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Discuss “‘Counting on bad weather’”

The second day of Carnival dawned unexpectedly sunny, and robot builders across campus cursed the beautiful weather, which threatened to derail the 13th annual Mobot races. “It’s so bright out — which is so not Pittsburgh,” said Leigh Ann Sudol, Ph.D. candidate in computer science, crouched on the sidewalk next to her robot, True, which was refusing to move. “This is the one event where we’re counting on bad weather.”

To win the Mobot races (Mobot is short for “mobile robot”), a robot must complete a 14-gate course in under four minutes. The course is a curvy white line, painted on the sidewalk outside of Wean Hall. “Most robots use video cameras, photoreceptors, or other sensors to detect the white line,” said Ben Brown,...

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