UF robotics team gets fourth in world competition in Hawaii

Eleven UF engineering students spent finals week in Hawaii instead of Marston Science Library.

They weren’t lying on the beach, though.

These students were on a mission to defend their world title at the 2018 Maritime RobotX Challenge. This international competition occurs every two years and requires teams to build autonomous marine vehicles, said UF professor of electrical and computer engineering Eric Schwartz.

This year’s competition challenge started Dec. 8 and ended Dec. 15. The team placed fourth out of 15 teams, said Matt Griessler, a 25-year-old UF electrical engineering masters student.

UF’s Machine Intelligence Laboratory, which is directed by Schwartz, sponsors the team. Griessler, who serves as the team leader and the electrical leader, became involved with the lab in 2013.

Grissler said the 2018 competition was the culmination of his time at UF.

“I didn’t know anything when I started,” Griessler said.

Now Griessler oversees a team of about 20 students who have worked on the NaviGator-Autonomous Maritime System, which is an 18-foot long boat with a robot mounted on top that can drive the machine by itself. The design requires electrical, mechanical and computer engineers to work on the design.

The boat comes equipped with cameras and lasers the students have outfitted especially for the competition. It ultimately must be able to complete an American Ninja Warrior-like obstacle course on Waikiki Beach, Schwartz said.

Some of the tasks the robot had to do included park by itself and shoot racket balls through hoops, Schwartz said.

The team works on a volunteer basis, Schwartz said. The students work on Sundays either in the lab or on Lake Wauburg.

The Machine Intelligence Laboratory has been working on the boat since 2015, Griessler said.

While Schwartz said the team did not receive as much funding as it did when it won the competition in 2016, he said he still believed they would win.

So far the team has won five world championships.

“When we get to six,” Schwartz said, “that’s Michael Jordan territory.”

Contact Hannah Beatyy at hbeatty@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @hannahbeatty_.

Members of UF’s Machine Intelligence Laboratory work on the NaviGator-Autonomous Maritime System, which is an 18-foot long boat with a robot mounted on top that can drive the machine by itself. The team took fourth in the 2018 Maritime RobotX Challenge in Hawaii. Courtesy to The Alligator.