The RobotX competition challenges students to build and program autonomous surface and aerial vehicles. This competition takes place biannually, and it was last held in November 2022 in Sydney, Australia.
The surface vehicle must complete a series of tasks autonomously, including obstacle avoidance, docking, ball shooting, and more! Additionally, the aerial vehicle can be deployed autonomously from the surface vehicle to help complete the tasks. We are looking forward to competing again in 2024!
The WAMBlin Reck is our autonomous surface vehicle used at RobotX since 2016. Its name is inspired by the name of the chassis, the WAM-V, and the name of Georgia Tech's mascot, the Ramblin' Reck. We typically test the boat at Sweetwater Creek State Park, and we are also planning on testing at Lake Lanier in the future.
We plan on improving the boat for RobotX 2024, with projects including pontoon refurbishment, auxiliary system development, further autonomy improvements, and power/propulsions upgrades.
El Tigre is our autonomous aerial vehicle built for RobotX 2022. The drone performed well in 2022, placing second in the RobotX Air competition. We typically test the drone at Tech Green or other outdoor spaces at Tech.
RobotX 2024 will likely still have a drone component, so we plan on improving the drone's autonomy, especially in regard to collaborating with the USV.
4-motor X drive configuration, with custom-made 8020 aluminum motor mounts
UAV landing platform made from 8020, featuring a white landing pad for the drone to recognize
Sensor bar with 3-d printed sensor mounts to allow for a flexible arrangement of sensors
12V battery powering the computer, sensors, and motors
Arduino Due microcontroller bridging communication between the software and the motors
4 Pulse Width Modulation modules to control individual speed of each motor
Code written in Python and C++ under the ROS 2 framework
GPS and IMU used for localization
A camera and a 3-d LiDAR responsible for perception
Hybrid A* path planning through Nav2
In-house motor controller, supporting various motor configurations
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