics and physical AI technologies. Headquartered in Boston, it collaborates globally across academia, industry, and government.
Components and software were donated to the teams by sponsors including Altium, AMD, Analog Devices, Autodesk, Copley Controls, Danfoss, FESTO, Harmonic Drive, Igus, Lattice Semiconductor, Maxon, Mitsubishi Electric, Novata enabling students to work with current tools and technologies.
A panel of robotics industry judges awarded first prize to Transformative Robotics Lab Northeastern University for its soft robotic arm prototype, designed to rotate and clean plates.
For the first time in the competition’shistory, second prize and audience choice award went to the same team: the University of Waterloo Gripper for First Responders. Their custom designed robotic gripper and arm were developed to assist with emergency response assessments.
Third prize was awarded to the University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus team, a previous participant, for further development of their wildfire monitoring and containment system.
The judges awarded an honorable mention to the Kurtz Robotics team from Boston University for their automated grow bed project, which featured a robot designed to pick tomatoes in a scalable, cost effective manner.
All of the teams presented early-stage solutions that drew interest from attendees. Some students noted that companies had expressed interest in potential collaborations or employment opportunities. The event also provided researchers with a valuable opportunity to share their work with industry professionals outside of their academic environments.
MassRobotics hosted a display area featuring 21 participating startups from its community, including Algorized, Ascend Robotics, ATDev, Aura Intelligent Systems, Inc., Ava Robotics, Black-I Robotics, Inc., Cerulion, Cobionix Corporation, Entriya, Hathaway Robotics, LabyrinthAI, ModalAI, PAPER TABLE, LLC., Ras Labs, Inc., Resix, Rowbot Systems, Soterya, Inc., Thinking Robots, Inc., TP7, Ubiros Inc., and Vision Cycle.
MassRobotics Accelerator, supported by Mass Tech Collaborative, featured companies from its current cohort at the Robotics Summit. Each company presented its technology and business model. Participating companies included Haystack Ag, LiftLabs, Mito Robotics, Nexterity, p!ng, Redefine Surgery, ReviMo, Revolute Robotics, Tatum Robotics, and Variable Machines.
The Healthcare Robotics Startup Catalyst program featured its latest cohort of startups, who gave final presentations summarizing their progress during the program. Participating startups included OTSAW, ReviMo, Sixdof Space, Subtlebotic, TechNovator, Tenomix.
Attendees viewed product demonstrations on the exhibit floor, including systems for patient transfer and surgical tool handling. More details on the program and participating startups are available here.
Edited by Puja Mitra, WTWH Media, for Control Engineering, from a MassRobotics news release.
