The Duke Robotics Club is a student-run organization in Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering. Our mission is to provide Duke undergraduate and graduate students a place to pursue their interest in robotics by working on high-impact, large-scale robotics projects and competitions, primarily in the realm of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). These projects allow our talented students to hone their skills and demonstrate the strength of Duke Engineering.
Duke Robotics Club, Mission Statement
We build awesome robots for RoboSub!
RoboSub is a Navy-sponsored competition in San Diego every summer for fully-autonomous underwater submarines. We’ve been participating ever since our founding in 2001, consistently placing in at least the semifinals every year we’ve competed.
How do we do that?
Examples of project areas we will tackle this year:
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- Comprehensive redesign of robot’s structure and capsule
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- Torpedo launcher design using SolidWorks and 3D printing
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- Custom PCBs for power conversion and signal processing
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- Acoustic localization system with an FPGA-microcontroller combo
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- Task planning framework and GUI control system in ROS
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- Computer simulation with realistic buoyancy and drag
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- Automated build and test system for our Dockerized codebase
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- Train neural networks for computer vision using PyTorch and Tensorflow
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- … and many more!
Join us!
No prior experience required! Come check out our official recruiting events and intro project at the beginning of the semester, or hop in during any one of our twice-weekly meetings. Drop us a line for details.
Still not convinced?
Duke Robotics Club is a great opportunity to gain project experience that is not available in a normal classroom setting. You’ll gain hands-on experience in engineering, inter-team communication, as well as learn many industry standard tools which can help prepare you for internship and job opportunities later on. This low stress environment is a great place to explore and practice new skills, make mistakes, and learn from them. You’ll also have the chance to get to know upperclassmen that have lots of knowledge to pass along! We host several events outside of the lab, including team dinners and social events. We can’t wait to meet you!