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MIT Once again Swims Supreme
MIT finished on top at AUVSI and ONR’s seventh annual International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition July 28 – August 1, 2004, at the U.S. Navy’s SPAWAR Systems Center in San Diego. MIT’s performance marked the first time any team has completed the entire course in the seven-year history of the event. For their efforts, the MIT team walked away with $7,000 in prize money.
This year a vehicle needed to pass under a submerged gate, locate an array of five bins, and drop up to two markers in them. It then had to home in on an acoustic pinger and surface within a 20 foot square recovery zone.
In the finals, both MIT and Cornell completed the entire course. However, MIT finished their flawless one run, dropping both markers on the highest bin and surfacing in the recovery zone, with twelve minutes left on the competition clock. Rounding out the six finalists were Ecole de Technologie Superieure in third, University of Rhode Island in fourth, Duke University in fifth and University of Ottawa in sixth.
The competition requires teams of students, most from colleges but with two teams including high school students, to design, build and program an AUV to carry out a mission. Points are awarded for their website, journal-style paper, presentation to a panel of industry experts, and the execution of the competition’s mission. The bulk of the points are derived from the latter.
SPAWAR’s TRANSDEC facility provided a large body of water for viewing the vehicles and its location on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean afforded entrants and spectators a constant breeze and spectacular view.
Sponsors for the event included US Office of Naval Research, SPAWAR Systems Center San Diego, Naval Undersea Warfare Div., Newport, Northrop Grumman, The Boeing Company, IXSEA, SAIC, TAMSCO, Lindbergh Chapter of AUVSI, ViaSat and Celestial Broadband.
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Competitions
