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Friday, November 7, 2014

MIT team wins first Maritime RobotX Challenge in Singapore

Students from 15 universities, including three from Singapore, took up the Maritime RobotX Challenge held in Marina Bay, Singapore last week.

The challenge, which was funded by the Office of Naval Research, invited 15 student teams from five countries to build an unmanned surface vehicle that could best address real-world problems such as search-and-rescue missions, shipping security, environmental monitoring, fishery management, and marine science.

The test was to outfit an unmanned surface vehicle with sensors, computers and software, and get the vehicle to complete a course based on maritime missions. The vehicle had to complete five tasks within a set amount of time.

Each team received a skeletal 16-foot vehicle and was challenged to add propulsion, computing, sensor, navigation, and power systems.

An MIT-Olin team took home the grand prize. The team was comprised of students from MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory as well as students from Olin College of Engineering.

The first Maritime RobotX Challenge had a segment that involved robot battles, called Robots Live!. As part of the Science and Technology showcase, there were demonstrations and workshops, such as one where Lego Robot Experts showed their creations.

The National University of Singapore Faculty of Engineering, Science Centre Singapore and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Foundation organized the contest.

For more of the MIT News story: newsoffice.mit.edu

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