University of Maryland Team Wins Robot Sub Competition 44
William Cox writes "A team from the University of Maryland has won the 11th Annual International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition, held in San Diego, CA, this weekend. Twenty-five teams from around the world (US, Canada, Japan, and India) built autonomous submarines to complete a series of tasks using vision recognition, autonomous navigation, and sonar. Maryland unseated the 3-time record holder, University of Florida, to win first place. University of Texas at Dallas took 2nd, and a Canadian team, École de Technologie Supérieure, took 3rd."
Robotic Cougar (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
For the curious, a recent alert recieved by UMD students:
August 1, 2008
CAMPUS ALERT
Late this afternoon, a Department of Public Safety surveillance camera
observed a large feline at the edge of the same wooded area where the
two previous sighting of the suspected cougar were made. A search of the
area was conducted and the feline was also observed at close range by a
university police officer. Images of the feline were viewed by personnel
at the MD Department of Natural Resources and they have confirmed that
the f
Re: (Score:1)
*sigh*, how does this get modded offtopic. did the moderator bother to read it? oh well...
Re:Robotic Cougar (Score:4, Funny)
They built a robotic cougar. Everyone thought it was real and locked themselves indoors.
But turned out it only was after Ashton Kutcher.
Quote from the University of Florida (Score:3, Funny)
"You sank my battleship."
Re: (Score:3)
Haha, Florida needed to lose this time, three years in a row and I guess they got kind of cocky. It didn't help that their team was mostly new recruits and their most experienced members had graduated.
Incidentally, I was actually on the only high school team to compete, Amador Valley High School [avbotz.net], as the main programmer, although in the end none of my code was used as our vision processing code had been untested so we just ran our sub on a PIC that another member programmed, which did low-level motor control
Google's roots... (Score:3, Funny)
I also have roots in UMD (Score:2, Funny)
Great CS program.
I'll finally graduate this year.
Paltry effort (Score:2, Funny)
No fricken laser beams
Re: (Score:1)
Would have been better... (Score:2, Funny)
Congrats Steve! (Score:2, Interesting)
Steve, if you're reading this, congratulations!
Seriously, though, if that guy is any indication of the amount of effort the rest of the team put into their robot, UMD definitely earned this.
I guess ... (Score:1)
Obligatory UT Question (Score:1)
So the University of Texas at Dallas took second place. Dallas? Submarine? I just checked the map again. Or was it really a robotic prairie dog?
Robot Sub (Score:1)
Did anyone else think that this was a Robot Sub Sandwich that could make itself? My laziness would know no bounds.
Re: (Score:1)
Next project... (Score:1)
Underwater basket weaving, via robot.
-AI
Shout out to my 11th grade german teacher,
Frau Weide, she said, I've got a real
future in underwater basket weaving!
Re: (Score:1)
Underwater basket weaving, via robot.
Is this a Joe Smith crack? Damn, you Dukies are relentless in your pursuit of obscure insults!
congrats U Maryland! (Score:2)
Congratulations Scott and Leo! (Score:2, Interesting)
You guys are awesome! This was only Maryland's second year at the competition, and unlike many of the other schools, it is an undergrad club led effort in design and fundraising.
And the head of the team is a physicist, not an engineer. There's a goofy picture of him with a pumpkin t-shirt on the team's website:
http://ram.umd.edu/ [umd.edu]
Re: (Score:3)
Robot Sub Competition (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, Americans would never be obnoxious like that in another country.
autonomous trip to Novay (Score:2)
So what are the chances of putting together something that can float to Novay on an after-tax worker budget? The big problem would be coral reefs & running aground.
Pre-ordained (Score:2)
University of Maryland mascot = Terrapin.
Terrapin = Turtle.
World's first submarine used in battle = Turtle [wikipedia.org]
QED.
Tortuga II (Score:1)
In other news... Billionaire sponsors challenge... (Score:1)
"Law enforcement experts say that homemade subs are becoming ever more sophisticated..." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico17-2008jul17,0,9344.story [latimes.com]
Cool Photos and Everything! http://www.oobject.com/category/drug-smuggling-submarines/ [oobject.com]
Well Im waiting... (Score:1)
Top three competitors and some videos (Score:2)
Here are the websites for the top three competitors:
The AUVSI's website also mentions that media coverage will be available soon. In the meantime, you can always look at some videos from the SONIA team [youtube.com].