From Balto to Blizzard, robots roam campus—with more to come. Because Huskies can't get enough of drones, droids, and everything in between.
Meet Balto, Michigan Tech's Robo Doggo
by Cyndi Perkins
With multiple robotics courses now being offered and a new robotics lab slated to open this year, Michigan Technological University's College of Computing is introducing Balto the robot dog to the campus community.
Balto, named for the legendary husky and lead sled dog who ran the last leg of a more than 500-mile dog sled relay to deliver diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska, in 1925, will be the greeter in Michigan Tech's new robotics lab, coming to Rekhi Hall.
As plans for the facility come together, Balto has been paying visits to students around campus. Michael Walker, assistant professor of computer science, leads the demonstrations.
Walker said choosing the Balto moniker came easily. "Being named after a Husky is of course fitting, while also capturing some of Michigan Tech's essence of resilience and dedication that's embodied by students and faculty up here in Houghton," he said.
Walker, whose research focuses on human-robot interactions, said the state-of- the-art Boston Dynamics quadruped and manipulation platform Spot—now known as Balto—is well-suited to his special interest in improving human-robot teaming in real-world scenarios with immersive interfaces, including mixed or virtual reality.
"To enable exploration of this research space, the need rose for a robust robotic platform capable of working in complex indoor and outdoor environments," Walker said. "The goal is to not just explore and navigate these environments but be able to interact physically with them."
Walker said Balto is capable of traversing hazardous terrain while autonomously avoiding obstacles. The robot hosts several onboard computers and sensors, including IMUS, spatial cameras, and 3D lidar. Balto is also outfitted with a six-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm mounted on the back of the robot, which features a camera embedded in the end of the gripper.
Balto's meet-and-greets serve an important introductory purpose.
"The demos showcase the capabilities of the cutting-edge industrial robot assets available to students at Tech while also bringing awareness to the MTU community about the activity, opportunities, and growth within the Computer Science Department in terms of robotics research and courses," said Walker.
There's an even more fundamental reason behind introducing Balto to as many students as possible.
"I primarily do it because I believe that some out there haven't found their passions yet," said Walker. "You never know if some random robotics professor out of nowhere shoving the remote controller of a cutting-edge robotic system into your hands is the little push you needed to realize that you were really interested in something you had never considered before."
Balto is sturdy, with a built-in collision avoidance system. Inexperienced operators are carefully supervised—but there's still a chance that the robot could be damaged. "It's just the inherent nature and risk of creating and sharing experiences such as this, and something that I've tried to make peace with as early as possible," Walker said. "I think back to how badly I wanted to try operating the Spot when I was a student. I want to give others the hands-on experience that I wanted myself years ago, instead of enviously looking at the established and more senior robotics lab members who got work with such exciting platforms."
Beyond inspiring students and welcoming visitors to the robotics lab, Balto also has an important research mission.
"Balto will be participating in research that explores teaming between human teleoperators and on-the-ground human team members in first-response scenarios," said Walker.
Though Balto runs solo for now, there are plans for that to change. Additional ambassadors and assets will be coming to the robotics lab, which is expected to be ready during the 2025-26 academic year.
"The lab will house industrial-grade motion capture cameras and other robotic platforms, including swarms of mobile aerial and ground robots, and a large, socially expressive humanoid robot designed for manipulation tasks that will be arriving in the lab this summer," said Walker. "The Computer Science Department's human-robot interaction class that I'm offering in the fall should see the robot being available for students to use in their class projects, which will be a great experience for them."
With robotics continuing to expand at Tech, Huskies can expect the College's roster of robots to keep expanding for some time to come.
Ready, Set, Robot: MTU Robotics Team Builds Working Prototype in Three Days
by Coby-Dillon English
As part of their mission to inspire the next generation of robotics enthusiasts, Michigan Tech's Copper Country Robotics team built a robot from scratch in just 72 hours and broadcast the entire process.
Members of Copper Country Robotics (CCR) had to think and act fast as the scenario and specifications for this year's FIRST Robotics Competition were revealed on January 4 and the countdown began.
"Students know what they want, and they want robots!"
Robotics teams at high schools and colleges around the world tuned in to the 2025 FIRST Robotics Competition kickoff announcement via a global telecast. More than 20 CCR members returned to Tech's snow-laden campus two days before the University's spring 2025 semester began to watch the challenge reveal.
