Essay Contest Winner!

Congratulations to ENS Daniel Umpa (USNA, Systems, '09)!

He was announced as the winner of the "Commander William Earl Fannin, Class of 1945, Capstone Essay Contest". His essay, "The Pilotless Squadron" which discusses the obstacles for adoption of unmanned systems (AUVs in particular) in the US military, appeared in the September issue of the Proceedings of the US Naval Institute.

Note: You have to be a Proceedings Subscriber to see the full article (sorry!)

http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/archive/month.asp?ID=277

Projects Galore!

The Robo-Goat (He's gnarly and he's old and he's never been to school)

In Jan 2009, a team of 6 midshipman set out to design and build Robo-Goat, USNA's first entry into the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition, in Rochester Michigan. Mids Lacy, and Calvanico traveled to compete, along with then 2/C Bush and Advisers Profs. Joel Esposito and Brad Bishop.

The team won the Rookie of the Year Award! Placing solidly in the middle of the pack out of the 30 teams that qualified. About 20 teams did not pass the qualifying round.

As part of ES402 Systems Engineering Design, the mids undertook a systematic component selection process. The vehicles uses a camera to detect lane markings in the grass and a scanning laser range finder (aka LADAR) to avoid obstacles. You can see the lane following in action in this video:

Here the obstacle avoidance algorithm is tested:


The final event (and our best) was the GPS challenge, in which the vehicle had to hit as many way points as possible within 7 minutes.



We've already statred improving the old goat. We can't wait for the 2010 competition!

AUV 2009

The Systems Engineering Department sent three May graduates and one second-class midshipman to represent USNA at the 12th Annual Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) competition this August.

During the 2008-2009 academic year a team of eight midshipmen designed and built an AUV as their capstone design project. After two semesters of design, fabrication, and programming; four of the team members flew out to the SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific's TRANSDEC Facility in San Diego for the week long competition. Contending with numerous technical issues, the team worked as many as 18 hours per day troubleshooting electrical problems, testing controllers and applying theory learned as Systems Engineers. Despite the long hours, the team remained optimistic, motivated, and focused.

“I was entirely amazed as to how many people were cheering for our team. Even though teams from San Diego were entered into the competition, USNA was viewed as more of the hometown team. It was very rewarding to hear that high ranking officials and officers held our team in high regard. Looking at other teams, I realized how rare an opportunity USNA’s Systems Department presented me with by entrusting me to work with high value sensors and equipment. This was definitely a unique project and a unique experience,” said team member ENS Dan Umpa.

The team achieved 4th place out of 30 teams in the static competition. (Oh yeah

.

..there is also the lasting benefit of the problem solving and time management skills learned th

roughout the ten months of development will serve the team members well as they enter serve in the world’s most technically advanced Navy)