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Brandon Lalli
  • Boyertown, PA

Brandon Lalli Contributes to Millersville University Robotics Team Recognition

2011 Dec 12

Brandon Lalli, of Boyertown, Pa., a student at Millersville University of Pennsylvania and member of the University's Association of Technology, Management and Applied Engineering (ATMAE) Robotics Team, was recently awarded for their robot Millersville's Automatic Color-sorter with Dedicated Active Dual-drive Integration, or MAC DADI, at the 2011 ATMAE National Conference held November 9-12, in Cleveland, Ohio. Millersville University's Robotics Team was represented by 12 of its 16 members.

Lalli participated in the ATMAE National Conference. Individually, he won the Virtual Welding Competition, placing first and winning himself a brand new Lincoln Electric MIG welder.

Millersville University's Robotics Team spent the last year developing MAC DADI; a custom robot designed to retrieve colored ping pong balls, sort them and deliver them to designated drop off locations.

MAC DADI is the third semi-autonomous mobile robot developed by the team. This year's design was extremely sophisticated and the largest mobile robot the team has ever constructed. MAC DADI's control was distributed over three independent microcontrollers running in parallel sequencing a tremendous amount of inputs and outputs.

"The project took approximately one year (including the summer) and more than 3000 man-hours to complete," stated Dr. John Wright, professor of applied engineering, safety and technology and the team's advisor.

Although MAC DADI did not win the overall competition, Millersville's entry did win the majority of the independent awards including Best Electrical/Control Methodology, Best Manufacturing and Best Technical Paper. The team now boasts winning 24 awards across several engineering, technology and computer science robotics competitions since 2001, when the robotics team was launched. In 2010, the team won the ATMAE Robotics Cup with SAM (Semi-autonomous Marauder).

"I am extremely proud of our team and our accomplishments," says Wright.

Millersville University of Pennsylvania is a top-ranked, public university located in the northeast region of the United States. It is committed to offering students a high quality, comprehensive university experience of exceptional value. Dedicated to providing nationally recognized programs that embrace the liberal arts, Millersville offers academic opportunities that are supported by outstanding faculty who are accomplished scholars and practitioners. Founded in 1855 as the first Normal School in Pennsylvania, Millersville University is one of 14 universities within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.