Students Win First Place at UK National Unibots Competition
The London Northeastern Robotics Club secured first place in the 2025 National Unibots Competition held at the University of Cambridge, besting 10 other teams with its robot that incorporated a vacuum motor, which gave it an edge against its competitors.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Patrick Daly. Main photo: Students Daniel Brightman and Asher Hunter display their robot that won first prize at the national Unibots UK competition. Photo by David Tett for Northeastern University
Northeastern team walks away with first prize at UK national Unibots competition thanks to clever design
LONDON—When three engineering students founded Northeastern Robotics Club on the London campus, they wanted a challenge.
The trio—Lucas Aulisi, 19, Daniel Brightman,18, and Asher Hunter, 19—decided to enter Unibots UK, a nationwide competition for university robotics clubs, to test their skills. The target was simply to get a machine together that could compete—they didn’t expect to walk out of the arena as champions. But that is exactly what they did.
Aulisi, an electrical engineering major, said the winning feeling had been “incredible.”
“I was very proud of our robot, but I did not anticipate going this far,” said Aulisi, a native New Yorker. “We were extremely stressed out, especially because there was an elimination bracket following the preliminaries, so losing once meant getting eliminated. I am very proud that our robot and the trophy are sitting in the back of the engineering classroom for all to see.”
The Northeastern team’s robot incorporated a vacuum motor which gave it an edge during the arena battles at the Unibots competition. Photo by David Tett for Northeastern University
The three-person team beat 11 others for the 2025 Unibots title. During the two-day competition held at the University of Cambridge in March, they progressed to the knock-out rounds after placing in the top four of a mini-league after four round-robin ties. They then came out on top against rival opponents in both the semifinal and final.
“It was great to win,” said Hunter, a computing engineering major from Calgary, Canada. “We worked really hard for a few months with planning and designing, and the last week was a huge grind. Having that reward, it was really nice.”
The aim during the bouts, Brightman explained, was for teams to use their robots to shepherd balls from the arena’s playing area back to their corner.
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