Team Sonia Takes Prize at RoboSub 2011

An anonymous reader writes "The RoboSub 2011 competition final was held on July 17. Each year, teams from around the world gather to see who has the best autonomous underwater vehicle. The goal of the competition is to complete an obstacle course with no human intervention. This year a team from Montreal, Canada — team SONIA AUV from ETS — won first place." Read on for a list of the top-placing teams.

• 1st Place: ETS Team SONIA (awarded $7,000)
• 2nd Place: Cornell University (awarded $4000)
• 3rd Place: University of Florida (awarded $3,000)
• 4th Place: Reykjavik University (awarded $2,000)
• 5th Place: University of Maryland (awarded $500)
• 6th Place: University of Rhode Island ($500)
• 7th Place: United States Naval Academy
• 8th Place: NC State

Good going for the local boys!

[50000BTU_barbecue]

I'm in Montreal, go ETS! Yay!

Re:

[jiteo]

I *study* at ETS, go ETS! Yay!

Re:

[Zen-Mind]

Ok, and that very unlighted comment comes from where? ETS has an excellent placement rate, I think over 95% so I have no worry for them. I studied there and had no trouble finding a job either.

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[OzPeter]

I'm in Montreal, go ETS! Yay!
--
LOAD"FEMA RESPONSE PLAN",8,1
SEARCHING FOR FEMA RESPONSE PLAN

?FILE NOT FOUND

ERROR

Shouldn't that be?

Je suis à Montréal, allez ETS! Yay!
-
LOAD "PLAN D'INTERVENTION FEMA", 8,1
RECHERCHE DE PLAN D'INTERVENTION FEMA

? FICHIER INTROUVABLE

ERREUR

Re:

[hax4bux]

Nobody expects ring knockers to build anything larger than a RFP.

Congratulations to Reykjavik

[Anonymous Coward]

If I remember correctly, this is their second year in the competition. Last year, they had their robot flood during one of the earlier days and they worked the entire time to get it running again. They managed to get the robot to move past the gate after having a complete system failure.

Congratulations on 4th place! And I'm happy ETS finally won.

(former member of the University of Maryland team)

First reaction: This is a 6-year old dupe! oh wait

[tloh]

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/30/1426214 [slashdot.org]

Well, obviously not. Aside from the cool factor, that earlier story really stuck with me because it was so inspirational and was a beautiful illustration of so much that is wrong with the political priorities of our current society.

1st place entry uses Java on Linux

[KenSeymour]

I was trying to think of how they debug the embedded code on this thing. Probably using a data logger.

I found this paper interesting about the software running on the sub:

http://sonia.etsmtl.ca/assets/files/publication-en/2007-USNA-Reconfigurable_mission_system.pdf

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[oursland]

I was at the competition and spoke in depth with most of the teams. Unfortunately, I didn't bother asking which language they used, so I cannot confirm that Java was their choice. Language selection and technology employed often changes in collegiate robotics competitions as each year brings in new team members to replace the graduating members. I wouldn't place much belief on a report from 2007 to represent the current system.

If I recall correctly, Team SONIA employed an Ethernet tether during test runs

Court Martials and a hearty, final breakfast ...

[RockDoctor]

... all round for the US Navy Academy team : operating in what should be their own "home waters", but being beaten into 7th place !

No, but seriously, someone has got some explaining to do. Inadequate resources? Or if the financial/ engineering resources were available, a worrying lack of innovative resource or a major fuck-up in management (I don't envisage an [Any Country] Naval Academy team being hot on brainstorming out-of-the-box ideas, at least not without having to get the plans past the Officer In C

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[oursland]

IIRC, the US Naval Academy had hardware failure that prevented them from performing as well as expected. Furthermore, I don't think you should expect their undergraduates to be somehow better than their counterparts from elite engineering schools with research departments into robotics.

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[RockDoctor]

For a deeply militaristic society like America, the failure of the recruiting sergeants to either attract, bribe or compel the best of the best of students to surrender their moral judgement and come to their institution is a serious failure of the military recruitment machinery.

And to the AC, yes, everyone did do well no doubt. But for a country that so visibly depends on it's military to project it's opinions on the rest of the world, the failure to be even in contention is a problem.

"hardware failure"

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[oursland]

You seem to be confusing the US Naval Academy with the Office of Naval Research. One had 3 undergraduate students working with a budget of something like $5k in their free time for a collegiate competition and the other produces research vessels and weapons of the future. But, hey, it's not like you can be asked to understand what TFA is about let alone read it.

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[RockDoctor]

If they choose names that make them look like military, then that's how they can expect to be treated.