Machine Intelligence Laboratory

Starting in 1998, the Association for Unmanned Vehicles System International (AUVSI) teamed up with the Office for Naval Research (ONR) to offer an annual Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) competition. The goal of this competition is to advance the state-of-the-art in AUVs by challenging a new generation of engineers to perform realistic missions in the remote underwater environment. SubjuGator has competed in all eight AUV competitions (1998-2006), placing third, second, seventh, third, third, eighth, seventh, first and first, respectively.

  • AUVSI's archive of AUVSI/ONR International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition

    Eleventh Annual Competition:
    Located at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, California. July 29-August 3, 2008.

    We have updated our SubjuGator 6 for this competiton. With SubjuGator 6a, we added two external pods, re-designed all the electronics, added to our sensor package, doubled the processing power, and more then doubled the battery capacity of the submarine. The mechanical system of SubjuGator 6a continues our recent tradition of a small, light-weight submarine, but also gives us the capability of augmenting it with more sensors and actuators in the future.

    Tenth Annual Competition:
    Located at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, California. July 11-15, 2007.

    We designed and built an entirely new sub for 2007, our sixth SubjuGator over the ten years of the competition. This sub was equipped with our most powerful sensor package to date and a faster computer system. We used Microsoft's Robotic Studio for control and simulation for the first time in this competition. The mechanical system of SubjuGator 6 continued our recent tradition of a small, light-weight submarine. For the third year in a row, Team SubjuGator earned first place!

    Ninth Annual Competition :
    Located at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, California. August 2-August 6, 2006.

    We upgraded our championship SubjuGator from 2005 for the 2006 competition. The upgraded submarine had about 70% new parts, most of the electronics was new, we had a new body and new hard points. We were again the lightest submarine that made it to the final round. For the second year in a row, Team SubjuGator earned first place!


    Eighth Annual Competition :
    Located at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, California. August 3-August 7, 2005.

    We again had almost an entirely new team and an entirely new sub. Weighing in at about 14 kg (31 lbs), our sub was among the lightest at the competion and was about 18 kg lighter than any of the other subs that made it to the finals. We worked extremely hard this year and it paid off in our first victory in eight attempts. It was a very close competition this year and we look forward to defending our title in 2006.



    Seventh Annual Competition :
    Located at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, California. July 28-August 4, 2004.

    With an almost entirely new team, and an entire new sub, we had a good robot. But we made the cardinal error in robotics. We forgot to recharge the batteries before our last run. Immediately after not moving in our final competitive run, we put fresh batteries in our sub and ran the practice course. We dropped balls in the top or second from top target on two of our three runs. Oh well. It was a great learning experience.


    Sixth Annual Competition :
    Located at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, California. August 7-August 10, 2003.

    In spite of numerous attempts to destroy the RV, we still managed to survive our trip across the country, only to finish 8th place. Although this was a bit disappointing, developing SubjuGator and attending the competition proved to be an extraordinary learning experience for our team of first year members.


    Fifth Annual Competition :
    Located at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, California. July 31-August 4, 2002.

    In the 2002 competitions we finished third, yet again.


    Fourth Annual Competition :
    Located at the U.S. Naval Academy Annapolis, Maryland. July 11-15, 2001.

    We finished third in the 2001 competition.


    Third Annual Competition :
    Located at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, FL. July 7-9, 2000.

    While we did have hope, we didn't have depth (sensor that is). All of our mission specific sensors worked, however, we lost our pressure sensor the day before the competition.


    Second Annual Competition :
    Located at Costal Systems Station, Panama City, Fl. Aug 6-8, 1999.

    Much better this time. Better preparations and a better vehicle. We actually got some sleep and saw a few other teams suffer the initiation we had the previous year.


    First Annual Competition :
    Located at Costal Systems Station, Panama City, Fl. Aug 1-3, 1998.

    Our first attempt, definitely a learning experience. Life on caffeine. We got a proper initation and all the suffering that comes with it. The lessons learned here were invaluable.