Held at the Founders Inn and Spa in Virginia Beach, Va., the International RoboBoat Competition challenges student teams to race autonomous surface vehicles (ASV) – vehicles that operate on the surface of the water without a crew – of their own design through an aquatic obstacle course.

The competition’s maritime obstacle course included an optional navigation channel and advanced challenges that include: docking and deploying an amphibious robot, shooting foam darts through hula-hoops on the shoreline, capturing a flag that was moving on a small boat, identifying a push button near the shore and depressing it, and identifying and classifying a heated target on the shore.

Sponsored by the Army Research Lab’s Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC) and Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s Institute for Simulation and Training (IST), students from the Robotics Club at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ worked on their boat’s design for the past year. They made improvements in hardware and software to last year’s entry, the Grey Goose, which won fourth place.

The team struggled early on in this year’s competition with a hardware issue that caused the robot’s motor to cut-off during runs early in the week. The team persevered and perfectly navigated the channel in the final round, winning them second place.

Teams were judged based on their performance during the course, in addition to utility of their team website. Teams were also required to submit a ten page journal paper and presentation video for evaluation by the judges. The paper described the design of the vehicle and rationale behind the design choice.

The competition was created in 2008 as an opportunity for students to develop skills in systems engineering by accomplishing realistic missions with ASV’s. The competition’s goal is to get young engineers excited about careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

The competition draws entries from all over the world. Competitors included teams from Bradley University, Cedarville University, Electronic Engineering Polytechnic Institute of Surabaya, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida Atlantic University, National Cheng Kung University, Old Dominion University, University of Florida, University of Michigan, University of Rhode Island, University of Texas at Arlington and Villanova University.

The Robotics Club at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ includes:  Brandon Parmeter, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ student and team captain; Andrew Watson, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ student and lead software developer; Christopher Brice, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ student; and Daniel Barber, Ph.D., a research associate at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ and faculty advisor for the team.

“Competition this year was extremely competitive,” said Barber. “Despite challenges and bad weather, our team persevered and excelled. As always, we’d like to thank all our supporters from STTC and IST. The experience the students receive is invaluable, and it wouldn’t be possible without the help of our supporters.”

The student-run club, supervised by faculty advisor Daniel Barber from the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ Institute for Simulation & Training, assembled a 15-person team and entered their boat, Gray Goose, in the contest against 18 other universities. Student teams in the fifth-annual challenge designed and raced vehicles through an aquatic obstacle course.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ brought home a $3,000 prize from the competition, which was won by the University of Michigan. The challenge was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

Each team’s vehicle had to complete casino-themed challenges at different stations as part of the competition, such as the “Poker Chip” station, in which boats tried to retrieve a token from a dock. Teams were evaluated on their vehicle’s visual sensor abilities, speed and accuracy of navigation.

The Robotics Club at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ has placed at RoboBoat since the competition’s start, earning second place in 2011 and 2010, and taking first place in 2009 and 2008.

To view the team’s entry video for the competition, click here: http://youtu.be/z7W1wWVXAmA.

Speeding past 53 other schools, the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s Robotics Club placed second in the 19th Annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition last weekend.

Students designed and built robots capable of moving through obstacle courses to reach GPS waypoints and follow lanes independently without any human intervention.

Composed of students from Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering programs, the team began creating its robot, called Automaton, in August.

The international competition involved four events: the Design Challenge, Navigation Challenge, Autonomous Challenge and one involving how robots communicate, called Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems, or JAUS Challenge.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s team took second place in the JAUS Challenge and in the Navigation Challenge, netting the team $7,000 in prize money. The team nabbed sixth place in the Autonomous Challenge.

The Design Challenge requires students to submit a 15-page design report and present to a panel of judges who review their approach.  In the Navigation Challenge, robots drive to six GPS waypoints surrounded by challenging obstacles in six minutes.

In the Autonomous Challenge, the robots must travel through a large maze filled with obstacles, following lane lines that fork and merge back together at different points.

Supporters and sponsors of the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ team included the Army Research Laboratory’s Human Research Engineering Directorate, the Army’s Simulation and Training and Technology Center and Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s Institute for Simulation & Training.

The Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ team included students David Adams, Michael Scherer, Jacob Carr, Robin Adams and Jonathan Mohlenhoff.

Daniel Barber, a research associate with IST, served as the team’s faculty adviser.

The international competition was sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

For more information about the competition, visit . To learn more about Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s Robotics Club, visit