The FIRST Robotics Competition challenges high school robotics teams to design, build, and test a robot for strategic gameplay in six weeks, advancing to compete with other teams later this year. College students get three days to accomplish the same task—a prospect that CCR members, most of whom are FIRST alumni, seemed to relish.
At Michigan Tech, the Huskies working on the robot were there for the love of it, including Copper Country Robotics executive board member David Reeves, a computer science major.
Robots Came FIRST for Many Huskies
FIRST, a nationwide nonprofit organization that engages students from preschoolers to high school seniors in team-based robotics programs, incorporated the Robot in 3 Days (Ri3D) Challenge as part of its annual competition kickoff.
Copper Country Robotics serves as a FIRST alumni network for Michigan Tech students who were involved in the program and are excited to nurture the next generation of engineers by serving as role models. They mentor local FIRST teams, volunteer at events, and for the first time are competing in the Ri3D Challenge. Along with collegiate robotics teams from around the globe, they designed, built and tested a robot in just three days, showing the FIRST community the tenacity of Michigan Tech students. Their prototype serves as an example for high school teams in their own design and prototyping phases.
CCR team members got started on this year's challenge at the University's Alley Makerspace—a collaborative facility in the Memorial Union Building open to all students. It's outfitted with tools and equipment for 3D printing, woodworking, electronics, and more.
Building Robots to Navigate a Reef
This year's robotics competition game, titled REEFSCAPE, challenged teams to construct robots that can maneuver through a simulated undersea game field. Teams scored points by picking up and placing four-inch-diameter PVC pieces representing coral onto a large metal structure—the reef. As the competition went on, they needed to remove algae (represented by green exercise balls) from the reef to open space for more coral. At the end of the challenge, the robots prepared to be picked up by an imaginary barge—a structure built over the starting line at the edge of the field. Each robot had to grab onto a metal cage suspended from the barge and then hang from the cage, ready to be pulled up.
Once the specifics were announced, the CCR team launched into their initial strategic planning session, then dove into design and prototyping. All their work was captured from multiple angles in a 24-hour livestream and then clipped into short videos meant to assist high school teams in their building. CCR also shared public resources on its website for teams to use, including design specs and a code repository for all the work they completed.
Throughout the three days, team members came and went as they could, many working around the clock, all while preparing for a new semester. Monday, January 6, marked the last full day of the competition and the first day of classes at Michigan Tech.
Except for a few hours at night while the team slept, the robot was being worked on constantly.
Being able to base their work in the Alley Makerspace, complete with tools and a large open space, was a huge benefit to the team. Makerspace coach Will Kanar, a first-year computer engineering student, was present to oversee equipment use and safety. He's also a Copper Country Robotics member and has been involved with FIRST since elementary school.
Introducing Blizzard T. Robot
Aptly named after Tech's iconic Husky mascot, Blizzard T. Robot was completed well before the challenge ended. Special features included a drivetrain for moving around the arena, an arm apparatus designed to pick up and place the coral pieces, and an elevator mechanism to reach the taller components of the reef structure.
The original plan was that the arm apparatus would also be used to dislodge the algae balls, but on the second-to-last day of the challenge, the arm was still unable to remove the algae during tests. The solution? Adding another arm, playfully named "the flippy doodah," that flips around to dislodge the algae pieces.
As part of their mission to assist high school teams, CCR released a video demonstration of their working robot.
With the challenge concluded, no further alterations can be made to the robot. Copper Country Robotics traveled with Blizzard T. Robot to compete this past spring at Grand Valley State University, where FIRST Robotics high school teams could see how gameplay works and how the different teams' robots interact with one another.
Blizzard T. Robot also made an appearance at Michigan Tech's Spring Involvement Fair on January 21.
The Robot in 3 Days Challenge was jointly sponsored by Michigan Tech's College of Computing and College of Engineering. Both Computing Dean Dennis Livesay and Engineering Dean Michelle Scherer said supporting the event came naturally.
"Learning by doing is the foundation of Michigan Tech. Robot in 3 Days is a particularly great example of that because it's a student-led effort," said Livesay.
Scherer said Michigan Tech is delighted to support Copper Country Robotics in bringing Robot in 3 Days to the Upper Peninsula. "Students know what they want, and they want robots!" she said.
Michigan Technological University is an R1 public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan's flagship technological university offers more than 185 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
