LSSU engineering students preparing for globetrotting robotics competition

SAULT STE. MARIE — A team of student engineers from Lake Superior State University are preparing for one of the largest robotics competitions in the world.

A group of 18 teams of engineers from at least five different countries will be competing this November in a challenge of remote vehicle engineering and building.

The Maritime RobotX Challenge is an international, university-level competition designed to encourage and build student interest in autonomous robotic systems. The main purpose of the program is to encourage students to creatively solve engineering problems and get first-hand experience with the types of projects that engineers deal with on the job.

In addition to being helpful experience, the program is also designed to help future engineers network with and build relationships with international industry partners.

The competition takes place in Sydney, Australia over the days of Nov. 11-17 and will feature engineering teams from across the world.

Of the several teams that are participating in the event, only one of them is composed of only undergraduate students. That team is team AMORE from LSSU. Team AMORE began this project over a year ago as a senior group project, it has since lead to the creation of LSSU's own robotics team consisting of 15 undergraduate students.

"What's unique here is this is a team full of undergraduate students," said faculty advisor Eduardo Sarda. "I guarantee we're going to be the only team in that situation there."

Team AMORE, lead by team president Xavier Vincent, vice president Hannah Brood and Sarda, has built two remote controlled vehicles to participate in the competition. The team has built a fully functional remote controlled 16-foot-long boat with a landing pad to accommodate the team's flying drone.

"The mission of this competition is to create the next generation of engineers that can actually solve for these challenges once they enter the industry," said Sarda. "This is pretty much the top level robotics competition."

Building vehicles for the competition requires more than just engineering experience, the project also tests the team's skills in audio technology, wildlife and water sciences as well as marketing. In order to complete the project, the team has to design and create multiple different systems that work in tandem with each other.

"We have to build the systems so they can communicate with each other, the camera sees a buoy, the radar says there's an object a certain distance away," said Brood. "Now we have to combine that information in the system and that's not as trivial as it sounds."

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Teams not only have to build the vehicles and compete, but create functioning websites to show off and market their designs. This aspect of the program is to test a team's ability to market their product and network with other engineers, skills that, while not technically engineering skills, will be important to any engineering career.

At the competition, the team will be required to complete a series of tasks with their remote controlled vehicles. Teams will have to complete nine tasks in total. These tasks will require teams to be able to identify objects in and out of water and land their drone on the boat while it is in the water.

These tasks are designed to have no easy solution for the teams. They will have to learn to adapt to problems as they arise and create solutions on the spot.

"Some of the challenges we face are stuff like developing the visual system, the boat is looking for stuff on the water, but what about glare," said Brood. "What about sunshine and clouds, how are you going to account for that?"

While the prize for this year's competition has not been announced, in previous years the teams that came in first place have won $15,000.

To build the necessary equipment and transport the vehicles and team members to the competition will cost several thousand dollars.

So far, the team has raised and used more than $75,000 from grants, sponsors and donations from local groups, such as the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

While the team has raised thousands so far to build and develop their project, they are in the process of raising $40,000 more through a GoFundMe campaign to bring all of their engineers to Australia.

"We're trying to send more people to Australia," said Brood. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we want to send as many people as possible."

To learn more about the competition or support the LSSU team, visit the international RobotX challenge website of the Team AMORE GoFundMe page.

— Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: LSSU student engineers preparing for international competition