Carnegie Mellon Robotics Club

Overview

The Carnegie Mellon Robotics Club, also known as "Roboclub", is a student organization at Carnegie Mellon University. At the heart of our mission we are a makerspace & social space. Members use our space and tools to work on all sorts of robotics projects for classes, club projects, or just general curiosity. We were founded in 1984 which makes us one of the oldest collegiate robotics clubs in the world.

The Robotics Club is also supported by our generous sponsors:

4moms, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Deeplocal, Microsoft, San Francisco Circuits, Solidworks, Pure Storage, Fitbit

Access

As its goal is to be an open hackerspace, the Robotics Club is generally open 24/7 when school is in session. Any student can become a member for a nominal fee, which gives access to a plethora of electronic and mechanical parts, and shop tools with appropriate training. Nonetheless, the space is not restricted to members, and many non­members come to work on projects with members or ask questions.

Tools, Materials and Resources

Heavy Shop Tools: Mill, Lathe, Shop Drill, Bandsaw, Mitre Saw, Belt Sander

Hand Tools: drill, saw, files, pliers, sandpaper, hammer, clamps, screwdrivers and more Electrical Test Equipment: Bench power supplies, oscilloscopes, arbitrary function generator

Materials: Wires, various electronics, 3d filament, wood, metal, plastic, random robot parts 3D Printers: Makerbot Replicator 2, PrintrBot Simple Metal

Laser Cutter: Rabbit Laser RL­60­9060

Access & Usage Costs

Yearly membership costs 30 USD. Semester membership costs 15 USD,

For department­sponsored research or commercial work, there is an additional hourly fee depending on extent of resources used.

Management

The Robotics Club is managed by a team of dedicated graduate and undergraduate student officers. These students maintain equipment, organize events, secure sponsorships and help keep the Robotics Club clean.

Training

Various training sessions on basic electronics, programming, shop tool usage, and 3d printing are held multiple times every semester. Older officers are friendly and frequently help other members on all aspects of building robots.

Use and Activity

Members come in to either work on official club sponsored projects, or their own personal projects Official club sponsored projects include flying robots, musical robots, cooking robots and more. We also host training sessions, community engagement events, and other fun things.

Culture and Community

As Carnegie Mellon University’s only makerspace open to all majors, the Robotics Club has fostered a highly interdisciplinary community of some of the best and brightest minds on campus with the sole objective of to building robots, robots, and more robots.

Challenges and Lessons Learned

As the Robotics Club consists almost entirely of current graduate and undergraduate students, the hardest part is balancing our activities with the rigorous demands of classes. This is an ongoing difficulty, but with teamwork, persistence, drive and determination, we turn our ideas into reality at the Robotics Club.

Advice to other Makerspaces

Keep it simple, keep it clean, keep it open :)