ONR’s RoboBoat Competition Makes a Splash in Sarasota, Florida

Courtesy Photo | Competitors with Lake Superior State University’s Team AMORE (Autonomous Maritime Operations and Robotics Engineering) inspect their unmanned surface vehicle (USV) during the 16th annual RoboBoat competition in Sarasota, Florida. Sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, RoboBoat brought together teams of students from across the globe to assemble and navigate USVs through a series of real-world challenges, including coastal surveillance, port security and oceanographic exploration. (Photo courtesy of RoboBoat)  

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES

04.06.2023

Story by Warren Duffie 

Office of Naval Research

By Rebecca Ward, Office of Naval Research

ARLINGTON, Va.—A unique maritime competition, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), recently took place in Sarasota, Florida.

The 16th annual RoboBoat competition brought together teams of students from across the globe to assemble and navigate autonomous unmanned surface vehicles (USV) through a series of real-world challenges, including coastal surveillance, port security and oceanographic exploration, at Sarasota’s Nathan Benderson Park.

Kelly Cooper, a program officer in ONR’s Sea Warfare and Weapons Department, said the Department of the Navy (DoN) shares a common objective with RoboNation, the non-profit behind RoboBoat, in its support of initiatives to engage and motivate students of all ages in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).

RoboBoat, and other competitions like it, create a pipeline for the DoN, supplying a potential workforce capable of making substantive contributions to the emerging field of maritime autonomy.

Cooper said she has met a number of participants from ONR-sponsored events who ended up working for, or with, the Navy and Marine Corps.

“We constantly run into students who are now working for the Navy as a scientist or engineer, who have competed in these competitions, and prior to their involvement were really unaware of the Navy for their careers,” she said.

Cooper added that, at each of the competitions, ONR distributes information to participants about internships and graduate-level scholarships, helping further the students’ opportunities in STEM while supporting the DoN’s recruitment of a technologically advanced workforce.

RoboBoat is a learning experience as well as a competition, helping students develop technical proficiency as they work together to overcome challenges that simulate real-world conditions of maritime navigation. Collaboration is key to their success and a part of the competition.

Cooper said the judges constantly observe how the participants interact with one another.

“We have certain behaviors that we’ve come to expect of teams. It is amazing how well the teams on site cooperate and help each other. They don’t want to win because everybody does poorly. They want to be the best of everybody doing well.”

Rules for the competition dictate teams must be composed of no less than 75% students and no more than 25% alumni, industry, academic or government partners.

It’s an opportunity for students to network, said Cooper. Many will go on to pursue careers in STEM, like fifth-year university student Hannah Brood.

This was Brood’s second competition with Lake Superior State University’s Team AMORE (Autonomous Maritime Operations and Robotics Engineering).

“I was able to compete in RobotX in November, so that was the 2022 Maritime Robotics Challenge, which was held in Sydney, Australia,” said Brood.

Three of her teammates in Sydney joined her at RoboBoat, along with a fourth student.

Brood graduates in May 2023 with a dual major in mechanical and robotics engineering and is already looking to her future career path.

“I’ve spoken with some people from the Naval Information Warfare Center on the Pacific side, so NIWC Pacific — and I know there’s a couple of other opportunities at places around the U.S.,” said Brood.

Winners were announced at an awards ceremony on March 28. RoboBoat gave out more than 20 monetary awards — the highest amount going to the winners of the Autonomy Challenge. Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, East Java, Indonesia, came in first place; followed by Karadeniz Technical University, Trazbon, Turkey; and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia.

First, second and third place winners for Design Documentation went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember; and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

All winners may be found on the 2023 RoboBoat website: https://roboboat.org.

The Naval STEM Coordination Office, located at ONR, oversees investments in education, outreach and workforce initiatives. Last year, DoN outlined its five-year plan to advance STEM through competitions and events like RoboBoat to cultivate the technical workforce needed for the Navy and Marine Corps to remain on the leading edge of scientific innovation.

Rebecca Ward is a contractor for ONR Corporate Strategic Communications.

• Date Taken: 04.06.2023
• Date Posted: 04.06.2023 16:20
• Story ID: 442199
• Location: ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, US