About RobotX

RobotX is the premier unmanned systems competition in the world today, and challenges student teams from around the world to design, engineer, and build a fully autonomous maritime vehicle to complete a series of difficult tasks. The ERAU team working on the Maritime RobotX Challenge is composed of graduate and undergraduate students from Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Software Engineering and is advised by Dr. Eric Coyle, Dr. Patrick Currier, and Dr. Charles Reinholtz. The team is leveraging its experience as the only university group in the world to participate in all of the major unmanned system collegiate competitions hosted by the AUVSI Foundation, including taking Third Place overall and First Place in all five design categories for the most recent 2018 Maritime RobotX Competition.

 

lazer1.jpg

Competitions

PAST & PResent

The competition’s primary goal is to increase student interest in autonomous robotic systems operating in the maritime domain. Emphasis is placed on systems engineering and the science and engineering of autonomy.  The Maritime RobotX Challenge will stimulate innovative approaches to autonomous sensing, on-board decision-making, and mission implementation.  It will promote international endeavors in science and technology among the Pacific region communities.

CxrGijzWQAAMFNX.jpg

Boat Overview

The key components

The Minion system is based on a novel, modular hardware/software design. This architecture is fully networked with an interchangeable, upgradeable sensor package and service-oriented software that provides a high level of both flexibility and reliability. Communication, control, and health monitoring are implemented using an Ethernet-based backbone distributed across multiple computers using a publisher-subscriber paradigm. The hardware on Minion consists of commercial off-the-shelf sensing and ruggedized computing hardware with software modules that are abstracted to allow the use of each sensor’s data in different applications.

 

Partners

Making it possible

Thank you to everyone who helps us accomplish our goals and makes it possible for Team Minion to compete at RobotX.

Newsroom

a look behind the scenes

See all the updates on our team and progress. You don't want to miss these sneak peeks!