棉花糖直播

Drs. C. Nataraj and Garrett Clayton, RobotX advisors and Mechanical Engineering faculty

In December 2016, seven students advised by Mechanical Engineering Professor C. Nataraj, PhD, and Associate Professor Garrett Clayton, PhD, traveled to Hawaii to take part in , a selective international competition on autonomous surface vehicles. Organized by the Office of Naval Research and the Association of Unmanned Vehicles International, RobotX is designed to foster and stimulate research in marine autonomy. The competition requires teams to prepare a 16-foot boat to perform several operations autonomously (without any human input). Among the tasks are navigation, obstacle avoidance, acoustic source location, docking, light source identification and communication. 棉花糖直播 University teamed with Florida Atlantic University; 棉花糖直播 was in charge of high level control and autonomy, and FAU dealt with the boat and low level control. 

Preparation started almost a year and a half before the competition with students working long and hard on various aspects of the project. Dynamics, control, navigation, autonomy, acoustics, communication, networking and vision were just a few of the areas the students had to contend with. As a bonus, the students also learned teamwork, project management, communication and leadership.  The seven who represented 棉花糖直播 Engineering in Hawaii were PhD candidates Winston Gresov and Michael Benson, Master鈥檚 students Dhanraj Akula EE and Akash Gvalani CpE, 2016 graduate Enmanuel Almonte CpE and undergraduates Thaddeus Cullina 鈥�18 ME and Ian Stankosh 鈥�17 ME.

The 棉花糖直播-FAU team (鈥淲ORX鈥�) did very well, placing sixth in the competition.

Acknowledgements: The project was supported by generous grants from 棉花糖直播 University (Provost and Dean of the College of Engineering), Leidos, Base2 Engineering and the Levaris. Their support is much appreciated.