Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition This Weekend at Oakland University

Oakland University to host 25th Annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition

The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC), which provides an opportunity for engineers from around the world to compete with their uniquely-designed unmanned vehicles, will return June 2-5 to Oakland University.

“For 25 years, IGVC has challenged university and college student teams to a world-class design and systems engineering experience that is at the very cutting edge of engineering education,” said KaC Cheok, Ph.D., co-chairman and co-founder of IGVC, OU engineering professor and Oakland Robotics Association adviser.

In 2016, more than 35 teams from 32 colleges and universities participated in the competition, including OU’s own Oakland Robotics Association.

“Students at all levels of undergraduate and graduate education can contribute to the team effort, and those at the lower levels benefit greatly from the experience and mentoring of those at higher levels,” Cheok said. “Team organization and leadership are practiced, and there are even roles for team members from business and engineering management, language and graphic arts, and public relations.”

During the competition, each team will participate in a series of challenges, including:

• Auto-Nav Challenge: Vehicles autonomously navigate an outdoor course while negotiating obstacles and maneuvering using GPS coordinates to complete the course in the minimum amount of time
• Design Competition: A written report is submitted, then an oral presentation and vehicle demonstration are presented to the IGVC Design Judge Panel
• Inter-Operability Profile (IOP) Challenge: Vehicles perform with the IOP open architecture for unmanned systems.

This year’s competition will also include the Spec 2 Challenge, which will feature street legal, fully autonomous vehicles demonstrating their autonomous street driving capabilities, as well as parking and track driving maneuvers.

“Design and construction of an Intelligent Vehicle fits well in a two-semester senior year design capstone course, or an extracurricular activity earning design credit,” Cheok said. “The deadline of an end-of-term competition is a real-world constraint that includes the excitement of potential winning recognition and financial gain.”

The competition is held in the field on the southwest corner of Adams Road and Walton Boulevard.

For more information, visit http://www.IGVC.org..