Members of the UNAM Space team pose for a picture with NASA astronaut Steve Swanson, center, after a rerun of the level one challenge during the 2015 Sample Return Robot Challenge at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass. Sixteen teams are competing for a $ million NASA prize purse. Teams will be required to demonstrate autonomous robots that can locate and collect samples from a wide and varied terrain, operating without human control. The objective of this NASA-WPI Centennial Challenge is to encourage innovations in autonomous navigation and robotics technologies.

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Members of the UNAM Space team pose for a picture with NASA astronaut Steve Swanson, center, after a rerun of the level one challenge during the 2015 Sample Return Robot Challenge at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass. Sixteen teams are competing for a $ million NASA prize purse. Teams will be required to demonstrate autonomous robots that can locate and collect samples from a wide and varied terrain, operating without human control. The objective of this NASA-WPI Centennial Challenge is to encourage innovations in autonomous navigation and robotics technologies. Innovations stemming from the challenge may improve NASA's capability to explore a variety of destinations in space, as well as enhance the nation's robotic technology for use in industries and applications on Earth.

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Keywords: 2015, challenge, institute, joel, kowsky, ma, massachusetts, nasa, news, polytechnic, return, robot, sample, space, steve, swanson, unam, usa, worcester