A small team of CU Boulder students designed and built a fully autonomous robotic boat and took it on the road to an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) competition held June 17鈥�23 in South Daytona, Florida.
The annual robotics contest, sponsored by Robonation, is an opportunity for students to put their ASVs鈥攁lso called RoboBoats鈥攖hrough a series of open water challenges that simulate real-world boating operations. The competition showcases students鈥� technical and creative abilities.
Earl Potters, a sophomore in computer science at the CU Boulder College of Engineeering and Applied Science, heads the RoboBoat Club on campus.听
This was the first RoboBoat competition for Potters and his teammates, Andrew Zhu in electrical engineering, and Jack Bigiel in mechanical engineering. Technical problems kept them from advancing into the finals.听
鈥淚t was an amazing experience,鈥� Potters said. 鈥淲e were very close to getting into the finals, which actually was surprising, because we had problems the whole week and almost couldn鈥檛 launch.鈥�
They refurbished a boat used by the 2017 RoboBoat club. It鈥檚 5 long, weighs about 40 pounds, and is made from wood and carbon fiber. The fully autonomous boat is controlled using two thrusters. There is no rudder. They practice at Boulder Reservoir, which is similar to the open water environment of the competition.
The CU Boulder team was one of 13 student teams from as far away as Egypt and Indonesia competing in the 12th听annual RoboBoat competition. Student teams design the autonomous robotic boats to navigate and race through an aquatic obstacle course. Once competition starts, they are not allowed to manually control their boats.听
Teams were tested on their boats鈥� design and performance with a focus on innovation, quality of engineering and craftsmanship, as well as their boats鈥� ability to accomplish specific tasks in the water with no hands-on interaction. Tasks demonstrated the boats鈥� autonomous ability in a variety of scenarios, including speed, precise navigation through a course in the water, and returning to dock. Teams are given a compass or GPS location to start each course. Using lidar (light detection and ranging) and cameras mounted on the boat, they program their boat to maneuver through the pre-programmed courses.
Competition was held at听the lake in South Daytona鈥檚 Reed Canal Park. Maneuvering through courses marked by buoys may sound simple, but the boat can veer off course for any number of reasons.听
The CU team鈥檚 first problem came during the safety inspection held on the first day, when the required red LED light broke and they couldn鈥檛 fix it. Their creative solution: mounting a car鈥檚 red tail light.
鈥淥ur team had three hours before our time slot,鈥澨齈otters said. 鈥淲e sat there thinking, 鈥榃hat are we going to do?鈥� That is when I thought, 鈥榃hy not a tailgate?' I drove to the store, bought a tailgate light for our boat and drove back as fast as I could. I ziptied and electrical taped the tailgate like you wouldn鈥檛 believe.鈥�
They managed to mount the tailgate light onto the boat and got it into the water just in time to qualify.
Most of the teams had already competed in ASV competitions and they had at least four members. One team had 13 members.听
鈥淲e were very understaffed,鈥� Potters said. 鈥淥ur boat didn鈥檛 have complex dedicated electronics the others boats had. There were teams that were very well prepared, but they had problems they couldn鈥檛 easily fix because their systems were so complex and static. Ours were so simple, when something broke, it was fairly easy to fix or replace. But we had several.鈥�
There are a number of benefits of participating in the RoboBoat competition. Students can connect with industry leaders and interact with students from around the world. And competing can raise the profile of the university. The boats鈥� maneuvers mirror tasks developed for port security, coastal surveillance and other types of oceanographic operations.听
During his first semester at CU, Potters joined several robotic clubs, including RoboSub, Robotic Mining Club and Quadra Copter. At the time, the RoboBoat Club was inactive. Potters restarted the club and wants to grow membership.
Students from all majors and disciplines are welcome to join the RoboBoat Club. More information on the club can be found on its website,听and to help support the team鈥檚 efforts to attend the 2020 International RoboBoat Competition, you can visit the team's crowdfunding page.
