Friday, August 23, 2013

Navy sponsors first Maritime RobotX student robotics competition

The first Maritime RobotX Challenge, a new student robotics competition, will take place in in Singapore in October 2014. The inaugural contest is co-sponsored by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Foundation, and Singapore’s Ministry of Defense.

“For the Department of the Navy to continue to develop future capabilities, we need a pipeline of young people interested in subject areas like robotics and autonomy,” said Kelly Cooper, a program officer in ONR’s Sea Warfare and Weapons department. “This competition serves as a catalyst for autonomous vehicle development that can ultimately lead to operational unmanned systems.”

Three teams each from five countries—the U.S, Singapore, Australia, Japan and South Korea—will compete for $100,000 in prize money.

Each team will receive an unpowered version of the 16-foot Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel, and grant funding to build a battery-powered propulsion system and sensors.

In the future, the goal is to enable the launch of micro-air vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles from the modular WAM-V platform to demonstrate multi-domain, autonomous platform interoperability.

For more of the Azorobotics story: www.azorobotics.com

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